A Definite Challenge for Definite Prayer
(No. 3537)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1916.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And Jesus answered and said unto him, What do you want Me to do for
you?" Mark 10:51.
No doubt our Lord's disciples imagined that He was going up to
Jerusalem to take unto Himself the Kingdom. They hoped that they would
be partakers of that earthly grandeur which they had fondly pictured
would glitter around the Person of the Son of David. When, therefore,
the blind man ventured to cry out clamorously to Him, whom they
esteemed to be a great King, they thought it a daring intrusion. Who
was the son of Timaeus that he should say, "You Son of David, have
mercy on me"? They were all anxious to hush the voice of misery in the
Presence of so much Majesty. But our Lord Jesus Christ did not spurn
the blind man's prayer as intrusive or impertinent. He was not angry
with him. He did not even pass on without taking any notice. What He
did was to stand still and command the man to be brought to
Him.
May we not draw some comfort from the thought that our prayers never
are intrusions? Whenever we go before God in deep distress, He is
always ready to listen to our cry. Whatever grand purpose or momentous
project engage His mind, He will surely be attentive to the longings of
His needy suppliants. Though our Lord Jesus Christ is at this moment
King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and inconceivably glorious, though
hosts of angels count it their highest delight to do His bidding, yet
He bears in Heaven the same heart towards sinners which He had on
earth! Amidst the thunders of the everlasting hallelujahs, He can
detect the sighs of the prisoners, the complaints of the sufferers and
the groans of the contrite. He will stop to give heed to the requests
of blind beggars and, in His pity, He will relieve their distress.
Should not this encourage those of you who are seeking Him? Whatever
Satan may suggest to the contrary, take this passage of God's Word for
cheer! He did hear the blind man's cry when He was upon earth and He
will hear you, now that He is in Heaven! And you, backsliding child of
God, difficult as you may find it to pray, if enabled to vent your
griefs, your sighs shall be heard, your tears shall be seen and you
shall certainly have an audience from Him who delights in mercy! There
are times even with those who live nearest to God, when they fall into
despondencies and imagine that their voice is shut out from Heaven's
gate, but it is not so! When I cannot come to God as a saint, what a
mercy it is that I may come to Him as a sinner! And if I have lost all
my evidences, what a blessing it is that I need not stop to find them,
that I may go to the Mercy Seat without any!–
"Just as I am without one plea, But that His blood was shed for me."
When reduced to the utmost beggary as to internal Grace. When I find
myself naked, and poor, and miserable, I may still hear God saying to
me, "I counsel you to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, and white
raiment that you may be clothed." In our worst estate, prayer is still
efficacious! Long as we live, let us pray. Until you hear the bolts of
damnation fast closed upon you, and you are shut up in Hell, doubt not
the right of petition, or the prevalence of your earnest plea! There is
an ear to hear in Heaven as long as there is a heart to plead on earth.
Let this first impression be riveted on your minds and you will, I
trust, be prepared for three further reflections which I now wish to
introduce to you. Our Lord, before He healed the blind man, said to
Him, "What do you want Me to do for you?" Hence I infer that–
I. IT IS IMPORTANT A SEEKING SINNER SHOULD KNOW WHAT IT IS THAT HE
REALLY WANTS. AND SOMETIMES CHRIST DELAYS TO GIVE SALVATION UNTIL MEN
ARE BROUGHT MORE CLEARLY TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS COMPREHENDED IN THAT
INESTIMABLE BLESSING.
A large proportion of those persons who express a certain desire to be
saved have no Scriptural idea whatever of what being saved is! I am
afraid that many who profess to have found salvation are really the
victims of religious excitement, greatly moved by the exhortations they
have heard, yet in little or no degree enlightened as to the
fundamental Truths of God on which a good hope is based.
The most current idea, of course, is that to be saved means to be
delivered from going down into the pit of Hell, from enduring the
sentence of everlasting damnation. That it does comprise that, we grant
you, though that is far from being its sole intent. This is a result of
salvation, though it is not the essence of salvation as it is
discovered to the souls of the redeemed. Men are saved, blessed be God,
many years before the time of death–and conscious of being saved, too.
In some respects they are as thoroughly and perfectly saved as they
will be when they get to Heaven. Salvation is not postponed till the
Day of Judgment, when you shall have deliverance from Hell–it may be
enjoyed here on earth when your sins are forgiven and you are redeemed
from the present evil world.
