Marvelous! Marvelous!
(No. 1747)
DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 28, 1883,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Thus says the LORD of Hosts: If it is marvelous in the eyes of the
remnant of this people in these days, will it also be marvelous in My
eyes? says the LORD of Hosts." Zechariah 8:6.
GOD sent His servant Zechariah with a promise that Jerusalem should be
rebuilt and that it should enjoy a time of great peace and prosperity.
Instead of men being slain in battle in the prime of their days, old
men and old women were to dwell in the streets of Jerusalem, "every man
with his staff in his hand for very age." And whereas war had often cut
off the women and the children, the promise further added, "the streets
of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets."
Everything was to be prosperous in the land around, so as to bring
plenty into the city–"For the seed shall be prosperous; the vine shall
give her fruit, and the ground shall give her increase, and the heavens
shall give their dew; and I will cause the remnant of this people to
possess all these things."
It was a sweet assurance and it ought to have made them very happy, but
it did not. When this gracious promise came, it startled the people,
for it seemed past belief! The unbelievers did not say, point blank,
"This promise is not true," but deep in their brains they thought as
much. It is not the general habit of unbelief among God's people to
give a flat contradiction to His promises–we are hardly honest enough
to our own thoughts to express them with deliberate plainness of
speech–even unbelief loves to wear some cobweb covering or other so
that its naked deformity may not appear. Our reverence for the Lord
will not permit us to distinctly call Him a liar, but it comes to much
the same thing, for in our heart of hearts we deny the truthfulness of
His Word.
The remnant of Israel said, "How can this thing be? In these days, in
these troublous days, in these threatening days, how can Jerusalem be
made to prosper? Former hopes have been disappointed. We see no better
signs of the times and no doubt, if our hopes are now raised, they will
again be disappointed. How can the city rise from its ashes? We can
hardly think it possible! At any rate, it will be marvelous, extremely
difficult, exceedingly unlikely, indeed, impossible!" They did not say
dogmatically, "It will not be," but they said, "It will be a marvelous
thing"–by which they meant that it was not in the least likely. You
who carry Bibles with you which have the marginal readings, will notice
that in the margin there is the word, "difficult," and the text may be
read thus, "Thus says the Lord of Hosts: If it is difficult in your
eyes, will it also be difficult in My eyes?"
This is the only instance in which the word, "difficult," occurs in our
version of the Bible, and in this case it is only to be found in the
margin. There is too much of God in the Bible for difficulties to live
in it! I would be very glad if I could always put the word,
"difficult," into the margin of my life and never let it stand in the
substance of it. I wish my faith would banish it. Difficulty does crop
up, now and then, through unbelief, but where God manifests Himself,
difficulty vanishes! Leave it in the margin, Brothers and Sisters!
Leave it in the margin! Let it not be read in the annals of your actual
life. A brave self-reliance blots the word, "difficult," out of its
dictionary and a full God-reliance may much more safely do so. If God
is for us, all things can be accomplished. Things impossible with men
are possible with God!
The remnant of Israel said, "It will be difficult," but then they
softened the words a little, and said, "It will be marvelous in our
eyes." Still, it came to this–they did not believe the Word of the
Lord. They could not conceive how the promise could be fulfilled and,
therefore, because it surpassed their conception, they supposed that
the Lord was equally non-pleased and perplexed. Because the restored
prosperity of Jerusalem would be a great wonder, they doubted if it
could ever be accomplished! Yet, blessed be the name of the Lord, it
was accomplished, for, "though we believe not, He abides faithful; He
cannot deny Himself." It certainly was a marvelous thing that
Jerusalem, after having been so dreadfully destroyed, should again lift
up its head and enjoy a little period of sunlight–but we are called
upon to believe in even greater wonders–wonders of a spiritual kind
which are more difficult to believe than material miracles!
