DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, OCTOBER 5, 1879,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"How long will it be before they believe Me?" Numbers 14:11.
THE children of Israel were very prone to unbelief. They wanted
something visible to worship and to trust. They could not learn the
lesson of faith in the one great Invisible and, therefore, they were
one day bowing before an idol and the next they were murmuring against
the true God. Their life was according to the flesh, after the sight of
the eyes and the hearing of the ears and so they praised God when
Pharaoh was drowned and when manna lay round about their camp, but the
moment they were in need or difficulty and saw no supply or relief,
they could not trust in God, but began to mistrust and murmur. With
what wonderful longsuffering the Lord bore with them! His mercy seemed
to outrun their unbelief!
They cried for water and they doubted God's power to give it to them in
the desert sands, but lo, the smitten Rock poured forth a crystal
stream! Then they cried for bread and charged the Lord with bringing
them into the wilderness to kill them with hunger–and yet, in answer
to their murmuring–the heavens were opened and there fell a shower of
angels' food for them to feast upon! They then clamored for meat and
they had not long began their unbelieving murmuring before a strong
wind brought them up quail till they fed, even to the full! Such
liberal answers to their vexatious murmuring ought to have silenced
their fears and they should have exhibited confidence in their great
Friend! Yet they did not do so, but for 40 years they provoked the
Lord.
The incident before us relates to that great and terrible provocation
in which the longsuffering of God came to a pause. They sent spies into
Canaan and when they were informed by 10 false-hearted men that the
giants were in the land and that the inhabitants of it dwelt in walled
cities which they could not hope to capture, they then began to accuse
the Lord according to their former manner, denying His power to fulfill
His ancient Covenant and give them the land that flowed with milk and
honey! This time the Lord lifted His hand and swore that they should
not enter into His rest.
Let us be warned by this fact that there is a limit to the
longsuffering of God and especially when it is tried by distrust. He
may bear with unbelief for a time and, blessed be His name, for a long
time, for He remembers that we are dust. But when it comes to willful
perseverance in unbelief, the Lord will not forever be thus provoked.
It behooves us to listen to the words of Paul–"Let us, therefore,
fear, lest a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of
you should seem to come short of it." This morning my one subject is
this sin of unbelief which I desire to deal with in the fear of God and
in the power of His Holy Spirit.
I. Our first head shall be the sin of Israel is here DEFINED–"HOW long
will it be before they believe Me?" Observe that God's account of all
the murmuring, discouragement and fear which these people felt was
simply that they did not believe Him. They doubtless said that they
were naturally afraid of their enemies–the Anakim, the sons of the
giants– these would overtop and overcome them. They seemed like
grasshoppers in the sight of such gigantic beings and, therefore, they
might well tremble. Had the Anakim been ordinary men, however numerous
their bands, Israel declared that they should not have been afraid. But
these huge monsters created a natural and unavoidable fear.
"No," says God, "that is an idle excuse! No fear of giants would enter
their minds if they believed Me. How long will it be before they
believe Me?" If these sons of Anak had been 10 times as tall as they
were, yet the almighty Lord could vanquish them! And if their cities
had been literally, as well as figuratively, walled up to the skies,
yet Jehovah could smite them out of Heaven and cast their ramparts into
the dust! Gigantic men and fortified cities are nothing to Him who
divided the Red Sea! When the Omnipotent is present, opposition
vanishes. This was so clear that if the Israelites were afraid, the
real reason was that they did not believe their God.
So, my Brothers and Sisters, let us strip our discouragements and
murmuring of all their disguises and see them in their true character
and they will appear in their own naked deformity as discrediting God.
It is true the difficulty before us may appear great, but it cannot be
great to the Lord who has promised to make us more than conquerors. It
is true the circumstances may appear unusually perplexing, but they
cannot perplex Him who has promised to guide us with His counsel! And
since we are well aware of this, it is clear that the true reason why
we are so dismayed is not to be found in the difficulties and the
circumstances, but in our misgivings of God.
