May I?

May I?

(No. 1809)

A SERMON DELIVERED ON THURSDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 6, 1884,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"If I may." Matthew 9:21.

THE woman in the narrative was fully persuaded that if she did but
touch our Lord's garment, she would be made whole. What she had heard
and seen concerning Jesus made her sure of His superabundant power to
heal the sick. A touch would do it. Yes, even a touch of His clothes.
Her one and only question was, might she touch Him? Could she touch
Him? She would surely be healed if she could touch, but was this
allowable? Was this possible? I know that multitudes of sin-sick men
and women are vexed with this same question. Oh that I could help them
over the difficulty! May the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, aid me!

This poor diseased woman did not utter this, "if," of hers with her
lips. Perhaps if she had, it might not have troubled her so much, for a
silent doubt usually eats right into the heart. You have heard of the
Spartan boy who had hidden a fox in his bosom and allowed it to eat
into his vitals before he would admit it–beware of having a doubt
hidden away in your heart gnawing and tearing! If you are even, now,
suffering from, "If I may, if I may," reveal the trouble to some tender
Christian friend and you may soon escape from it.

But the sufferer now before us had the courage to put the question to a
practical issue–she tried whether she might or not. She had the good
sense, the Grace-given wisdom, not to wait until she had solved that
question in her mind, but she went and solved it, as a matter of fact,
whether she might or not–she went and actually touched the hem of the
garment of the Savior–and she was made perfectly whole! Oh that those
I am now addressing would have the bravery and the earnestness to do
the same! Oh that they would, at once, put the disturbing question to a
practical test! There can be but one result, for as many as touched Him
were made perfectly whole.

Now, I know that souls are going to be saved tonight. Who they are, I
cannot tell, but some are certain to come to the Savior and, this
night, to be made perfectly whole! I know it because we prayed an hour
ago for it downstairs, many of us, and we felt the assurance that we
were heard. My dear son, in praying just now, I am sure felt a very
remarkable liberty at the Mercy Seat and the witness of the Spirit
within that he was heard. The Lord has heard the petitions which we
have presented in the name of Jesus. You are going to be saved! I would
to God that every unconverted person here would lean forward and say,
"May it be I! God grant that salvation may come to me!" I am going,
therefore, in the simplest way possible, without any attempt at a
sermon, to try to talk so as to meet this rankling question which lies
within, festering and irritating many an earnest heart–this doubtful
enquiry–"If I may."

You know, many of you, who Jesus is, and you believe Him to be the Son
of God, the Savior of men. You are sure that "He is able to save them
to the uttermost that come unto God by Him." You have no doubt about
those eternal verities which surround His Godhead, His birth, His life,
His death, His Resurrection and His Second Advent. The doubt is
concerning yourself personally–"If I may be a partaker of this
salvation." You feel quite certain that faith in Jesus Christ will save
anyone–will save you it you exercise it. You have no doubt about the
doctrine of Justification by Faith. You have learned it and you have
received it as a matter beyond all dispute, that he who believes in Him
has everlasting life! And you know that he who comes to Him, He will in
nowise cast out. You know the remedy and believe in its efficacy–but
then comes the doubt–may I be healed by it?

At the back of your belief in faith hides the gloomy thought, "May I
believe? May I trust? I see the door is open and many are entering. May
I? I see that there is washing from the worst of sins in the sacred
Fountain. Many are being cleansed. May I wash and be clean?" Without
formulating a doubt so as to express it, it comes up in all sorts of
ways and

robs you of all comfort and, indeed, of all hope. When a sermon is
preached, it is like as when one sets a table with all manner of
dainties and you look at it, but do not feel that you have any right to
sit down and partake. This is a wretched delusion! Its result will be
deadly unless you are delivered from it! Like a harpy, it preys upon
you, croaking forever! When you see the brooks flowing with their
sparkling streams and you are thirsty, does there arise the thought in
your heart that you are not permitted to drink? If so, you are out of
your mind–you talk and think like one bereft of reason! Yet many are
in this state spiritually. This doubting your liberty to come to Jesus
is a very wretched business! It mars and spoils your reading and your
hearing and your attempts to pray. And you will never get any comfort
until this question has been answered in your heart once and for
all–"May I?"

