A Growing Faith
4 ‘And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him.” — John 4: 50.
Few things are more interesting than the growth of a child, body and mind, from infancy to manhood; but more interesting still is the growth of the new child, the result of the second birth — growth from spiritual infancy to spiritual manhood. And in the text and context we have a growth like this. Weak faith has become strong faith. We shall trace this growth, and learn, if we can, the secret by which weak faith may become strong. Let us examine —
I. The Signs of a Weak Faith;
II, Th Signs of a Strong Faith.
I. The Signs of a Weak Faith.
They are four:
i. Demanding Visible Proof. — “Except ye see signs and wonders,” said Jesus, “ye will not believe.” We desire to see. “Seeing is believing,” says the old proverb; and yet we may be deceived through sight more readily than through almost any other sense. Faith based upon sight is very weak. “The devils believe and tremble,” They see evidences of God’s power which they cannot deny, and they tremble before it. It is really unbelief which demands visible proof. It was the unbelief of Thomas which made him say, “I will not believe till I see.” And Jesus rebuked him when He said, “.Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.” Said the rich man in Hades: “Send Lazarus that he may tell my five brethren not to come to this place of torment; if one rise from the dead they will believe.” “No,” said Abraham; “if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.” And if I, through the power of God, could raise from the dead every corpse in Greenwood Cemetery, and march the living men and women through the streets, Brooklyn would not believe. Men who will not hear God as He speaks through the Bible will not hear Him when He speaks through miracles.
2. Another Sign of Weak Faith is that it must be driven to God by Overwhelming Need. — This nobleman’s son was at the point of death. Every physician had doubtless been tried, and the most skilful had given up the case. In this time of great distress the father thinks of Jesus, and starts for Him. It is like a man on a vessel in a storm at sea, when he feels the timbers cracking beneath him, and imagines the depth to which he may soon sink, calling out, “Lord, have mercy upon me!” It is like the soldier’s cry, so often heard in battle, when he feels the bullet strike him: “Lord, have mercy!” It is like repentance on a death -bed — the sailor throwing all the goods overboard in a tempest, and then seeking to gather them up in the calm that follows.
Such faith is better than no faith, but it is not so good as the faith that draws us to God by gratitude and love. It is better to be driven than not to come at all; it is still better to be drawn. Doubtless this nobleman had heard of Christ many times; but he did not go to Him. He may have had opportunities of inviting Him to his house, but he did not improve them. Not until the great sorrow comes, which he hopes Jesus may relieve, does he come to Him at all. Zaccheus, on the other hand, invited the Lord to dine with him when there was no sorrow to be relieved. His faith was, therefore, better than that of the nobleman.
Matthew invited the Lord to a feast at his house. He wished Him to share his joys. And such faith strikes me as of a higher order than that which drives us by sheer force of distress to seek relief from Christ.
3. A Third Sign of Weak Faith is that, while it prays, it dictates to God. — This father besought Jesus that He would come down and heal his son. He does not make known his wants and leave to Christ the manner in which they shall be supplied. He wants Christ to come to his house. I think I perceive the tone of patronage in this invitation. A nobleman rarely ever forgets that he is a nobleman, and he says to himself,” Only the rabble have honored Jesus. I will now invite Him to my
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mansion, and be the first among the nobility to show Him respect, if He will come and heal my son “— a spirit just the opposite of the centurion’s, who said, “I am not worthy that Thou shouldst come beneath my roof: but speak the word, and my servant shall be healed.” Here humility dictates to Christ; but He accepts the dictation neither of patronizing pride nor of great humility. He goes uninvited to the centurion’s house, and heals his servant. He refuses to go, though invited, to the nobleman’s house, while He heals his son with a word. Perfect faith does not dictate to God, but much of our praying consists in this humble or patronizing dictation. We try to convince God that He is wrong in His way of doing, and we are right. Though we are greatly shocked by the blasphemy recently uttered: “If I had been present at the creation, I could have given God some advice; or, if He would consult me as to how to govern the world, I could help Him in it,” — yet we sometimes show a spirit distressingly similar.
Some tenants were ejected from a large building in New York several weeks ago. They tried to get back, for it was cold out o the streets; but the police refused to let them enter. The reason of their refusal was that the building was about to tumble down, and they knew that for the good of the tenants it was better that they should suffer the cold than be exposed to the danger from the falling walls. And yet these tenants persisted in trying to escape the cold by putting themselves in danger. They thought they knew better than the police. The result showed that the police were the wiser. And the result will always show that God’s dealings with us, though they may seem to be severe, are wise and good.
