Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3132
“Do you believe on the Son of God?” John 9:35.
[Other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon upon this question are as follows—Sermons #1088, Volume 18—THE ESSENCE OF SIMPLICITY; #2141, Volume 36— THE QUESTION OF QUESTIONS; #2667, Volume 46—A PRESSED MAN YIELDING TO CHRIST and #3008, Volume 52— AN ALL-IMPORTANT QUESTION]
THIS blind man, whose eyes Christ had opened, was a very shrewd fellow and wonderfully straightforward and determined. What he did know could not be beaten out of him, neither could he be led to draw unfair inferences from what he knew. He would hold to what he clearly saw to be the fact. He believed Jesus to be a Prophet sent of God and he stuck to his belief whatever the Pharisees might say. Now I believe that is the kind of man to learn more of. The man who knows something and yet trifles with it, is not likely to be further instructed of God. Nothing is more displeasing to Him than trifling with what you have already learned, tampering with your conscience, not following the guidance of the Light of God which you have already received. But to him that has, and that uses aright what he has, more shall be given—and he shall have abundance. The honest and good ground was the sort of soil in which Jesus loved to sow the Good Seed of the Kingdom, so He thought it was worth His while to search for this man whom the Pharisees had excommunicated, that He might still further instruct him in Divine Truth. O dear Hearers, as far as ever you have received the Light, act up to it and praise God for the Light that He has given you! If you value the moonlight, He will give you sunlight before long. But be upright, straight, honest and sincere before the Lord, for He looks with hopefulness to the true and the upright, for these are the people whom He is most likely to bless.
I. Our Savior, having found this man, put to him the question in my text, “Do you believe on the Son of God?” This question I am going to consider with you as the Holy Spirit shall help us. And first, I see here AN EXAMPLE OF WISE PERSONAL ENQUIRY.
Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to this man personally because He meant to do him good. He did not invite him to listen to a sermon, though that also might have done him good, but He got him alone and put to him this pointed, personal question, “Do you believe on the Son of God?” Christian people, this method which Christ, Himself, used, you ought to employ more than you do! Talk to people personally and pointedly. Push them up in a corner from which they cannot easily escape. Whenever a sermon is preached, it is the preacher’s duty to apply it to his hearers, but it is quite as much the duty of his Christian hearers to apply it to each unconverted person present by asking, “Do you believe on the Son of God?” Get hold of a man and do not let him go until you have put to him this personal question! Sunday school teachers should do this to each child in their classes—perhaps their work just needs that finishing stroke to make it effective. Parents, especially, should do this with every boy and girl in their family. It should be close personal work with each one. Teaching may be general but it should always be followed by a personal catechizing of those who have been taught.
Our Savior put this question to the man when they were alone. He did not ask him this while there were dozens of people around them. It might have been very awkward for the man if He had done so. But, getting him by himself, Christ said to him, “Do you believe on the Son of God?” You, also, dear Friends, will find this to be a very useful way of working for Christ because it will often bring men to a crisis. They are, possibly, halting between two opinions. Perhaps in their own minds they have a sort of notion that they do believe in Jesus, and yet they really do not. So, when they are pointedly requested to say whether they do or do not believe in Him, it helps them to understand their true position and
very frequently it drives them out of a wrong position into a right one! In the case of the man whose eyes Christ had opened, the question, “Do you believe on the Son of God?” led to the discovery of a very serious flaw in his condition. He was spiritually ignorant—he did not know the Savior even though He was standing close beside him and talking to him! He said, “Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on Him?” That lamentable ignorance on his part might not have been discovered by him if the question had not been so pointedly and plainly put to him—“Do you believe on the Son of God?” That question led to the removal of his ignorance, brought him into clearer Light and ended in his saying, “Lord, I believe,” and in his falling down to worship the Savior of whose Deity he had just before been ignorant!
May I, then, without enlarging upon this point, earnestly urge upon my Christian Brothers and Sisters the wisdom of often using this method of pushing the individual sinner up into a corner and saying to him, “Do you believe?” When we are publicly instructing people, we are very often like persons who are building a great bonfire. We bring barrels, wood, coals and I know not what else, and keep on heaping up the pile, yet there is no bonfire! What we need is a match to set light to the pile and, very often, that pointed, personal question, “Do you believe?” pressed right home upon the individual hearer is just like the lighted match thrust in among the combustible materials—and so the instruction already given becomes profitable and effective! Have you ever used this method, dear Friends? I believe that in many cases parents go on with family prayer and instructing their children in Divine things, yet their boy is not a decided Christian because his father does not take him into the study, or into the little quiet parlor and put his arms round his neck, and pray for him, and say to him, “My dear boy, have you really given yourself to Jesus Christ?” And when a mother does that, oh, how many boys and girls have been brought to Jesus by those earnest personal enquiries from a mother whose tearful eyes give still greater force to her loving entreaties! I think that most Sunday school teachers will tell you that when they have persistently charged home the Truth—of course, all other points being attended to as well—when they have persistently charged home the Truth upon the individual conscience, they have seen greater immediate results than they have had from their more general teaching.