Believing On Jesus–and Its Counterfeits

Believing On Jesus–and Its Counterfeits

(No. 2191)

A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 22, 1891,

BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.

"As He spoke these words, many believed on Him. Then said Jesus to
those Jews which had believed Him, If you continue in My Word, then are
you My disciples, indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth
shall make you free." John 8:30-32.

Our Lord, on this occasion, was surrounded by quibblers. We must not be
astonished if the like should happen to us when declaring the Gospel.
Our Lord went on preaching, all the same, and He did not conceal
objectionable Truth because of opposition–say, rather, that He set it
forth with greater boldness and decision when surrounded by His
enemies! The more they opposed, the more He testified.

The Lord Jesus also told the contradicting sinners that the day would
come when quibblers would be convicted. Observe how He put it–"When
you have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall you know that I am He,
and that I do nothing of Myself." Quibblers may have a fine time of it
just now, but they will, one day, be convicted either to their
conversion or their confusion! Let us hope that many will see the Truth
before they die–early enough to seek and find a Savior. But many in
our Lord's day who discovered it after His uplifting on the Cross and
His uplifting from the grave, came by their knowledge sadly late, for
in the meantime they had crucified the Lord of Glory. Ah, how much of
sin comes out of delayed faith! A far greater number of these Jews were
convicted in their minds altogether too late, for when they were driven
to feel, by the attendant circumstances of His Crucifixion and
Resurrection, that He really was the Son of God, they still persevered
in rebellion and sank into obstinate rejection of His claims. On such
His blood rested to their eternal condemnation. Quibblers, you may riot
for a little season, but your time is short! The hour will come when
you shall behold and wonder–and perish. I pray that there may come an
end to your unbelief by your being convicted in this life and led to
repentance. But if it is not so, you will certainly be ashamed and
confounded in the day when the Lord shall come in His Glory and you
shall, in vain, beseech the mountains to fall upon you and hide you
from His face!

Quibblers ought to be convinced even now–the Savior implies this when
He adds, "He that sent Me is with Me: the Father has not left Me alone;
for I always do those things that please Him." The Character of Jesus
should have convinced the Jews of His mission. His evident obedience to
God and the equally evident witness of God to Him, would have led them
to see His Messiahship if they had not been blinded by prejudice and
pride. Any candid man at the present day, studying the life of Christ
and observing His unique Character, should be convinced that He is the
Son of God–and should come to believe in Him.

But, Beloved, though the Savior was thus surrounded with objectors and
had so much to endure from their ignorance and their malice, yet His
controversies with them were not without hopeful effects, for our text
informs us, "As He spoke these words, many believed on Him." Albeit we
may be surrounded with general and virulent opposition, yet there will
be fruit from the preaching of the Truth of God. The Word of the Lord
shall not return unto Him void–it shall prosper in the thing whereto
God has sent it. We may hope that not only a few, but many will accept
the sacred testimony, since we see that, even in the midst of an
exceedingly hot dispute, it happened that, "As He spoke these words,
many believed on Him."

I. These Believers were not all of one kind and upon that fact I shall
enlarge in this beginning of my sermon. Let that stand as our first
observation upon the text–OUR LORD HAD DIFFERENT KINDS OF BELIEVERS
AROUND HIM. There were evidently two sorts of Believers who may be set
forth to you by the differing expressions used in the Revised Version.
We read in verse thirty, "Many believed on Him." And then in the 31st
verse we read of "those Jews which

had believed Him." Mark the distinction between, "believed on Him" and,
"had believed Him." It is a singular expression, also, "Those Jews
which had believed Him." They were still Jews as to their traditional
belief and connection– Jews first of all–whatever they might be in
connection with their Judaism. The omission of the word, "on," or,
"in," is a happy one, because it is exactly accurate, and it helps to
bring out an important distinction while it also accounts for what
seems so strange, that those who had believed Him should, almost
immediately after, charge Him with being a Samaritan and having a
devil, and should even take up stones to stone Him! There were two
sorts of Believers and on these I will speak a while.