"Ah, but," these people might have replied, "we fear because of our
weakness. We are not a trained host like the armies of Egypt. We know
not how to fight against chariots of iron! We are only feeble men with
all these women and children to encumber our march. We cannot hope to
drive out the hordes of Amalekites and Canaanites. A sense of weakness
is the cause of our terror and complaint." But the Lord puts the matter
very differently. What had their weakness to do with His promise? How
could their weakness affect His power to give them the land? He could
conquer Amalek if they could not! Caleb had told them, "If the Lord
delight in us, then He will bring us into this land." They knew that
their feebleness had not prevented the Lord's bringing them out of
Egypt, despite the pride and power of Pharaoh–and they must have known
that He could, with equal ease, overthrow the Canaanites and their
armies. Their weakness could only be a foil to the Glory of the Divine
power, so that it would be made the more conspicuous!
We, also, when we plead our weakness, ought to be ashamed, for we know
that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. If we
probe to the bottom of those doubts and fears which apparently arise
out of a sense of our own weakness, we shall find that they spring from
mistrust of God! Our trembling is not humility, but unbelief! We may
mask it however we please, but that is the state of the case as God
sees it and He sees it in truth. The question is not, "How long will
they be weak?" but, "How long will it be before they believe Me?" "No,
no," the people may have said, "we are not murmuring against God! It is
against Moses and Aaron. They made a mistake when they brought us into
the wilderness and they have undertaken an enterprise which they cannot
carry through–we blame these two men for their foolhardiness."
But the Lord would not have it so. Moses and Aaron were only His
instruments and mere second causes. The Lord will not allow that the
quarrel is with them, but He asks, "How long will it be before they
believe Me?" Thus, Brethren, we sometimes fix upon our fellow man–his
infirmity, his shortsightedness, his lack of wisdom–and we say that we
do not doubt God but we can never feel secure while our leaders or our
friends are such poor, unwise creatures. If you put this pretext to the
test, you will see that it avails nothing, for God can use what
instruments He pleases, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas. And He can
accomplish His purposes despite their frailty.
His Word is not to fall to the ground because of the medium through
which He carries it into effect. Strip our distrust of the agents whom
God employs of all the masks with which it seeks to disguise itself and
it comes to this–we do not believe God! Our dreading and complaining
are often a kind of practical atheism. I mean this, that if God has
pronounced a promise and we doubt its fulfillment for any cause
whatever, we think and feel as if there were no God! We profess to
believe that the promises of Scripture are the promises of God,
Himself, and it follows that if we doubt their fulfillment, we do as
good as deny the Godhead of the Promiser, since he who cannot or will
not keep his promises cannot be God.
The Word of the true God has been proven to be Omnipotent by its
creating force and, therefore, promises which are not of the same power
cannot be the Word of the one almighty God! Dare we make it out that
God speaks frivolously and that His solemn promises are like the false
words of man which mock the ears and disappoint hope? Are God's
promises like yon sere leaves which the passing wind bears into
forgetfulness? Then I say that such a god is no god at all and such a
conception sets up a false god and robs the true God of His essential
Character. Is it not so? Sometimes we put our doubts in one shape and
sometimes in another–and we are apt to claim that we do not really
doubt God for we know that He both can and will keep His promises as a
rule–but for certain reasons we doubt whether He will keep His Word to
us.
We talk of our unworthiness and so on, but, being interpreted, our
inmost thought is that we can believe anything of God but that which is
the most necessary for us to believe! We believe all other Words but
that very one which we are most called upon to credit! Strange faith,
which will exert itself everywhere but where it is needed! We claim
that if things were otherwise than they are, we could believe God–and
what is this but to say that under existing circumstances
we do not conceive Him to be worthy of our confidence? He who doubts
that particular promise which God speaks to him may as well doubt all
the rest, since they all hang together and they are either all of them
lies or all of them eternal Truths of God! Yes, this is the essence of
it–our timorous suspicions of any one promise are a reflection upon
the Lord Himself!
So, Brothers and Sisters, I come back to that first point and solemnly
declare that though our doubts and fears are called, oftentimes, by
more respectable names because we do not like to see their sin in all
its nakedness, yet they come to this–that we do not believe the
ever-blessed God! If we look at our discouragement and mistrust in this
light, we shall no longer pity, but blame ourselves–and instead of
excusing, we shall accuse our heart of a great crime. Mistrust towards
God is not a mere weakness–it is a wickedness of the most grave order.