I am going to talk about what to every intelligent and awakened mind
will be the greatest wonder of all, namely, the possibility of our
salvation by faith which is in Christ Jesus. Satan will assail you who
are saved and you who are seeking to be saved. And he will aim a blow
at your faith. If he does not dare to tell you in his own native tongue
of point-blank lying, that the promise which the Gospel makes to the
Believer is false, yet he will lead you to think it highly
improb-able–too good to be true, too wonderful ever to happen–in a
word, he will make it appear marvelous in your eyes and he will hint
that it is incredible. So this morning I am going, first, to speak upon
carnal reasoning, how it runs. Secondly, to offer a correction to that
reasoning by pointing out an untruth which lies at the bottom of it.
And, thirdly, I will try, in conclusion, to dwell upon the truth of the
matter and see if we cannot enjoy some right reasoning.
O blessed Spirit of Grace, teach our reason right reason at this hour
and make us to perceive all things in the light of the Truth of God!
I. Here we have before us a specimen of CARNAL REASONING. The Jews of
those days said, "It is difficult; it will never be performed. It is
marvelous in our eyes; it will never happen." This kind of speech comes
from men as soon as they begin to think about their souls and to desire
the salvation of the Lord. We inform them, in God's name, that whoever
repents of sin and confesses it, and believes in Jesus Christ, shall
receive immediate pardon. This good news surprises them, as well it
may. Straightway the old serpent begins to hiss out a doubt and they
ask, "How can it be? Can a man receive, in one moment, forgiveness for
50 years of sin? How can his conscience be cleared by the simple act of
believing in Christ? How can the record of a life of evil be blotted
out at once?"
Assuredly, it does not seem possible to a troubled mind! Reason decides
that it must be very difficult. Common sense assents that it is a
marvelous affair altogether–and the poor awakened hearts conclude that
the promise of full, free forgiveness cannot be true. Thus they push
the promise of God concerning pardon to one side as a good thing which
is quite past belief. Then comes the blessing of renewal of heart, such
as God speaks of in the Covenant promise, "A new heart, also, will I
give them, and a right spirit will I put within them." Our hearer
understands that upon his believing in Jesus he is born again and
becomes a new creature with new likes and new hates–an entirely
altered being! But understanding the promise is one thing and believing
it is another!
A new heart the awakened one desires, but he considers it too great a
marvel. He asks, "Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his
spots? Can I, who have been accustomed to do evil, learn to do well? It
will be marvelous, indeed, if such a sinner as I should be turned into
a saint–if such a rebel as I should become a loyal subject of King
Jesus! Such a conversion will be most extraordinary. I do not think it
can be carried out." He knows that he cannot subdue his own stubborn
will, nor conquer his own unruly passions and, therefore, he concludes
that the thing is impossible and not to be looked for. Thus another
choice Covenant promise is thrown to one side by unbelief and the man
sits down in self-created despair, under the persuasion that a new
birth for him would be too marvelous a thing to expect!
Even if the awakened soul proceeds as far as believing in the first two
blessings, unbelief comes to him in another way, for this thief is sure
to meet the traveler to Zion again and again! The Lord has promised
that the righteous shall hold onto His way and he that has clean hands
shall wax stronger and stronger. And Christ has declared that the
living water which He gives shall be no transient gift, but shall be in
a man a well of water springing up into everlasting life. "Oh, but,"
says the tempted one, "how can I hope to persevere to the end? I shall
be, one of these days, tempted so strongly that I shall be carried off
my feet! What with indwelling sin and a cunning tempter and a world
full of evil, I cannot hope to endure to the end! I shall, one day,
fall by the hand of the enemy. Do you assure me that the righteous
shall hold onto their way? Then it will be marvelous–it must be so
difficult that I fear it is improbable, if not impossible." Thus
unbelief pushes to one side another Covenant blessing.