John Wesley had two preachers under his direction, named Bradburn and Duncan. Bradburn was a very eloquent man; Duncan was a rather poor preacher. When Bradburn preached, Duncan tried to be present; but when Duncan preached, Bradburn was usually absent, and it distressed Duncan. Finally he asked his Brother Bradburn why it was he did not come to hear him preach. “To tell the truth,” replied Bradburn, “I cannot hear you without being greatly tempted.” “And what, pray,” said Duncan, “is the nature of the temptation?” “I am always tempted to think,” said Bradburn, “that I can preach better than you, and it ministers to my pride.” Such is the feeling of Brother Weakfaith toward God. He has the impression that he could do better than the Lord, if he had the whole thing in hand; and it is a temptation which he needs to resist.
4. The Fourth Sign of a Weak Faith is its Impatience. — This father evidently became impatient: “Sir, come down ere my child die.”
There is something almost of petulance in this request. It shows that he thinks it is no time now to argue. What he wants is haste, and he cannot brook delay. Our impatience with God is a sign of very weak faith.
It is comforting to know that Jesus honors even faith like this. Though impatient and dictatorial, driven by need and seeking visible evidence, He answers the prayer. He pities our weakness. “The bruised reed He will not break; the smoking flax He will not quench.” The fire of trust does not blaze up; He sees more of the smoke of impatience and unbelief than of faith, but He will not allow the sparks beneath the flax to be trampled out. The reed of our faith is very weak, but He will not allow the bird that would break it to light upon it. Indeed, He fans the sparks into a flame; He puts new life into the reed that will heal the bruises and make it strong.
A New Jersey farmer one morning heard a little wren pouring out its heart in song upon the early air. Now and then it would stop as if interrupted, and by and by continue its song again. Drawing near he noticed that the mother was teaching her young to sing. She would first sing through the whole song, and then listen to the little one sing, until it broke down, and then she would take up the song and carry it through. This was repeated until the little birds could sing the mother’s song accurately. And when we break down in our song of faith, God delights to take up the strain and help us through. His strength is made perfect in our weakness; all that we lack He supplies.
You may have heard John B. Gough tell, in one of his thrilling lectures, of a scene in his own experience. Sitting in a church one morning he heard a hoarse, discordant voic behind him, and he felt sorry that he was near such a disagreeable creature. The preacher gave out the hymn, “Just as I am, without one plea,” and the discordant voice, without any melody or much tune, followed the words. While the interlude was being played before the second verse, Mr. Gough felt a hand touch his arm, and a voice saying: “Please, sir, what is the next verse? Tell me the first line: I think I might remember it.” “Just as I am, poor, wretched, blind,” said Gough, and, as he looked into the stranger’s face, saw that he was blind. And when he heard him with his grating voice trying to sing the next lines, —
“Sight, riches, healing of the mind, Yea, all I need in Thee to find, O Lamb of God! I come,” —
Gough said he felt that he would like to lend him what voice he had, and help him to sing if he could. And so God feels toward us when we try to serve or to believe. He would help us in our failures, and, unlike Gough, He is able to do it. He can give us just what we need. Christ honored the weak faith of this father in order that his weak faith might become strong. This leads us to
II. The Signs of a Strong Faith.
They, too, are four:
I. Faith in the Word of God. — The text tells us that “the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken.’’ He no longer desired a sign; he could now rely upon the simple word. There was something in the tone of the voice, in the magnetic presence, as well as in what Jesus said, which went to his heart and gave him faith. And so there is something in this Word of God — a living something which goes with it and helps us to believe. I have no superstitious feeling toward the Bible. I do not regard its binding, its paper, its ink, its material make-up, as especially sacred. Webster’s Dictionary is as good a book to dream by and tell fortunes by as the Bible. It is no fetich. The truth in it is the sacred thing. What it means is hallowed ground. We may treat the Bible as the patient treated the prescription of the doctor, who told him
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to put it in a little water, and take it according to directions; and when the doctor returned the next day, he found the patient worse. “Have you taken my prescription?” he asked. “Yes, just as you told me. Here it is,” and he handed him a glass of water in which the paper had been dissolved; and he had taken several spoonfuls of paper-pulp for medicine. Instead of doing what the prescription told him, he simply took the prescription itself. In that sense “the letter killeth.”
The truth of God, ever living, is sacred. I like the spirit of the man who refused to let any book in his house lie upon the Bible. He regarded it as above all books, and hence none of his children could lay their books upon it. A wise reverence for the book is not out of place. But what I insist upon is that what the book means is more than the book itself.
