3302. Faith in Christ’s Ability

A Sermon Published On Thursday, May 16, 1912.

Jesus says to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” {Mt 9:28}

For other sermons on this text:

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1355, “Our Lord’s Question to the Blind Men” 1346}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1560, “Plain Man’s Pathway to Peace, The” 1560}

   {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3302, “Faith in Christ’s Ability” 3304}

   Exposition on Mt 9:18-38 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3302, “Faith in Christ’s Ability” 3304 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Mt 9:27-35 20:29-34 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3139, “Promise for the Blind, A” 3140 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Mt 9:27-38 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3438, “Compassion of Jesus, The” 3440 @@ "Exposition"}

   Exposition on Mt 9 {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2482, “Unparalleled Cure, An” 2483 @@ "Exposition"}

1. I want to lay special emphasis on the word “this” in the text: “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” The question of Jesus referred to one particular thing; it was not intended to apply to the general power of Christ to heal the sick or to raise the dead, but it concerned the specific malady from which those two men were suffering, and the question meant, did they believe that Christ was able to cure their blindness? Among professing Christians, there is much so-called faith that is not really faith. Many of us profess much more in our creeds than we believe in our hearts, and we hold a great deal more in theory than we do in reality. For example, I suppose there is no professor of religion here who would dispute the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to do anything and everything; we believe that he has all power in heaven and on earth; and yet, if it came to be a matter of personal detail, and he said to us, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” we might not all be able to answer as promptly and as confidently as the blind men did, “Yes, Lord.”

2. I. I am going to speak about this matter, and I start with the very simple statement that FAITH, IN SO FAR AS IT IS TRUE, DEALS IMMEDIATELY WITH THE CASE AT HAND.

3. True faith believes that Jesus Christ is “able to do this.” It believes, of course, that he is able to do twenty thousand other things, but it believes specifically that he is “able to do this,” — to forgive this sin of which I am so deeply conscious, to remove this trial with which I am now so severely afflicted, to sustain me under this temptation which so fiercely assails me, to strengthen me to accomplish this duty which so clearly rests on me. As each special case arises, faith will exercise itself on that particular thing, and believe that Christ is “able to do this.”

4. There are solemn thoughts connected with unbelief concerning “this” which Christ is able to do. Over there is a brother who is in such a plight that he thinks there is no way of deliverance for him out of it. He has a task before him which he hardly dares ask his Lord to enable him to perform because he lacks the necessary faith in his Lord’s power and willingness to help him. Now, my dear friend, since you are in doubt in this case, I want to ask you what is to prevent you from doubting in the next difficulty that occurs to you, and then in the next after that, and so on. You say that it is only on this one point that you are in doubt, and that you think you have very good reasons for not believing in this particular case; but the next circumstance that occurs to you will very probably furnish you with just as weighty reasons for doubting, and so it will be with each succeeding case as it arises. It seems to me that you are restricted to this alternative, either to trust God in this case or else to confess that you do not intend to believe him in any case. I know you will urge that the present case is a very special one, but I shall remind you that the next one will also be a very special one. I have not lived as long as some of you have; but, during the years that I have been able to observe what has been passing around me, I have noticed that every year of my life has been a crisis in the affairs of the nation; at least so the papers have always told us, and so have some good people always told us. I think it is very likely that the present time is a most solemn crisis, and I also think with equally good reason, that this is a most solemn crisis in your history, and that, if you do not believe now, you are not likely to believe in the next crisis that comes to you. The fact is, you must either believe God always or you must never believe him. If you think Christ is not “able to do this,” — forgive this sin, remove this trial, overcome this temptation, or strengthen you for this duty, — you will probably think the same when the next testing time comes.