Or it may be that you have a vague impression that salvation consists
in the pardon of your sins. This is true, but it does not compass all
the truth. When you say, "I would have my sins forgiven," do you know
what sin is? Have you ever had any clear view of what it really means?
We often use certain terms and common words, I fear, without a
corresponding thought in our minds. Know, then, that you have broken
God's Law, both by omitting to do what you should have done, and by
doing that which you should not have done. Those Ten Commands which you
will find in the 20th Chapter of Exodus are like so many mirrors in
which you can see what you have done, and what you have not done–what
crimes they are which cry out against you before the Judgment Throne of
God, which will certainly drag you down to Hell unless you are
delivered from the dread penalty. Consider, too, the heavy weight, as
well as the grievous guilt, of sin. Have you felt the load and burden
of sin? "A stone is heavy and the sand weighty," says Solomon. But, ah,
what specific gravity will compare with sin! Well might David groan
beneath the load, "My iniquities are gone over my head. As a heavy
burden, they are too heavy for me."
All the burdens that may devolve upon you through the toils of life,
the calamities of the world, or the visitations of Providence, cannot
equal the load of sin–for this is a burden that oppresses the
conscience, crushes the heart and paralyzes every faculty of the soul.
"The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit,
who can bear?" A conscience stricken with a sense of sin will readily
interpret that wounded spirit which is not bearable for a man. Were
that terrible incubus to rest long upon him, his spirit would fail
utterly before the Lord! If mercy did not come speedily to their
rescue, men might soon lose their wits and become frantic, despondency
leading to despair–and despair to insanity. Oh, how venomous the
poison of sin, when the arrows stick fast and fester! Have you known
what sin is? If not, I am afraid your prayer will be unmeaning as that
of James and John, to whom it was said, "You know not what you ask."
Have you ever had an idea, when asking for the forgiveness of sin, what
sin really deserves? What kind of recompense it justly demands? Let it
always be remembered by us that every sin we have committed exposes us
to the wrath of God–a wrath that is represented by terrible pictures
in God's Word–as a flame that is never quenched, a fire that never
ceases to burn. In order to deliver us from this penalty, it was
absolutely necessary that Someone else should bear this punishment on
our behalf. I do not think that we intelligently ask for the pardon of
sin unless we have some view of the Crucified Savior, the slaughtered
Lamb who stood in our place and put away sin by the sacrifice of
Himself. Ah, seeking soul, if you know the weight of sin, and if you
know that Christ carried it, then you can say, "Lord, I would have my
sins forgiven," in answer to the question, "What do you want Me to do
for you?"
And yet salvation includes more than deliverance from Hell and a free
pardon, for it emancipates the soul from its dominant power. Those
among us who are saved from the guilt of sin are abundantly conscious
that we are not fully released from the powerof sin in our own breasts.
Loved ones who have passed beyond the stars and see God's face without
a veil between, are saved, completely saved, from indwelling sin–but
none of us here enjoy that blessed emancipation, though there are some
who boast a perfection it were hard to prove! But, alas, they slightly
prejudice their profession by their pride. Still, salvation from the
despotic power of sin must be achieved and, in a high degree, it must
be compassed by all Believers–or they shall never see God's face with
acceptance. Brothers and Sisters, we must have our reigning sins
subdued! Know you not that no drunk, or whoremonger, or covetous person
that is an idolater, can have any inheritance in the Kingdom of God?
These sins must be cut off! They must be slain and overcome! And as far
as any other sins are concerned, they must be no longer citizens of the
heart. You must look upon them as intruders and aliens that are to be
driven out, like the Canaanites out of the land of promise. Mortify,
therefore, your members! Subdue your lusts, overcome your corruptions.
"But," the man replies, "how can I do this?" A most fitting question!
You cannot do it, but Christ says, "What do you want Me to do for you?"