Further on there comes to the man who has been helped to persevere for
a while, the promise that he shall ultimately be presented faultless
before the Presence of God with exceeding joy–this promise is assailed
in the same manner. The serpent of unbelief leaves its slimy trail upon
everything! We are told that a day shall come when the Believer shall
be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, made meet to dwell with
the angels in light, yes, and to dwell with God Himself forever! And
straightway the soul is tempted to think this wonderful effect of Grace
to be impossible! When we remember how often we have been worsted by
the enemy, how frail, how fallible we are–and how fierce and subtle is
our adversary–we dare not hope that we shall see him utterly defeated
and his power broken to pieces. We dwell upon the fact that it will be
very marvelous–indeed, the more we think of it, the more marvelous it
becomes in our eyes!
And, alas, unbelief leaps upon the back of our wonder and we judge that
the blessing can never be ours. Thus another promised blessing is
thrown under the table. In fact, each mercy of God's Covenant is looked
at, wondered at and then renounced–not because it is undesirable–but
because it is so good, so rich, so full! O wretched unbelief which
makes the excellence of the favor into a reason for refusing it! Help
us, O Holy Spirit, to believe our Lord and to reason no more in this
evil fashion! I have known children of God, in the time of their great
trial when they have been surrounded with afflictions, oppressed with
poverty and depressed in spirit, to become quite incredulous as to the
possibility of deliverance. They ask, "How can God cause our bread to
be given us and our water to be sure, now? Can He bring us out of such
sore trouble as this? We know that He has been gracious to His people
in other instances, but our case is one of peculiar difficulty! Surely
our Lord has forsaken us–our God will be gracious no more."
This comes of reasoning, falsely called. When we see no passage through
our straits, we are sadly apt to conclude that God sees none! He has
promised that with every trial He will make us a way of escape, but we
doubt His Word. Like the unbelieving lord in the Book of Kings, we say,
"If God would make windows in Heaven, might such a thing be?" Have you
ever said that, my Brother, in your spirit? Dear Sister, has not the
Evil One whispered such a word in your ears in dark times? Have you not
fancied that you have passed beyond the reach of Divine help and will
surely perish? In this way carnal reason is sure to argue and rob God
of His Glory and our souls of consolation! It has been so from the
beginning, that while doubting God we cover our unbelief with an evil
sophistry–and this sophistry does not avail to remove the mischievous
tendencies of our mistrust.
Unbelievers, by this wicked reasoning, are left in their spiritual
death, while Believers are hampered and sorely wounded. O accursed
Unbelief, this is your false argument, "It is marvelous and, therefore,
it cannot be true!" We answer you that because it is marvelous it is
all the more likely to be true!
II. Secondly, we will now aim our arrows at the dark spot in this
carnal argument which makes it all to be false, or, in other words, we
will CORRECT THIS REASONING. First, let us note that when because the
blessing promised is marvelous we, therefore, doubt the promise of God
concerning it, we must have forgotten God. "If it is marvelous in your
eyes, says the Lord of Hosts, is it therefore marvelous in My eyes?"
God Himself puts it so and there is but one answer to the question. My
text is a very singular one, for it is hedged in with the name of the
Lord and with a double, "thus says the Lord of Hosts."
It begins with, "Thus says the Lord of Hosts," and it finishes up with,
"says the Lord of Hosts," as if twice to bring to our memory that God
is and that God has made a promise–and that this Promiser is Jehovah
the great and powerful, the Lord of all who has countless armies at His
beck and call! This unbelief forgets and, hence, her error. To come to
our one subject, that of your own salvation, you hear the promise of
eternal life in Christ Jesus and your mind replies, "It is marvelous,
it is difficult." Do you not see that you are looking at it as if you
had made the promise? From that standpoint it would be, indeed,
difficult, even impossible! But whose promise is it? It is not yours
but God's! If you were to promise to give yourself eternal life, to
keep yourself to the end and sanctify yourself perfectly, what a
foolish person you would be to undertake what you could not possibly
perform! But it is not your promise–it is God's promise. Is anything
too hard for the Lord?