Our Authorized Version may not be exactly correct in this passage, but
I do not care whether it is or not, so far as my address is concerned,
for it does not depend upon the accuracy of a text. I am quite
satisfied to preach from it, tonight, but there is another translation
in the Revised Version which, I dare say, is more accurate. I will
preach from that when I have done with the first. This shall be our
subject–"If I may." Or first, "if I may be allowed." Secondly, "if I
may be enabled." Thirdly, "if I actually do." This last is the Revised
Version–"If I do but touch the hem of His garment I shall be made
whole."

I. First, take it as we have got it here–"IF I MAY BE ALLOWED, or
permitted, to touch the hem of His garment, I shall be made whole."
That is your difficulty, is it?–Whether you have liberty and warrant
to come and trust Christ– whether you, such a sinner as you are, are
permitted to repose your soul upon His great Atonement and His finished
work. Let me reason with you a little.

In the first place, you are quite sure of this–that there is nothing
to forbid your coming and resting your guilty soul upon Christ. I shall
defy you, if you will read all the Old and New Testament through, to
put your finger upon a single verse in which God has said that you may
not come and put your trust in Christ. Perhaps you will reply that you
do not expect to read it in the Bible, but God may have said it
somewhere where it is not recorded. Well, I answer you there, for He
says, "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I
said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek you Me In vain." Now, He has bid
you over and over again to seek His face, but He has never said that
you shall seek His face in vain! Dismiss that thought!

Again I return to what I have said–there is nothing in the Scripture
that refuses you permission to come and repose your soul, once and for
all, upon Christ. It is written, "Whoever will, let him take the water
of life freely." Does that exclude you? It is written, "Whoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Does that shut you out?
No, it includes you! It invites you! It encourages you! And I come,
again, to what I have said–that nowhere in the Word of God is it
written that you will be cast out if you come, or that Jesus Christ
will not remove your burden of sin if you come and lay it at His feet.

Ah, no–a thousand passages of Scripture welcome you, but not one
stands with a drawn sword to keep you back from the Tree of Life! Our
heavenly Father sets His angels at the gates of His house to welcome
all comers and there are no dogs to bark at poor beggars, nor so much
as a notice that trespassers must beware! Come and welcome! There is
none to say you may not!

Further, do you not think that the very Nature of the Lord Jesus Christ
should forbid your raising a doubt about your being permitted to come
and touch His garment's hem? Surely, if anyone were to paint the Lord
Jesus Christ as an ascetic, repelling, with lofty pride, the humbler
folk who had never reached His dignity of consecration–if any were to
paint Him as a Pharisee driving off publicans and sinners, or as an
iceberg of righteousness chilling the sinful–it would be a foul
slander upon His Divine Character! If anyone were to say that Jesus
Christ is exacting–that He will not receive to Himself the guilty just
as they are, but requires a great deal of them and will only welcome to
Himself those who are, like Himself, good, true and excellent–that
would not be a Truth of God but the direct opposite of it–for, "this
Man receives sinners and eats with them," was thrown in His face when
He lived here below! And what the Prophet said of Him was most
certainly true, if anything was ever true–"A bruised reed shall He not
break, and the smoking flax shall He not quench."

Little children are wonderful judges of character. They know
intuitively who is kind. And so are loving women. They do not go
through the processes of reasoning, but they come to a conclusion very
soon as to a man's personal character. Now, the children came and
clambered our Redeemer's knees and the mothers brought their infants
for His bless-

ing! How can you dream that He will repel you? The women wept and
bewailed Him! Whoever might refuse Him they pitied and, therefore, I am
sure that He is not hard to move. Therefore I want you to feel sure of
this–that there is nothing in the Savior's Character which can, for a
moment, lead Him to discard you and drive you from His Presence! Those
who know Him best will say that it is impossible for Him to ever refuse
the poor and needy. Not a blind man could cry to Him without receiving
sight, nor a hungry man look to Him without being fed! He was touched
with a feeling of our infirmities–the most gentle, loving and tender
of all that ever dwelt upon this earth! I pray you, then, take it for
granted that you may come boldly to Him without fear of a rebuff. If He
has power to heal you when you touch Him, rest assured that you may
touch Him! You may believe–there is no question–for Jesus is too
loving to refuse you. It will give the Lord Jesus joy to receive you!
It is not possible that He should say no to you–it is not in His
Nature to spurn you from His Presence.