II. We will now proceed, in the second place, to further DESCRIBE this
sin of not believing. I would remark, first, that at the first blush it
would seem incredible that there should be such a thing in the universe
as unbelief of God. That God should manifest Himself to man so as to
make a promise to Him is indescribable condescension! One would think
that the high and lofty One would abide in His eternal silence, or
communicate Himself to the most exalted creatures rather than speak to
such a being as man. What is man that God should be mindful of him and
speak to him? Yet we believe that the Lord has often spoken to us by
His Prophets and in these last days by His Son.
Now, if an angel altogether unacquainted with human history could be
informed that God had spoken to men, I imagine that his astonishment
would be overwhelming if we also informed him that men have disbelieved
Him. "What?" he would ask. "What? Dare to disbelieve the Lord? Doubt
the Lord, whose infinite love stooped to speak with His creature? God,
who is essential Truth and cannot possibly lie nor deceive–are there
creatures vile enough to perpetrate such an insult upon their Maker,
their Benefactor? Can they suspect the infinitely Pure of deceit? Dare
they question the Truth of the Perfect One whom cherubim adore?"
I say that an angel would be staggered at such blasphemy! Why, look,
Sirs–the Lord spoke to nothingness and out came this globe, swathed in
the swaddling bands of darkness! He spoke again and forth leaped the
light and all things were quickened into life and clothed with beauty!
The power of His Word was all creating–and is it to be imagined or
conceived that this Word can be a lie? Jehovah's Word is but Himself in
action! His will making itself manifest! And is it to be supposed that
this can be a lie under any conceivable circumstances whatever? My
Brothers and Sisters, it is sorrowful to have to confess that what
looks like inconceivable blasphemy has, nevertheless, been perpetrated
abundantly by the sons of men! Shame on our race that it should ever
have insulted the Most High God! Oh, the incredible infamy which lies,
even, in the bare thought of calling in question the veracity of God!
It is so vile, so unjust, so profane a thing that it ought to be
regarded with horror as a monstrous wrong!
Consider, next, that, though unbelief certainly exists, it is a most
unreasonable thing. If God has made a promise, on what grounds do we
doubt its fulfillment? Which of all the attributes of God is that which
comes under suspicion? Probably the first distrusted attribute will be
His power. Have not men said, "Can God furnish a table in the
wilderness? Or can He deliver us out of the deep waters?" Let us think
of this. Has the Lord promised to supply and deliver? Then, my dear
Friend, do you really, in your sober senses, question the power of God
to do as He has said? Has He not made the heavens and the earth? Do not
all things subsist by His continuous power? Is anything too hard for
the Lord? Is His arm shortened that He cannot save? Is His hand
paralyzed that He cannot achieve His purpose? The more we consider the
supposition that God is unable to keep His promises, the more we
discard it with indignation! It is not to be entertained for a moment!
What, then, is it God's goodness that we suspect? After He has filled
the world with bounty and multiplied His loving kindnesses to His
creatures–above all, after He has given from His bosom His
only-begotten Son to die as the fulfillment as well as the seal of the
great promises of His Covenant–dare we question His goodness? Do we
call God evil? Do we impute unkindness to Him? Let horror seize us at
the suggestion of such thought! Let our bones quake that we should ever
tolerate the hideous libel upon Him whose very name is good! For what
is "God" but "good" written in brief? It must come back to this with
which we started, that we suspect the Truth of God and yet the more we
shall consider the supposition, the more we shall be alarmed by its
blasphemous character.
Do you believe, O Man, the creature of God, that your Maker can belie
Himself? Do you imagine that He can forswear Himself? With reverence do
I speak the word and awe is upon me as I utter it–do you profanely
dream that He
can perjure Himself? Every promise of His is virtually sealed with that
oath by which the Covenant is confirmed. He has lifted His hand to
Heaven and sworn by Himself because He could swear by no greater, that
by two immutable things wherein it was impossible for God to lie we
might have strong consolation! Reason itself teaches that the Judge of
all must, Himself, be just! And this He could not be if He were not
true. Truth enters into the very conception of God–a false god is no
god. Any other doubt in the world may plead some ground and guarantee,
but a doubt of God's Truthfulness is utterly unreasonable–and if sin
had not filled man with madness–unbelief would never find harbor in a
single bosom!