The words of God are very precious, and we learn to revel in the truth itself apart from any benefit that we receive from it. A housedecorator in Buffalo, N. Y., was ordered to paper every room but one, and he was curious to know why that room was left blank. On entering, however, he saw a strange scene. On the walls were pasted hundreds of letters, and the young lady, who was kept within doors much of her time, said that she had thus papered the walls of her room because every letter was precious to her heart. There were letters from mother, now in heaven; from friends in the skies; letters which brought up pleasant associations of childhood and school-days. Every one of them had to her a meaning; she could sit in her room and revel in these associations. And so we may have our rooms of memory filled with Scripture truths. Every one of them is suggestive of something in the past, the remembrance of which gives us delight. This one tells of victory won; that one of a sorrow borne; another of a perplexity in which we were guided; another still of some great calamity which might have crushed us but for the promise that sustained. No man can prize the Word of God too highly and depend upon it too implicitly.
2. Another Sign of Strong Faith is Rest fulness. — This father came from home in great haste, and he was impatient at the delay of Jesus, but after Jesus had said “Thy son liveth,” we find him in no hurry. Not until next day does he start for home. He believes that his son is cured, and there is no need of hurry. Having watched, perhaps, at the bedside of his sick boy for many nights, he decides to stay in Capernaum and have a good night’s rest. He sleeps until late in the morning, when he quietly takes his breakfast, and then starts leisurely toward home. The wife is uneasy about him: “Why does husband stay away so long? He, of course, does not know that our child is well;” and calling the servant she says, “Go up to Cana, and tell husband the joyful news;” and as they come he meets them, and hears from them without surprise the account of the healing. It is hardly news to him.
“He that believeth maketh not haste.” He rests upon God with a quiet heart. He is willing to let God take His time, confident that God’s time is better than his. He has the promise, which to the eye of faith is equal to the fulfillment. He has already entered upon the enjoyment of what is promised. The Holy of Holies is his, described by the words: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in
Thee.” In this age oi hurry, we need such a rest of faith.
3. A Third Sign of Strang Faith is its Readiness to receive Confirmation. — As the father - homeward, he hears the echo of the words which Jesus spoke. The servants use the very language of Jesus. Jesus had said: “Thy son liveth.” The servants say: ,k Thy son liveth.” You have stood, perhaps, in the Pisa Baptistry, or on Echo Lake in New York, and heard your words brought back just as you spoke them. But an echo like this which the nobleman heard is sweeter than all the echoes in nature. The man who believes God’s Word will hear, sooner or later, the echo of answer. He will hear it in fulfillment of some kind. “Faithful is He who has promised.” And you will notice how ready the nobleman was to receive the confirmation of his faith. He compared the time when Christ spoke the word with the time when his son was healed, and he saw it was the same hour. Now unbelief would have suggested: “This is a remarkable coincidence, to be sure; but there is no necessary connection between the words of Jesus and the healing. He might have gotten well anyhow.” And so, when we have asked and received, the temptation too often is to take honor from God by giving credit to secondary causes. The tempter suggests: “You have what you wanted, but it might have come even without praying for it.” Such is the attitude of unbelief. Faith stands ready to be confirmed by the testimony of others, and by a direct answer to a definite petition.
4. The Last Sign of Strong Faith we will mention is its Willingness to receive Spiritual Blessing. — We are told that the nobleman “himself believed, and all his house,” The first thing he did, doubtless, when he reached home, was to search out the old Scriptures and read of the Messiah. And turning to his boy with eyes now bright with intelligence and cheeks flushed with health, he says, uYou have been saved from death by the Great Physician. Are you willing now to trust Him as your Saviour from sin? “And looking into the face of his wife, he says, “Will you also trust Him?” And then turning to the other children and the servants, he gets a promise from all that they will trust the Saviour. And kneeling now with the open scroll of the Scriptures before him, he returns thanks to God for the blessing of the child restored — better still, of a isehold redeemed. He has received from Jesus more than he asked. He came for the healing of his son; he has received the healing of his whole family. He came for temporal blessing; he has received spiritual blessing. He came anxious that the home on earth might be happy: he has received a home in heaven made happier. Such is God’s way of dealing. He knows how to give above all we can ask or think. Great faith prizes spiritual above temporal blessings, and has the secret by which the temporal is transmuted into the eternal.
I now appeal to every one here who has been blessed of God in body, in family, in any respect. Will you not, like this nobleman and his family, permit these temporal blessings to bring to you spiritual blessings? Will you not in gratitude give your hearts to Christ? The king asked John Fletcher of Madeley, ‘’What do you desire that I may give you?” “I want,” replied Fletcher. “only more grace.” The faith that seeks the spiritual is above the faith that seeks only the temporal.