Unstaggering Faith
A sermon
(No. 733)
Delivered on Lord's-day Morning, FEBRUARY 3 1867, by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead,
when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of
Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief;
but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded
that what He had promised, He was able also to perform."- Romans
4:19-21.
IT was God's purpose that Abraham should be a surpassingly excellent
example of the power of faith. He was to be "the father of the
faithful," the mirror, pattern and paragon of faith. He was ordained to
be the supreme Believer of the patriarchal age, the serene and
venerable leader of the noble army of Believers in Jehovah, the
faithful and true God. In order to produce so eminent a character it
was necessary that Abraham's faith should be exercised in a special and
unequalled manner. The power of his faith could not be known except by
putting it to the severest tests. To this end, among other trials of
his faith, God gave him a promise that in his seed should all the
nations of the earth be blessed, and yet for many a year he remained
without an heir.
The promise, when originally given, startled Abraham, but he did not
doubt it. We read that he laughed–laughed with holy joy at the thought
of so great and unexpected a blessing! It startled also his wife Sarah.
She did, however, doubt it–when she laughed it was the laugh of
incredulity. The fulfillment of the promise was long delayed. Abraham
waited with patience, sojourning as a stranger in a strange land,
having respect unto the covenant which the Lord had made with him and
with his unborn seed.
Not a shadow of doubt crossed the mind of the holy Patriarch. He
staggered not at the promise through unbelief and though he came to be
100 years old, and his wife Sarah was almost equally as advanced in
years, he did not listen to the voice of carnal reason but maintained
his confidence in God. Doubtless he had well weighed the natural
impossibilities which laid in the way, but he overlooked the whole and
being fully persuaded that if God had promised him a son the son would
certainly be born, he entertained a holy confidence and left the matter
of time in the hands of the Sovereign Ruler.
His faith triumphed in all its conflicts. Had it not been that Sarah
and Abraham were both at such an advanced age there would have been no
credit to them in believing the promise of God. But the more difficult,
the more impossible the fulfillment of the promise seemed to be, the
more wonderful was Abraham's faith and he still held to it that what
God had promised He was able to perform! If I may so say, there was in
Abraham's case a double death to stand in the way of the promise–not
one difficulty in itself insuperable, but two–two absolute
impossibilities.
And yet, though one impossibility might have been enough to stagger any
man, the two together could not cause his faith to waver! He considered
not the natural impediments. He allowed them no space in the
account–they seemed to be less than nothing in the presence of the
truth and power of the Almighty God. The Most High God had given a
promise, and that fact overrode 10,000 adverse arguments! His was that
noble confidence of which we sing–
"Faith, mighty faith, the promise sees, And looks to that alone. Laughs
at impossibilities And cries, 'It shall be done!'"
By such unquestioning confidence Abraham brought glory to God. It
glorifies God greatly for His servants to trust Him–they then become
witnesses to His faithfulness–just as His works in creation are
witnesses of His power and wisdom. Abraham was a noble instance of the
power which the truthfulness of God exerts over the human mind. When
under all discouragements he still "believed God." His heart said of
the living God, "He cannot lie. He will perform His promise." While
glorifying God, Abraham reaped a present consolation to himself and in
the end he had the joy of receiving
the promise. His early laugh of joy was remembered and commemorated in
his son Isaac, that child of promise, whose name was "laughter."
The Patriarch himself became one of the most honored of men, for it is
written, "Him that honors Me I will honor." Brothers and Sisters, this
is the point to which I want to bring you–that if God intends to make
you or me, any one of us, or all of us together to be distinguishing
exhibitors of the Divine Grace of faith–we must expect to be passed
through very much the same trials as Abraham. With regard to the object
upon which our faith is exercised, it is most probable that we shall be
made to feel our own weakness and even our personal death. We shall be
brought very low, even into an utter self-despair.