Again, because this sin is so unreasonable, it is also most
inexcusable. Let me try, if I can, to frame an excuse for doubting the
truthfulness of the Lord our God. Look back upon your own experience
and take with it the experience of all men that have ever lived and
find, if you can, a single instance in which God has been untrue to the
Word He has spoken. We challenge eternity to divulge such an instance!
We appeal to all mankind, from Adam to the latest born– and to angels,
yes–and to devils themselves, to produce one single case in which
Jehovah has turned from a promise or from a threat so as to forfeit His
Word. His faithfulness is indisputable! The ages witness it! Now, if
there had been one instance, we might be justified in our misgivings.
If we could find one authenticated case, fully established, in which
God had acted contrary to His promise, or failed to keep His Word, then
we might lawfully distrust. But as we can never find such a case, what
excuse can we make?
Moreover, when a man is suspected of untruthfulness, we usually impute
to him some motive for it–he has something to gain by the lie and,
therefore, we suppose he will prove false. But what motive can be
imputed to the Lord Most High which could lead Him to forfeit His Word?
He knows all things from the beginning and, therefore, even if it were
supposable that to keep a promise would be inconvenient to Him, He
would never have made it, for He would have foreseen that
inconvenience. God is not bound to promise and, therefore, if the good
deed were not to His mind, He would not promise to perform it! Nor has
God changed, since immutability is essential to His being. If,
therefore, He has uttered a Word, you may rest quite sure that it will
stand fast–an unchangeable Being cannot be fickle and run back from
His promise.
Why, my Friends, it is to God's Glory to keep His Word! As it is to the
glory of every man to be upright, so is it to the Glory and honor of
God to be faithful to His solemn declarations. Even on the lowest
conceivable ground, the Lord's own interests are bound up with His
Truth. All the Glory of His name and the honor of His Divine Person
bend towards the keeping of His Word. There is no supposable reason why
the Lord should not be true! How dare we, then, without the slightest
cause, cast suspicion upon the truthfulness of the Most High? My dear
Brothers and Sisters, I venture to say that unbelief of God's word
ought, therefore, to be impossible.
It ought to be impossible to every reverent-hearted man. Does he know
God and tremble in His Presence and shall he think of distrusting and
doubting Him? No one that has ever seen Him in contemplation and bowed
before Him in sincere adoration would not be amazed at the impertinence
that would dare to think that God could lie! O reverent heart, it ought
to be to you beyond the bounds of possibility that you should doubt the
Truth of the promises of God! And this ought to still be more
impossible, if such an expression may be used, to God's own children!
You could not make a true-hearted child suspect his father of
falsehood. If he heard such an accusation brought against a loving and
kind father he would be indignant! He would not want to hear rebutting
evidence, he would say, "It is impossible! I know my father, I know his
character. I have seen him; I understand him; I cannot endure to hear
him slandered and I do not need to hear him defended, for of this I am
sure–he cannot lie."
In the child's case there might be a partiality and the father might
have been guilty. But in the case of the children of God no such
possibility exists, for our Father is the God of Truth. Oh, my
Brethren, shall it ever be said that the children of God doubt their
Father? I have heard some professing Christians say that they find it
hard to believe His promises and yet they do not appear to think that
they have said a dreadful thing–yet a very dreadful thing it is! What
must be their opinion of God if they find it hard to believe Him? Think
of it again–a child of God finding it hard to believe his own
Father–his heavenly Father! Ah, wretched sin! Wretched insult to God!
If we were not so false-hearted, ourselves, we should never dream of
the Lord's being so and, if we were not conscious of being chargeable
with lies, the thought that God might fail to fulfill His Word would
never be tolerated. It is horrible!