5. Moreover, it seems to me that, if you doubt God concerning any one trial, you give up the whole case. You would have me believe that your present trial is very special and strange. Well, suppose I admit that it is; yet still, if you do not believe concerning this, you have given up the whole case, for what Christ claims is omnipotence, and if there is any one thing that he cannot do, then he is not omnipotent. If there is any one heart too hard for him to break, if there is any one sin too strong for him to enable me to abandon it, then he is not omnipotent. If you look this thought squarely in the face, I think you will scarcely dare to rob your Lord of one of the most glorious of his attributes. You would surely hesitate to put out that right hand of yours to snatch from his crown one of its most precious gems; no, you would sooner lose your life than commit so traitorous a crime as that, yet you practically commit it if you do not believe that he is “able to do this,” whatever “this” may be, and from now on you virtually say that he is not almighty.

6. Besides, your doubt concerning God’s power sets up a new god. Are you startled by that statement? It is true, for what is mightiest in the world is God; but if there is anything which surpasses the power of God, something that is more potent than omnipotence, that something must be god! I only put the matter like this to show you that you are obliged to believe that God can deliver you out of your present desperate plight, or else you must become an idolater; you must feel that your difficulties and trials are greater than God, and therefore you deify them! Of course you do not mean to do that; you feel a cold shiver go through you at the mere thought of such blasphemy, yet you practically do it whenever you doubt that God is “able to do this,” whatever “this” may be.

7. Further, to doubt God’s power “to do this,” whatever it may be, is impugning every attribute of the divine character. I could prove this if I had the time, but I will indicate only one attribute of God, that is, his truthfulness. Take such a promise as this, “He shall call on me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble”; now, if you doubt God’s power to fulfil that promise, you practically impugn his veracity. Can you calmly contemplate such a sin as that would be? Yet it seems to me that you cannot avoid committing that sin unless now, by simple faith, you believe that he is “able to do this.” But grant that God is omnipotent, once really accept that truth in your heart, and then you will feel that there remains no difficulty from which you can be brought out of which he cannot deliver you, and that there is no temptation which may assail you from which he cannot preserve you, and that there can be no position of peril in which he cannot protect you, and out of which he cannot bring you unharmed. May the Holy Spirit graciously reveal to us the unsafe, treacherous, boggy pit that would swallow us up if we doubt that God is “able to do this,” and may he enable us to realize that it is safe walking and happy walking when we walk by faith!

8. II. My second statement, which is as simple as the first, is that TRUE FAITH, ESPECIALLY IN THE MATTER OF SALVATION, MUST BE PERSONAL.

9. If I have any true faith in Christ at all, I must believe that he is “able to do this”; that is, that he is able to do for me what he has done for many who are now in glory, and what he is doing for many who are rejoicing in his salvation here on earth. I know that I am addressing many who believe in the Bible; at least you say that you do, and that you believe that Jesus Christ is able to do everything. That is the theory of your faith, yet you do not believe this, that Jesus Christ is able to save you now. You have gotten an idea into your head that, for some reason or other, on account of some lack of preparation in you, or for some equally foolish reason, the simple act of faith in Christ would not be the means of bringing salvation to your soul. You imagine that your case is not one that is covered by the promise of God, or encompassed by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

10. If that is what you think, that Christ cannot save you, why do you not doubt whether he can save any others? In fact, why do you not doubt whether he can save any sinner who ever lived? You tell me that your case is a very special one. I will grant you that, but then the case of the next sinner you meet will also be a special one; he is as honest a man as you are, and he will tell you that there is something very special about his case. I have very seldom talked with any person under conviction of sin who did not think that his case was different from that of anyone else, and he has been very surprised when I have told him that his words just described my own experience when I was under conviction of sin. If you believe that Christ cannot save you because of some peculiarity in your case, is it not equally reasonable or unreasonable that you should believe that he cannot save another sinner because of some peculiarity in his case? In this way you would soon get to believe that Jesus Christ cannot save at all. “No,” you say, “I shall never believe that.” But that is practically what you do believe. You do not believe that Jesus Christ is a potent Saviour; you may think that you do, but if the matter were put to the test, and you regarded every other sinner’s case as you regard your own, there would be just as good a reason to suppose every other case to be hopeless as to conclude that there is no hope of salvation for you. If you are strictly reasonable in your belief, you must either believe that Christ can save you or that he can save no one at all.