His power is equal to every emergency. There is no sin too strong for
Christ. During His sojourn on earth, there was no devil that He could
not cast out, so there is no sin which He cannot eject and eradicate. A
legion of devils fled at the fiat of our Lord. Doubt not that legions
of furious lusts and fiery tempers can be overcome by the faith that
pleads His prevailing name! Brothers and Sisters, let us never sit down
content with small degrees of sanctification! Reason not with
yourselves as though you could never get beyond your present dwarfed
stature. Others have outgrown it. There have been men far more
distinguished for piety, humility and every Grace, than we are. The
attainments to which the Master has led them are accessible to all
saints under the same guidance, through the same Divine Power. Let us
aspire to holiness! Let us follow after it with fresh ardor. Be not
satisfied merely to live, but seek to grow! Be not content to remain
babies, taking your portion of milk, but seek to be strong men who
shall enjoy the strong meat of the Word of God!
Now I believe there are hundreds of persons who have no desire to be
saved, and would rather not be saved, if this is what salvation means.
Why, Man, if you are saved, you will be saved from those pleasurable
sins in which you now are known to revel! Some of you, when you get a
holiday, following the inclinations of a corrupt heart and a vicious
taste, off you go to haunts where birds of your own feather congregate!
Should you be saved, you will seek far different society. The company
you now love, you will then hate, and the pleasures you enjoy so much,
now, will become as detestable as they were delightful to you! When you
say, "Lord, save me," do you mean, "Lord, save me from being what I am.
Lord, I have been a drunk–make me sober. I have been unchaste–make me
pure. I have been dishonest–make me upright. I have been
deceitful–make me speak the truth to my neighbor. I have been
violating Your statutes–make me mindful of Your Word. I have been Your
enemy, Lord–make me Your friend. I have made my belly my god–now You
be my God. I desire to be reconciled to You, so that Your will shall be
my will, Your service my delight and Your way the path which I shall
choose"? Do you mean that? If any man says honestly, "I do desire to be
saved from sin," I do not think you will long have such a desire
ungratified, but the Lord Jesus will say, "Your faith has made you
whole." He can and He will save you, if that is what you mean!
As for you good Christian people who are seeking the conversion of
sinners, try to go about it in Christ's own way. It is right for you to
exhort them to believe in Christ. I like to hear you sing–
"There is life in a look at the Crucified One," but do remember that a
man must have some understanding, both of what sin is and of what the
Savior is, before he can believe, for "faith comes by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God," Endeavor, therefore, to instruct persons
in the Gospel. Merely to exhort them to believe. Simply to cry,
"Believe, believe, believe!" is of little worth, however earnest a man
may be in raising that cry, for the sinner naturally enquires, "What is
it that I have to believe? On whom am I to believe? For what reason am
I to believe? Why do I need to believe?" So, go about your work of
soul-winning in the power of the Holy Spirit! Go about it
intelligently, understanding that as Jesus Christ would not open the
blind man's eyes till He had first made him state, not for Christ's
information, but for the man's own understanding, what it was that he
wanted, and made him say, "Lord, that I may receive my sight," so must
you endeavor, when you proclaim the Gospel, to let men know what their
need of that Gospel is! Give them not merely the expostulations, the
admonitions and the exhortations of the Gospel, but also give them its
instructions! Or else you go and bid them come, and there is no feast.
You invite them to the waters, but you do not tell them what the waters
are! Let it be with you, then, henceforth to instruct sinners in the
way of the Lord. As David says, "Then will I teach transgressors Your
ways, and sinners shall be converted unto You." We will leave that
first homily and proceed to a second. Our text clearly indicates to us
all–
II. THE GREAT NECESSITY OF PRAYING WITH A DIRECT OBJECTIVE.
This poor man was not allowed to pray in general. "You Son of David,
have mercy upon me!" A very proper prayer, and a very blessed prayer,
but certainly it was a very wide prayer. So he was encouraged to be
more specific in his request. "What do you want Me to do for you? You
ask for mercy–what form of mercy do you need? In what particular shape
shall the bountiful hand dispense the mercy to you?" The blind man at
once replies, "Lord, that I may receive my sight!" He hits the mark
with precision. It is sight he needs, and for sight he asks! This is
the right way for Believers to pray. I wish we had more of it in our
Prayer Meetings–I do not find fault, for we have had blessed seasons
of prayer here–but
rest assured that those are the best prayers in all respects, if they
are earnest and sincere, which go most directly to the point. You know
there is a way of praying in the closet and praying in the family in
which you do not ask for anything. You say a great many good things,
introduce much of your own experience, review the Doctrines of Grace
very thoughtfully, but you do not ask for anything in particular. Such
prayer is always uninteresting to listen to–and I think it must be
rather tedious to those who offer it. A Negro, who was noted for his
great earnestness in prayer, was once asked how it was that whenever he
prayed, he seemed to be so earnest. And he said, "Because I always have
an errand when I go to the King! I always have an errand. I go to Him
knowing that I need something, and I ask Him for it, and I don't stop
till He gives it to me. And if He does not give it to me, I ask Him
again and again, for I know what I am doing." Of what use were it to
keep on going in and out of a banker's door all day if you have no
business to transact and nothing to get? But it is quite different when
you go up to the counter with your check and receive in return the
golden sovereigns. It would be very uninteresting to wait upon Her
Majesty every morning and evening with an address which merely said,
"Your Majesty's attached and most loyal subject," if you never asked
for anything!
