“If You Can”–“If You Can”

"If You Can"–"If You Can"

(No. 2224)

A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, OCTOBER 4, 1891,

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN, NEWINGTON.

"If You can do anything, have compassion on us, and help us. Jesus said
unto him, If you can believe, all things are possible to him that
believes." Mark 9:22,23.

WE are all familiar with the story of this youth who was possessed by a
dumb spirit which caused him to fall into violent fits of epilepsy and
worked worse evils, casting him, at times, into the waters and into the
fire to destroy him. The father intended to bring his child to Jesus,
of whom he had heard so much, but our Lord, being absent, he made his
application to the disciples. They failed to effect a cure but,
by-and-by, the Master came from the mountaintop and then the father
addressed himself to the Lord. I shall need you to notice some lessons
from this story before I come to the text.

The main thought which I would emphasize is that our Lord would have us
clearly know, when we seek a blessing, what it is we really seek. If
you go to Jesus Christ for anything, either for yourself, or someone
else, the Savior will earnestly desire that you should know what it is
that you are asking of Him. You know there is much blind
praying–asking for mercies because you know that such and such words
are proper, without having a clear and vivid idea of what the blessing
is which is intended by those words. Now, our Savior loves us to pray
with the understanding and to have a consciousness of our need and some
perception of what it is that we want Him to do. Therefore try to got
into your own heart a clear notion of what it is that you are seeking,
for Christ would have you know why you are pleading with Him.

Hence, when this man came with his sick child, the Savior permitted him
to give a statement of the case and, with the eagerness of love, the
father entered into full particulars of the evil which had befallen his
son. This was not needed by the Savior for His own information–He knew
all about the dumb spirit's possession of the poor lad and all the
misery that had resulted from that possession–but the heart-rending
account was given, first, in order that the father might distinctly
remember the evil from which he desired his child to be saved and,
then, that those who were standing round might know what kind of
miracle it was which Jesus Christ was about to work. Sometimes it will
be a very healthy thing for seekers to stop a while and say to
themselves, "What is it we are seeking?" Christ may say to you, "What
do you want that I should do for you? What is it are you really asking
for?" There are many that cry, "Lord, save me!" who, perhaps, have no
distinct idea from what they are to be saved, or to what they are to be
saved.

In connection with this statement of the case, our Lord had permitted
this poor man to make an application to His disciples. I will not say
that it was on purpose that he might meet with a failure, but I do
believe that failure was meant to teach the man a valuable lesson–and
certainly it was designed to instruct the disciples–showing clearly to
both that all hope lies in Jesus Christ, Himself. You have been
seeking, dear Friend. Now, how have you hoped to get saved? "Why, by
attending the means of Grace," you say. Quite right and I have not a
word to say against the means of Grace any more than I should have had
a word to say against the Apostles! But the means of Grace cannot save
you any more than the Apostles could cast the devil out of that child!
It is not the means of Grace, but it is Christ, Himself, that you must
go to, just as it was not the Apostles, but the Apostles' Master who
had to work this miracle!

Perhaps you have been sitting in these pews for years, expecting
something to come to you by your constant and continued attendance. The
Lord wants to get you thoroughly convinced that you will not be saved
except by going to Jesus Christ, Himself. No Bible-readings, no
sermon-hearings, no, not even prayers, if they are relied upon, can
save you! Your reliance must be upon the wonder-working Christ of God!
If you will trust the Savior, you shall be saved at once. If you can
believe, now, you shall have immediate forgiveness of every sin and
instantaneous salvation by the power of the Christ of God! But, it may
be, you have not thought of this. You have been going round about and
now you are to be sickened

of all that, so that you shall say, like the man in the narrative, "I
spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast him out, and they could
not. I have used the means of Grace, I have heard Your ministers, I
have read good books, but neither books, nor ministers, nor services,
nor all combined, can cast the devil out of me. Lord, You must do it."
The failure of every other hope is another thing that Christ would have
us know when we come to Him for a great blessing.

Yet further, when the poor father had stated the case and had confessed
that he was disappointed with the disciples, yet the Savior caused him
to see another exhibition of the mischief from which he would have his
child saved. Then and there, before them all, as they brought the boy
to Jesus, the devil began to treat him, perhaps, more violently then
ever! He foamed at the mouth and seemed, at last, to fall into such a
condition that those who looked on said, "He is dead. The case is
utterly hopeless." In the very Presence of Christ, the evil spirit made
a supreme effort to retain his hold of his victim, or to destroy the
body in which he dwelt before he left it!