Will you think, yet again, of the fullness of Christ's power to save,
and make a little argument of it. Christ was so full of power to bless
that the secret virtue even saturated His clothes! It overflowed His
blessed Person. It ran down to the hem of His garments, yes, and it
went to that blue hem which every Jew wore round about his dress–that
fringe of blue. It went into that border, so that if the woman did but
touch the raveling of His garment, virtue would stream into her! If the
touch was a touch of faith, it mattered not where the contact was made.
Well now, you often judge of a man's willingness to help by the power
that he has. When a person has little to give, he is bound to be
economical in his giving. He must look at every penny before he gives
it if he has but a few pence to spare. But when a nobleman has no limit
to his estate, you feel sure that he will freely give if his heart is
generous and tender.

The blessed Lord is so full of healing power that He does not need to
stint Himself as to the miracles of healing! He shall work and He must
be, according to the goodness of His Nature, delighted to overflow,
glad to communicate to those who come! You know if a city is straitened
for water, the corporation will send out an order that only so much may
be used. And then there is a stinting of public baths and factories,
because there is a scarcity of the precious fluid. But if you go along
the Thames when we have had a rainy season, you laugh at the notion of
a short supply and economical rules! If a dog needs to drink from a
river, nobody ever questions his right to do so. He comes down to the
water and he laps and, what is more, he runs right into it, regardless
of those who may have to drink after him! Look at the cattle, how they
stand knee-deep in the stream and drink and drink again–and nobody
ever says, as he goes up the Thames, that those poor London people will
run short of water, for the dogs and the cattle are drinking it up
before it gets down to London! No, it never enters our head to petition
the Conservators to restrain the dogs and the cows, for there is so
much water that there must be full liberty to everyone to drink to the
full.

Your question is, "May I? May I?" I answer that question by this–there
is nothing to forbid you! There is everything in the Nature of Christ
to encourage you and there is such a fullness of mercy in Him that you
cannot think that He can have the slightest motive for withholding His
infinite Grace. Moreover, suppose you come to Christ, as this woman
came, and touch the hem of His garment–you will not injure Him. You
ought to hesitate in getting good for yourself if you would injure the
person through whom you obtain that good. But you will not injure the
Lord Jesus Christ! He perceived that virtue had gone out of Him, but He
did not perceive it by any pain He felt! I believe that He perceived it
by the pleasure which it caused Him. Something gave Him unusual joy. A
faith-touch had reached Him through His clothes and He rejoiced to
respond by imparting healing virtue from Himself.

You will not defile my Lord, O Sinner, if you bring Him all your sins!
He will not have to die, again, to put away your fresh burden of
transgression! He will not have to shed one drop of blood to make
Atonement for your multiplied sins–the one Sacrifice on Calvary
anticipated all possible guiltiness. If you will come just as you are,
He will not have to leave Heaven, again, and be born, again, on earth,
and live another sorrowful life in order to save you! He will not need
to wear another crown of thorns, or bear another wound in His hands, or
feet, or side! He has done all His atoning work–do you not remember
His victorious cry–"It is finished!"? You cannot injure Him, though
all your injurious thoughts, words and deeds are laid upon Him! You
will not be robbing Him of anything though your faith-touch should
convey a life into yourself!