Yet how much prayer of that kind is addressed to Heaven–sheet
lightning prayer–not the forked flash that does the work, like
shooting arrows up at the moon, instead of imitating David, when he
said, "In the morning wiil I direct my prayer unto You." He looked at
the target, marked the bull's-eye, then drew the bow! And after he had
shot the arrow, he adds, "And will look up"–as if to see whether the
arrow really went to the mark, whether the prayer had sped with God so
that a gracious answer would be given! Should we not sometimes, when
alone, and about to pray, sit down a little while to consider what we
are about to ask? Should we not often pray better if we remembered that
the preparation of the heart in man, as well as the answer of the
tongue, is from the Lord–and that the preparation of the heart
precedes the answer of the tongue? In offering our sacrifices to God,
this helter-skelter ill becomes us! Not with heedless step should we
rush into His Presence. The decorum which is due to a king's court
might admonish us of the reverence due to the King of Kings! Although
we enjoy the privileged familiarity which permits us to say, "Our
Father," as dear children of the Lord of Heaven and Earth, let us never
forget the humility that becomes us, the profound obeisance we owe as
subjects of the great King. Tenderly He asks–"What do you want Me to
do for You?"–devoutly should we answer
Now, dear Friends, let me challenge a plain answer to a plain question.
As you are sitting here in this House, what is your desire before the
Lord? Let your conscience make such a reply that when you get home, you
may intelligently, in the closing prayer of the day, approach the Lord
for what you need. What is the upper-most desire of your soul? Perhaps
with some it is that some besetting sin may be overcome. "Oh," you say,
"what would I give could I but get rid of that bad temper of mine! It
is my daily cross and I do not want to harbor it." "Ah," says another,
"I am so unbelieving, a little trouble soon casts me down. Oh, that I
could get rid of my unbelief!" Well now, very likely, dear Friends, the
sin you ought to prayagainst is one you are not striving against. Were
I to come to you in the aisle, and take you by the buttonhole and tell
you what your principal sin is, you would feel very vexed with me, for
we are apt to resent the faithfulness of those who tell us of our
faults! To touch the tender place makes the nerves tingle and it seems
like willful torture. When somebody complains of something which our
conscience does not endorse, we take it kindly, and accept their good
intentions, thinking that had they known us better, they would have
esteemed us more highly. But if they really touch the sores where most
they smart, we do not admire their treatment! The flush we feel–the
blush we gladly would hide. Yet cloak not now the vice which an
Omniscient God discerns! Let this be a time of heart-searching. Say,
now, "Lord, is my sin, covetousness?" That is a sin which never yet did
I hear a man confess!
A Roman Catholic priest who had heard the confessions of some two
thousand persons, said he had heard men confess heinous iniquities of
every kind, even murder and adultery, but that he never had heard any
man confess covetous-ness. This is a crime they christen and call it by
another name! A covetous man thinks he is prudent–he is just laying by
a little money for a rainy day. Their greed, they tell you, is not to
gratify themselves, but a generous impulse to provide for their
families–for their wives and their children–they would have us
believe, they waste their strength and wither their souls.