The first, "believed on Him.''" These are the right kind. What is it to
believe on Christ? It means not only to accept what He says as true and
to believe that He is the Messiah and the Son of God, but trustfully to
rest in Him. To believe on Him is to take Him as the ground of our
hope, as our Savior, upon whom we depend for salvation. When we believe
in Him or on Him, we accept Him as God sets Him forth–and we make use
of Him by trusting on Him to do for us what God has appointed Him to
do. This trusting on Jesus is saving faith! "As many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on His name." "He that believes on the Son has everlasting
life." To believe Him may be a very different thing from believing on
Him. Such belief may fall far short of saving faith. To believe on Him
means heartily to give yourself up to Him and to follow Him as the Way,
the Truth and the Life to you. Rejecting all rival confidences, the
heart leans all its weight on Jesus and leaves all its burdens with
Him. Believing in Him, we repose all our concerns, for time and for
eternity, in His hands.

To believe on Him is also to believe implicitly. We believe all that He
may yet say. We accept not only what He says which we can fully
understand, but that which as yet is dark to us. We so believe in Him
that we go with Him in all His teachings, be they what they may. We not
only go as far as He has revealed Himself to us, but we are prepared to
go as much farther as He pleases. What He says is the Truth of God to
us, on the sole evidence that He says it! We believe in Jesus, not
because we judge that what He says can be endorsed by our understanding
(though that is, indeed, the case), but because He says it! Our Lord's
Word is reason enough for us. The ipse dixit of the Son of God suffices
us, even if all men deny His assertions. He has said it and He is the
Truth of God, itself. We believe on Him–Son of God and Son of Man,
living, dying, risen again, ascended into the heavens–we trust Him. He
is our Infallible Prophet and our Omniscient Teacher. We rest ourselves
wholly on Him! That is saving faith. Oh, that it may be said of this
congregation, "Many believed on Him"!

But there is another kind of faith which was produced by the Savior's
testimony. It had much of hope in it and yet it never came to anything.
There is a temporary faith which believes Jesus, in a sense, and after
its own way of understanding Him, or rather of misunderstanding Him.
This faith believes about Him; believes that He was undoubtedly sent of
God; that He was a great Prophet; that what He says is, to a high
degree, reasonable and right and so forth. This faith believes what He
has just now said, but it is not prepared to believe on Him so as to
accept everything that He may say at another time. This faith believes
everything that commands itself to its own judgement–it does not, in
fact, believe in Jesus, but believes in itself–and in Him only so far
as He agrees with its own opinions. This faith is not prepared to obey
Christ and accept Him as its Master and Lord. This was the kind of
faith these Jews possessed–it was a faith which was so crowded up with
a mass of favorite prejudices that before long it was smothered by
them! They might accept Jesus as the Messiah, but then He must be the
kind of Messiah they had always pictured in their own minds–a leader
who would defeat the Romans, who would deliver Palestine from the
foreign yoke, rebuild the Temple and glorify the Jewish race. They half
hoped that He might turn out to be a great leader for their own
purposes, but they did not believe in Him as He revealed Himself as the
Light of the world, as the Son of God and as One with the Father.

A great deal of disbelief and misbelief is current at the present day.
We are encouraged by certain persons to include in our churches all
that have any sort of belief and, indeed, the line is to be more
inclusive, still, for those who have no belief at all are to find an
open door! The Church of Christ is to be a menagerie of creatures of
every kind. I fear if they come into this Noah's ark, wild beasts, they
will also go out wild beasts. Only those who enter by the door of
regeneration and spiritual faith will, in very deed, be within the
Kingdom of the Lord! If they have received Christ, we may receive them
into His Church, but not else. It is true, the people of temporary
faith will creep into the visible Church, but they do so on their own
responsibility.