He has such a fullness about Him that if all you poor sinners will come
at once, when you have taken away all of merit that you need, there
will be as much merit left as there was before! When you deal with the
infinite, you may divide and subtract, but you cannot diminish! If the
whole race were washed in the infinite fountain of Jesus' merit, the
infinite

would still remain! Let me tell you that if you come to Jesus and just
trust Him, tonight–only trust Him–you shall rather benefit Him than
injure Him, for it is His heart's joy to forgive sinners! He longs and
thirsts to heal wounded consciences. My Lord is hungering, even now
that He is in Heaven, to bring poor sinners to His Father's feet and
reconcile them unto Him, so that you will bless Him–you will increase
His joy, if you will return to the great Father whose house you have
left! You will delight His heart as He, again, finds the lost piece of
money, bears back the lost sheep and welcomes home the returning
prodigal. I think you need not keep on asking, "If I may," for these
cheering reasons ought to convince you that you are fully warranted to
trust in Him whom God has set forth to be a Prince and a Savior, to
give repentance unto Israel and remission of sins.

And might not this, also, help you?–Others just like you have ventured
to Him and there has not been a case in which they have been refused. I
thought, like you, when I was a child, that the Gospel was a very
wonderful thing–and free to everybody but myself! I should not have
wondered at all if my brother and sisters, as well as my father and
mother had been saved. But, somehow, I could not get a hold of it,
myself. It was a precious thing, quite as much out of my reach as the
Queen's diamonds. So I thought. To many the Gospel is like a tram-car
in motion and they cannot jump upon it. I thought, surely, everybody
would be saved, but I would not! And yet, soon after I began to cry for
mercy, I found it! My expectations of difficulty were all sweetly
disappointed. I believed and found immediate rest unto my soul. When I
once understood that there was life in a look at the Crucified One, I
gave that look, by His Grace, and I found eternal life! And up to now I
have never met with anybody who gave that look and was repulsed! No,
they all say–

"I came to Jesus as I was,

Weary and worn and sad.

I found in Him a resting place,

And He has made me glad."

Nobody ever bears a contrary witness. I challenge the universe to
produce a man who was chased from Christ's door, or forbidden to find
in Him a Savior! I pray you, therefore, observe that since others have
come this way to life and peace, God has appointed it to be the common
thoroughfare of Grace. Poor guilty Sinners, there is a sign set
up–"This way for sinners! This way for the guilty! This way for the
hungry! This way for the thirsty! This way for the lost! Come unto Me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Why,
surely, you need not say, "If I may."

And why do you think–and that is one more question I would put to
you–why do you think that the Lord Jesus Christ, in His mercy, has led
you here, tonight? "Oh, I always come," says one. Then what has induced
you always to come where Christ is talked about so much and where He
saves so many? Surely the Lord means to accept you if you will believe
on Jesus! "But I do not usually come here," says one, "I only stepped
in here, tonight, I am afraid, out of curiosity." Yes, curiosity moved
you–but may it not be that compassion moved God to guide you here? I
like to hear a wife say, "My husband is not a member of the Church,
Sir, but he comes to hear the Gospel and, therefore, I have hope for
him." Yes, yes, if we get them into the battle, a shot will come their
way, one of these days! I love to see yon hungry sparrows round about
the windows–they will get courage enough to pick up a crumb of mercy
one of these days. I hope so. And why should it not be now? If the
trouble is, "If I may," I will ask you whether it does not help to
remove that trouble to reflect that you are still on praying ground and
pleading terms with God. You might, long before this, have been cast
into despair! Should not the Lord's long-suffering lead you to
repentance and induce you to come to Christ?

Now listen, Friend–there is no room to say, "If I may," for, first of
all, you are invited to come and accept Christ as your Savior–invited
over and over again in the Word of God! "The Spirit and the bride say,
Come. And let him that hears say, Come. And let him that is thirsty
come. And whoever will, let him take the Water of Life freely." "Ho,
everyone that thirsts, come to the waters, and he that has no money,
come, buy, and eat; yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and
without price." Jesus Christ invites all those that labor and are heavy
laden to come unto Him and He will give them rest! God is honest in His
invitations. You can be sure of that! If God invites you, He desires
you to come and accept the invitation. After reading the many
invitations in the Word of God to such as you are, you may not say, "If
I may." It would be a wicked questioning of the sincerity of God!

