DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Jesus answering said unto them, Have faith in God." Mark 11:22.
THIS exhortation stands in connection with the miracle of the withering
of the fig tree that was clad with leaves but bore no fruit. The
peculiarity of the parable calls for a few words of explanation, before
we proceed, to enforce the moral appended to it. To many readers it
seems strange and inconsistent that as it was not the time for figs,
our Lord should have expected to find figs upon the tree at all. They
wonder how it was that He should blame the fig tree for not having figs
when the time of figs was not yet come. But it is because we do not
live in the land of fig trees that we do not understand this, for,
according to the natural order of production, the fig fruit precedes
the foliage. The fig tree, first of all, puts forth its figs at the end
of the shoots–the little knobs beginning to form in the early spring
and the figs becoming very fairly developed before any leaves
appear–so that if a fig tree has leaves upon it, it ought to have figs
in a considerable state of ripeness.
This fig tree, at a time when no figs were expected and far less any
leaves, seemed to have outstripped all its fellow fig trees. It seemed
to have gone far ahead of them–to have been in advance of its own
responsibilities as a fig tree. It seemed to have exceeded all the
demands of the season and to have reached a state of supernatural
fruit-bearing which no other fig tree had dreamed of reaching. There
were leaves. The Savior went up and, finding the leaves which ought to
have denoted figs in a considerable state of ripeness, He glanced
around, but finding no single fig to justify the large pretense, He
said, "Henceforth let no fruit grow on you forever."
You know that occasionally trees do leaf at abnormal times. There is a
famous oak in the New Forest which usually has well-developed leaves
upon it about Christmas when winter reigns on every side and, "dead the
vegetable kingdom lies." There is a pretty superstition about it, as
though the tree thrust forth its sudden honors at the birth of the
great Lord. I have seen the tree and it seems very strange that it
should take to leaf-bearing when there is not a leaf throughout the
forest anywhere else. This fig tree, in like manner, for some reason or
other, had got into leaf at a time when it ought not. If it did get
into leaf, it ought to have figs, but it had leaves and no figs.
As such it becomes a fit and proper emblem of such a man as we
sometimes meet with who vaunts a righteousness he cannot verify–he
seems more conspicuously pious in his character than he could
reasonably have been expected to be. He makes a show of piety that is
altogether premature–he gives signs of maturity before the season. He
professes much though he yields nothing to corroborate it–a prodigy of
self-conceit. He does not say he is absolutely perfect, but it needs
very fine optics to distinguish the line. He outstrips all his fellows.
His talk is something marvelous. His creed is more sound, his
conscience more sensitive, his conduct more sanctimonious and his
standard in estimating others more censorious than the rest of the
community.
You are amazed at it till you come near to him and then you find it is
all talk, tinsel and trumpery. "Nothing but leaves"–no real virtue,
but a verdant show. Yes, I have known decent morality outraged by such
monstrous duplicity! All the leaves and foliage of a godly life–and
all the death and corruption of a graceless libertinism! Those round
about him were ashamed to find themselves so inferior in their
attainments, till presently the suddenness with which he withered
astounded them more than the rapidity of his growth! There was nothing
in it. The old proverb has it, "Great cry and little wool." Great cry,
indeed, for holier voices are silenced by it and no wool at all to
repay the shearer! "Nothing but leaves." If any man is withered, it is
such a man as that!
One thing I have noticed in watching over a large Church is that some
who have seemed too good to live, have turned out much too bad for us
to want them to live very long. Such have been so pure, so white, so
spotless, so stainless, so precise, so exact, so velvet-mouthed, so
oily, so full of sugar, so hyper-holy in their hypocrisy that it seemed
cruel to feel inward qualms when you were near them. Yet under a thin
layer of this hollow pretension they have been so deficient in
all spiritual life and reality and sincerity, that when we found them
out, we could not help feeling a burning indignation in our own soul
that men could go so far in lying unto the Holy Spirit! One does not
wonder that Ananias and Sapphira fell dead, or that the fig tree was
blasted that had so many leaves and no fruit!