We shall be made to see that the mercy we are seeking of God is a thing
impossible with man. It is very probable that difficulties will rise
before us till they are enough to overwhelm us! Not only one range of
mountainous impossibilities, but another will be seen towering up
behind the first till we are pressed beyond measure and led to an utter
despair of the matter as considered in ourselves. At such a crisis, if
God the Holy Spirit is working with mighty power in us, we shall still
believe that the Divine promise will be fulfilled. We shall not
entertain a doubt concerning the promise! We shall remember that it
remains with God to find ways and means–and not with ourselves. We
shall cast the burden of fulfilling the promise upon Him with whom it
naturally rests.
Go on, then, in steady, holy, confident joy, looking for the end of our
faith and patiently pleading until we reach it. The Lord will honor and
comfort us in so doing, and in the end He will grant us the desire of
our hearts, for none that trust in Him shall ever be confounded, world
without end.
Let us, this morning, firmly lay hold upon this general principle, that
God will empty us of self completely before He will accomplish any
great thing by us, thus removing from us every pretext for claiming the
glory for ourselves. At such seasons of humiliation it is our privilege
to exercise unabated faith, for the fulfillment of the promise is not
imperiled, but rather may be looked upon as drawing near. May the Holy
Spirit guide us while we endeavor to apply the general principle to
distinct cases.
First, we shall view it in application to the individual worker for
Christ. Then, secondly, we shall take it in connection with the Church
associated or Christian service. Thirdly, we shall apply it briefly to
the case of a pleader wrestling with God in prayer. And, fourthly, we
shall show its bearing upon the case of a seeker, showing that he,
also, will have to feel his own natural death and utter helplessness,
and then faith will find all needful Grace stored up in the
promise-giving God.
I. To THE INDIVIDUAL WORKER we have a message. I trust I address many
Brothers and Sisters who have wholly consecrated themselves to the
service of God and have been for months or years perseveringly toiling
in the Redeemer's cause. Now, it is probable, very probable, indeed,
that you are more than ever conscious of your own spiritual weakness.
"Oh," you say, "if God intends to bless souls, I cannot see how they
can be blessed through me. If sinners are to be converted, I feel
myself to be the most unfit and unworthy instrument to be used by God
in the whole world. If He shall be pleased to smile upon the endeavors
of such an evangelist, or such a pastor, or such a zealous Christian, I
shall be very grateful and not at all surprised. But if He should ever
bless me it will be a most astonishing thing! I shall scarcely be able
to believe my own eyes."
Such a lowly sense of our own unfitness is common even at the beginning
of real Christian labor and arises from the unexpected and novel
difficulties with which we are surrounded. We are then unused to
Christian labor, and whether we have to speak in public or to plead
with individual sinners we do not feel at home with the work at first,
and are oppressed with a sense of weakness. We have not gone this way
before, and being quite new at the work, Satan whispers, "You are a
poor creature to pretend to serve God. Go back to your retirement, and
leave this service to better men."
Dear Friends who are thus tempted, take comfort from the Word of God
this morning! It is necessary to any great blessing that you should
feel your weakness, and see death written upon all carnal strength.
This is a part of your preparation for great usefulness! You must be
made to feel early in the work, if you are to have an early blessing,
that all the glory must be of God. Your fancied excellence must fade
away and you, yourself, must become in your own esteem as feeble as a
little child.
I think, however, that a sense of weakness grows on the Christian
worker. To continue in harness year after year is not without its wear
and tear. Our spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak, and
faintness in pursuing reveals to us that
our own strength is perfect weakness. Personally, I feel my own
spiritual inability much more strongly than I did when I began to
preach the Gospel. There was a novelty and an excitement, then, about
the exercise which gave a degree of spurious facility in it. But now it
comes almost every day in the week twice each day. This constant
utterance–the proclamation of the same Gospel–finds out the weak
joints in our armor!
One is not weary of it, thank God, but still there is a languor which
creeps over us and the old novelty and flash which apparently helped us
is now gone. And we feel much more vividly than at first that without
the energy of the Holy Spirit we can do nothing, absolutely nothing.
You experienced Sunday school teachers, and you parents seeking the
conversion of your children are, I doubt not, much more conscious now
that all your strength must come from above than you once were. You
held as a sort of orthodox creed that you were nothing, but now you
feel that you are less than nothing!