Look at it in that light. It is a marvelous promise for you to receive,
but the God who spoke it knew what He was saying and He knew that He
had power to perform it! It is the promise of God, "who alone does
great wonders." Remember that! And remember, next, that God does not
look to you to fulfill His promises. Do not fall into such a foolish
thought! If you make a promise, it is your own business to carry it
out, is it not? And if God makes a promise that He will save a
sinner–whose work is it to save that sinner? Why, it is the work of
the God who made the promise! It is written, "He that believes in Him
has everlasting life." "Marvelous," you say, but who said it? Why, God!
Then it is God's department to make it true. If you would but remember
this–that the pardon of sin is God's business, that the renewing of
the heart is God's business, that the keeping of the saint to the end
is God's business, that the sanctifying and perfecting of all Believers
is God's business–then you would find it more easy to believe.
Can anything surpass the power of God? Did you ever hear of the Lord
being baffled in His designs? Can it be possible that He has promised
what He is not able to perform? The false reasoning which cries, "It is
marvelous and, therefore, impossible," ignores altogether the fact that
God is a marvelous Being and that if His promise is marvelous, it is
like Himself! He is a great God and His power and wisdom are
infinite–can anything surpass His ability? Would you have
the infinite God confine His promises and gifts to common-place
matters? Would it be seemly that the Lord, who is infinite in
resources, should do nothing but what you can understand? O Sirs, you
forget the Eternal and, therefore, doubt the promise–do so no more!
And, further, the error which vitiates the argument of carnal reason
takes another shape. There is here, as far as the Lord is thought of at
all, an underestimate of God. The Lord puts this very plainly in our
text–"If it is marvelous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in
these days, should it also be marvelous in My eyes?" You are judging
God as if He were like yourself! You have been calculating Divine
possibilities by the scale of your own capacity! You have lowered God
to the limit ofyour understanding! You have narrowed Him to your notion
of what He can do and thus you degrade His greatness to your
littleness–His wisdom to your folly, His power to your weakness! The
deed of salvation is marvelous with you, but it is not strange with
God, to whom it has been the great thought of eternity, towards which
He causes all things to move.
Everything in wonder depends upon the person affected by it–a trader
goes to Africa. He takes with him a looking-glass and you see the
chiefs gather around. And with wonder they gaze upon their own pleasing
countenances in the mirror. It is marvelous to them! It becomes the
talk of the tribe! But that mirror is not marvelous to the trader who
brought it there. A musical box is set playing and a whole village of
Negroes gather about it, unanimously believing that it must be at least
a spirit, if not a god. To them it is a great marvel and they expect
the white man to marvel, too, for they measure his capacity by their
own. Yet their wonderful thing is, to an Englishman, a mere simplicity.
Shall we set it down for certain that what is a wonder to us is a
wonder to God? This would be absurd! The Lord can do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or even think–there is no bounding
His power, no searching of His understanding.
"But my sin," you say, "who is to subdue it?" Not you, certainly! But
the Lord of Hosts is able to overcome the power of sin! Do not measure
God by yourself. "But my trouble, who can bring me through it?" Nobody
can except the everlasting God who faints not, neither is He weary. The
end of the creature is the starting place of the Creator! The limit of
our power is soon reached, but the wings of the morning could not bear
us beyond the Divine power. Whatever the Lord wills, is
accomplished–you can be sure of that! When we begin to doubt whether
God will love us to the end, is it not measuring God's patience by our
impatience? Is there not a calculating of God's Immutability by our
mutability? Because we change and grow weary, shall we fancy that the
Lord also changes? Is there variableness and turning with the great
Father of Lights? Has not the Lord declared, "I am God; I change not;
therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed"?
When we doubt God's wisdom by questioning whether He can find a way of
keeping His Word and helping us, is it not because our little knowledge
is exhausted and our plans broken down and, therefore, we conclude that
God's plans will break down, too, and His invention will fail to
contrive our deliverance? Beloved, it is not so! The Lord's way is in
the whirlwind and the clouds are the dust of His feet! His footsteps
are not seen, but He walks on the sea! He rides on the wings of the
wind! He has sway everywhere and all things answer to His purpose and
accomplish His designs! Leave off doubting and believe that the Lord's
thoughts are as high above your thoughts as the heavens are above the
earth! It is at bottom our pride which makes us judge the Lord to be
like ourselves. If you degrade God to be like to man, it is because you
idolize man and make him to be God!