We have seen the same thing happen to men and we have not been amazed.
We have only thought how righteously God has unmasked them and exposed
their hideous vices to the denunciation, even, of the world, which,
though it lies in the Wicked One, has yet some sense of scorn at a
religious lie! Now, our Savior performed this miracle by way of
parable, not that He cared for figs, or was angry because there were
none, but that it furnished Him with an opportunity of instructing His
disciples. This was an object lesson. We never learn so well as from
something we can actually see with our eyes. Jesus did this that they
might see and that their minds might be impressed with what they saw.
The main impression upon the mind of Peter and the others seems to have
been the extraordinary power of Christ.
One morning their Lord said, "Henceforth let no fruit grow on you
forever," and the next day when they passed that way they found the fig
tree withered, even from the roots–not simply all its shoots gone,
but, according to Mark, in the 20th verse, they saw the fig tree dried
up from the roots, or totally destroyed. It stood a wreck of a tree,
the precise opposite of what it had seemed to be some 24 hours before!
They were struck with the power of Christ's word–at the simple fiat of
His mouth the doom had fallen on the tree! He had not touched the tree
that we know of–He simply spoke and its bloom was past, its doom had
come.
Now, our Lord did not go on to open up the parable to them, but
perceiving the impression it made on their minds in one direction He
aimed at still further engraving on their souls the moral which had
been conveyed to their senses– and so He went on to speak about the
great power of God that they were wondering at and to tell them that
they could have that power–that they could wield it and that they
might exert it as He did! And He practically told them how they could
get that power and go forth girded with it.
I. Our first observation, in order to bring out this vein of thought,
shall be that IT IS GOOD FOR US TO OBSERVE THE POWER OF GOD. These
disciples saw the power of Christ, which is the power of God, in the
withering of a fig tree. We do not see miracles now. We do not look for
signs and wonders to supply the credentials and the seal of faith. The
works of God in Nature are, if rightly understood, testimonies to the
eternal power and Godhead at once simple and sublime. Perhaps, under
some aspects, they convey higher lessons than miracles. We ought, I
think, to have our eyes constantly open to see the power of God in
renewing the face of the earth.
I like to observe it in the seasons. What a wonderful power was that
which, all of a sudden, called up all sleeping bulbs and flowers from
their graves and caused that which had been black soil to suddenly
blossom into a golden garden, or to bloom into beds sparkling with many
colors! Have you not seen lone places in the forests and nooks among
the trees so glorious in color that it seemed as though the Lord had
torn pieces of the robe of the sky and flung them down among the trees
in the forest? We have seen the hyacinths all of a sudden in their
deepest blue standing where all before had been black mold or sere
leaf. We see it every year, but it is a marvelous thing and we might
stand and say, "How soon has the winter passed away! How speedily has
earth put on her youth again!"
Do you not see the power of God in all this? These creations and
resurrections of spring–are they nothing? And now, at this season of
the year when the leaves are falling all around us, though the trees
are not withering away, how rapidly they are undergoing their wonderful
process of disrobing! You passed by a tree the other day which was
green and you delighted to be beneath its foliage–and now, in the
setting sun of this afternoon it seemed as though it were blazing with
golden fire–every leaf had turned yellow by the touch of autumn! How
has God worked all this? Silently and quietly, without sound of
trumpet, from year to year these miracles of Nature proceed, of which I
am speaking very roughly now–but he that looks into them and studies
them shall be filled with amazement at the extraordinary power
of God!
This world has been going round the sun making its revolutions. Who
could hold it to its pathway but the Most High? Each day it revolves
and gives us the delightful vicissitude of day and night–it is the
Lord that keeps the world on its axis. We do not think adequately at
all of the mighty power of God which is continually going forth. The
creation of blood out of water by the plague of Egypt astonishes us a
great deal more than does the revolution of the world and yet this is,
by far, the more amazing thing of the two! It does us good, beloved
Friends, to stand, sometimes, at night and
look up to the starry heavens and think what a God He is that calls all
of them by name, leads them out in marching order so that not one of
them fails and sustains each one of those celestial orbs in its place
throughout the ages!