The more earnest your labors for the Lord, the more clear will be your
sense of your own nothingness. There are times when a lack of success
or a withering of our cherished hopes will help to make us feel most
keenly how barren and unfruitful we are until the Lord endows us with
His Spirit. Those whom we thought to be converted turn out to be merely
the subjects of transient excitement. Those who stood long, and for
years appeared to honor the Cross of Christ, turn aside and pierce us
through with many sorrows, and then we cry out, "Woe is me! How shall I
speak any more in the name of the Lord?"
Like Moses, we would have the Lord send by whomever He would send, but
not by us. Or like Elijah we hide ourselves for fear, and say "Let me
die, I am no better than my fathers." I suppose there is no successful
worker who is quite free from times of deep depression, times when his
fears make him say, "Surely I took up this work myself through
presumption. I ran without being called. I have willfully thrust myself
into a position where I am subject to great danger and great toil,
without having the strength which is required for the place." At such
moments it only needs another push from Satan, a little withdrawing of
God's hand to make us, like Jonah, go down to Joppa and see if we can
find a ship to take us away to Tarshish that we may no longer bear the
burden of the Lord.
My Brother, my Sister, I am not sorry if you are passing through this
fiery ordeal. If your strength is dried up like a potsherd. If your
strength is shriveled like a skin-bottle that has been hanging up in
the smoke. If you feel as though your personal power was altogether
paralyzed, I do not regret it! For know you not that it is in your
weakness God will show His own strength, and when there is an end of
you there will be a beginning of Him? When you are brought to feel,
"Neither have I any strength, nor know I what to do," then will you
lift up your eyes to the Strong One, from whom comes all your true
help–and then will His mighty arm be made bare.
In laying down the general principle drawn from the text we observed
that there existed a double difficulty, and that even this did not
abate Abraham's confidence. It may be that a sense of our own
unworthiness is not our only discouragement, but that our sphere of
Christian effort is remarkably unpromising. You did not know, my dear
Friend, when you commenced your evangelistic efforts, how hard the
human heart was. You were like young Melanchthon–you thought you could
easily conquer the human heart. But you now discover that old Adam is
too strong for young Mel-anchthon!
You had heard of other Brethren who preached or taught without success,
and you said to yourselves, "There must be something very wrong in them
or in their doctrines. I will not fall into their errors. I, at least,
will be wise and discreet. My methods shall be more Christ-like, more
suitable, more effective. I shall surely win souls." But now you find
that hearts with you are as hard as hearts with other men. In that
little Sunday school class of yours the boys are still obstinate, the
girls still frivolous. You had not reckoned upon this. You accepted it
as matter of doctrine that they were depraved, but you supposed that
under your treatment that depravity would soon disappear.
You are disappointed, for the children seem even worse than others. The
more you try to influence their hearts the less you succeed. And the
more earnest your endeavors to bring them to Jesus the more, it seems,
the sin that dwells in them is provoked. It is possible that you are
called to labor where the prejudices of the people are against the
Gospel, where the temptations and habits and ways of thought are all
dead against the chance of success. We constantly meet with Brethren
who say, "I could prosper anywhere else, but I cannot succeed where I
now am." Perhaps they complain, "It is a population of working men,"
and this they look upon as a dreadful evil, whereas I believe that no
class will better reward the labors of the earnest preacher of the
Gospel.
Or else they say, "They are all rich people, and I cannot get at them,"
whereas where there is a will there is a way. Or the neighborhood is
subject to the influence of some established Church, or all taken up
with other congregations. There is sure to be found difficulty, and
Christian work never does succeed to any great extent until the worker
perceives the difficulties and rates them at their proper rate. The
fact is, to save a soul is the work of Deity! To turn the human will
towards holiness is the work of Omnipotence! And unless you and I have
made up our minds to that, we had better go back to retirement and
meditation, for we are not ready for labor!
You tell me your particular sphere is one in which you can do nothing.