Who are you, you creature of an hour? Who are you, you creeping insect
upon the bay leaf of existence? Who are you, poor mortal, that today is
and tomorrow is shoveled back into mother earth, that you should begin
to measure God? Go, measure Heaven with your span, weigh the Alps in
scales and the Andes in balances! Go and hold the Atlantic in the
hollow of your hand and when you have done these things know that you
are not at the beginning of the measurement of the wisdom, the power,
the truth and the goodness of the Lord! This, however, is the fault of
carnal reasoning, that it judges the Lord of Hosts by the miserable
standard of human weakness. Do you not see, dear Friends, that if we
begin to say that God's promise is so marvelous that it cannot be
performed, we do the infinite God high dishonor? You dishonor His power
by imagining that a difficulty has arisen which He cannot meet. You
suppose a power greater than God, since it baffles and defeats Him.
What is this but to set up another god? It is a fault charged upon
Israel of old as a very provoking crime, that they limited the Holy One
of Israel. Oh that we may never be guilty of this offense!
But you do worse than that, for I can suppose God to bear the dishonor
of His power being limited, but it is far worse, practically, to
insinuate that He boasts beyond His capabilities! I tremble as I say
that unbelief accuses the Lord of
vain boasting! When a man promises you what he knows he cannot perform,
what opinion do you form of him? You say at once, "Why, the man is a
boaster! He is big at talking, but small at performing." Will you
insinuate that of the Lord God? Has it come to this, that you dare
criticize your Maker? Do you dare insinuate that the Infinite Jehovah
has promised to a sinner what He is incapable of giving him? God says,
"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved"–and dare
you say, "No, I could not be saved." Does God, then, speak beyond His
ability? Does He promise what He is not able to perform?
This is a form of blasphemy from which, I pray, we may be cleansed
through the blood of our Lord Jesus! Or is it that you dream that God
does not know His own strength? What? Is the Almighty ignorant? Is the
only wise God unaware of His own power? Does He not know what He can
do? I will not say that a man brags when he promises what he cannot
perform, provided that he is unaware of his inability, for in such a
case he blunders through ignorance or conceit. Do you dare charge
either of these upon God? Far from me to have such an evil thought! I
feel, this morning, that if all your sins were mine, yet since the Lord
has promised pardon to him that believes, I could and would believe
over the head of all that mass of sin! Yes, if all the iniquities of
all the men that ever lived were laid upon my soul, yet upon that
assurance, "The blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all
sin," I would even venture my soul's hope of salvation and be sure of
success!
If the Lord has given a promise to His people that He will keep them to
the end and that they shall not perish, then He will keep them to the
end without fail. Why, Brothers and Sisters, if our road to Heaven were
thick with devils, so that they stood like blades of wheat in a corn
field, yet we should be able to force a lane right through the serried
host, the Lord Jehovah being our Helper! If all the powers that are, or
were, or can be, were to raise themselves up against the promise of
God, in the name of God would we defy and defeat them! The Word of the
Lord makes us more than conquerors. David said of old, "They compassed
me about like bees; yes, they compassed me about, but in the name of
the Lord I will destroy them." What can stand against the feeblest man
that lives if he has God's promise to back him? The Lord can do just
what He wills, whoever may oppose!
Therefore let us fling away this folly of ours in supposing that
because a work of Grace is marvelous or difficult in our eyes, it is,
therefore, marvelous or difficult in the eyes of the Lord! That which
is difficult with us is easy with Him! There is a radical mistake at
the bottom of all this wicked, unbelieving reasoning–it leaves out the
Lord altogether, or degrades Him below the Glory of His Godhead.