Nor need we think that some strange thing has happened to us as a
Church when the baser sort are found among us, for one such entered
into that college of Apostles–a man who, doubtless, believed the words
of Jesus, and thought Him to be the Messiah. I mean Judas, who, with a
traitor's hand, sold his Master. His intellect had been convinced, but
his heart had never been renewed. He even dared to use his profession
of religion and the position which it brought him, as a means of
unhallowed gain. Another notable believer of this sort was Simon Magus,
who believed because he saw the signs and wonders worked by the
Apostles. But as he, also, sought to make gain of godliness, he
remained in the gall of bitterness and in the bonds of iniquity–and
never became "a disciple, indeed." There is a greater one than all
these, even the devils. We read that "the devils believe and tremble."
They hold the faith and feel something of the power of it, for they
tremble which is more than modern critics do! Devils know that Jesus is
the Christ of God, for they have, upon occasion, confessed it, and have
borne witness to the Gospel in the open streets, crying after the
preachers of the Word. And yet, with all their knowledge, and with much
of a sort of faith, and with an apprehension which leads to trembling,
they still remain devils and make no advance towards God.

Ah, my Hearers! Beware of that faith which is a mere intellectual
movement, which does not control the heart and the life. To come to
faith through a cold argument and to feel no spiritual life is but a
poor business. You need a faith that leads you to an entire reliance
upon the Person of Jesus, to the giving up of everything to Him, to the
reception of Him as your Savior and King, your All in All. You have not
believed unto eternal life unless you have so believed on Him that you
make Him the foundation and cornerstone of your hope! You must believe
in Him as taking away sin! God has set Him forth to be the Propitiation
for sin and you must believe on Him in that capacity! This will suffice
upon our first head–and this very naturally leads us to the second
remark.

II. OUR LORD TAKES NOTICE EVEN OF THE LOWEST SORT OF FAITH. When He saw
that these people believed Him in a measure and were willing to accept
His testimony so far as they comprehended it, He looked upon them
hopefully and spoke to them. Out of a weak and imperfect faith,
something better may arise. Saving faith, in its secret beginnings, may
be contained in this common and doubtful faith. It is written, "When
the Son of Man comes, shall He find faith on the earth?" Certainly He
can find it if anyone can! He has a very quick eye for faith. He deals
with little faith as we used to do with a spark in the tinder, in the
days of our boyhood. When we had struck a spark and it fell into the
tinder–though it was a very tiny one–we watched it eagerly, we blew
upon it softly and we were zealous to increase it, so that we might
kindle our match thereby. When our Lord Jesus sees a tiny spark of
faith in a man's heart, though it is quite insufficient, of itself, for
salvation, yet He regards it with hope and watches over it, if, haply,
this little faith may grow to something more. It is the way of our
compassionate Lord not to quench the smoking flax, nor break the
bruised reed. If any of you have only a little faith, now, and that
marred by ignorance and prejudice, it may be like a connecting thread
between you and Jesus–and the thread may thicken to a cable. Your
partial and feeble faith as yet only takes hold upon a part of the
Revelation of God, but I am glad that it takes hold on anything which
is from above! I would not roughly break that single holdfast which now
links you to the Truth of God–and yet I would not have you trust to it
as though it would stand the stress of tempest. Oh, that your faith may
be increased till you trustfully commit yourself to Jesus and believe
in Him unto eternal life!

Our Lord addressed Himself especially to these questionable Believers.
He turned from His assured disciples to look after those who were more
in danger. Their character was a curious combination–full of
peril–"Jews who believed Him." You that are familiar with the New
Testament Scriptures will think the phrase more suggestive than it, at
first sight, appears. It reminds me of those of you who believe the
Gospel and still remain worldly, impenitent, prayerless. You fear the
Lord and serve other gods! You are not infidels in name, but you are
atheists in life! To you there is urgent need that I speak. The Master
turned round and spoke to those who were Believers and yet not
Believers–holding with Jesus–and yet really opposed to Him. Oh, you
that halt between two opinions, my Lord looks on you with a pitying
hopefulness and He speaks especially to you at this time! May you have
Divine Grace to hear and obey His Word!