If it has crossed your mind, scuttle it and, with many tears, confess
it before God, for to a child of God it ought to be impossible to doubt
His Father's truthfulness! To some children of God that impossibility
ought to be still more striking because certain of us have received
special and Infallible proofs of the Lord's faithfulness to His
promises. He has answered the prayers of some of us in a way that has
drowned our eyes with tears of joy! He has made us laugh like Sarah
when the child of promise was given to her. We have felt amazed at the
mighty goodness of our God and for us to doubt, now, would be
impossible! We ought to settle it in our minds that, come what may,
though the earth were removed and the mountains cast into the midst of
the sea–though everything should alter and the laws of Nature should
be changed and day and night forget their time–yet would we never
suppose, nor allow others to suppose that God could be false to His
promises and break His Word!
I am resolved and, my Brethren, you will join with me in it and may God
give us Grace to carry it out–to doubt the evidence of my eyes, but
not to doubt God–for our eyes have often deceived us, but Jehovah,
never! Light may play tricks with these poor optics, but the Lord has
never spoken to mock us, nor said what He cannot perform. Resolve, my
Brothers and Sisters, to doubt your ears and deny your hearing sooner
than doubt your God, for sounds are often imaginary and ears are
speedily duped! Resolve to doubt your most deliberate judgment rather
than one Word of the Lord. How often have you been mistaken? Even when,
according to mathematical calculations, it seems as certain as that
twice two make four, that God cannot execute His Word–deny the
mathematics but never doubt God. There is nothing certain under Heaven
but God! Uncertainty is upon all things but upon His Word!
If you consult with friends and in their judgment they all unanimously
conclude that the case is hopeless and that the promise cannot be
fulfilled, reject them all and refuse to consult with flesh and blood!
Let God be true and every man a liar! Yes, and everything a liar! Doubt
your own feelings as much as you please–it is seldom that they are to
be relied upon. Mistrust, as I have already said, your own senses–they
are but very fallible reporters of fact–but never distrust your God!
If devils, or even angels could stand in squadrons and swear
unanimously that God had failed–call them liars, too, for God cannot,
cannot, cannot lie!
The things which are seen are, after all, but mere shadows and
dependent for their appearing and continuing upon the Lord, alone. Why,
then, confide in them at the expense of your confidence in God? God,
only, is true, and when you have no hope but in Him, alone, you have
all the hope worth having! They say of us who trust in God, alone, that
we have nothing to look to. Our answer is that faith in the unseen God
is the highest reason and is grounded on the surest fact! His unseen
arm is stronger than all that angel or human eyes can ever see and
there is more potency in God, who is neither to be heard nor seen, than
in all the crash of whirlwinds or the glare of tempests. There is no
power but in Him and, therefore, no certainty of Infallible Truth but
in the Word which He has spoken.
Look, Sirs, every promise in God's Word comes to you, first, from the
Father's lips–will you doubt Him? It next comes by the Holy Spirit,
who reveals it–will you doubt Him? Beware lest you sin against the
Holy Spirit! It comes, next, sealed with the blood of Jesus! Will you
doubt Him? Will you suspect your Savior? A single doubt of a promise of
God casts a stigma upon Father, Son and Holy Spirit and is a triple
transgression against the triune God! O the venom that lies in a single
suspicion of the Most High! It is strange how you and I can enter into
confidence and conviction about many things and yet we cannot exercise
the same confidence towards our God!
You all believe in the laws of matter. You expect that the law of
gravitation will bring a weight downward if you throw it from the
window–why are you so sure? Because you have seen the rule in action
so often that you now expect to see it carried out–and yet the law of
gravitation might be suspended! Indeed, it has been suspended, for at
the Red Sea the floods stood upright as a heap and the depths were
congealed in the heart of the sea! You all expect the sun to rise in
the morning and to set at his appointed time because he has kept his
daily marches for many years. And yet there was a time when there was
no sun to rise or set and there will be a time when the sun shall be
turned into darkness and day and night shall cease. Can you trust the
temporary and yet doubt the eternal? You all expect the seasons of the
year to come and go, but they might be reversed by God right easily.