I am glad to hear it! Such is mine! Such is the true position of every
Christian worker–he is called by God to do impossibilities–he is but
a worm, and yet he is to thresh the mountains and beat them small. Will
he do it? Yes, that he will, if his faith is equal to the work. If God
but enables him to call in Divine strength, the absence of human
strength will be gain to him! And the difficulties and impossibilities
will only be as a platform upon which God shall be uplifted and God's
strength the better displayed.
Settle it in your heart, my dear Friend, that there is great labor to
be accomplished if souls are to be won! And in that class, or that
tract distributing, that hamlet, that preaching station, there is a
work quite out of your reach. And if you do not enlist the power of a
heavenly arm, you will come back and say, "I have labored in vain and
spent my strength for nothing." It is well for you to know it. Here are
you without power, and the work cannot help you, will not help you. It
will bring every obstacle to impede you. You without strength and the
work more than human! See your position and be prepared for it.
Yet the godly worker has that which sustains him, for he has a promise
from God! Abraham had received a promise. "In you and in your seed
shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." Grasping this with
unrelaxing hold, he knew the difficulties and weighed them. But having
done so, he put them away as not worth considering. God had said it,
and that was enough for him! To him the promise of God was as good as
the fulfillment! Just as in trade you often consider some men's bills
to be as good as cash, so in this case God's promise was as good to
Abraham as the fulfillment itself.
Now, Brother, if you and I are to be successful in our work for God,
we, too, must get hold of a promise. I think I hear you say, "If I
heard a heavenly voice saying to me, 'Go and labor, and I will give you
success,' I should doubt no more. If I could have a special revelation,
just as Abraham had to him, personally, that would alter the case. But
I have not received such a special promise, and am therefore full of
fear." Now, observe–God gives His promises in many ways! Sometimes He
gives them to individuals, at other times to classes of character–and
which is the better of the two? I think you should prefer the second.
Suppose God had given to you, personally, a promise, your unbelief
would say, "Ah, it is all fancy. It was not the Lord, it was only a
dream." But now God has been pleased to give the Revelation, in your
case, to character. Shall I quote it? Here it is: "He that goes forth
and weeps, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with
rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him." Now is not that yourself?
Your name is not there, but your character is, for you have gone forth,
you have wept, and you have carried forth precious seed. The Lord
declares that such an one shall doubtless come again rejoicing!
Now, although your name is not in the Book absolutely, it is there
virtually, and the promise is just as sure to you. If any man of honor
were to issue a promise that all persons appearing at his door at such
an hour should receive relief, if he did not give relief to all who
appeared, he would be quite as guilty of breach of promise as though he
had picked out all the persons by name and given them the promise. The
promise is not affected by the absence of the name if the character is
there described.
I will give you another promise: "My Word shall not return unto Me
void, but it shall accomplish that which I please. It shall prosper in
the thing where I sent it." Have you delivered God's Word, my dear
Friend? There is the question! If you have, then God declares it shall
not return unto Him void! It shall prosper in the thing where He sent
it. And that promise is quite as good as though your particular
initials had been affixed to it, or it had been spoken to you by the
voice of an angel in the visions of the night! A promise, however
given, is equally binding upon a man of honor. And a promise from God,
no matter how delivered, is sure of fulfillment!
All you have to do is to lay hold upon it! I have gone forth weeping,
and I have sown precious seed, therefore God says I shall come again
rejoicing, bringing my sheaves with me! I cannot create the sheaves,
and the sheaves as yet do not appear in the field, but I shall have
them, for what God has promised He is able also to perform. The thing
is to get a
promise distinctly and clearly before your mind's eye and then to defy
all discouragements! Oh my Brethren, may you be so weak that you may be
as dead, and yet at the same time may you be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His might because your faith has made the Omnipotence of
God to be at your command!
Abraham, having his full conviction that God would fulfill His own
promise, was happy about it. He was cheerful, rejoicing, comforted,
feeling as content to wait as he would have been to receive the
blessing at once. He was always full of sacred joy and thus always
glorified God. Those who saw the holy Patriarch's serenity of mind
naturally enquired who was his God, and when they heard of the Most
High they glorified the God of Abraham. In due season the promise came,
and the patriarchal tent was glad with a gladness which never left it.