Nevertheless, their fortune is their fallacy. To grip and to grasp, to
have and to hold is their desire as long as they live, and late enough
they commonly leave it before they devise to their dear ones the
possessions they can no longer retain! Alas, we are often wicked enough
to try to make our affection an excuse for our avarice! Let us come to
the point honestly. When we are dealing with our sin, let us confess it
with all its iniquity and its heinousness. Do not dissemble by
accepting a small share in a public company. David, when he wanted full
discharge, said, "Deliver me from blood-
guiltiness." He acknowledged the atrocity when he sought the
Atonement–"Forgive my blood-guiltiness"–as one who saw his crime in
the light of its consequence, not as one who attempted to palliate it
with vain excuses! "What do you want Me to do for you in that matter?"
If you have no particular sin to confess–if that is not your uppermost
anxiety at this time–what, then, is your petition? What need have you
to be supplied? Is it some great need? Have you numerous little needs?
They may all be told to God! Get a clear idea of what it is that you
really need that He should do for you, knowing that whatever your
necessities may be, there is the promise, "My God shall supply all your
need"–not some of it, but, "all your need"–not He maydo it, but He
shalldo it! Not, you will have to supply it yourselves, but Hewill
supply it–"My God shall supply all your need." Think, therefore, what
your need is, and then go to God! Is there any choice blessing that you
desire? Get a clear idea of the blessing before you pray for it. What
form of blessing would you wish to have? Oh, if I might have my choice,
it would be heavenly-mindedness! Oh, if a man could but get that, he
need not make much account of where he lived, nor what he had to eat,
nor how much he slept, nor how much he suffered–for a heavenly mind is
Heaven! The mind makes its own Heaven here below, and up above. Though,
doubtless, Heaven has a locality–yet it is much more a state than a
place. Oh, for more heavenly-mindedness! What is it you would have?
Communion with Christ? Love to souls? A broken heart? True humility? I
may say of all these things, "The land is before you, that you may go
forward and possess it. Ask what you will and it shall be done unto
you."
What promise is there that you would wish to have fulfilled to you
tonight? It is a good exercise to sit down before evening prayer and
look up the promise that seems most suitable, or to ask the Lord to
look it up for you, and apply it to your soul? Take this promise, if so
be there is disease next door, "Lord, You have said, 'Thousands shall
fall at your side, and tens of thousands at your right hand, but it
shall not come near you.' Lord, fulfill that promise now." Are you
startled by a noise in the dead of night? Then quote this promise, "You
shall not be afraid of the terror by night." Perhaps it is shortness of
provision that troubles you. Then here is another promise, "Your bread
shall be given you, and your water shall be sure." When you lost a key
the other day, and could not open the drawer, what did you do? You sent
out for a locksmith and in he came with a whole bundle of old rusty
keys. What for? Why, he looked for one that fit the lock of your
drawer, and opened it for you at once! Now many people's Bibles are
just like that bundle of rusty keys. There is always a key in the Bible
that will fit the wards in the lock of your necessities, if you would
but seek till you find it. But sometimes we are in distress, as
Christian and Hopeful were in Doubting Castle, and we have to say, as
Christian did, "What a fool I am to lie rotting in this stinking
dungeon when I have a key in my bosom that I am persuaded would open
every lock in Doubting Castle!" Search out the promises, then, and go
before God with a distinct answer to the question, "What do you want Me
to do for you?" "Lord, I would have that promise fulfilled, or that
Grace bestowed, or that need supplied, or that sin forgiven."
So, dear Friends, in intercessory prayer, it is very necessary, I
think, in order to keep up our own interest in it, that we should have
distinct objectives. I do not find that I can pray for all mankind
anything like so fervently as I can pray for my own children. I do not
find that I can pray for the nation as well as I can for London. When I
pray for London, I seek to do it earnestly. It behooves us to pray for
all men, according to Scripture. All sorts of men are to be included in
our supplications. I must, however, confess that I am most fervent in
prayer when I pray for this congregation, and that because I have the
most vivid thought of this people, and the clearest idea of their
present requirements. If you want to pray for any particular person, or
any special objective, the better you understand the case you have in
hand, the warmer and livelier your pleading will be. There are people
in this Chapel who have asked me to pray for them. Well, I have tried
to do so, and I hope the Lord heard my prayer. But since I have known
more of them, and found out where they live, and who they were, I can
pray for them with more freedom than I could before. They were a sort
of abstraction to me once–I have a definite acquaintance with them
now. How easily you remember anything that is tied to something else,
or linked by association with a place. Thus you recollect a transaction
that occurred to you in the City of London. Every time that you go by
the Bank, just at one spot, you say, "I met so-and-so just here the day
before he died." You will never forget it, but you think of it every
time you go by. Or perhaps at the corner of a road in the country, just
by a hand-post, such-and-such a thing happened to you, and the site of
land revokes the circumstance. Thus we recollect our friends in prayer
when we get a knowledge of them, call them up before our mind's eye,
and knit, as it were, the secret interests with what we have seen of
them when we have talked to them and been interested in their trials.