III. We have reached the third division of our discourse and here let
us practice a little RIGHT REASONING. I invite any here who are
troubled with doubts about the promise of God to follow me in a few
simple considerations. First, it is quite clear that for our salvation,
marvels must be worked. It will be a wonder in all of us for any one of
us to attain Heaven–it will need the Omnipotence of God to renew,
preserve and perfect us. It is a rule with regard to miracles that God
is very economical with them. In the Romish Church you have miracles in
abundance, such as they are, but they are, for the most part, needless
parades of power.
When St. Denis, after his head was cut off, picked it up in his hands
and walked a thousand miles with it, the dear man might as well have
saved himself and his head the unsightly pilgrimage! When the blood of
St. Januarius liquefies, or a Madonna winks, it may be interesting, but
one does not see the necessity for either performance! The God of the
Scriptures has no hand in such miracles–they are not of the same order
as those which are worked by His right hand. Our Lord never uses a
miracle where the same thing could be done by the ordinary processes of
Nature. But whenever a miracle is requisite, a miracle is
forthcoming–there is no stint of power though there is no wasteful
display of it, either.
I argue, then, that if it is necessary for you to be saved in order
that God's promise may be kept, you shall be saved! And if, in order to
this, marvels are needed, marvels will happen. The Lord reserves no
strength when it is necessary to expend it for the fulfillment of His
promises. If Omnipotence must make bare His arm, it shall be bared. The
Lord led His people Israel to the Red Sea–perhaps if the Egyptians had
not come up, it might have been possible to make rafts to ferry them
across the water and we are sure it would have been done if it had been
the best way of achieving the Lord's design. But when the Egyptians
were so close behind that you could hear the neighing of their horses
and almost feel the hot breath of their vengeful masters, then there
remained no ordinary way for the people of God to escape, and lo, the
mighty depths yawned before the tribes and a road was opened through
the heart of the sea that the people of God might pass through!
So it shall be with you. If to forgive your sin needs a miracle of
Grace, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and the miracle of Grace is
done! If to change your nature needs the miraculous power of the Holy
Spirit–if you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit waits to
work that great change. No, He has worked the change, and your faith is
the evidence of it! If it shall need all the power of God to keep one
of His children to the end, all that power shall be, for though God
works not miracles till they are needed, He is not slow to do so when
the case demands them. He will shake Heaven and earth to complete the
salvation of His chosen! Therefore, if a deed of Grace is marvelous in
your eyes, say to yourself, "Marvelous as it is, nothing short of it
will do and, therefore, it shall be done."
It was marvelous that God should become Man, but as there was no
salvation for His apart from Immanuel, "God With Us," Jesus was born of
a woman! It is marvelous that the Son of God should die, but as there
was no salvation apart from His death, He died upon the Cross. If the
Lord has given a promise, it must be carried out, cost what it may, for
His name is, "God That Cannot Lie." If there is no way of bringing a
saint to God except by the Holy Spirit's dwelling in him, which is a
great wonder, then the Holy Spirit shall dwell in him, for the many
sons must be brought unto Glory, and if marvels as many as the hairs on
their heads are needed, so many marvels there shall be!
A second little bit of reasoning may tend to comfort some of you,
namely, that, after all, marvelous things are the rule with God. I say
not miracles, although it is difficult to draw the line between the
ordinary processes of God's working and the extraordinary ones, for the
ordinary are extraordinary and His extraordinary deeds can hardly be
more marvelous than His daily operations! All the works of God in
creation are marvels. Take the telescope and search out the stars.
Assuredly an "undevout astronomer is mad." When we perceive somewhat of
the multitudes of worlds that God has made–their vast distances, the
proportions of their bulk, the regularity of their orbits and the
rapidity of their mo-tions–we discover that the great machinery of
Nature is ordered by infinite skill! "It is the Lord's doing" and it is
marvelous in our eyes!