Marvelous are the works of God in Nature! Can you read about Vesuvius
beginning to pour forth its fires, or of earthquakes in different
places shaking the mountains to their bases and making the strongest
works of men to rock and reel, without a sense of reverential awe? Can
you be in a storm at sea; can you tremble while each timber starts as
the waves beat upon the vessel, without feeling that this is a great
God whom we serve? I invite you to think of the greatness, the majestic
grandeur of God in Nature, because the God of Nature is the God of
Grace–and the God that rules on high and thunders according to His
pleasure is the God whom we call Father–and who has taken us into His
family that we may be His sons and daughters! Though we do not see fig
trees withered away, yet often ought we to stand in holy wonder and
say, "Great God, how wonderful are Your works!"
Now, if you turn your eyes from Nature to Providence, which I invite
you to do, you will observe stupendous examples of the great power of
God. This withering of the fig tree has been repeated 10,000 times on a
grand scale. I will only remind you of what has happened in our own
day. A few years ago slavery seemed to have struck its roots into the
soil of the Southern States in America. Its branches ran over the
wall–the Northern States were bound to return a fugitive slave. How
quickly has that fig tree withered away! Slavery has gone, blessed be
God, forever. And there treads not now on American soil a man of any
color who is a slave.
Across yonder channel frowned the great empire of Napoleon. It looked
as if it were very mighty. It spread itself like a green bay tree. It
was the main support of the papacy, but how quickly has that fig tree
withered away! Over yonder, in Italy, there were a number of petty
principalities with paltry tyrants crushing down the people. God raised
up an honest man who came forward as the champion of the oppressed and
how speedily did those little fig leaves fall! There stood the man of
sin with his temporal power. He was master of his own domains and
chiefly of the city of Rome, but how soon has that fig tree withered
away! One after another revolutions have occurred and events have
transpired in our own day which prove that the Lord is very great in
power!
All through history the ages bear record that whenever an institution
has sprung up that has brought forth no good fruit just at the very
time when it was full of leaves, when everybody said, "Now we may
expect fruit from it," and when it was supposed to be impossible that
it should pass away–just then has the Lord spoken and its hour of doom
has come! One word from Him and how speedily has this fig tree withered
away! All Providence is full of it! He that reads history looking for
Providences needs not turn two pages over without finding instances. He
shall see the hand of God here and there and there and there again,
permitting, for a while, the growth of evil, but then speedily sweeping
it away! So shall every system which defies His Laws prove that its
prosperity is the precursor of its utter destruction. It flowers and
flourishes but to droop and die–to die just in its prime. While we
stand trembling and astonished at its spread, so thick its leaves, so
palpable its vitality–at that very moment we hear the powerful voice
of Christ and see the inevitable result in the withering away of that
which was in the prime of vigor!
Now, as we have opportunity to watch the power of God, let us always be
ready to observe it. Not, however, with vacant wonderment, nor with
idle gossip to exclaim to one another, "How extraordinary!" Although
the works of God are meet subjects for adoring wonder, yet when we
remember who He is and what He is, there is a sense in which we may
well cease to wonder or to be startled, as if our poor philosophy must
forever reckon as strange phenomena the tokens of His Presence, the
proofs of His agency and the impress of His hands! You know the story
of the good woman who, on being told of some answers to prayer which
had been received, was asked, "Is it not wonderful?" and she simply
replied, "No, not at all. It is just like Him. That is the way of Him."
And so, when God puts away withered fig trees and when He shows His
power in other ways in His divine Providence, it is amazing for us to
contemplate and yet it is not amazing for Him to perform! He breaks the
bow and cuts the spear in sunder. He burns the chariot in the fire and
He bids us be still and know that He is God. He will be exalted in the
earth! It has been the way of Him from the first and it will be the way
of Him still. We ought to watch these works of power that we may feel
that this power is altogether engaged upon our side. If we are, indeed,
on the side of God; if His Grace has reconciled us to Him; if we live
to promote His Glory; if we are under His keeping and the guardian care
of the Lord Jesus, then all the power that makes an earthquake will be
put forth to shake Heaven and earth sooner than we shall perish!