Some good people have prayed for others by name. Well, you cannot do
that if you have a long list and happen to be a busy man. Still, it is
good to pray for others by name if you can. I like those prayers, even
in public, in which men do pray for others with some distinctness. Oh,
what time we waste when we go beating around the bush! We know
individuals who pray for their minister with a circumlocution that
distracts the listener. They travel round and round a circle, instead
of going at once to the point. A man hardly likes to say, "Lord, save
my wife." He prefers talking about "those who are dear to us in the
ties of consanguinity, and she who is the partner of our being." Yes,
that sounds pretty, very pretty, indeed, but would it not be as well if
you said at once, "Lord, convert my wife"? There is one Brother here
who does pray in that way at the Prayer Meetings, and who uses those
very words. When pleading with God, do let us come straight to the
mark, knowing what we are doing, ourselves and, therefore, stating our
case plainly in answer to the question, "What do you want Me to do for
you?" May the Lord teach us to pray in this distinct manner! Time fails
us, therefore we will only mention a third point. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, in asking this question of the blind man, makes–
III. NO RESERVATION, BUT THROWS OPEN THE PLENITUDE OF HIS HEART AND THE
BOUNDLESSNESS OF HIS POWER.
"What do you want Me to do for you?" is tantamount to saying, "Whatever
it is, I will do it. I can do it. Only tell Me what you want." There is
no bound to the Savior's ability! Nor does He put a limit on the
suppliant's leave to command the favor he desires. It was not, then,
for the blind man to say, "Lord, if You will." He has the opportunity
of procuring any blessing he solicits. Mark, Brothers and Sisters, it
is no question of "can" with regard to Christ! The question is, what do
you desire? Now, Sinner, observe the Lord Jesus Christ did not stop to
enquire about this man's blindness, whether he had been blind from
birth, or whether he had been affected with a cataract or any other
form of ocular disease. He just said, "What do you want Me to do for
you?" No species of ophthalmia could baffle Him! In any form, or at any
stage, it was possible for Him to cure it! The Lord Jesus Christ speaks
to you. He says to you today, "Whoever will, let Him come and take of
the Water of Life freely." He does not say anything as to whether you
have been moral or immoral, whether you have been profane or religious,
but simply, "What do you want Me to do for you?" Your blackest sins
will disappear the moment the scarlet of the blood touches them! Your
foulest crimes shall melt like snow as soon as the thaw begins. You
cannot have sinned yourself beyond the reach of the long arm of Christ,
nor can the weight of your sin be too heavy for the back of Christ, the
great Sin-Bearer, to bear! Whatever your iniquities, though they are
red like scarlet, they shall be as wool! Though they are as crimson,
they shall be whiter than snow! Some of us would have no hope if we did
not know that Christ will save the chief of sinners. We would long
since have sunk into remorse and despair if we had not seen it written
in letters of gold–"He that comes unto Me, I will in no wise cast
out." You know what John Bunyan said about that text? He said, "Who is
this man? Who is this, 'he that comes'? Why, any 'he that comes' in all
the world, be he who he may, He will in no wise, under no pretext, for
no reason and in no way, ever cast him out!" If you come to Christ, He
will keep His word! He cannot be a liar! He must be as good as His own
declaration! If you come to Him, He will not cast you out! What do you
want Him to do for you?
Oh, Believer, have you a desire upon your soul–have you a longing in
your heart? Then Christ does not say that He will give you this mercy,
if it is possible, but He is able to do for you exceedingly abundantly
above what you ask or even think! I hear that text still quoted by some
of my Brothers and Sisters, "Above all that we can ask or even think."