Surely that God who flings the stars about with both His hands can give
us our daily bread! if He makes worlds to fly off like sparks from the
anvil of His Omnipotence, He can make new creatures in Christ Jesus! If
He keeps all those heavenly lamps shining so brightly for centuries, He
can sustain Grace in the hearts of His people without difficulty! But
now if you have done with the telescope, please put it away and let me
lend you a microscope. Look at a butterfly from your garden. No, you
need not trouble to examine the whole creature, a portion of a broken
wing will suffice for your astonishment. Here is a spider's eye! Are
you not surprised? This is the petal of a flower–what amazing beauty!
Take but a single portion of a minute blood vessel and study it awhile.
I hear you say, "I never could have believed it! This glass reveals to
me such wonders that I am utterly astounded!"
God is as great in the little as in the great–He is God everywhere! If
a man carefully fashions a needle it appears to be exquisitely smooth
and polished. Ah, it is only bright because your eyes are weak. Put it
under the microscope. It is transformed into a rough bar of iron! No
works of man will bear to be examined with a microscope–but you may
search the Lord's work with the utmost care–the most common, plain,
simple–the most ordinary creation of God is perfect! Since, then, all
Nature teems with marvels, why put aside a promise of God because it
involves a marvel? Is such conduct reasonable? However, if you have
read through all the pages of Nature, which I am sure you have not, I
would invite you to peruse the Book of Providence and see what marvels
are there! I will give you no illustrations, because your own life will
probably furnish you with many.
If not, look at the history of any country–see how wondrously God has
worked out His everlasting purposes of justice or of mercy in each
land. The story of Providence contains a world of wonders! Why, then,
should you doubt the promise of God because it involves a marvel? You
should, rather, believe it for that very reason! I think there is good
reasoning in all this. Follow me yet a little further, when I say that
you must be prepared to abandon altogether the religion of our Lord
Jesus Christ if you make it a rule to disbelieve the marvelous. The
greatest marvel that I ever heard of is this–"Great is the mystery of
godliness; God was manifest in the finite." How the Infinite could
become one with the finite, so that the Baby at Bethlehem should be the
Mighty God, I cannot explain and I think you cannot, either. Are you
prepared to forego the Incarnation of Christ? For if you are not, you
must not refuse to believe in any act of God because it is
marvelous–for it cannot be more marvelous than God in human flesh!
Think again–it is a cardinal doctrine of Christianity that the dead
will rise again–that at the sounding of the trumpet of God they that
are in their graves will rise to be judged in their bodies. Is not this
a marvel? Stand in a ceme-
tery and ask the question, "Can these dry bones live?" Do you believe
in the Resurrection? Then you must never set aside any promise of God
because it involves a marvel. You also believe, according to the Word
of the Lord, that this world will one day be the home of God's Glory,
for there shall be new heavens and a new earth in which dwells
righteousness and the travail of the groaning creation shall come to an
end–and this world shall be made anew a temple for the Lord. What an
extraordinary thing this will be! Yet you believe it. Do not,
therefore, ever doubt a single promise that God makes either to saint
or sinner because it contains a marvel.
Yet, again, I want you to follow me in another thought, namely, that
greater marvels have been already worked than any which your salvation
and mine will involve! Brothers and Sisters, if it had been whispered
to any of us that God would take upon Himself human form and dwell
among men, we should have looked much astonished! But if the Prophet
had added, "In that form He will be despised and spit upon, and hung up
to die a felon's death because He will bear the sin of man which will
be laid upon His perfect Person, so that He will be made a curse for
us," we should have said, "No, that cannot be!" Beloved, it has been!
Atonement has been accomplished! Christ has borne the load of His
people's sins up to the Cross and He has hurled that weight from His
shoulders into His own sepulcher and left them there, buried forever!
No wonder like this remains to be done–the greatest deed is finished!
The renewal of our nature and the forgiveness of our sin are but little
things compared with what Christ has already done! That He should now
save His people seems, to me, not at all extraordinary–it would be
more extraordinary that He should die and not save those for whom He
died! Having paid the ransom price for His heritage, it is but a
natural consequence that it should be set free. The greater wonder has
already amazed angels, principalities and powers! Oh, think not, though
I, for lack of time, have passed lightly over this miracle of
miracles–the death of our blessed Lord–that there is not much more to
be said of this great wonder! Why, in dying, our Lord destroyed death,
and cried, "Where is your sting?"