Now, Beloved, the Lord may, in your case, if you are a seeker, permit
sin to break loose in you in a possibly worse form than you have ever
seen before He drives it out. It may be you will give yourself up for
dead. In fact, I hope you may, for when death strikes every carnal hope
and you utterly despair of salvation in yourself, then is the very
moment when the Omnipotent Power of Divine Grace comes in and manifests
itself without limit! Oh, you who are driven, tonight, to utter
self-despair, I am glad of it! I expect to see Christ come to you and
raise you up and say to the evil spirit, "Depart, and enter into him no
more." God grant it may be so!

Or, if your anxiety is about somebody else, it may be that God will
permit the sin in the dear one to break out worse than ever. You have
been praying for months, perhaps for years and, at last, it will seem
quite hopeless. You will bring your husband or your child to Christ and
instead of seeing any change for the better, there may appear, at the
time, to be even a change for the worse! Yet, remember, it was then
that Jesus said, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him
that believes." It may be that He will let us see, more vividly than we
have ever perceived before, the desperateness of the case in order that
we may the more clearly understand the greatness of the mercy which we
are seeking at His hands.

I shall run the text, as it were, with two handles. You see, properly,
it should be confined to the case of a person who is praying for
others, for this was spoken to a father who was pleading for his son.
But the same principle applies all round and so I beg those who are
praying for themselves to take as much of the sermon home as they
can–and may God the Holy Spirit make it suitable to them! Come we,
then, with this introduction, to our text.

There are two "ifs" here. The poor, troubled man said to Christ, "if,"
implying some measure of doubt–"If you can do anything, have
compassion on us, and help us." Then comes the other "if," Jesus said
unto him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him that
believes."

I. Let us begin by saying, in the first place, that THE "IF" IS NOT IN
REGARD TO CHRIST as to whether He can save you, or as to whether, in
answer to prayer, He can save the object of your anxiety. There really
is no, "if," in reference to Christ, though it is quite probable that
your unbelief is suggesting some doubt about His love, or power, or
willingness to save.

There cannot be an, "if," about Christ being able to save a sinner, or
to do anything because, first, He is God's beloved Son. Upon the snowy
slopes of Hermon, adown whose steeps He had come to confront the
multitude in the plain, Christ had been transfigured and in all His
Glory He had shone like the sun in the presence of His three disciples,
whiter than the snow which lay around them and out of the cloud which
overshadowed them there had come forth a Divine Voice, "This is My
beloved Son: hear Him." Now, if Jesus Christ is such a favorite of
Heaven, the darling of the eternal Father, will He deny Him anything? I
do not say that, "if," as being at all doubtful about the matter. The
revelation of the Glory on the mount and the Voice out of the opened
heavens are evidence enough of His Sonship. Even Satan, himself, could
not deny that Jesus was the Son of God. In the wilderness of
temptation, he, indeed, said, "If you are the Son of God, command that
these stones be made bread," but he knew in his heart that Christ was
truly the Son of the Most High God. On many occasions, the demons, whom
Christ cast out, cried aloud to Him, "You are Christ, the Son of God."
Being God's true Son, can anything be impossible for Him? Did He not
say, "All power is given unto Me in Heaven and in earth"? When I think
of the love which God bears to His dear Son, I cannot imagine Him
stinting Christ in power to bless. He is able to save unto the
uttermost all that come unto God by Him, for He is the Everlasting Son
of the Eternal Father!