I beg their pardon–that is not a faithful quotation of Scripture! It
says, "Above all that we ask or think"–above all that we do ask! God
can open a man's mouth as wide as His mercies and He can make us ask
for anything, but He generally does for us above all that we ask or
think! Never keep your mouth closed because you think the mercy to be
too great. "He that spared not His own Son, but freely delivered Him up
for us all, how shall He not also, with Him, freely give us all
things?" Do not stint yourself! Enlarge your desire! Open your mouth
wide and He will fill it! He gives you carte blanche–ask for what you
will! He puts it before you, "Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He
will give you the desire of your heart." So may it be to us, according
to our faith, and His shall be the Glory! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: LUKE 13:10-23.
Verses 10-12. And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the
Sabbath, and, behold, there was a woman which hada spirit ofinfrmity
eighteen years, and was bent over, and couldin no wise lift herself up.
And when Jesus saw her– With that quick eye of His which was always in
sympathy with His audience.
12-14. He called her to Him, and said unto her, Woman you are loosed
from your infirmity. And He laid His hands on her: and immediately she
was made straight, and glorified God. And the ruler of the synagogue
answered with indignation because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, and
said unto the people–In what a cold-blooded, heartless manner he must
have said it, you may well imagine. For a man not to rejoice when he
saw his poor fellow creature thus healed, shows that he must have been
destitute of much milk of human kindness and that bigotry had dried up
his soul.
14. There are six days in which men ought to work: in them, therefore,
come and be healed, but not on the Sabbath. He did not dare to speak to
Christ. I suppose the majesty of Christ's manner overawed him, so he
struck directly at the people–and at Christ through them. Now our Lord
did not go sideways to work when He replied to him.
15-17. The Lord then answeredhim, andsaid, You hypocrite, does not each
one ofyou on the Sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and
lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter
of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed
from this bond on the Sabbath? And when He had said these things, all
His adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the
glorious things that were done by Him. The Jews had reduced the Sabbath
to a day of idleness and luxury. The only thing they forbade themselves
was the doing of anything. Now the Sabbath was never intended to be
spent in idleness and luxury. It should be spent in the worship of God
and works of mercy and works of piety make the Sabbath holy, instead of
being contrary to its demands. And our Savior, by giving rest to that
poor burdened woman was, in truth, making Sabbath in her body and in
her soul.
18, 19. Then He said, Unto what is the Kingdom of God like? And to what
shall I compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man
took and cast into his garden; and it grew and became a large tree: and
the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it A little Grace grows
and becomes great Grace. If you have at present but little faith, be
thankful for that little! Bring it to Christ! Let it feed upon Him and
your mustard seed will grow till it becomes a tree! The same is true of
the Gospel throughout the world. We need never be afraid because we
happen to be few in number. If we have got the Truth of God, the Truth
will live. And if the Truth is as small as the mustard seed, there is
life in it– vitality in it, and it is sure to grow before long! We
must not be afraid to be in the minority. Majorities are not always
right. Are they ever? Perhaps sometimes.
20, 21. And again He said, Unto what shall I liken the Kingdom of God?
It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of
meal, till the whole was leavened. Some read this as a parable to set
forth the power of evil, and I do not doubt that it does set it forth.
At the same time it sets forth the power of good, too, for it is put
side by side with the other as the likeness of the Kingdom of God. And
the Truth of God in the soul does work, ferment and permeate the entire
nature if it is placed there!
22, 23. And He went through the cities and villages, teaching, and
journeying toward Jerusalem. Then said one to Him, Lord, are there few
who are saved?That is a question that I have heard a great many times.
What is the fascination that makes men so fond of asking it? I think
that some ask it as if they almost hoped that there would be few. If
they do not go to our Ebenezer or Rehoboth, what can become of them?
Surely you cannot expect that there should be any good come to those
that do not frequent Salem and Enod. What must they hope? In that
spirit the question is often asked, but, Brothers and Sisters, may God
lift us up above that spirit and make us desire that there should be
great multitudes saved! I suppose that one of the surprises of Heaven
will be to see vastly many more there than we ever dreamt would reach
that place. Jesus Christ gave a very practical answer. It was no
answer, and yet was the best of answers.
23. And He said unto them, Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for
many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.Make
a push for it! Agonize for it, for many will seek–not strive, but
merely seek. Or, to put another meaning into it, strive now to enter in
at the strait gate, for many will be unable, when it is too late–and
that, doubtless, is the sense of the passage.