All the power that shows itself in Providence shall be put forth to
deliver us sooner than we shall famish! Our place of defense shall be
the munitions of rocks! Our bread shall be given us and our water shall
be sure. The mighty God, Jehovah is His name, has pledged His
Omnipotence for the advance and the victory of His people–and stand
they shall and win the day! That is my first point for our evening's
meditation–it is good to observe the power of God.
II. God has called His people to WORKS WHICH NEED ALL THAT POWER. Our
Lord Jesus Christ practically tells us this when He says, "Have faith
in God, for verily I say unto you, that whoever shall say unto this
mountain, Be you removed, and be you cast into the sea; and shall not
doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says
shall come to pass; he shall have whatever he says." A Christian is a
miracle. He is a mass of miracles! When he gets to Heaven he will be a
miracle of miracles! His story in the telling thereof will fill all
Heaven with enthusiasm, so marvelous is the work of God in the heirs of
salvation!
It is no small thing to be a soldier of the Cross–a follower of the
Lamb. Now, tonight, dear Souls, if the Lord Jesus Christ by His Spirit
should call any of you to come to Him, you would, perhaps, feel
immediately the deepest anxiety in your heart. I think I hear you say,
" If I come and trust Him, yet how shall I be saved, for see the
difficulties that lie in my way? I see before me the vast mountain of
my past sin. How can I come to Christ? Surely this Alp of transgression
must hide Him from me." Have faith in God, dear Friend, and God's power
will be put forth to move this mountain, yes, Christ has moved it by
His precious death.
"Yes," says the poor heart, "but I feel such a mountain of despair, I
cannot hope. I think I have sinned beyond Grace." Have faith in God and
you shall see this mountain of doubt and despair all swept away and you
shall joy in Him that blots out your sin like a cloud and your
transgressions like a thick cloud. "Ah," says the soul, "but I seem so
cold, so heavy, so dead. I do not feel as earnest and eager as I
should. There is nothing in me that is good." Have faith in God's power
to help you in this and you shall find your lethargy and languor give
place to energy and vigor–and your cold heart shall be thawed in the
rivers of repentance!
"Oh," says one, "but I need everything. I am far off from God, as far
as I can be. There are impassable barriers between me and God." Yes,
but have faith in God. Do but believe in His fatherly love and Grace,
His goodness and faithfulness. Do but trust Christ and rely on the
great Father's love in Jesus Christ and you shall find that the
mountains which stop you will melt away and no longer impede you. I
know what has happened to you. Your fig tree has been withered down to
the roots. How full of leaves it used to be! You were once a fine
fellow. If you did not bring forth any fruit to God, yet what fair
promises you did make–what grand resolutions! What a fine
self-righteousness you had! But the power of God's will has already
withered it down to the roots!
Now, the same power of His Gospel by the Spirit will take up all the
mountains that stand between you and God and cast them into the depths
of the sea! And you shall rejoice in Him! God calls the coming sinner,
then, to duties and obligations so far beyond his own natural capacity
that it requires all the power of God to enable him to fulfill them!
Even when bid to repent and believe and come to Christ, it needs the
Godhead to help him do that, but the Godhead will enable him and so he
shall receive Grace for obedience to the faith. Have faith in God,
then, and faint not by reason of discouragements.
But after we have come to Christ we still find it no easy task to
continue pressing on to God. You that have believed in Him and are
saved, do you not often cry out, "O weak and erring mortal that I am!
How shall I ever reach to perfection? How can I get rid of sin that
haunts my imagination and vexes my heart? What Heaven of bliss can I
know unless my soul is purified from every stain?" Most true it is that
there can be no such thing as perfect happiness until there is perfect
holiness and yet by faith the Believer looks for both. "But," do I hear
you say, "first, my ignorance is in the way"? Have faith in God and you
shall be taught of Him–and that mountain of darkness shall disappear.