And remember, next, if that argument is not enough, that Jesus Christ
is God. After that, can there be an, "if," as to His power? What is
there that God cannot do? He has made this world! He has made those
millions of worlds that stud the midnight skies, but all that God has
ever made, though it is far beyond our conceptions, is but as a speck
compared with what He could make if He pleased. He has done exceedingly
great marvels, such as have astounded men, but all that God has ever
done is as nothing compared with what He could do if He willed to do
it, for with Him all things are possible! And Jesus Christ being very
God of very God, all things are possible with Him. He can save everyone
present in this house right now. Breathe a believing prayer to Him and
you will prove His power, for He will save you! His word runs very
quickly and if He does but send it forth, it will belt the world and,
within the next few years, if He chooses so to work, all nations shall
call Jesus blessed! But when you and I have one of God's promises to
plead with Him, we may know most surely that He will keep it–we never
need insert an, "if," as to whether He can or not! O Beloved, if we
were more wicked than we are, He could change us! And if our children
or our friends were sunk in sin more deeply than they are, which God
forbid they should be, He could still save them! "The Lord's hand is
not shortened, that it cannot save; neither His ear heavy, that it
cannot hear." Fie on you, you doubting one! Shame on you, you trembling
heart! There cannot be an, "if," with the Christ of God, God's favored
Son–yes, God's equal–who is girded with Omnipotence!

And, in the third place, remember that, as Savior, works of Grace are
easy to Him. If you will but think, for a minute, of what He has done
in order to man's salvation, I think you will see there cannot be an,
"if," with Him. See Him hanging on the accursed tree, nailed up to the
gallows that He may die. His pains of body are inconceivably great, but
meanwhile He is forsaken of His God and is brought into unknown
tortures of soul. That is the Son of God who is dying so! It is He,
whose face is the glory of Heaven, who is thus dying the death of a
felon, "the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God." I have
such a conviction of the power of Christ's death that if it were
revealed to me that on the Cross He redeemed not only one world, but as
many fallen worlds as there are stars, I could well believe it!

Oh, the blood of the Son of God! What merit there must be in such a
Sacrifice as that! Infinite Deity united to perfect manhood and the
whole life laid down that men might live! Tell me that Christ cannot
save! Tell me that His blood will not wash out the most scarlet sin
that ever defiled man! I know better. There must be infinite virtue in
the atoning Sacrifice of Christ. There cannot be an, "if," about the
power of the Crucified to forgive all who come to Him and trust in His
great Sacrifice!

If you question the power of His death, remember that He rose again
from the dead and upward He went into Glory and there, today, He sits
enthroned. I think I can see Him, now, at the right hand of the Father,
clothed with everlasting honor and Divine majesty! What is He doing?
Look! He lifts His hands. He pleads for sinners! Will the Father deny
Him anything? He makes intercession for the transgressors! Will God
refuse to bless them? Oh, by the living Christ at God's right hand,
pleading the merit of His own Sacrifice, I would have you confident
that there cannot be an, "if," about His power to save any of the
children of men!

Do not tell me that you are the worst sinner that ever lived. I will
take it for granted that you are and I will go further than that and
suppose you are a lot worse than you think you are! I have sometimes
had people coming to me as enquirers and sitting in a chair opposite
me. They have begun by telling me about their dreadful sins. I have
generally said to them, "You need not tell me that. I have not the
slightest doubt that you are a thousand times worse than you tell me,
or than you think you are. You are only fit to be cast into Hell." And
then they say, "Ah, it is so; it is so." Right glad am I to hear them
consent to the verdict, for that is the sort of people that Jesus
Christ came to save! Do you think that He came to redeem some little
miserable morsel of a sinner who never did anything very much that was
wrong? Well, very likely He did, but He came to be a great Savior for
great sinners. Suppose that, some day, you come and with glowing
enthusiasm tell me there is a great doctor in London. I would probably
say, "What does he do?" "He has a large number of patients," you
answer. "But what does he do?" At length you give the astonishing
reply, "He cures bad fingers." Well, I do not see much in that.

But suppose, on the contrary, that in answer to my question, "What does
this great physician do that you are crying up so much?" you are able
to give a true report and say, "He has restored a great many persons
who were given up by everybody else. He can cure the very worst
diseases. In fact, they say that if a man were almost dead, he could
make him alive." Why, then, indeed I would begin to sing his praises,
too! And if I were diseased, I would go to him for cure. But I am more
confident about the power of Christ to heal, for to Him I went when my
sin was past all human remedy–and

He made me every whit whole! There is no language strong enough to tell
of His power to save and bless. If you believe that my Master can only
save a small sinner, who has only a little imperceptible sin about him,
I tell you that you do not know Him! He is a great Savior for great
sinners and, however grossly guilty you may have been, lament it, mourn
over it, but remember that Christ is able to save even the very chief
of sinners. He is able to save them now, right now, where they are
standing or sitting–and to send them out of this house new creatures
in Him! Thus you see that the "if" is not in Christ.