In addition to being invited, you are entreated. Many passages of
Scripture go far beyond a mere invitation. God persuades and entreats
you to come to Him! He seems to cry as one that weeps, "As I live, says
the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that
the wicked turn from his way and live: turn you, turn you; for why will
you die, O house of Israel?" Our Lord and Master, when He made the
feast, and they that were bid, did not come, sent out His

servants to compel them to come in! He used more than a bare
invitation–He put forth a Divine compulsion. I would entreat,
persuade, exhort all of you who have not believed in Jesus to do so
now! In the name of Jesus, I beseech you seek the Lord. I do not merely
put it to you, "Will you or will you not?" but I would lay my whole
heart by the side of the request and say to you, "Come to Jesus! Come
and rest your guilty souls on Him!" Do you not understand the Gospel
message? Do you know what it asks and what it gives? You shall receive
perfect pardon in a moment if you believe in Jesus. You shall receive a
life that will never die–receive it now, quick as a lightning flash,
if you do but trust in the Son of God! Whoever you may be and whatever
you may have done–if you will, with your heart, believe in Him whom
God has raised from the dead, and obey Him henceforth as your Lord and
Savior–all manner of sin and of iniquity shall be forgiven you! God
will blot out your iniquities like a cloud. He will make you begin de
novo–afresh, anew! He will make you a new creature in Christ Jesus.
Old things shall pass away and all things become new.

But here is the point–believing in Jesus–and you look me in the face
and cry, "But may I?" May you? Why, you are exhorted, invited,
entreated to do so! Nor is this all. You are even commanded to do it.
This is the commandment– that you believe on Jesus, whom He has sent.
This is the Gospel, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved;
but he that believes not shall be damned." There is a command–with a
threat for disobedience. Shall anybody ask, "May I," after that? If I
read, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart," do I ask,
"May I love God?" If I read, "Honor your father and your mother," do I
ask, "May I honor my father and my mother?" No! A command is a permit
and something more! It gives full allowance and much more. As you will
be damned if you believe not! You have, herein, given you a right to
believe–not only permission, but a warrant of the most practical kind.
Oh, can you not see it? Will you not cry unto God, "Lord, if You will
damn me if I do not believe, You have, in this, given me a full Gospel
liberty to believe. Therefore I come and put my trust in Jesus."

"If I may"–why, I think that this questioning ought to come to an end
right now! Will you not give it up? May the Holy Spirit show you, poor
Sinner, that you may now lay your burden down at Jesus' feet and be at
once saved! You may believe! You, right now, have full permission to
confess your sin and to receive immediate pardon–see if it is not so.
Cast your guilty soul on Him and rise forgiven and renewed, henceforth
to live in fervent gratitude, a miracle of love!

That is the first meaning of the text–"If I may be permitted to touch
the hem of His garment, I shall be made

whole."

II. But then there arises in other hearts this equally bitter question,
"BUT CAN I? I know that I may if I can, but I cannot." This woman,
seeing the crowd, might have said, "If I can touch the hem of His
garment, I shall be made whole, but can I get to Him? Can a feeble
person like myself force my way through the throng and touch Him?"

Now, that is the question I am going to answer. The will to believe in
Christ is as much a work of Grace as faith, itself, and when the will
is given and a strong desire, a measure of Grace is already
received–and with it the power to believe. Do you not know that the
will to commit adultery is, according to Scripture, reckoned as
adultery? "He has committed adultery with her, already, in his heart."
Now, if the very thought of uncleanness and the will towards it is the
thing, itself, then a desire or will to believe contains within itself
the major part of faith! I say not that it is all, but I do say
this–that if the power of God has made a man will to believe, the
greatest work has been done and his actually believing will follow in
due course!

That entire willingness to believe is nine-tenths of believing.
Inasmuch as to will is present with you, the power which you find not
as yet will certainly come to you. The man is dead and the hardest
thing is to make him live–but in the case before us, the quickening is
accomplished, for the man lives so far as to will–he wills to believe,
he yearns to believe, he longs to believe how much has been done for
him! Rising from the dead is a greater thing than the performance of an
act of life. Already I see some breaths of life in you who are longing
and yearning to lay hold on Christ. You shall, by His Grace, yet lay
hold on Him and live in His Presence!