"Oh, but then there is my old corruption in the way and that comes in
between me and every advance in Grace." Have faith in God and you shall
find He will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and fill you
with virtue and vitality through believing. "Oh, but the trials and
temptations of each day, how shall I stand against them?" You cannot
stand against them alone. They are far too much for you, but have faith
in God and then, fierce as those temptations may be, you shall be able
to resist, for His power is able to hold you up! Though a legion of
devils at once should tempt you, have faith in God and they shall be
put to the rout. You shall have sufficient Grace to bear you through.
"Yes, but," says another, "you do not know my trials." No, my dear
Friend, and you do not know mine, but both you and I may know that He
who measured out the trial–for they are all measured and weighed to
the last pennyweight–knows how to strengthen us so that we can bear
them. We shall be able to say to the mountains of trial, "Depart," as
truly as we bade the fruitless fig tree, "be dried up." Rise, worm
Jacob, and thresh the mountains and beat them small! Yes, turn them
into chaff and winnow them–and the wind shall carry them away. Only
trust in the eternal power and Godhead and there is nothing between
here and Heaven that need give you any fear!
If we are without God we shall stumble at a straw, but if God is with
us, who can be against us? Even if our life should be protracted to an
advanced old age; should our bones be full of pain and our flesh
infected with a thousand painful infirmities; even though we should
spend years upon a weary bed with poverty as well as pain to afflict
us–he that has faith in God shall sing aloud upon his bed and praise
the Lord because the power of God rests upon him! You are not called to
be parade soldiers to exhibit your regimentals and your fine feathers.
You are called to fight! You must fight if you would reign! Do not be
mistaken–you are called to work miracles–moral miracles, spiritual
miracles! You are called to do great wonders between here and Heaven.
You see your calling, Brothers and Sisters, and you will see, if you
see aright, that nothing but a Divine power can help you to accomplish
it.
Now, if this is true in respect to our own spiritual life, I am sure it
is so in trying to win the souls of others to Christ. The man who
brings a soul to Christ achieves a result which no genius or skill of
the creature could compass. The power which God puts upon a man to make
him the means of turning a sinner from darkness to light has no
parallel! If a man could tell me that he stopped Niagara at a word, I
would not envy him his power if God will only allow me to stop a sinner
in his mad career of sin! If a creature could put his finger on
Vesuvius and quench its flame, I would not at all regret that I had no
such power if I might but be the means of staying a blasphemer and
teaching him to pray!
This spiritual power is the greatest power imaginable and the most to
be desired. If any of us aims to be useful, we cannot succeed unless we
have this Divine power, for without Omnipotent spiritual help we can
produce no spiritual results! You can read a sermon or preach a sermon,
or hear your children read in your Sunday school class without any help
from God, but nothing will come of it. If there is to be living
preaching and living teaching that really brings souls to Jesus Christ,
the work must all be worked in the power of the Holy Spirit from first
to last! You see your calling, then, Brothers. You must have that power
which speaks to fig trees and they wither–yes, a power sufficient to
speak to a mountain and pluck it up by its roots–for nothing short of
this will fit you for your work.
Take the larger scale for a minute and think of it. We are all called
to try and extend the Redeemer's kingdom and as Christians we are
greatly concerned for the progress of the Church and the Truth of God.
I am sure in these evil days there is not one of us that can look upon
the signs of the times without considerable sorrow. I hope it is not
because I am growing older that I take a gloomier view of things than I
did some years ago–it is not my eyes, but I actually see superstition
much more rampant than it was. That particularly sweet fig tree of
ritualism has spread its boughs amazingly!
And then there is the very specious fig tree of skepticism that seems
to overshadow a considerable portion of the professing Church of
Christ. Well, now, what is to be done? Nothing is to be done except as
the text tells us–"Have faith in God." And when we have faith in God
we must speak with fidelity and with authority, too. We must show our
faith by the testimony we bear–and the Word of God that comes out of
faithful lips shall roll like thunder, flash like lightning and strike
with electric force! And so the old effect it always had on these leafy
fruitless fig trees will be repeated–it shall make them wither away.