In rising again, He burst the bands of the sepulcher and opened a way
to life to all Believers! In ascending the starry road, He led
captivity captive and took possession of Heaven in the name of all His
redeemed! And now, this day, He that was despised and rejected has all
power given to Him in Heaven and in earth on our behalf! These great
wonders have been finished and registered in Heaven! It only remains
for us simply to receive the result of them by believing in Christ
Jesus our Lord! To deliver us from the wrath to come is but now a
comparatively small marvel. Compared with the griefs and death of the
Son of God, nothing great remains! Think of that and let your faith be
encouraged.
I will not detain you except to remind you of the sweet thought that
the more marvels there may be in our salvation the more glorifying it
will be to God. Think of that. The more difficult it will be to save
you, the more glory to God when He has achieved it. Your sin washed
away will only demonstrate the power of the precious blood of Jesus!
Your hard, stubborn will subdued will only prove the might of the love
of Christ upon your soul! Your trials, temptations, weaknesses and
infirmities will only glorify that almighty strength which is working
in you to produce your ultimate perfection! Believe the promise all the
more because it is so wonderful and, therefore, so honoring to the
Lord. Do not let the marvel stagger you–let it encourage you! Say, "If
this involved nothing wonderful, I could not think it came from God,
but inasmuch as it is great and high, it is all the more worthy of
God." Make the difficulties of the Bible a help to your faith and let
the greatness of Grace render you the more hopeful of receiving it.
Lastly, let me say, whenever you have any doubts and fears, turn your
mind away from the thing that is promised to the faithful Promiser. We
need altogether larger ideas of God! If we had them, we would find it
easy to believe His Word. I remember when I was a boy, being taken to
see the residence of one of our nobility, and the good friend who took
me noticed my astonishment at the largeness of the house. I was amazed
at it, having never seen anything like it, and so I said, "What a house
for a man to live in!" "Bless you, boy," he said, "this is only the
kitchen!" I was only looking at the servants' apartments and was
astonished at the grandeur! The mansion itself was a far nobler affair!
Oftentimes when you see what the Lord has done, you are ready to cry
out, "How can all this be? His goodness, His mercy, is it as great as
this?" Rest assured that you have only seen a little of His goodness,
as if it were the kitchen of His great house–you have not seen the
palace of the Most High where He reveals His full power and splendor!
You know the story of the general, who, having led his men into a
difficult position, went round at night to their tents. He said to
himself, "If they are all in good heart we shall fight well tomorrow,
for certainly this battle needs all our valor. I need to know the
spirit of my men." Going round the camp, secretly, he heard in a tent
some half-dozen soldiers
conversing, and one of them above the rest was saying, "I think our
general has made a great mistake this time. Look at the enemy–they
have so many cavalry, so many infantry and guns," and so forth. He
added up all the force of the enemy and another soldier chimed in,
"What do you suppose our strength to be?" So the other calculated–so
many footmen, so many horsemen, so many artillerymen, and so on. He was
just going to total it up and make a very small concern of the whole,
when the general drew aside the canvas of the tent and said, "And pray,
my man, how many do you count me for?" Did all the general's skill,
valor and renown count for nothing? He who had won so many
fights–could he not win again?
Just so, the Lord Jesus Christ, whenever we begin summing up our
strength, or rather, our weakness, seems to appear and ask, "How many
do you count Me for?" O Sirs! You have not counted the Lord Jesus at
the millionth part of what He is! No, the firmest Believer here has not
yet reached the trailing skirts of the garments of Divine Omnipotence!
Let us enlarge our minds! Come, Blessed Spirit, reveal Christ in us and
let us know more of God and trust Him better! And let nothing be
unbelievingly marvelous in our eyes, since nothing can be too hard for
the Lord! God bless all of you. Amen.