I would have said to that woman, had I been there and known, then, what
I know now, "Oh, Woman, that faith of yours–that if you can but touch
the hem of His garment you will be made whole–is a greater thing than
the actual touch can be! It is not, at present, so operative, but it is
a more amazing product of Divine Grace! You already have, within you,
the greater work of Grace and the lesser will follow! A thousand
persons could press through the crowd and touch the hem of the Savior's
robe, but you are the only person in whom God has worked the faith that
a touch will make you whole! I might say of such a faith as that,
'Flesh and blood has not revealed it to you' and if you are in that
condi-

tion, there is already a very great work done in you and you need not
doubt the possibility of your touching the sacred garment."

But mark this, faith in Christ is the simplest action that anybody ever
performs. It is the action of a child! Indeed, it the action of a
new-born babe in Grace. A new-born babe never performs an action that
is very complicated. We say, "Oh, it is such a babyish thing," meaning,
thereby, that it is so small. Now, faith comes at the moment that the
child is born into God's family; it is synchronized with the new birth.
One of the first signs and tokens of being born again is faith;
therefore it must be a very, very simple thing. I venture to put it
very plainly when I say that faith in Christ differs in no respect from
faith in anybody else, except as to the person upon whom that faith is
set. You believe in your moth-er–you may, in the same manner, believe
in Jesus Christ, the Son of God! You believe in your friend–it is the
same act that you have to do toward your higher and better Friend! You
believe the news that is commonly reported and printed in the daily
journals–it is the same act which believes the Scriptures and the
promises of God!

The reason why faith in the Lord Jesus is a superior act to faith in
anyone else lies in this fact–that it is a superior Person whom you
believe in and superior news that you believe–and your natural heart
is more adverse to believing in Jesus than to believing in anything
else. The Holy Spirit must teach your faith to grasp the high things of
Christ Jesus, but that grasp is by the hand of a simple child-like
faith. But it is the same faith, mark that! It is the gift of God in so
far as this–that God gives you the understanding and the judgment to
exercise it upon His Son and to receive Him. The faith of a child in
his father is almost always a wonderful faith and it is just the faith
that we would ask for our Lord Jesus. Many children believe that there
is no other man in the world so great and good, right and kind and
rich–and everything else–as their father is. And if anybody were to
say that their father was not as wonderful a man as Mr. Gladstone, or
some other great statesman, they would become quite grieved, for if
their father is not king, it is a mistake that he is not!

Children think so of their parents and that is the kind of faith we
would have you exercise towards the Lord Jesus Christ who deserves such
confidence and much more. We should give to Jesus a faith by which we
do Him honor and magnify Him exceedingly. As the child never thinks
where the bread and butter is to come from, tomorrow morning, and it
never enters its little head to fret about where it will get new socks
when the present ones are worn out, so must you trust in Jesus Christ
for everything you need between here and Heaven–trust Him without
asking questions. He can and will provide. Just give yourself up to Him
entirely, as a child gives itself up to a parent's care and feels
itself to be at ease. Oh, what a simple act it is–this act of faith! I
am sure that it must be a very simple act and cannot require wisdom,
and so forth, because I notice that it is the wise people that cannot
do it! It is the strong people that cannot do it. It is the people who
are righteous in themselves that cannot reach it!

Faith is a kind of act which is performed by those who are childlike in
heart, whom the world calls fools and ridicule and persecutes for their
folly. "Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many
noble, are called: but God has chosen the weak things of the world and
base things, and things which are despised has God chosen." There are
persons with no education, whatever, who know their Bible is true and
have an abundant faith. They are poor in this world, but rich in faith.
Happy people! Alas for those wise people whose wisdom prevents faith in
Jesus! They have been to more than one university and have earned all
the degrees that carnal wisdom can bestow upon them–and yet they
cannot believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God!