It is clear that He encourages them, but He does not flatter them. He
says, "if." A great, "if," hovered over them like a threatening cloud.
Wisely does our Lord commence His word to them with, "if." "If you
continue in My Word, then are you My disciples, indeed." Continuance is
the sure test of the genuine Believer. Our Lord does not say, "Go your
way, you are not My disciples." He, in effect, says, "I stand in doubt
of you. The proof of your discipleship will be your persevering in your
faith." If we say that we believe in Jesus, we must prove it by abiding
in believing and by still further be-

lieving! The Word of Jesus must be the object of our faith–into that
Word we must enter–and in that Word we must continue. Beginning to
believe is nothing unless we continue to believe!

Our Lord showed His interest in the weaker sort of Believers by helping
them on in the safe way, urging them to continue in His Word. "You
believe," He seems to say, "continue to believe! Believe more. Believe
all that I say. You have entered into My Word–dive deeper into it and
abide in it. Let My Word surround you–dwell in it–continue in it."
Good advice this! And it is the advice I would give in my Master's name
to any here who are feeling after Christ and His Gospel. As far as you
have already come in faith, keep fast hold and seek for more! You are
on the right track in believing Jesus–a track which will lead to the
King's Highway if fairly followed. Any kind of faith is better than
that deadly doubt which is cried up so much nowadays! By faith comes
salvation, but by doubt comes the opposite! Your feeble and imperfect
believing has in it much of hopefulness, but it must be continued, or
we shall be disappointed. Your home and refuge must be the Word of the
Lord Jesus and in that refuge you must abide!

Believe what Jesus says in His New Testament of Love. Whatever you find
that He reveals by Himself or by His Apostles, receive it without
question! Hold fast His Word and let it hold you fast. First, believe
Him, believe Him to be true, believe Him to be sent of God for your
salvation–and then put yourself into His hands. When you have
committed yourself to Him, continue to do so. Do not run away from your
faith because of ridicule. Mind that you so believe in Jesus as to
practice what He commands–you cannot continue in His Word unless you
learn to obey it. The text of faith is obedience. What He bids you, do
it. Let your life be affected by the Truth He teaches. Let your whole
mind, thought, desire, speech, bearing and conversation be colored and
savored by your full faith in Jesus! Enter into His Word as a man into
a stream and live there as a fish in the water!

"Continue in My word." Get into Christ's Word as a sinking sailor would
get into a lifeboat and, once there, keep inside the boat–do not throw
yourself out into the stormy waves through despair–but continue in the
place of hope. This is Christ's gracious counsel to those in whom there
seems to be some hopeful sign.

My Hearers, we never preach the saving power of temporary, unpractical,
unsanctifying faith! If a man says, "I believe in Christ and,
therefore, I shall be saved, his faith will have to be tested by his
life. If, sometime after, he has no faith in Christ, that faith which
he claimed to have is proven to be good for nothing! The faith of God's
elect is an abiding faith! It is precious faith and, like precious
metal, it survives the fire! "Now abides faith, hope, charity, these
three." Thus true faith is classed among the abiding things–it is
undying, unquenchable. If you truly believe in Jesus, it is for life!
Saving faith is a life-long act. It is the relinquishment of all trust
in self, once and for all, and the trusting in Jesus forever. He is and
always shall be our only confidence. That is the faith which saves.

But the temporary faith which comes and goes, is worth nothing. The
shout of, "I believe it," too often ends when the excitement is over.
To sing, "I do believe, I will believe," is well enough–but unless
that believing appertains to daily life and changes the inner
nature–and abides even till death–it has not saved the man. The
measure of faith of which we have been speaking may turn out to be the
beginning of saving faith, but it may, on the other hand, turn out to
be a mere deception soon to be dispelled–a morning cloud which
disappears–an early dew exhaled by the sun.

I think I have said enough upon my second point. Let it encourage you,
that our Lord takes notice, even of the lowest kind of faith. But let
it also warn you, when you see that He receives it with an, "if," and
goes on carefully to exhort and warn, lest the hopeful thing should die
and its promise should be unfulfilled.