II. But now, secondly, where is the "if"? THE "IF" IS IN OUR LACK OF
FAITH. Jesus said to the man, "If you can believe, all things are
possible to him that believes." But why is faith needed?

The answer is, first, that it is a reasonable demand and that it is
most unreasonable to expect Christ to do anything for us if we will not
believe in Him. The very least thing that a great surgeon could expect
of a patient would be confidence in his skill. Do not marvel,
therefore, that Jesus Christ expects you to believe in Him and, "if you
will not believe, surely you shall not be established." If you refuse
Christ your confidence, you cannot wonder if He refuses you His
salvation! "If you can." It seems almost as if the Lord, in
astonishment, echoed this poor father's words, starting back in wonder
that He should be so misunderstood–that any human being should come to
Him, who created all things–and yet doubt His power! The poor leper,
who came to Him after the sermon on the mount, had a different way of
expressing his misgiving. He said, "If you will," doubting not Christ's
power to heal, but His willingness. I know not which is the worse, but
I am sure that both are unreasonable, for if either the willingness or
ability is absent, Christ cannot be a Savior for sinful men. But, as we
often sing–

"He is able,

He is willing; doubt no more."

Faith is needed, in the next place, because it is for God's Glory. It
would not be for Christ's Glory to bless those that do not believe in
Him. Shall He reward unbelief? Will you have it said that Christ came
to this earth and that He lived and died for the salvation of sinners
and that, after that, though a man would not believe in Him, He still
gave him pardon and mercy? No, there shall never be such a thing as a
pardoned unbeliever! A saved man who does not believe in Christ? That
would be to the dishonor of Christ and would make Him to be rather the
patron of sin than the Savior from sin! Faith is required, then, that
God may have the glory of man's salvation.

This faith is also for our own good. Our Lord means to bless that poor
man by healing his child, but He means to bless him doubly by healing
him of his unbelief, for it is, indeed, a horrible weakness, for a man
to lack faith in His Creator! It is a loathsome disease of spirit for a
man to be doubtful of his God! I have looked down the list of crimes
and though there are some that are truly abominable, yet when I have
looked into the very foulest transgression, I have not seen anything so
vile as the sin of a man who doubts the love and power of Christ, who
died that men might live! This is the masterpiece of Hell's temptation.
We are led farthest away from God when we doubt the love which He has
sealed with the blood of His own heart. It is, therefore, for our own
good that we should believe. Here and always, God's Glory and our good
are closely joined. To glorify God will be to enjoy Him forever.

Faith, then, is a reasonable, glorious and blessed thing and, in the
sinner's case, it is absolutely necessary to salvation. We must believe
in Jesus Christ if we would be saved. But cannot we be saved without
believing? No. What will become of us if we do not believe in Jesus
Christ? Well, I will make no "ifs" nor "ans" about that–"He that
believes not shall be damned." I do not care to beat about the bush, or
seek for a more refined version of the text–let it stand there in its
own terrible simplicity, "He that believes and is baptized shall be
saved; but he that believes not shall be damned." If you do not believe
in Jesus Christ, you will be damned, whatever that means–and it means
something truly terrible, to be condemned of God and driven from His
Presence because we do not believe in Him! There is no help for it, for
there is no other salvation and no other door of hope except through
faith in the appointed Savior of mankind! As John Newton, that great
sinner saved by marvelous Grace, says–

"The worst of all diseases Is light, compared with sin! On every part
it seizes, But rages most within. 'Tis palsy, poison, fever, And
madness, all combined–

And none but a Believer The least relief can find."

Here is where the, "if," is, then–it is in our lack of faith.