Oh, Friend, do not think that faith is some difficult and puzzling
thing, for then these senior wranglers and doctors of divinity would
have it! It is the simplest act that the mind can perform. Just as I
lean now with all my weight on this rail and if it breaks I fall–so
lean your full weight on Jesus Christ–and that is faith! Just as a
babe lies in its mother's bosom, unconscious of the thunderstorm, or of
the rocking of the ship, quite safe and happy because it rests in the
bosom of love–all fear and care laid aside because of that true heart
which beats beneath–even so, cast yourself altogether upon Christ and
that is all that you have to do! In fact, leave off doing anything–

"Cast your deadly doings down, Down at Jesus' feet. Stand in Him, in
Him alone, Gloriously complete."

"But shall I not have to do many good works?" asks one. You shall do as
much as ever you like when you are once saved. But in this matter of
your salvation, you must fling all self-righteousness away as so much
devilry that will ruin and injure you! You must simply come to Christ
and Christ, alone, and trust in Him.

"Oh," says one, "I think I see a little light. If I am enabled–if I do
but get power enough to trust in Jesus, I shall be made whole." I will
ask you another question. Do you not know that you are bound to believe
in Christ–that it is due to Christ that He is believed in? I would not
make extensive claims upon your faith for myself. Often have I said to
friends who have told me that they could not believe in Christ, "Could
you believe in me? If I were to tell you that I would do such-and-such
a thing, would you believe it?" "Oh yes, Sir." "If anyone were to say
that he did not believe what I said, how would you feel?" "I should
feel very indignant, for I feel that I can trust you. Indeed, I cannot
help trusting you." When I receive such confidence from one of my
fellow creatures, I feel that it is cruelly wrong for the same person
to say,

"I cannot trust Christ!"

Oh, Beloved, not believe Jesus? When did He lie? "Oh, but I cannot
trust Him." Not trust Him? What madness is this? And did He die in very
truth? Did He seal His life's witness with His heart's blood–and can
you not believe Him? My own conviction is that a great many of you can
and that already, to a large extent, you do, only you are looking for
signs and wonders which will never come. Why not exert that power a
little farther? The Spirit of God has given to you a measure of
faith–oh, believe more fully, more unreservedly! Why I know that you
shivered just now at the very thought of doubting Christ! You felt how
unjust and wrong it was–there is latent in you, already, a faith in
Him. "He that believes not God has made Him a liar." Would you make
Christ a liar? Dear Hearts, I know that you would not! Although you say
that you dare not trust Him, yet you know that He is no liar and you
know that He is able to save you. What a strange state your mind has
reached! How bewildered and befogged you are, for already, I think, as
a looker-on, I can see that there is within your soul a real faith in
Jesus Christ–and yet what doubts distract you.

Why not bring faith to the front and say, "I do believe, I will
believe, that the Christ who is the Son of the Highest, and who died
for the guilt of men, is able to save those that trust Him and,
therefore, I trust Him to save me. Sink or swim I trust Him. Lost or
saved I will trust Him. Just as I am, with no other plea but that I am
sure that He is able and willing to save, I cast my guilty soul on
Him"? You have the power to trust Jesus when you have already yielded
to the conviction that He is worthy to be trusted. You have but to push
to its practical conclusion what God the Holy Spirit has already worked
in many of you and you will at once find peace!

Still, if you think that there is something that prevents your having
faith in Christ, though you know that if you had it, you would be
saved, I do earnestly entreat you not to remain content for a single
hour without a full, complete and saving faith in Christ–for if you
die unbelievers, you are lost–lost forever! Your only safety lies in
believing in the Lord Jesus Christ with all your heart and obeying His
commandments. Therefore use what common sense would suggest to you as
the means for obtaining faith. If I were told in the vestry, after
service, something by a true friend whose word I could not doubt, and
yet if what he said seemed incredible, I would express to him a wish to
believe it. I would not wish to imply, for a moment, that he was not
truthful and, somehow, I found it difficult to believe the remarkable
statement that he made.