III. But, next, OUR LORD SETS BEFORE THESE PEOPLE INDUCEMENTS TO
CONTINUE IN HIS WORD.

"Jesus therefore said to those Jews which had believed Him, If you
abide in My Word, then are you truly My disciples, indeed; and you
shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Observe three
inducements, each one of them great–and when placed together
exceedingly attractive.

The first was certified discipleship–"Then are you My disciples,
indeed." That is to say, if they persevered in obeying His Word, they
would be disciples, not in name only, but in truth. It is a small thing
to be called Christians, but it is a great matter to truly be
Christians. Further, they would not be merely superficial learners, but
deeply taught and inwardly instructed disciples of Jesus. They would
really and truly know what Jesus taught and would receive it into their
inmost souls–they would be not untrained beginners in the school of
Christ, but pupils of the sixth form, "disciples, indeed."

Dear Friends, it is a great thing to be no longer a probationer, but a
disciple, indeed! There is more in the expression than I can readily
set forth in words. A certain person says he is a disciple of Christ,
but you would never know it if he did not tell you! You might live with
him for years without hearing an expression or remarking an action
which is distinctly Christian–this is NOT to be a disciple, indeed!
Another man loves his Lord and treasures His Words. He puts his
disci-pleship of Christ before everything–and you cannot live with him
a single day without perceiving a savor of Christ in his words and
action. You say of him, "That man is, indeed, a Christian!" In such a
case, religion is not exhibited by way of pride, as with the Pharisees
of old, but it is seen because it is there and must shine forth. Faith
throbs in the man's pulse! It looks out from his eyes. It tunes his
voice and lights up his countenance! It rules his house and controls
his business. The man lives for Jesus and if it were necessary, he
would die for Him. How we prize a thoroughbred Believer! Your mongrel
is a poor animal. Blessed is he who makes his Master's service his
pleasure! His Lord's Law is his delight! His Savior's Glory the
absorbing occupation of his time. He is a disciple, indeed!

To be a disciple, indeed, creates within the mind a blissful assurance.
Some are always asking themselves, "Am I truly a disciple?" It is not
amazing that they ask the question, for it is a great question. But he
that continues in Christ's Word in loving obedience soon ceases to ask
that question–he has the witness in himself, or, better still, as some
read it, he has the witness in Christ. He knows that he is Christ's
disciple, for he continually follows his Master. He not only believes,
but he knows that he believes! He has continued in the Word so long
that he has no doubt about his being in it. How can he doubt, when he
is, from hour to hour, feeding on the Word in which he lives like a
mite feasting upon the cheese in which he dwells? He is a disciple,
indeed, for his deeds are those of a disciple. Oh, you that believe my
Master at times and up to a certain point, you must go on to believe
Him more constantly, more thoroughly, more absolutely! May you
cheerfully stake your souls upon your Lord's veracity! O my Friend, if
you would find Jesus to be your Savior, surrender yourself to His
wisdom, yield your whole being to His power! So shall you become a
disciple, indeed, and be able to claim all the love, care, comfort and
honor which such a Lord puts on His faithful disciples! May you bring
forth much fruit– so shall you be His disciples–and to you shall be
the double portion which belongs to those who follow the Lamb wherever
He goes.

The next blessing which our Lord set before Believers was that of
sacred knowledge. Observe, "You shall know the truth"–not a truth, but
the truth–the saving, purifying, glorifying Truth of God! Keep on
believing and Jesus will teach you that great Truth which is above all
other truth–essential, quickening, cleansing, Divine! You shall know
the Truth of God! You may be charged with dogmatism, but you will not
flinch from the assurance that you know the Truth! You no longer guess
at Truth, nor hit on a sliding scale of probabilities, but you know it
assuredly! You will grow familiar with it! The Truth of God will be to
you a well-known friend! You will discriminate so as to know the Truth
when you see it and detect it, at once, from the deceptive falsehood.
You will know the Truth and you will not be led away by the flattering
voice of error. You will have the touchstone with you and will not be
deceived by base metals. You will so know the Truth of God as to be
influenced by it, actuated by it, filled by it, strengthened by it,
comforted by it and, by its power, you will, yourself, be made true!
Surely this is a good reason for abiding in Christ's Words!