11. Then, as I said before under the previous point, if you do not believe that Christ can save you, you give up the whole case. All of you have probably held, as one of the undisputed articles of the Christian faith, that Christ is omnipotent; but supposing that your case is one in which his blood has no cleansing efficacy, supposing that you are so vile that he cannot and will not receive you, supposing that your heart is so hard that he cannot soften it, then he is not omnipotent. That is as clear as anything can be, for here is a case that has defied and defeated him. Oh! do not tell it in Gath, do not proclaim it in the streets of Askelon, that there is a man here who professes to believe the Bible, yet he holds that Christ is not omnipotent. “Oh!” you say, “I do not hold that.” But you do practically hold it, for if you thought him to be omnipotent, you must conclude that he is “able to do this,” that is, to save you.

12. More than that, doubting Christ’s power to save in your own cave is virtually making yourself god. “Oh, no!” you say, in horror at the mere mention of such a thing, “I never did that.” Stop for a moment, and let me prove it to you. You believe that there is something in you which cannot be overcome by divine power, you think that there is something in you which makes it impossible that you should be saved. Now listen, the most mighty of all forces must belong to Deity; but if there is in you some force of wickedness, some hardness of heart, some obstinate wilfulness which you imagine God really cannot overcome, then you are practically making out that the evil in you is more powerful than omnipotence and greater than God! Is this not very strange, as well as very wicked? You thought you were making yourself out to be very humble, but it turns out that you are very proud, lifting yourself up to the very throne of God, and seeking to usurp his place. This is what you are practically doing when you assume that Christ is not “able to do this,” that is, to save you. My dear friend, look at the enormous guilt in which such unbelief would involve you, and recoil from it with the utmost abhorrence, and believe that Christ is mighty to save, yes, that he is almighty to save even you.

13. I say again, as I said on the first part of my subject, this unbelief of yours impugns all the divine attributes. In believing that Christ cannot save you, you are dishonouring the character of God in the person of his well-beloved Son, for you have set a limit to his power although he said that all power in heaven and on earth had been given to him. When he asks, “Is my arm shortened that it cannot save you?” you answer, “Yes, Lord.” When he says, “Is my ear heavy that it cannot hear your cry?” you reply, “Yes, Lord.” You may not dare to say it with your lips, but you really mean it in your heart, and that is even worse. You are denying the truth of Christ’s promise. He said, “Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest”; yet you say, “Lord, I would come to you, but I would never get any rest. I would trust you, but I would never be saved.” You suppose either that Christ has promised more than he can perform, not knowing that he was doing so, which is impugning his omniscience, or that he has deliberately promised more than he knew that he could do, which is impugning his truthfulness and honour. He has commanded that this message should be preached to every creature in all the world, “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved.” He also said that “he who believes in the Son has everlasting life.” This is his declaration concerning every believing soul, so that, if you believe in him, it is not possible that your case should be beyond the limit of his power to save. I am not talking now about his willingness to save; if I were, I would speak just as confidently; but just now I am referring to his power. Christ’s own question to you, my dear friend, is the same that he asked the blind men, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” — that is, to save you. Think of the solemn consequences of unbelief; see how shamefully it maligns and slanders the character of Jesus and then may his gracious Spirit sweetly constrain you to believe that he is “able to do this,” and to save even you!