Now, if we can believe in the laws of Nature which are evidently
changeable and which will one day certainly come to an end, how is it
that we cannot believe in God whose regularity in the keeping of His
promises has been as great as the regularity of day and night, of
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat and whose permanent Immutability
will run on throughout eternity? O that we were wise! O that we were
commonly honest with God and spoke of Him as we have
found Him! Then we should doubt Him no more, but abide in fixed and
steadfast confidence! O Holy Spirit, work us to this end!
III. This brings me, in the third place, to dwell upon this sin very
much in the same way, only with this heading, the sin bitterly
DEPLORED. We have all been guilty of it. Some, here, are living
constantly in the commission of it. But what I need to call to your
remembrance is this, that in any one case of doubting the truthfulness
of God there is the full venom of the entire sin of unbelief. That is
to say, if you distrust the Lord in one, you doubt Him altogether. You
say that you can believe the Lord about other things, but there is one
particular point which staggers you. But is it not clear that the man
who is convicted of one falsehood is no longer trustworthy?
The Scripture calls Him, "God who cannot lie." Do you think He can lie
once? Then He can lie and the Scripture is broken! "Ah, but I mean He
may not keep His promise to me. I am such an unworthy person." Yes, but
when a man forfeits his word, it is no defense for him to say, "I told
an untruth, but it was only to an unworthy person." No, the truth must
be spoken irrespective of persons! I have no right to deceive even a
criminal! Do you dare say that to one person the Lord can be untrue? If
it can be so, He is not a true God any more! It only needs one
falsehood, one breach of promise, one lie to be proven and you have
smitten the character of the accused to the very heart–you would not
dream of doing such a thing to the great God!
You may as well doubt Him about everything if you distrust Him upon any
one matter. Get but the promise from God and there is an Infallible
necessity that He will keep it, be it a little promise or a great one,
for the character of a truthful Being is all square and He is false in
nothing! Do you reply that you doubted Him upon a very trivial matter
and it was only a little mistrust? Alas, there is a world of iniquity
in the faint discredit of the thrice holy Lord! Reflect, then, with
sorrow that we have been guilty of this sin, not once, but a great many
times. Timorousness and suspicion spring up in some bosoms like weeds
in the furrows. They sing the Lord's praises for a great deliverance
just experienced, but the next cloud which darkens the sky fills them
with fear and they again mistrust Divine Love. Their heavenly Father
delivers them, helps them, comforts them and they say they will never
doubt again. But in a short time another trial looms in the distance
and they are despondent and dismayed.
Now, I will read to you, and I will read to myself these words of God
which make up our text–"How long will this people provoke Me? And how
long will it be before they believe Me for all the signs which I have
showed among them?" Another thought upon this point and it is this–are
there not some professing people of God who do not seem to live a life
of faith at all? I mean some who have no faith about their temporal
circumstances at all and almost look upon living by faith as if it were
a kind of fanaticism which they admit to be very pious and good, but
they can never come up to it. Yet faith should be an everyday thing
with us.
In the life of Abraham how few acts are mentioned of outward religion,
of long retirements, fasts, public services, sacraments and so
forth–but how clear it is that his daily secular and domestic life was
a living unto God as a pilgrim and a sojourner with Him. There is no
visible line between secular and sacred in the Patriarch's life–it was
all sacred! It is an evil distinction which says so far is spiritual
and so far is secular. My Brothers and Sisters, your whole lives must
be spiritual lives! There must be faith in God about your home, your
families and your neighbors. Some look upon faith as a kind of Sunday
Grace to be laid up in the Ark of the Covenant with Aaron's rod but,
indeed, it is an everyday faculty, a Grace for the table, a Grace for
the cupboard, a Grace for the pocket, a Grace for the market, a Grace
for the nursery and a Grace for the sick bed!
The life of God's people is not to be lived within the four narrow
walls of a Meeting House–it is lived wherever they are, for in every
place the just shall live by faith! The religion of a Christian is to
be the whole of his life and faith is to run through it like a thread
through a coral necklace. We are to believe God as much when He says,
"Your bread shall be given you and your water shall be sure," as when
He says, "He that believes and is baptized shall be saved." Oh, for
more household faith, more Saturday faith, more real faith! Let us
blush and never cease to blush that we have had so little of
it!