What should I do in this case? If it were pressing that I should
believe his statement, I would ask him, "How did you come by the
information? Where did you hear or read it? What are the precise
facts?" Perhaps the moment that he mentioned where he got it, I would
conclude, at once, that the wonderful statement was unquestionably
correct. Or if he said, "Well, I give it to you on my own authority,
but if you need any further information, you can get it by reading
such-and-such a document–here is the document." Why, I would read it
at once! I would read it with a good deal of happy prejudice in favor
of my faithful friend! Anyway, I would read it to see whether I could
fully believe what he said because I would be sure that he would not
intentionally deceive me.

Now, if there is anything in the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, or
anything about Him that you question, let me invite you to read over
the four Gospels, again–especially the story of His crucifixion. That
Cross of His is a very wonderful thing, for not only does it save those
who have faith in it, but it breeds faith in those who look at it–

"When I see Him wounded, bleeding,

Dying on the accursed tree,

Then I feel my heart believing

That He suffered thus for me."

There is life in a look at Christ, because in the very considering of
Christ there is the breeding of a living faith! We listen to the Word
of God and faith comes by hearing. We read the Word of God and picture
the whole thing before our eyes, and we say, "Yes, I do believe it. I
never saw it quite in this fashion, before, but I now believe it and I
will risk my soul on

it."

Now, dear Hearts, if any of you who have never trusted Christ will
trust Him, tonight, if you perish I will perish with you! For, though I
have known my Lord these 35 years, I have no other hope of salvation
than I had when I first came to Him. I had no merits of my own, then,
and I have none, now. I have preached many sermons, offered many
prayers, given much alms, brought many souls to Christ–but I place all
that I have ever done under my feet and desire, as far as it is good,
to give to God the glory of it. But as far as it comes of myself, I
would sink it in the sea! I am saved in Christ, by faith in
Him–confidence in myself is detestable to me. I dare believe in Jesus
Christ as my All in All, but I am less than nothing before Him.

Come, we start even, you see. If we start tonight, you and I will start
on a level, with the same confidence in the same Savior, the same blood
to cleanse us and the same power to save us–and we will meet in
Heaven! As surely as we meet at the Cross, we will meet where the
Savior wears the crown! Oh, that you would trust Him, now, and believe
Him. "I have no good works," says one. Then for certain you cannot
trust in them. You will be forced to trust in Jesus, only. "Oh, but I
have no good feelings." I am glad to hear you say so. Then you are not
tempted to trust in feelings, but will be drawn to trust wholly on your
Lord. "Oh, but I feel so unfit." Very well, then you cannot trust in
your fitness, but must trust in Him, alone. It is a blessing when
spiritual poverty forces a man into the way of life!

III. Here I close with these words. This woman said in her heart, "IF I
DO TOUCH the hem of His garment, I shall"–what? "I shall be made
whole." It is not, "If I may but touch, I may be made whole." No, she
had got over the "may bes" in the first struggle. It is, "If I may, I
shall." If you trust Christ, you shall be made whole. If you, tonight,
actually repose yourself in Christ–as the Lord lives, you must live
and be saved! Unless this Bible is all a lie. Unless Jesus was a rank
impostor. Unless the eternal God can change, you that come and trust
yourself with Jesus must and shall be saved in the last great day of
account–

"Bold shall I stand in that great day" for I shall tell the Lord of His
own promise and how He bade me trust Him–and if I am not saved, then
His word is bro-ken–but that can never be! He is true. Oh, it is this
that some of you need to have done with–thinking, talking, considering
and hoping. You need to come, now, and TRUST–resting yourself fully
and wholly on what Christ has done!

He loved, lived and died that sinners might not die! He worked a
complete work, of which He said as He expired, "It is finished." There
is nothing for you to add to it! Nothing for you to bring with you to
make that work complete, but you, yourself, stripped naked of every
hope–black, foul, guilty, abominable–the worst of the worst have only
to come and look up to those five wounds and to that bleeding,
thorn-crowned head, and say, "Into Your hands I commit my spirit," and
you shall be saved!

It is done! "Your sins which are many are forgiven you. Go and sin no
more." You are His child! Go and live to the glory of your Father and
may the peace of God that passes all understanding be with you forever
and ever. Amen.