14. After Christ had cured these blind men, he healed a dumb man who was possessed with a demon, and the multitudes marvelled, saying, “It was never so seen in Israel.” I wonder if there is one here who thinks himself the biggest sinner in the world, the most hardened, the most hopeless. If so, and he believes in Jesus, Jesus will save him, and then he also will be able to say, “It was never so seen in Israel.” I know that, when I found peace through believing in Jesus, I thought that it had never been so seen in Israel; and I have met many others who have felt just the same about their own conversion. Well, supposing that it was never so seen in Israel, then there are new honours and fresh glories for Emmanuel, and there is no reason why it should not be so seen here tonight. At any rate, I pray God to show you the inconsistency of professing to believe the Bible, and yet thinking that, for some reason or other, or for all the reasons in the world put together, Christ is unable to save you.

15. III. My third statement, which is as simple as the first and second were, is that IN ALL MATTERS AFFECTING THE SOUL, THE VITAL QUESTION IS THAT OF FAITH.

16. “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” must be the vital question concerning a soul’s salvation; personal faith with regard to Christ’s power to save must be the main matter. Jesus did not say to these blind men, “Do you have a proper sense of your blindness? Are you sufficiently aware of the deprivation from which you suffer through the loss of your eyesight? Do you feel the degradation of the poverty which compels you to beg? Have you wept, and bemoaned, and groaned, and grieved because you cannot see?” No such questions as these were asked of them by our Lord, but he simply asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” There are various questions that many of you ask yourselves although Christ never asks them of you; his one enquiry is, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” If you can answer that question satisfactorily, you need not trouble about your own queries.

17. You will notice, too, that Christ did not ask the blind men whether they loved him. He did not say to them, “I am not going to do anything for you unless your hearts are burning with love for me.” Oh, no! it would have been completely contrary to our Saviour’s nature to say to these men, “Are you really fond of me? Then I will do what you desire.” So, sinner, Christ does not ask you whether you love him, because he knows that you do not; yet you ask yourself this question again and again: “Do I love the Lord or not? Am I a lover of Jesus? I have heard his people say that they love him, but do I love him?” Now, this is a very proper question for you to ask yourself after you have believed in Jesus; but you must have the root-grace of faith first before you begin to look for its fruits. I hope that you will afterwards attain to that burning, fervent love that many advanced believers have for Jesus, but this is not the matter that concerns you just now. The question that Jesus asks you now is, “Do you believe that I am able to do this? Do you believe that I can take your sins away, and make you clean tonight? Do you believe that I can take away your heart of stone, and give you a heart of flesh? Do you believe that I can turn you, a lion, into a lamb? Do you believe that I can give you the grace of repentance though you cannot repent without my aid? Do you believe that I am able to do all that needs to be done in order to save you?” This is the question Christ asks you now. I trust the time will come when he will say to you, “Do you love me?” and that then you will be able to truthfully answer, “Lord, you know all things, you know that I love you.”

18. There was another question which Christ did not ask the blind men; he did not say to them, “Have you feared whether you would ever have your sight? Have you been frightened at the thought that you may have to grope about in darkness and poverty all your days? Have you been in such despair that you have almost feared that you would commit suicide unless your blindness could be cured?” No, Christ did not ask any such questions as these; his one enquiry was, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” Friends tell us sometimes about the terrors they have experienced before they came to Christ by simple faith, but it would be quite wrong on our part to conclude that such terrors are necessary; I believe that they are never necessary, and that they are seldom useful; it certainly cannot be right to put them in the place of faith in Christ. Dear friend, I wish that you would answer the Master’s question, and leave all other matters alone until he asks you about them. He does not question you concerning your fears and your terrors, the ploughing and harrowing law-work of which some brethren are so fond of talking; his first question is, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” Give him an answer, and may the Holy Spirit enable you to give the right reply, “Yes, Lord,” even as the blind men did when Christ asked them a similar question! The vital matter is faith in Jesus. “Do you believe in the Son of God?” Oh sinner, how glad and thankful I should be if I knew that you were saying in your heart, “I believe that Christ is both able and willing to save me, and I cast myself into his arms now.” If you have really done that, you are saved, and now you know, and feel, and rejoice in his power to save all those who come to God by him. Trust in Jesus, for this is the vital sign by which we discern those who are chosen by the Father, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and redeemed by the precious blood of Jesus. If you truly believe in Jesus, you are born by God, you need not fear that you shall ever perish, but you may even now rejoice with joy unspeakable, and full of glory.