III. But now, in the third place, let me ask, WHAT PUTS THE "IF" THERE?
Why is it that we cannot believe? If some unprejudiced person who
before had been totally unacquainted with the Bible, read it for the
first time, and was asked, "Is it a hard thing that God asks of men in
order to their salvation, that they should believe in Jesus Christ,
whom He has sent?" any unsophisticated mind would reply, "No, that must
be the easiest thing in the world, for God cannot lie!" Such a verdict
would be absolutely true, for the gift of His Son, whom He loved as He
loved Himself, proves the honesty of God and leaves no room for doubt
as to the certainty and the heartiness of His willingness to bless the
sons of men. God could not be false and go so far with the falsehood as
to give His own Son to die–that is altogether inconceivable! It seems
of necessity, then, that God is true in declaring that He will save
those who trust in His Son. And it looks, at first sight, as if it
would be the simplest thing in all the world to trust in Jesus
Christ–and so, indeed, it is. But why is it that there are any "ifs"
about it? Why is it necessary that Christ should say, "If you can
believe"?

The reason is because we are alienated in heart from God. If we were
right with God, faith would be a matter of necessity. But we do not
love God. By nature we even hate Him and that is why we do not trust
Him. It would be a very wretched thing to meet with a young man who, if
you were speaking to him in praise of his father, should say, "I do not
believe in my father." If you continued, "But your father is a man of
the highest integrity," would it not be sad to hear him reply, "I
cannot trust him"? "Oh, but your father is kindness, itself," you might
add. And if the lad said, "Yes, I hear what you say, but I do not
believe it–I cannot trust him," you would know that there was some
dreadful family feud, some most unhappy circumstance that had twisted
that youth's mind so that he did not love his father and, therefore,
did not believe in him! Supposing his father to be a man of undoubted
repute and integrity, the last thing that you would expect to happen
would be that his own son would say, "I cannot believe him."

Now, concerning God, who among us will so blaspheme Him as to say that
He was ever false? Yet men say it and do not seem at all startled at
what they have said! Though it is written, "He that believes not God
has made Him a liar," men will still calmly tell us, as if it were an
amiable weakness rather than a sin, "Sir, I cannot believe in Christ. I
cannot believe in God." It is, then, because you are alienated from Him
because you do not love Him! Lament this! Confess it before God and
when your heart is renewed, by His Grace, then faith will come as a
matter of course.

Another reason for this, "if," is that we are idolaters by nature. "No,
no," you say, "we are not idolaters!" I say we are idolaters by
nature–all of us–for what is an idolater but one who needs to have an
idol, or a something which he can see, trust in and which shall
represent to him the invisible? The Romanist becomes an idolater as he
puts before him the "crucifix," or some precious relic of the saints.
But you may become an idolater, too, without seeming to be so
superstitious. You are such, indeed, if, in Providence, for instance,
you cannot trust God. If before you trust Him you need to have your
income regularly guaranteed, it is not God, you then trust–it is the
money. So with your soul. You could trust God, you say, if an angel
were to come from Heaven to speak, or if you heard a voice in the
night. So, then, it is not God that you would trust, but an angel, or a
voice! You need something to see and something to hear. It is ingrained
in human nature thus to seek a sign–and what is that but idolatry? Oh,
that we would get rid of this and say, "God is invisible. I am not to
expect to see Him–I am to trust Him. I am to believe that He who made
the heavens and the earth, and who gave His Son to die, will save me,
and lo, I put my trust in His dear Son once and for all!"

Another reason why this, "if," comes in, is because we measure God by
ourselves. We cannot think that God can forgive us because we find it
so hard to forgive our fellow creatures. We cannot conceive that God
will do it freely, from no motive but that of pure Grace, because we
are so mercenary. We need to be paid for what we do and unless we can
see some chance of reward, somewhere or other, we are very slow to make
anything like a sacrifice! And so we think that God is altogether such
as we are, whereas you remember it is written, "For as the heavens are
higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My
thoughts than your thoughts." We get to measuring God by our fellow
men. We say, "Such-and-such a one is very good, but he would never
forgive after this fashion. He would give generously, but he certainly
would not give after the style that God is spoken of as giving." Thus,
as the Ethiopians are said to make their angels with black faces, we
imagine God to be like ourselves or other men and, therefore, find it
difficult to believe in

Him.

Dismiss from your thoughts all such ideas of God! You might sooner hold
the ocean in the hollow of your hand, or span the heavens with your
fingers than, unaided by Grace, get an idea of the greatness and glory
of God by all your searching! Never forget that He is as great in mercy
as in any other of His attributes. He delights to forgive! It is the
joy of His heart to press to His bosom His prodigal children! Nothing
gives such intense satisfaction to the heart of God as the
manifestation of His boundless Grace. I wish you could believe this.
But it is because we thus limit the Holy One of Israel that we find the
simple matter of faith so difficult. Because of this, there stands that
great, ugly black, stiff, "if." "If you can believe."