IV. Lastly, as we have now deplored this sin, we shall conclude by
spending a moment or two in heartily DENOUNCING IT. This sin of
unbelief, if there were no other reason for denouncing it, let it be
reprobated because it insults God. I feel an infinite enmity to
unbelief because it so terribly misrepresents and calumniates my God.
If any man were to say to me, "Your father breaks his word," I would
not suffer the accuser to go unanswered and assuredly I cannot
be silent when my heavenly Father is thus slandered! Our race fell by
believing the old dragon's base charge against God when he said to the
woman in his vile serpentine language, "You shall not surely die!" He
thus called God a liar!
Away with you, you subtle serpent! Away with you! Go and eat the dust
that is your predestinated meat, for God cannot speak that which is not
true–He is Truth itself! How greatly does unbelief dishonor the Lord!
What shame it casts upon the splendor of His name! Alas, that there
should be going up and down this world creatures denying the existence
of their Creator and other beings who admit that there is a God and
believe that He has spoken and given promise of good things to come,
but treat His Word as if it were worthless and unfit to be trusted! Oh,
hateful, abominable, loathsome mistrust which dares to treat the Lord
as unworthy to be believed!
This is sufficient reason for denouncing it and yet, since weaker
reasons may, perhaps, help the stronger, let me mention that we are
bound to hate unbelief because it is the ruin of the great mass of our
race. Why are men lost? All their sins which they have done cannot
destroy them if they believe in Jesus, but the damning point is that
they will not believe in Him. Thus says the Scriptures–"He that
believes not is condemned already." Why? "Because he has not believed
on the Son of God." God Himself hangs on a tree in human form and
bleeds to death bearing the sin of man and yet men turn their backs on
this infinite display of love and refuse to believe it? Therefore do
they deserve to sink to death and
Hell!
I look upon the myriads now in outer darkness and I ask, "Who slew all
these?" The answer is, "They could not enter into Heaven because of
unbelief–they perished because they would not believe in the testimony
of God concerning reconciliation by the blood of His Son." May we not
well hate this murderous unbelief?
We may hate it, again, because it brings so much misery and weakness
upon the children of God. My Brothers and Sisters, if we believed God's
promises, we should no longer be bowed down with sorrow, for our sorrow
would be turned into joy. We would glory in our infirmities! Yes, we
would glory in tribulation, also, seeing the good result which the Lord
brings forth from them. The man who steadily believes His God is calm,
quiet and strong. If men fail him, his God supports him. Suppose his
business fails him–his chief business is to serve his God and that has
not failed! If he is, himself, sick and racked with pain, he resigns
himself to the great Father's chastening hand and patience is given.
If health is utterly failing–he leaves himself with God that he may
take down his tabernacle, curtain by curtain, confident that he will
build it again in nobler form. When death approaches, he so fully
believes in God that he feels it will be gain to him to pass out of
this state of trial into everlasting blessedness at the Lord's right
hand–and so he is always happy! How strong such a man becomes! The
weakness which comes of fear and trembling does not touch him! His
heart is fixed and, therefore, he has all his strength under control
and can bring it to bear upon the place where it is needed.
I do not know whether you have thought of the prowess of Samson. His is
a very poor character in many aspects, but yet what a true hero he is
when you view him in the light of his faith! It was not that he was
physically strong by nature, but that he believed God and strength came
upon him. As a Believer in God he trusted that the Lord could make his
sinews and muscles strong enough for any task which was allotted him.
And so, when the gates of Gaza shut him in, he rose up from his sleep
and bowed himself before the huge doors–and with a mighty tug lifted
them up! And as the bars were fastened to the posts, he pulled up posts
and all and carried the whole away to the top of the hill–not as a
feat of Herculean strength–but as an act offaith in God!