19. IV. I close with this fourth observation, that THIS QUESTION IS ONE WHICH MIGHT NATURALLY HAVE CONCLUDED THAT JESUS WOULD ASK.

20. It was a vitally important question, and it was by no means an unreasonable one. If the blind men had not believed that Jesus was “able to do this,” they would not have asked him to have mercy on them. It would have been an impertinence on their part, or something worse than that, if they had pleaded for mercy, and yet had not believed that he was able to grant it to them. I should not feel pleased if a blind man came to me, and said, “Will you be so good as to open my eyes?” I should feel morally certain that he was mocking me, for he would know as well as I do that I do not have the power to give sight to the blind. Now, dear friends, some of you have been praying to the Lord to have mercy on you, so you see that you have committed yourselves just as these blind men had. You have not told anyone about it; possibly it was behind the hedge, or up in the hayloft, or in that little bedroom of yours when no one but God could see you. Well then, how did you dare to pray like this if you did not believe that the Lord could do for you what you asked of him? You did not mean to insult him, did you? I think the very fact of your praying drives you to the conclusion that you do believe that he is “able to do this.” If you do not, you must not pray any more. “Oh!” you say, “I cannot help praying.” I am glad you cannot, and I hope you never will cease praying; but if you go on praying, yet do not believe in Christ’s power to save you, it is very much like a mockery of the Saviour, for how can you pray with any kind of justification unless you can truly say, “Oh Lord, I do believe that you are able to save, and able to save even me”? I do not know whether the blind men at first fully believed in the deity of Jesus, but I assume that all of us hold that he is “very God of very God.” I hope none of you have been led astray by the false doctrine that Christ is a mere man. You believe that he is the Son of God, so what is more reasonable than that he should say to you, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” You must give up your belief that he is divine or else you must believe that he is able to do this, that is, to save you. I have already shown you that omnipotence is essential to Deity; so, if you doubt that Christ is omnipotent, I do not see how you can believe that he is the Son of God; but inasmuch as you say that you do believe that he is the Son of God, and I have no reason to question your veracity, how can it be a question with you whether he is able to save you?

21. Besides, you know that Christ has saved a great many other people, and this should encourage you to believe that he can save you. The blind men had probably heard of his miracles of mercy, and so were stimulated to cry to him on their own account. You have seen the change that Christ has made in some of your relatives or friends; and this being the case, Christ certainly has the right to expect that you should believe that what he was able to do for them he is also able to do for you. Your case is not by any means as special as you imagine, it can easily be matched by others where Christ’s power to save has been abundantly proved. If you are a drunkard, we can produce drunkards who have been saved by Christ. If you are a swearer, we can show you swearers who have been saved by Christ. If you are a prostitute, we can bring prostitutes who have been washed in the precious blood of Jesus, and who are now living chaste and holy lives. If, on the other hand, you have led an outwardly moral life, and cannot feel the deep conviction of sin that others have experienced; if you say, with Cowper, —

   I hear, but seem to hear in vain,

      Insensible as steel;

   If aught is felt, ’tis only pain

      To find I cannot feel; —

we can find plenty of cases to match yours. Suppose you have a bad leg, and you go to a doctor, and say to him, “Doctor, you see what is the matter with my leg, but I do not believe you can cure it.” He would certainly not feel flattered by your doubt concerning his skill, yet he might say to you, “Well, it so happens that I have had many cases exactly like yours, and in every case the remedies I have prescribed have been the means of producing a complete cure.” If, after that, you still persist in saying that you do not believe the doctor can cure you, he would be fully justified in saying to you, “Then I think your unbelief is very unreasonable. Here in my book I have the record of many cases almost identical with yours, and since I was able to cure them, I have no doubt that I can cure you if you will only commit yourself into my hands, and do as I tell you.” In a similar way, I venture to say that there is not a case in this house, there is not a case in the whole world to which there has not been a very close parallel in which the power of Christ has already been displayed, and therefore he has the right to ask every unsaved soul, “Do you believe that I am able to do this for you?”

