Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2667
“Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when He had found him, He said unto 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 unto him, You have both seen Him, and it is He that talks with you. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Hun.” John 9:35-38.
LAST Sabbath morning [Sermon #1683, Volume 28—The Great Cross-Bearer and His Followers] I spoke to you concerning one who was forced into the King’s service. That was Simon, the Cyre-nian, who was compelled to bear Christ’s Cross. He was not a volunteer, but a pressed man, yet, I think that after he had been forced to bear the Cross, he willingly carried it and I hope that he, afterwards, became a faithful follower of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, strange to say, here is another pressed man, for I do not think that this man, whose eyes had been opened by Christ, had thought of becoming a Believer in the Son of God until the Lord Jesus found him. Before he had reached that point—indeed, before he knew that the Prophet who had opened his eyes was the Son of God—the Pharisees had cast him out of the synagogue so that he was compelled to bear the cross for Christ although he did not, then, fully know Christ and certainly had not believed upon the Son of God. Yet, in his case, also, it appears that he cheerfully took up the cross which had been, at the first, forcibly laid upon him.
It may happen that there are some persons here who are in a similar position—some who have been ridiculed for being Christians even before they are Christians! Some who have been mocked merely because they go to a place of worship, though as yet they have not yielded themselves to Christ. Well, if that is the case with any, seeing that the cross is laid upon their shoulders, I trust that they will not throw it off, but that they will bravely bear it for Christ and freely suffer what, up till now, has seemed to them to be a piece of injustice, for they have been treated as if they were believers in Christ, when really they are not yet on the Lord’s side.
This man, then, bearing Christ’s Cross in a certain way, was cast out of the synagogue. And then Christ found him and blessed him. Observe, dear Friend, where Christ began with him, for it will show us where and how the blessing usually enters. The door by which the richest of Heaven’s favors must come to us is indicated by our Lord going to that door and opening it. He said to the man, “Do you believe on the Son of God.” So that faith in the Son of God is the gate of benediction. Faith is that window of agate and gate of carbuncle by which the Divine Light of Jesus’ love comes streaming into the soul. This is the way by which God’s mercy enters the heart of man and, therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ, Himself, begins there. And in all our dealings with the unconverted, it will be wise for us, also, to begin there. That is the place where the decisive battle will have to be fought, for, upon the believing or the not believing on the Son of God, the eternal destiny of each individual will turn! “He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that believes not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abides on him.”
That wrath abides even now upon him if the life of God is not in him. Let us hammer away at that all-important point of faith in Christ. This is the Thermopylae [narrow pass] of Christian experience. If this pass can be stormed and carried, we can capture the citadel of men’s hearts. But if unbelief continues to guard that narrow passage to eternal life and to hold it against the Gospel and its invitations, exhortations, promises and threats, then nothing whatever can be
done! So, in this enquiry of our Lord, we have most instructive teaching. His objective, no doubt, was to bless this man by working in him saving faith and, therefore, He said to him, “Do you believe on the Son of God?”
I think our text will help us, first, to speak of true faith—how it is known. Secondly, true faith—how it progresses. And thirdly, true faith—how we can promote it
I. First, I want to speak concerning TRUE FAITH—the faith that saves—HOW IT IS KNOWN.
First, it is absolutely essential that it should be faith in the Son of God. Our blessed Lord knew that this man believed in Him as a Prophet—so might He not have been content with that? No, because to believe in Christ merely as a Prophet is not saving faith. It may be a step towards salvation and it may lead up to it, but the faith that is absolutely necessary is that belief in Him as the Son of God. And he who does not believe in the Deity of Christ has not a Savior who can save him! The work of saving a soul is a Divine operation and no one but a Divine Being can accomplish it. It is He who sits upon the Throne of God who says, “Behold, I make all things new!” There cannot be anyone except the Creator who can create—and the Creator must, in every case, be God. To save a soul, there must be a work performed which is analogous to the Resurrection. But, in order to raise the dead, there must be the Presence and Power of God. It is one of those operations which it is not conceivable can be performed by an angel or by any created being. The Highest alone can accomplish it—has He not said of Himself, “I kill and I make alive”? The power of life and death must rest with God alone. Hence, then, the work of salvation needs a Power nothing less than Divine. He who believes in Christ as a mere man has not believed in a Person who can give him salvation—and Christ cannot accomplish the stupendous task if He is only man, for the Savior must be God!