The third benefit was spiritual liberty–"The truth shall make you
free." Our Savior further on explains that He means free from sin. He
that lives in sin is the slave of sin. Sincere belief in the Word of
Christ leads to emancipation from the tyrannical power of the evil
which dwells in our members and from the dominating power of the sin
which rules in the customs of the world. "The truth shall make you
free." You shall be free from your own prejudices, prides and lusts.
You shall be free from the fear of man. If you have sunk so low as
almost to ask of the great ones permission to breathe, you shall break
that irksome fetter! The Truth of God known within your spirit shall
make a free man of you! Up to now you have been the bondsman of self.
You have enquired, "What will this thing profit me?" And thus the
desire of self-aggrandizement has ruled everything! But when Jesus is
your Lord, you shall be free from this sordid motive! "The truth shall
make you free." This is a noble saying! Oh, the liberty that comes into
the soul through believing on Jesus, who is the Truth! It makes life to
be life, indeed, when this freedom is enjoyed! In laying hold on the
Truth of God as it is in Jesus, the soul lays hold on the charter of
her liberties and she enters on her citizenship in Heaven!

Dear Brothers and Sisters, I hope many here enjoy these three
privileges. Disciples, indeed, you believe anything that is taught to
you in God's Word, be it what it may. The Truth of God has so entered
into you that you now know it and are sure. And this believed-Truth has
made you so free that you defy the fetters which men would cast around
you! Your

Lord has caused you to believe in Him and you have now found the
element wherein your soul may abide in life, light and liberty. Thus
our Lord dealt with those in whom He saw some hopeful signs–He set
choice blessings before them to induce them to proceed further.

IV. But now, fourthly, OUR LORD THUS TESTED THEM BY THE MOST EFFECTUAL
MEANS. The test was very sharp in its action and sudden in its results.
He said to them, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make
you free." And what follows? "They answered Him"–answered Him rather
than believed Him! How did they answer? Did they say, "Yes, Lord, we
believe. Teach us Your Truth and make us free"? No, no. They cried, "We
are Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any man–why do You
say, You shall be made free"? These supposed Believers stumbled at the
Lord's Word–stumbled at a privilege. Jesus said, "The truth shall make
you free," and that offended them! To make freedom a stumbling block is
folly! On another occasion our Lord spoke to His disciples concerning
eating His flesh and drinking His blood. And then we read, "From that
time many of His disciples went back, and walked no more with Him." The
privilege of feeding upon His Sacrifice, which binds many of us to Him
with bands of love, drove others away from Him with cords of hate! Sad
fact this!

But it is so in many ways. I believe that God chose His people from
before the foundation of the world, I rejoice in the glorious Doctrine
of Election! But a great many refuse to believe because of this
heavenly privilege. The privileges of the Gospel are the stumbling
blocks of legalists! It is too large a Gospel for narrow souls, for, it
is too glorious a Gospel for groveling intellects. Men refuse the gift
of God because it is so excellent. If we would cut it down till there
was nothing left but a more cheese-paring of Grace, I suppose they
would accept it. But the very Glory of the Gospel which should
fascinate and attract them, repels and disheartens them!

The reason why these Jews became so angry with our Lord was that He
touched their pride. "Make us free, indeed!" they cried. "We always
were free! We were never slaves. We enjoy the largest rights through
our father Abraham. We have never come under the dominion of any false
prophet or idol god. Make us free, indeed! How can You say this?" Thus
the wild thinker claims that he is free and needs no liberty from
Christ. The sinner who is in bondage to his passions says that he leads
a free and easy life and scorns the idea of being set at liberty, as if
he were a slave! The more a slave a man is to his own conceit or his
own lusts, the more he talks about his freedom! We would not know that
he was free if he did not call himself so. Unbelief calls itself,
"Honest doubt," and not without cause, for we would not have known it
to be honest if it had not labeled itself so. When a man puts up in his
shop window, "No cheating practiced here," I should trade next door.
"He protests too much." Your free love, free thought, free life and so
forth, are the empty mockery of freedom! Oh, that men knew their
state–and then freedom would be prized! For lack of self-knowledge,
the blessings of the Gospel prove an offense when they should have
hearty welcome.