Abraham spoke well of his God, and his God dealt well with him. I want
you, Christian workers, to seek as before God to tread in the steps of
Abraham. While fully aware that you are powerless in yourselves, rest
upon the promise of God–go to your work counting no risks, making no
calculations–but believing that where God's promise is concerned, the
bare suspicion of failure is not to be endured.
Perhaps next to Abraham there was not, in the olden times, a man of
more childlike faith than Samson. One weeps over his many infirmities,
but one admires the marvelous simplicity of his dependence upon God.
When a thousand foes are in array against him he never calculates. He
is all alone, unarmed and bound with cords. He snaps his bonds, and
seizing the jawbone of an ass, he flies at the hosts of the armed men
as if he had a thousand helpers–and they but an equal match for
him–and heaps upon heaps he dashes them down till he cries, "With the
jawbone of an ass, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of an ass have I
slain a thousand men."
He was a man who, if God had said, "Shoulder the world like Atlas,"
would have carried it as readily as he did the gates of Gaza. He had no
thought but of God's power, and he was reckless of danger when he felt
that God was with him. See him in that memorable death deed! See him
taking hold of the pillars after he had been left of God, blind, and
shut up in prison all those dreary months! He has even now enough
confidence in God to believe that He will help him at the last! Depend
upon it, Brethren, it is great faith that can believe in God after
times of desertion.
But look! He puts his hands upon those ponderous pillars! He prays, and
then he tugs and strains! Down, down they come, and Israel's God is
avenged upon Israel's foe! That is the kind of spirit I should like to
get into my own soul–a spirit conscious that it can do nothing alone.
Conscious that the work is beyond human possibility, but equally clear
that it can do everything! That through God there is nothing beyond the
range of its capacity.
II. Dear Friends, members of this Church, I want your earnest attention
while I try to show the bearing of this upon
THIS CHURCH AND EVERY CHURCH IN A SIMILAR CONDITION. We have set our
hearts upon a thorough revival of religion in our midst. Some of my
Brethren associated with me in the Deaconship and Eldership have made
this a matter of constant prayer to God–that we may see, this year,
greater things than we have ever seen! And there are many in the
membership of the same mind who have besieged the Throne of God with
constant applications.
It will be, as a preparation for the work which God will work among us,
a very blessed thing for us as a Church to feel how utterly powerless
we are in this matter. God has blessed us these thirteen years! We have
enjoyed continued prosperity. We have scarcely known what to do with
the blessing God has given us! Truly in our case He has fulfilled the
promise, "I will pour out My blessing upon you so that you shall not
have room to receive it." But I fear that our temptation is to lean
upon an arm offlesh–to suppose there is some power in the ministry, or
in our organization, or in the zeal which has characterized us.
Brethren, let us divest ourselves of all that pride–that detestable,
abominable, soul-weakening vice–which is as evil and as hurtful to us
as it is abominable to God! We can no more save a soul than make a
world, and as to causing a genuine revival by our own efforts, we might
as well talk of whirling the stars from their sphere! Poor helpless
worms we are in this matter. If God helps us we can pray, but without
His aid our prayer will be mockery! If God helps us we can preach, but
apart from Him our preaching is but a weary tale told without power or
energy. You must, each of you, ask the Lord to take you down into the
depths of your own nothingness and reveal to you your utter
unworthiness to be used in His work! Try to get a deeply humiliating
sense of your own weakness.
As a Church we want to be kept low before the Lord. Why, what are we as
a Church? There are some sad sinners among us who are such clever
hypocrites that we cannot find them out! And there are others who walk
so ill that we fear they are tares among the wheat. The best of us are
far from being as good as we should be! We have all grave accusations
to bring against ourselves. If the Lord Jesus were to write on the
ground here and say, "He that is without fault among
you, let him throw the first stone at lukewarm Christians," I do not
know who is the oldest and whether he would try to go out first, but I
should follow very closely at his heels! We are all verily guilty
before the Lord! We have not done as we ought, nor as we might–we are
unworthy that He should use us! And if He should write, "Ichabod," in
letters of fire over this Tabernacle, and leave this House to be
desolate as Shiloh was of old, He might well do it and none could blame
Him. Let us all confess this.