If you have ever read the history of skeptical thought in Germany–not
that I recommend you to do so, for it is a sore labor and a weariness
of spirit–but if you have ever waded through any of these histories of
philosophy as I have, myself, you will doubtless have observed a
thought rising up like a cloud full of portents and covering the
Fatherland with its fantastic shadows till the people are led to see
everything in a new light or under a fresh coloring. They give the
poet, the essayist and the critic of the new cloud region credit for
inspiration! And all who abide under that shadow are written down as
infallible! But how insecure the reign of human wisdom! In about 25
years you could buy all the books of that day at the price of waste
paper–for a new philosophy has sprung up–a fresh system which has
rendered obsolete all that preceded it.
The scholars are in ecstasy! They shout, "Eureka!" and sneer
contemptuously at all who refrain from echoing their cry. Wait a little
while and another meteor will attract their gaze; another ephemeral
glowworm will glimmer in the darkness! I have read of a gourd "which
came up in a night and perished in a night," but the cedars of Lebanon
grow slowly and endure longer. "How soon has this fig tree withered
away!" Thus have I thought and so have I said, as I have read one after
another, the various systems of nonsense that they call philosophy and
metaphysics. "How soon has this fig tree withered away!"
Now, in the lives of even some of the younger folks here, you might
have seen, in England, different systems of unbelief coming up in
different quarters under which the thinkers of the age, (as they call
themselves), or the triflers of the hour, (as we might better style
them), have sought shelter. At one time we were all wrong because of
some wonderful discovery of old bones. Geology had upset us! Then some
other science was brought to the front. One has lived to see a number
of little scares. The fig trees have come up with a vast show of
foliage without any fruit. In looking back at them we can say, "How
soon has this fig tree vanished." And, as to the present pretensions,
whatever they may be, we have only to wait a little while, with
confidence in God, and we shall see these fruitless fig trees also
wither away!
Yes, and if there are systems in the world which seem more enduring,
colossal as the Alps, with foundations deep as Hell, we have still but
to exercise faith enough and cry to God loudly enough and fling
ourselves upon Omnipotence boldly enough–and then to speak–and in the
speaking of the everlasting Gospel we shall see these mountain systems
plucked up by the roots and cast into the midst of the sea! There is
the point–we must have Divine strength to do it.
III. Now, our Savior shows us the CONNECTING LINK BETWEEN THE DIVINE
POWER AND OUR WORK.
How are we to acquire this power? We believe that God can do all
things–we have seen something of the greatness of His power–how can
we be girded with it? Here is the answer–"Have faith in God." It is to
be by faith, that is, trust, reliance, belief. It must be in God. Our
faith must not be partly in God and partly in something else, but faith
in God. And it is, literally, "Have the faith of God"–the faith which
is worked in us by God and sustained by God, for that is the only faith
that is worth having. Have the faith of God.
"Oh, but this is a very small thing," says one. It is. It is a child's
instinct to trust his father, but it is the rarest Grace in the world
to trust our Father who is in Heaven. "When the Son of man comes shall
He find faith on the earth?" If anybody could find it, He could. He
knows where it is, for He is the Author, the Giver and the Nourisher of
faith. Yet there is so little of it in culture that if He, Himself,
searched for it, He would not find many fields in which it grows, or
many hearts in which it thrives. Why, some of us have faith in Him
whereby we are saved from this present evil world, but how shocked at
ourselves we have reason to be in respect to the little faith we have
in Him for the furtherance of His own work and how our heart sinks
under our own daily trials!
He has given us justifying faith, but our faith is still a faith, the
weakness of which should make us humble ourselves before Him. Doubt
God? How monstrous it sounds! How foolish it appears! How impossible it
seems! To an experienced Christian, at first sight, it really seems
incredible that any disciple of Jesus should doubt God. You, my dear
Brother, that have been fed and nourished all your life by singular
Providences–you whose life is so remarkable that if its incidents were
all written, people would look on them as a romance! You who have seen
His arm made bare on your behalf many times–you who have often been
compelled to say, "Still has my life new wonders seen"–do you doubt
Him? How can it be?