IV. In conclusion, let me ask another question and seek to answer it.
HOW CAN THIS "IF" BE REMOVED? Are there any in this house who are
longing to be saved and who have been putting an, "if," upon Christ,
and saying, "Lord, if You can"? First, let them know that the "if" lies
with themselves. And then let us join hands and see if we cannot turn
this "if out. Come, Brother, let me help you. If this "if has been too
strong for you, I would ask God's Spirit to bless a few words to you,
that this "if may be got rid of. With reference to that other "if which
came from the lips of the leper and to which I have already referred, I
heard of a little girl whose mother found her, one day, with a carving
knife and the family Bible. "What are you doing?" she asked her child,
in some anxiety for the safety of both the child and the Book. "O
Mother," she said, "I was reading about that man who came to Jesus and
said, 'If You will, You can make me clean,' and I thought He ought not
to have said, "if," to Jesus–so please, Mother, I am scraping it out."
A very good thing to do with all our "ifs"! How shall we go to work
with this one? Well, we had better imitate this man with his epileptic
child possessed of a devil.

First of all, you must confess the faith you have. This man said,
"Lord, I believe." There is something in that. If you cannot go as far
as you would, go as far as you can. What do you believe about Jesus
Christ? Come, poor, dear, trembling Heart, run over in your mind what
you believe about Him. I think I could have said, before I really
trusted Christ, "Lord Jesus, I believe You are the Son of God." I
believed that, I never doubted it. "And I believe that You are sent to
be the Savior of men." I do not know that I ever doubted that. Some of
you from your childhood have believed that, too. Your mother taught you
that and when you read the Scriptures, you were sure of it. Well, now,
just turn that over. "Lord, I believe You are the Son of God. I believe
You are God. I believe You are able to save. I believe Your precious
blood takes away the sin of all who trust You. I believe that whoever
trusts in You has everlasting life. I believe that You have sent Your
Gospel into the world, saying, 'He that believes and is baptized shall
be saved.' Lord, by Your Grace, I believe all

this."

That is a matter to be very thankful for and yet, do you know that is a
matter that will condemn you unless you go farther? If you believe as
much as that, you ought to believe more! I can understand the atheist
or deist not trusting Christ. I can understand the Socinian not
trusting Christ–but if you are sound in your doctrinal beliefs, I
cannot think of an excuse for you why you should not trust Christ! If a
man says to me, "I believe you, Sir, to be a thief. I cannot trust
you," that is perfectly consistent, is it not? But if he says, "Sir, I
believe you are an upright man who would not, on any account, do a
doubtful thing and yet I cannot trust you." I am not anxious to answer
such a man as that, for out of his own mouth he condemns himself.

So, some of you go so far that if you do not go farther, you will
condemn yourselves. Surely, in all reason, if a man can say to Christ,
"I believe that You are the Christ that should come into the world. I
believe that You are the Son of God; I believe that You were raised
again from the dead. I believe that you sit at the right had of God,
pleading for sinners," that man must also add, "Therefore I trust You."
It is the natural inference to be drawn! God help you, then, to confess
such faith as you have!

The next way to knock this, "if," over, is to appeal to Christ to be
helped against it. "Lord, I believe," said this poor man, "help You my
unbelief." He cried out of the depths of his soul, "O Lord, help me
against my unbelief!" So poor Heart, you have been trying to believe!
Did you ever try this man's plan of believing that Christ could make
him believe? That is odd, is it not? You see, he must have had faith in
Christ, or else he would not have said, "Help You my unbelief." Let us
imitate him and cry with Cowper–

"Heal us, Emmanuel, here we are,

Waiting to feel your touch! Deep-wounded souls to You repair, And,
Savior, we are such!

Our faith is feeble, we confess, We faintly trust Your Word, But will
You pity us the less? Be that far from You, O Lord! Remember him who
once applied With trembling for relief, 'Lord I believe,' with tears he
cried, Oh, help my unbelief!"