22. My dear hearer, I can most confidently assure you that he is “able to do this.” I know the ways of unbelief, for I have trodden them; but oh! happy, happy, happy day when I understood my Saviour’s grace and power at least in some degree; when I saw that, although I was a sinner, he came to save sinners; and although I was black, his precious blood was able to wash me whiter than snow; and although I was naked, his righteousness supplied me with a robe in which I might even dare to appear before God; and although I was spiritually dead, his Holy Spirit was given to quicken me, and make me live for ever. So in Christ all my soul’s needs were fully met; and desperate as my case had appeared to me, I had proved as so many before me and since have also proved that “with God all things are possible.” May you come to the same conclusion, dear friend, and cast yourself now on the naked promise of God, made in covenant with Christ, and ratified by his most precious blood. If he does not save you when you trust him, this Bible is not true. If any soul can truly trust him, and then be a castaway, I have no gospel to preach to guilty sinners. But that can never be the case, for he himself has declared, — oh that I could pronounce the words as he uttered them! — “whoever comes to me I will by no means cast out.” Come then, every one of you, and prove the truth of his blessed promise, and so you shall be saved, and he shall have the glory for ever and ever. Amen.

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Mt 9:18-38}

18. While he spoke these things to them, behold, there came a certain ruler, and worshipped him, saying, “My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay your hand on her, and she shall live.”

This was grand faith on the ruler’s part, believing that the touch of Christ’s hand would raise his dead daughter to life; we do not wonder that the Saviour honoured such faith as that at once.

19, 20. And Jesus arose, and followed him, and so did his disciples. And, behold, a woman, who was diseased with an issue of blood for twelve years, came behind him, and touched the hem of his garment:

This was while he was on the way to the ruler’s house. Jesus Christ can work many miracles while he is on the way to work other miracles.

21. For she said within herself, “If I may only touch his garment, I shall be healed.” {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1809, “May I?” 1810}

This also is wonderful faith again; in this chapter we get among the great believers. The man believes that the touch of Jesus can raise the dead; the woman believes that the touch of his garment will heal her.

22. But Jesus turned around, and when he saw her, he said, “Daughter, be of good comfort; your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed from that hour. {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 3020, “Good Cheer from Grace Received” 3021}

Christ never comes short of our faith, but he often goes beyond it.

23. And when Jesus came into the ruler’s house, and saw the minstrels and the people making a noise,

These were hired men and women who were brought in to act as mourners

24, 25. He said to them, “Make room: for the maid is not dead, but sleeps.” And they laughed him to scorn. But when the people were put out, he went in, —

There is a good deal that has to be “put out” before the Lord Jesus Christ will fully reveal his power to bless. He would have you put out your doubts, your fears, your wandering thoughts, your self-confidence, in fact, everything that is contrary to his righteous rule. “When the people were put out, he went in,” —

25-27. And took her by the hand, and the maid arose. And the report of this went out into all that land. And when Jesus departed from there, two blind men followed him, crying, and saying, “You son of David, have mercy on us.”

See how busy our Lord was, and how ready for every application that was made to him, and note how he adapted his power to every case that came before him. First he heals an issue of blood, then he raises the dead, and now he is ready to open blind eyes. I wish the Lord might have such blessed business among us here, and he may have, for, if you will cry to him for your child, dead in trespasses and sins, he will make her to live; if you will bring your blind eyes to him, he will open them; and if you will come to him with a disease that is sapping your very life, he will heal you. Give the Lord plenty of this holy work to do. Drawn wells, they say, are sweetest; and a Saviour who is constantly used is most enjoyed.