Alas! Alas! Is not this the fault, the grievous, crying sin of many of
the children of God? Hence our Lord puts it thus. He not only speaks of
the faith of God, but He says, "Have it; have it. Have faith in God.
Have it handy. Have it about you. Have it for daily use. Carry it with
you." Some of you have got a good anchor somewhere, but you left it at
home when the storm came. You have faith somewhere, but you do not seem
to exercise it just at the time when faith is required. "Have faith in
God." He does not tell you how much. There is no need to prescribe any
limit. Have unlimited faith in God! Have daily faith in God! Have
continual, perpetual, abounding faith in God! "Have faith in God."
This is the connecting link between our weakness and the Divine
strength by which we are made strong. Have faith in God about every
purpose and every peril that may arise. You saw how the fig tree
withered away. Have faith about that. You have seen it. Now, have faith
about mountains. Do not think that God's power is limited to withering
fig trees! Have faith about things of magnitude and things minute, but
more particularly about the things that at this moment
distress you. When you feel that you could believe God about everything
but one particular matter that just now frets your mind and breaks your
peace, you evidently misjudge your own capacity for faith!
You ought to measure its strength by the influence it exerts upon you
under your present trial. O my Sister, have faith in God about that
sick little infant at home! Your heart is sad that the Lord's will in
this must be done, but He will strengthen you to bear it! Have faith,
too, about those simple family matters which are causing you so much
irritation. You have been praying about them–now commit your cause to
God and have faith that He will grant your request. "Oh, but there is a
matter of deep moment harassing my very soul which I should not like to
mention to anybody," you say. Have faith about it and mention it to
your Lord. Do not go about and make mischief by talking of it, but have
faith about it.
"Yes, but I am out of employment," says a poor man over yonder, "and I
am getting hardly pressed." Dear Brother, are you a true Believer? Have
faith about that, now. I know you will say to me that I do not know
your trial. No, I do not. But you do not know some troubles I have had!
And if you were to tell me to have faith in God about them, I would
thank you for the exhortation, for that is the only way I have of
getting over them. And, dear Brother, it is the only way you will find
of being extricated from your dilemmas! What a mass of troubles are
represented by this assembled multitude! If we could empty them out,
what a heap they would be! And yet, if the living God is trusted, how
the heap all vanishes! What does it matter? The burden is all gone when
you have once left it to Him! May the Lord the Holy Spirit help each
one of us to have faith in God about the present difficulty, whether it
is a fig tree or whether it is a mountain.
I do not know what some of you do who have no God to trust–some of you
who are very poor and have to suffer a good deal in this life–and yet
have no hope of the world to come. Ah, poor Souls, the Lord have mercy
upon you! Some of you seem to go through fire and water here and yet
you have no Heaven in prospect, no hope in the world to come! Oh, see
to it! May God grant you to have faith in Christ so there shall be no
mountain between you and God, but you shall be with Him where He is
when your time comes to depart.
IV. Now, I conclude with my fourth point, which is THE CONNECTING LINK
BETWEEN THE DIVINE
POWER AND OURSELVES. To use a very simple figure, you remember how
Franklin, when he knew there was an electric fluid in the cloud, sped
his kite and brought down the lightning? Well now, there is the
everlasting power of God up yonder and I must learn to let my faith get
up into the clouds to bring down the Divine power to me! If I have
faith enough I can have any quantity of power. "According to your faith
be it unto you." If you are weak it is because your faith is not a good
conductor between you and the eternal strength. If you had stronger
faith, is it possible to judge how strong you might be? There is no
telling what a man might be able to accomplish if his faith were to
increase with the occasion.