But now the Philistines are upon him! He is upon a rock and cannot
escape. He believes in God and he quails not before the host. There are
a thousand of the enemy and he is but one–he looks for a weapon and
there is nothing handy for him to fight with but a dried bone which
once had made the jaw of an ass. What does it matter? He trusts in God
and not in the weapon! Look how the Philistines flee before him, or
would do so if they could, for with feet and knee and hands Samson is
upon them! And his terrible arm sweeps them down in rows–this great
child-man was a terrible Believer, but when the Divine fury of his
faith was upon him, he was altogether irresistible! He never thought of
odds against him, nor staggered at the promise through unbelief!
It was a grand deed for one man to fling himself upon a thousand! I
like him better in such silent daring than even when he cries, "Heaps
upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass have I slain a thousand men."
Only believe God and you can do anything! If the Lord should bid you
shake the world, you could do it by faith! Plucking up sycamore trees
by the roots and hurling mountains into the sea are mere sport for
faith, which before now has subdued kingdoms, worked
righteousness, stopped the mouths of lions and quenched the violence of
fire! She has grander things to do than the mere slaying of
Philistines, for she wrestles with principalities, powers and spiritual
wickedness in high places and comes off more than conqueror through Him
that loved her!
And yet, my Friend, are you hiding in the rear? Are you lying in the
background? Are you being nursed and cared for as a babe? Shall it
always be so? Will you forever be a mere child? If you do not believe,
you will never grow strong, but he that believes comes to the full
development of that celestial manhood which is akin to the manhood of
the Christ of God in whom we live! One very shocking point about this
unbelief is that it has hampered the work of Christ in the world. The
Christ that can save is a Christ believed in, but of a Christ who is
not believed in it is written–"He did not many mighty works there
because of their unbelief." The reason why, at this time, whole nations
lie under popery or heathendom is that the Church has not faith enough
for their conquest! There is no straitening in God–our limit lies in
our own timorous hearts!
The first thing to be done is for Zion to believe in God and then the
rod of His strength shall go forth out of her midst and she shall
become "Fair as the moon, clear as the sun and terrible as an army with
banners." If the Son of Man should now come on the earth, where would
He find faith? Where would He discover a high degree of it? You know
what most Churches do–there is the regular performance of worship
service; the regular preaching of an orthodox sermon as dry as it is
orthodox; the regular meeting of a few people for a Praying Meeting in
which there is no real prayer; and the regular revolution of a
spiritual barrel organ, from which all spirituality has long ago been
ground out! Nothing comes of this lifeless routine and it was never
likely that there could be anything, for out of death, only death can
come.
When we began to preach in faith, believing that men must be saved by
the Gospel, they will be saved by it! When we go forth to battle,
confident that the weapon of the Gospel in the hand of God cannot fail,
it will not fail! It is lack of faith on our part which causes the
eternal God to put His right hand into His bosom and keep it there!
When once the Holy Spirit has worked a mighty faith in us–and we shall
never have it till He does–then will the Lord lay bare His arm and we
shall see marvelous things! His own right hand and His holy arm will
get Him the victory! The world has never seen, since Apostolic times,
what yet shall happen in our own day if we will but believe!
If we will but confide in God, our young men shall see visions and our
old men shall dream dreams and then shall be poured out upon the Lord's
servants and handmaidens of His own Spirit and they shall prophesy!
Then will the world wake up and cry, "The old fanaticism has come back!
These men are drunk with new wine!" It will only be that they speak as
the Spirit gives them utterance, for He works mightily where faith is
mighty! But He is restrained because of this wretched, wicked,
insulting, blasphemous unbelief of ours that persists in suspecting the
Lord! Forward, Brothers and Sisters!
God the Holy Spirit helping you, resolve in your hearts this day that
you will doubt all the boasted discoveries of science! You will doubt
all the affirmations of the wise! You will doubt all the speculations
of great thinkers! You will doubt all your own feelings and all the
conclusions drawn from outward circumstances! Yes, and everything that
seems to be demonstrable to a certainty, you will doubt! But NEVER,
NEVER, NEVER, while eternity shall last, will you suffer the thought to
pass your mind that God can ever, in the least degree, run back from
anything that He has spoken, or change the Word that has gone forth
from His lips!
Thus have I spoken for Him. May His Holy Spirit make it powerful on
your minds, for Jesus' sake. Amen.
__________________________________________________________________
The Lessons of the Foot-washing