Oftentimes there is a great deal more faith in a poor sinner's heart
than he thinks there is. He really is trusting the Savior, but does not
know he is doing so. He is saved and yet is afraid to think it can be
possible. Long after I knew the Savior and believed in Him, I used, at
times, to be staggered with the thought that it was too good to be
true. The tempter would say, "It cannot be that you are really
forgiven, that you are Christ's own, that you are washed in His blood
and saved forever!" Well, it does almost seem to be too good to be true
but, then, nothing is too good to be true when you are dealing with a
king! If it is a king who is about to act, we say that the grander and
kinglier a thing it is, the more likely it is to be done. But rise
higher than kings! If it is superlative, if it is infinite, if it is
altogether inconceivable but for its having been revealed, then is it
the more likely to be true, for it is the more like God! Oh, then, I
pray you, bring your unbelief before Christ and let it die in His
Presence! Unbelief does not like the Cross. If you look up to the dying
Savior, to the risen Christ of God, unbelief dies! God help you, then,
to say, "Lord, I believe; help You my unbelief"!

One other thing you must do if you are to follow the example of this
father. Bring the case to Christ. This poor man brought his child to
Christ. It was a hard tug and he asked others to help him. Do you not
see how the suffering child was tossed about–sometimes this way,
sometimes that? You may have seen some poor man or woman who is subject
to fits and noticed in what a way such people are convulsed. But this
poor child was much worse–he was foaming at the mouth, raving, tearing
and full of the fiend! The father is trying to help his boy. Sometimes
he holds him by the waist. But the child tears away. Then another helps
grasp one hand, while the father gets hold of the other. He drags him
to Christ–pulls him almost piecemeal to Christ–but he gets him there
at last. "Bring him to Me," said Christ, and what better could the
father do, or can you do, than obey the command and bring your loved
one? So he did and he laid him down at Jesus' feet. Where else is so
fitting a place for the sick or devil-possessed as the feet of the
Savior? "To whom shall we go" if we turn away from His tender heart?
When the boy in the harvest field cried out in pain, his father said,
"Carry him to his mother." Where else could he be so soothed and
helped–and where else but in Christ can you or your children hope for
blessing?

That is what I want you to do with your friends– somehow get them to
Jesus Christ by mighty, vehement, determined prayer! And when you have
prayed about them, try to get them to hear the Gospel. I like to preach
to people who have never heard the Gospel before–it is grand work!
There are some of you upon whom I fear that I shall never make an
impression. You have been hammered upon so long that I am afraid you
have become Gospel-hardened. Take a person out to look at the
stars–some countryman who has always been able to see. Perhaps he does
not make any remark, or he simply says, "Oh, I have gone across the
moor many a night! I don't see anything particular in the stars." But
here is an old man brought from the Ophthalmic Hospital! He has been
blind for many years. In fact, he forgets whether he ever could see. By
a skillful operation, the film is taken from his eyes.

Take him out at night and the first things he sees are the stars! He
says, "What a sight! How glorious! How Divine!" Those are the kind of
people to whom it is a joy to preach, for when the Lord gives sight to
those who were blind and they see for the first time, how glad they are
to see Him! Persons who do not often have flowers are charmed with the
sight of them and find much delight in their fragrance. Yet I have
heard of a flower girl who sold violets in the street and had to take
those that remained home to her poor miserable room every night till
she said that she hated the smell of violets! She could not bear them,
having got so accustomed to them.

"That is strange," says one, yet that is how some of our Gospel hearers
speak. They say that we preach too long and they begin to criticize our
sermons. I dread above anything that your nostrils should become so
familiar with the sweet smell of the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the
Valleys that their fragrance should become nauseous to you! How sad it
would be that any of you should get so familiar with the Gospel that,
at last, you would say, "What a weariness it is!"

May this never be the case and, lest it should, come, now, and bring
your case before Christ! It is no use to bring it before me and let me
preach to you. It is no use to bring it before the mere means of Grace!
Turn to the Lord Jesus, who is beside you, and tell Him all the
case–say to Him that you renounce all other hope and trust yourself in
His hands. Believe in Him this moment, lest haply the very Gospel,
itself, should be a "savor of death unto death" to you. If you trust to
Christ, you must have life! O Spirit of God, help many to come this
very hour and trust in the Crucified, for Jesus' sake! Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Mark 9.