In Samson we see what physical strength came to in a man who had
confidence in God, for that man Samson, though faulty in almost every
point, had such confidence in God as hardly anybody ever had. There
were a thousand Philistines and they shouted against him, but what did
that matter to that great big child, Samson, when the Spirit of the
Lord came mightily on Him? He said, "With the jawbone of an ass, heaps
upon heaps, with the jaw of an ass have I slain a thousand men." O
glorious faith! And so ought we to feel, "I am nothing. I am nobody,
yet God is with me and on I go, dauntless and undismayed." If earth is
all in arms abroad, it matters not if God is with us. When there is a
minority of one and that one is God, we are in the majority, directly,
for God is all and all the people in the world are nothing before
Him!
The Lord gives us some hints of how to use our faith. First, we must
use it to expel every remaining doubt. "Whoever shall say unto this
mountain, Be you removed, and be you cast into the sea; and shall not
doubt in his heart, but believe that those things which he says shall
come to pass; he shall have whatever he says." God will not bless the
speaking of that man who is full of doubts! Get rid of the doubts. The
Gospel of this present half of the 19th Century is, "Doubt." It does
not say, "And you shall be saved," because it sees no immediate need of
being saved! The Gospel preached in numbers of our places of worship
is–"Doubt, doubt! Do not be as those nearly extinct Puritans that
believe in the Inspiration of the Bible and hold to old-fashioned,
exploded doctrines! Be a man and doubt."
They will doubt themselves into a pretty scrape before long. Some of
them are doubting till their chapels are empty! They are scaring their
people away from them as naturally they would, for doubt is a ghastly
apparition. But, dear Brothers and Sisters, you and I have to do the
very opposite of this. We have to find out every lingering doubt and
draw
it out and drive it away. Doubt? When a man is about to strike a blow
in faith it is a doubt which paralyses him! Doubt? Why even a little
doubt is like a small stone in a traveler's shoe–it lames him. It is a
very little thing, but he had better spend a week in picking it out
than go on with it there.
Believer, you must get doubt right out of you, for until you believe
you will never travel well to Heaven, or be strong in the Lord. Only
fancy Martin Luther agitated with doubts as he rode into Worms! Not
quite sure about justification by faith when answering for his life?
Agitated with doubts when he was carrying his life in his hands to
confront the powers of the world in the name of God? Doubt would have
ruined him! Let us chase the spirit of unbelief away. The Lord help us
to do so and to be filled with faith.
The next hint the Savior gives us is to be much in prayer, because it
is by prayer that faith exercises itself unto God. "What things soever
you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall
have them." Much prayer, but of a believing sort, should be offered by
simple, trustful disciples, for the cry of faith which is true prayer
touches the heart of the great Father and He is prompt to grant His
children their desires. But one other hint. That is, we must see to it
that we are purged of what would effectually prevent prayer being
heard. "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear my
prayer."
Would you have the power of God to gird you, you must get rid of all
malice from your heart. You must forgive your brother. All selfishness
and uncharitableness must be eradicated from your breast or else the
Lord cannot trust you with power. If you had despotic power linked with
a pitiless disposition you would not only curse a leafless fig tree,
but you would get to cursing anything and everything that was contrary
to your own likes. If you were endued with all manner of power, it
would be no mercy to you but an infinite misery unless you were also
partakers of the mind of Christ! Unless you have His heart of infinite
purity and inimitable benevolence, power would be a most dangerous
thing to trust you with.
The Lord will only trust His children with power in proportion as they
know His will and strive to do it. When they become completely like He,
their very prayers which were sown in weakness shall be raised in
power! But sin is awfully debilitating–it weakens, depletes and
utterly prostrates a man–any kind of sin tolerated in the will If we
think that power when acquired may be used for our own pleasure,
profit, or honor–the power will not come–it cannot possibly be
conferred on such terms. You shall move no mountain from its place
till, first of all, the mountain of your selfishness is cast into the
sea!
O Lord, purge Your vessels and then fill them! Cleanse the instruments
from rust and then use them! Here we are now before You! Blessed be
Your name, You have saved us! Now make us fit to be serviceable in Your
cause and kingdom, poor unworthy things as we are, and You shall have
honor of us and by us forever! Amen.
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFOOE SERMON–Mark 11. HYMNS FROM "OUR OWN
HYMN BOOK"–67E, 523.