Next, there is not only difficulty in ourselves but difficulty in the
work. We want to see all these people converted to God, and truly some
of our hearers are hopeless enough, for I have been preaching to them
for ten or twelve years and they are not a whit the better but the
worse for it–they have grown Gospel-hardened! My voice used to startle
you once, and the honest Truth of God made you feel–but it is not so
now. You are as used to my voice as the miller to the click of his
mill. You are made ready for the uttermost wrath of God–for there is
no place that can prepare a man for Hell so readily as the place of
rejected invitations and neglected admonitions.
Yet, dear Hearers, we desire to see you converted, and by the Grace of
God we hope to see it! But what can we do? The preacher can do nothing,
for he has done his best to bring you to Christ and has failed. And all
that any of our most earnest friends can suggest will fail, also. The
work is impossible with us, but do we therefore give up the attempt?
No, for is it not written, "I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek you
My face in vain"? We cannot seek God's face in vain, and if this Church
continues to pray as it has done, an answer of peace must be given us!
We do not know how the promise is to be fulfilled, but we believe it
will be fulfilled, and we leave it with our God.
There is another promise, "He shall see of the travail of His soul and
be satisfied." Christ must see of His soul's travail. He must see of it
in this place, too! We expect to see men converted in this place, and
to hear multitudes of sinners crying, "What must I do to be saved?" We
have God's promise for it! We cannot do it, but He can. What shall we
do? Why, just in joyous confidence continue steadfast, unmovable,
always abounding in the work of the Lord! Go again to our knees in
prayer feeling that the result is not haphazard! Jesus pleads His
wounds and cannot be denied. The Lord cannot draw back from His Word.
He must do according to His people's desires when He Himself writes
those desires upon their hearts!
And when they have grown into earnest striving, and wrestling, and
mounted into believing expectations they must be fulfilled! If we can
only get a dozen men and women among you really humbled before God to
feel your own emptiness, and yet to believe the promise, I expect to
see within the next few months a blessing of such an extent as we have
never received before. God send this, and His be the glory!
III. For a minute–if there had been time, I should have liked to apply
this principle TO EVERY PLEADING SOUL that is wrestling with God in
prayer, but as I have not the time I will dismiss it in these words.
Dear Friends, if your heart has been set upon any special object in
prayer. If you have an express promise for it (and mark, that is
indispensable), you must not be staggered if the object of your desire
seems farther off now than when you first began to pray. If even after
months of supplication the thing should seem more difficult now of
attainment than ever it was, wait at the Mercy Seat in the full
persuasion that although God may take His time, and that time may not
be your time, yet He must and will redeem His promise when the fullness
of time has come.
If you have prayed for the salvation of your child, or husband, or
friend, and that person has grown worse instead of better, do not cease
praying! If that dear little one has become more obstinate and that
husband even more profane, still God must be held to His Word! And if
you have the faith to challenge His attributes of faithfulness and
power, assuredly He never did and never will let your prayers fall
fruitless to the ground! And I repeat the word that you may be sure to
carry that away with you–let not the fact that the answer seems
farther off than ever be any discouragement to you. Remember that to
trust God in the light is nothing–but to trust Him in the dark–that
is faith!
To rest upon God when everything witnesses with God is nothing, but to
believe God when everything gives Him the lie–that is faith! To
believe that all shall go well when outward Providences blow softly is
any fool's play, but to believe that it must and shall be well when
storms and tempests are round about you, and you are blown farther and
farther from the harbor of your desire–this is a work of Divine Grace!
By this shall you know whether you are a child of God or not–by seeing
whether you can exercise faith in the power ofprayer when all things
forbid you to hope.
IV. I desire to spend the last five minutes in addressing THE SEEKER'S
UNSTAGGERING FAITH. Surely among this throng there must be some of you
who long to be saved! If so, it is likely that since you have begun to
seek salvation,
instead of being more happy, you are far more miserable. You imagined
at one time that you could believe in Jesus whenever you liked–that
you could become a Christian at your own will at any moment! And now
you wake up to find that the will is present with you, but how to
perform that which you desire, you find not!