The prejudices of the Jews which believed Him were wounded. Oh, how
often do we find men who will hear the Gospel just so far, and no
farther! They have not believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. They have not
entered into His Word so as to be prepared to believe all that He
teaches and, consequently, when some doctrine is heard which grates
upon their feelings, or jars on their judgments, or conflicts with
their original conceptions, straightway they grow angry with their
Savior! After all, it would seem, from the criticisms which you offer,
that you know better than the Son of God! Your judgment would seem to
be clearer than His, for you sit in judgment upon His Word! What is
Christ to you? Why, He comes before you like the prisoner who stood
before Pilate. You question Him, as the Roman Governor did when he
asked, "What is truth?" You believe what you choose to believe and
disbelieve what you choose to disbelieve! In such a case, who is the
greater, the disciple or his Master? Surely you presume too much when
you act as judge of Him who is to be the Judge of all the earth!

You are no disciple of His! You can never know the Truth and the Truth
can never make you free, indeed! No blessing can come to you since you
put yourself out of its way. You may talk about believing, but you have
not believed, and you cannot be saved by Jesus until you yield your
judgment to His Infallibility, your heart to His Rule, your every
faculty to His Grace. Welcome Him as undisputed Lord of your bosom and
crown Him Lord of All within your soul–such loyal faith He claims and
this He must have–or you will fall short of His salvation.

These people soon showed their true character, for very soon afterwards
they said, "Now we know that you have a devil"–and they took up stones
to cast at Him! Oh, that we may be delivered from having a faith which
will end in open rejection of the Lord!

V. I close with a fifth point–OUR LORD DESERVES OF US THE HIGHEST FORM
OF FAITH–yes, the highest degree of faith which is possible! Would you
mind looking in your Bibles into the next chapter, which fitly follows
the present one? It contains the story of the man blind from his birth,
to whom the Savior gave sight. Let me read a description of the kind of
faith which I desire for you all. "Jesus heard that they had cast him
out; and when He had found him, He said to him, Do you believe on the
Son of God? He answered and said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe
on Him? And Jesus said to him, You have both seen Him and it is He that
talks with you. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him."
That is the faith which saves–the faith which learns of Jesus from
Jesus–hears and believes, and takes Jesus to be its God! The faith
which bows at the feet of Jesus and worships Him as Divine is the faith
which saves!

Men will not do this till their eyes have been opened. While they say,
"We see," their sin remains and their blindness, too. Only he who can
say, "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now I see," will
worship Jesus with all his heart. The gracious Lord has come and
touched my sightless eyes and given me heavenly sight and, therefore, I
trust Him! I, that could see nothing at all, have seen Him! I, that had
no idea of what light was, for I was born blind, I have seen the light
through Him and I both believe and adore! Oh, for a worshipping
faith–faith on its knees in the Presence of the Son of God! Faith
beholding Jesus with the eyes which He has opened!

"Alas," says one, "I wish I had that faith." Listen, then, that you may
find it. Faith comes by hearing. When I meet with converted persons, I
like them to tell me what text was blessed to them, for then my mind
runs on that text. I have sometimes asked a convert, "What part of the
sermon was it that God blessed to you? Because I would like to repeat
that passage more than once or twice. I would like to "tell it o'er and
o'er again." Perhaps the Lord would bless it to another, and another.
Think, then, what part of our Lord's sermon was it that brought faith
to those many who believed on Him? I think it was the 28th and 29th
verses.