28. And when he came into the house, the blind men came to him: and Jesus says to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”

That is the question the Lord asks of any who are in soul-trouble. “‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’ — to forgive your sins once and for all, — to give you a new nature at this very moment, — to make you, a sinner, into a saint, — to save you, not merely for the next few weeks, but to save you eternally so that you shall see my face in glory with very great joy; — ‘Do you believe that I am able to do this?’”

28, 29. They said to him, “Yes, Lord.” Then he touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith be it to you.”

That is what Jesus says to every person here, “According to your faith be it to you.” If you believe Christ a little, he will bless you a little, but if you believe him up to the hilt, he will bless you to the full. Your faith shall never outrun the displays of divine love. Do you believe this? Then you shall see it. “According to your faith be it to you.”

30-32. And their eyes were opened and Jesus strictly charged them, saying, “See that no man knows it.” But they, when they were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country. As they went out, behold, they brought to him a dumb man possessed with a demon.

These miracles were performed so rapidly, and they concerned such different cases that, as we read about them, we rejoice to see how Christ was ready for anything, and ready for everything. It did not matter what case was brought to him, he was never taken back. Here he is just as fully prepared to heal the dumb as just now he was to cure the blind.

33. And when the demon was cast out, the dumb spoke: —

There is nothing like going at once to the root of the matter. Christ did not heal the dumb man, and leave the demon in him, but he first cast the demon out, and then “the dumb spoke.” And this is his way of saving men. He renews them by his Spirit, he casts the demon out, and then their despair goes, their prayerlessness disappears, their love for vice is killed. All evil is expelled when once the root of the evil is pulled up. “When the demon was cast out, the dumb spoke”: —

33. And the multitudes marvelled, saying, “It was never before seen in Israel.” {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 2482, “An Unparalleled Cure” 2483}

Christ had performed such miracles as the multitudes had never seen before, and they might well marvel.

34, 35. But the Pharisees said, “He casts out demons through the prince of the demons.” And Jesus went around to all the cities and villages, —

What the Pharisees said was of such very little consequence that, for the time being, Christ gave them no answer but this, “Jesus went around to all the cities and villages.” In the same way, it will be your best plan not to reply to slander. There are some lies that smell so strongly of the pit from which they came that everyone will recognise their origin, and therefore you need not take the trouble to point out that they are falsehoods. And the best reply to all scandal and slander is to go on with your work just as if you had never heard it. The Pharisees said that Christ cast out demons through the prince of the demons, and the very next sentence is, “And Jesus went around to all the cities and villages,” —

35-36. Teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, —

Yet Christ, while on the earth in the flesh, never saw such multitudes as are gathered in London today; he never saw such multitudes as make up this nation; there never passed before the eyes of the Redeemer such multitudes as are crowded together in China and India today. No; the population of the world has greatly increased since those days, so what must be the compassion of his heart when he sees the multitudes who are living in the world today! “When he saw the multitudes he was moved” — in the original, this is a very striking word; it means that he trembled with emotion, his innermost powers were moved, his heart was stirred “with compassion on them,” —

36-37. Because they fainted and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd. Then he says to his disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the labourers are few;

Not the preachers, but the labourers are few; not the talkers, but the labourers, — the patient, plodding, resolute, selfless, industrious toilers who really go in for winning souls for Christ, — the men and women who do real work for God, and do not play at Christian service as some do, making it a kind of amusement to go and do some little good now and then; it is these labourers who are few. You know the difference between a dock labourer, or a farm labourer, and the gentleman who takes a tool in his hand just for a pastime now and then.

38. Pray therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send out labourers into his harvest.” {See Spurgeon_Sermons No. 1127, “Harvest Men Wanted” 1118}

It is earnest workers whom we are to pray God to thrust out into his harvest, for the harvest is still plentiful, and the labourers are few.