You desire to break the chains of sin, but those sins were far easier
to bind than to loose. You want to come to Jesus with a broken heart,
but your heart refuses to break. You long to trust Jesus, but your
unbelief is so mighty that you cannot see His Cross–you cannot look
with the look which makes a sinner live! Will you think me cruel if I
say I am glad to find you in this poverty-stricken state? I believe
that in your case you must know your own powerlessness, you must be
brought to feel that as far as salvation is concerned you are dead,
utterly dead.
Every sinner must learn that he is by nature dead in trespasses and
sins, and that the work of salvation is a work impossible to him–it is
high above–out of his reach. I want you to know that more and more,
and if it should drive you to a thorough self-despair, none will be
more thankful than I shall be, for despair is the nearest way to faith
in our philosophy. Self-despair throws a man upon his God. He feels
that he can do nothing and he turns to One who can do all things. Now,
Friend, if you are as I have said, convinced of your nothingness, the
next thing is, can you find a promise?
There is one I pray the Lord to give you this morning: "Whoever calls
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Have you called upon the
name of the Lord? That is to say, have you cried to Him, "God be
merciful to me a sinner"? Well, if you have not, I pray you do it now.
If you so call you must be saved. True, you cannot save yourself! I am
glad you know that. But what you cannot do, in that you are weak
through the flesh, God will do, for there is His promise, "Whoever
comes to Me I will in no wise cast out."
Now, will you come? If so, you cannot be cast out! "Whoever believes on
Him is not condemned." Do you believe on the Lord Jesus? Do you take
Him now to be your Savior? If you do, your personal lack of power shall
be no hindrance. You have no power whatever, but there is none needed
in you! When Christ raised the dead he did not rake among the ashes to
find a lingering spark of vitality, but He said, "Live!" And if you are
as dead as Lazarus of whom Martha said, "Lord, by this time he stinks,"
the voice of mercy can yet make you live! Can you believe this? If you
can believe in Jesus you shall be saved!
If you can believe that Jehovah Jesus, the Son of God, can save you,
and if you can rest upon His merits–though in you there is no grain of
merit, though in you there is no vestige of power or spiritual
strength–this shall not stand in your way! And though your sins are as
damnable as those of Satan, and your iniquity of heart as deep as Hell
itself, yet if you can trust in Jesus to save you, difficulty vanishes
before the merit of His blood! I know you say, "If I felt happy I could
trust Christ. If I felt tender, if I felt holy." No, Friend, you would
not be trusting Christ, you would be trusting your feelings, and your
tenderness would be your confidence!
But now you have no feeling of tenderness or holiness that can
recommend you to God. Come, then, as you are– wretched, undone,
self-condemned, and self-abhorred–come and cast yourself upon the
mercy of God as He reveals Himself in the bleeding Body of His dear
Son! And if you can do this you will glorify God. "Oh," you say, "how
could such a poor soul as I am ever bring glory to God?" Sinner, I say
it is in your power, if God enables you, to bring more glory to God in
a certain sense than the living saint can, for the living saint only
believes that God can keep him alive, but for you, under a pressing
sense of guilt still to believe that Jesus can give you perfect liberty
and save you–oh, this glorifies Him!
There is not an angel before the Throne of God who can believe such
great things of God as you can! An angel has no sin. He cannot,
therefore, believe that Jesus can put away his sin, but you can. "If
you believe in Jesus, though your sins are as scarlet they shall be as
wool. Though they are red like crimson they shall be whiter than snow."
If you do God the honor to believe that He can do what He has said–if
you rest in Jesus–you shall have the comfort, He shall have the glory,
and your soul shall have the salvation! Emptied of self you have no
life, no strength, no goodness! In fact you have nothing to recommend
you, but come as you are and the Lord will bless you and give you the
desire of your heart, and unto Him be the glory! Amen.
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The Dawn of Revival, or Prayer Speedily Answered
A sermon