In verse 28 the Lord spoke of His death and all that went with it, and
all that came out of it–"When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then
shall you know that I am He." How did they lift Him up? They lifted Him
up on the Cross–it alludes to His Crucifixion. But they did not know
that in another sense they lifted Him up–it was through His death that
there was a possibility of His Resurrection! And when He rose again and
ascended up on high, the Holy Spirit was poured out upon the
Church–and He entered into Heaven to make intercession for us–and all
this was emphatically a lifting up!

The Cross and its surroundings remain, to this day, the great arguments
for our holy faith. The things that should lead men to believe on Jesus
Christ are found at His Cross. He was the Son of God, but He died the
death of the Cross for love of men. Being dead and buried, His Father
raised Him from the dead and thus gave evidence of His mission and of
His acceptance with God. There is no question about His
Resurrection–it is proved beyond all doubt that Jesus rose again from
the dead on the third day. His disciples saw Him for the space of 40
days and ate and drank with Him–and then they beheld Him go up into
Heaven till a cloud received Him out of their sight. They waited at
Jerusalem and the Holy Spirit came upon them in cloven tongues, the
Divine testimony to His ascended power! By the preaching of His Word in
the power of the Holy Spirit, the nations were made to hear concerning
Jesus, the Savior, and bowed before His Cross.

Now, the more you think of this unique occurrence–this fact which
could not have been a piece of imagination, this fact which was
attested by honest men, who bled and died for it–the more you think of
this, I say, the more you will feel faith stealing over your spirit!
Christ on the Cross is thought to be hard to believe in, but it is not
so, for the more you know of a Crucified Christ, the more easy will
faith become! Christ raised to the Crown by His Cross is the great
breeder of faith! Christ rising from the dead is a marvel, yet it is
the keystone of the arch of faith. Believe it! Christ gone into
Glory–the Son of God bearing His Manhood into the highest place of
supreme sovereignty and pleading there for guilty men–think much of
this Truth of God and you will find faith come to you, for "faith comes
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Especially is faith
begotten and nourished by that part of God's Word which treats of the
Cross and the Crown–the double lifting up of Jesus!

Also, once more, and I have done–you will find faith much helped by
looking to the life of Jesus set forth in the Gospels. Read the verse,
"He that sent Me is with Me: the Father has not left Me alone, for I
always do those things that please Him." What a perfect life is that of
Jesus! Could it have been invented? He who could have sketched it from
his imagination must, himself, have been perfect. But, then, no perfect
man could have been guilty of a forgery. Jesus was

obedient to the Father in all things and yet He put no force upon
Himself in so doing–it was natural to Him to be holy. It was His meat
and His drink to do the will of Him that sent Him, and to finish His
work. And the God of Heaven, by His miracles, was with Him and bore
witness to Him.

There is no superfluous miracle recorded in the Gospels–they are all
necessary evidence, such as was called for in that court wherein the
Perfection, the Messiahship, the Deity of our Lord were tried. If you
read His whole life through till you come to His death, and even study
that death in which the Father hid His face from Him as to the
enjoyment of His smile, you can see that God was always with His Son
Jesus, working out His Divine purposes by Him and bearing witness to
Him. God is in accord with Jesus, that is clear. He is with Him even
now! Nobody can doubt that there are such things as conversions, for
they are common phenomena in every living Church of God. And
conversions are God's testimony to the Word of Jesus and the proofs
that the Father and the Holy Spirit are working with the Son.

Think of this, and then yield to the Son of God, since God bears
witness of Him to you! Come along with you, you that have had other
notions. Come and take Jesus to be your Light and Life! You that have
had other confidences, leave them all and believe on Him, for He is
worthy of your utmost confidence. You that have been hesitating,
believe in Jesus once and for all! You that have been procrastinating,
come this very day and listen to that voice which shall at once set you
free! Oh, that you would now trust Jesus, my Lord and my God! May the
good Spirit help you, now, to believe on the Crucified One and may this
be another of those occasions concerning which it shall be written in
the Book of Record, "Many believed on Him"! God grant it, for our Lord
Jesus' sake! Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–John 8:12-59.