Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 3241
Delivered by C. H. Spurrgeon
“How is it that you have no faith?” Mark 4:40.
This question may be very properly put to those who have no faith at all—and we intend to so put it in the second part of our discourse. But it was originally put to men who had some faith, men who had faith enough to make them disciples of Christ, faith which brought them to sail in the same vessel with Him. Even when they reproached Him and said, “Care you not that we perish?” they had faith enough to make them call Him, “Master.” Yet, in comparison with the faith which they ought to have had, Christ calls their faith no faith at all! They were so wavering, so tossed about with unbelief, that though they were His hearty, honest and sincere followers, He yet speaks to them as if they were unbelievers and says to them, “How is it that you have no faith?”
I shall address this question, then, first of all, to God’s people. And in the next place, to the unconverted.
I. First, LET US SPEAK TO GOD’S PEOPLE.
Let me say to begin with, that this is a question which must have been peculiarly painful to Him who asked it. The faith in which they were lacking was faith in Him—their Master, their Lord who had loved them from before the foundation of the world and who intended to shed His precious blood for them—and to make them His companions in Glory, world without end! Yet they had no faith in Him! Let the Lord Jesus come to you, my Brothers and Sisters, and I think you will detect much sorrow in the tone of His voice when He asks, “How is it that you have no faith, or so little faith in Me? I have loved you. I have loved you to the death—remember Gethsemane and Golgotha—remember all that I did and am still doing for you. How is it that you doubt Me?” Beloved, if we doubt our fellow men, it is not strange, for Judas is one of a large family. But to doubt the Savior, the faithful and true Friend that sticks closer than a brother—this is a cut as unkind as any of the lashes which fell upon His shoulders when He was chastised in Pilate’s Hall!
You will see that the question must have pained Him if you notice to whom He addressed it. “How is it that you have no faith?” You chosen twelve, you who have been with Me from the beginning, you to whom I have expounded the mysteries which have been left dark sayings to the multitudes—how is it that My choicest friends, the picked ones of My band, have no faith in Me? And the Lord seems sorrowfully to put this question to some of us—“How is it that you have no faith, you whose names are written in My Book of Life, no, written on My hands, and engraved on My heart—you who have been bought with My precious blood, snatched out of the claws of the lion by My almighty power and restored from all your wanderings by My loving care? How is it that you, My favorites—the King’s own chosen companions— how is it that you have no faith?”
And the question was painful to Him for yet a third reason—namely, that they had no faith upon a matter in which one would have thought they might have believed. They were in the vessel with Him and if the ship went to the bottom, they would go to the bottom in good company, for their Lord was with them! And yet they had not enough faith in Him
to believe that He would save their lives! Perhaps they knew His ability—if so, they questioned His willingness. Perhaps they knew His willingness—if so, they questioned His ability! In either case, it was very painful that they should think their own dear Friend, their Lord and Master, would let them sink when the glance of His eyes could save them, or the will of His heart could deliver them!
And now, this question, as Jesus Christ puts it to us, must be very painful to Him. “Do not you, O My children, do not youbelieve Me? Mine is an unchangeable love, a love that is stronger than death, a love which led Me down into the grave for you—do you not believe Me? If others, who do not know Me, doubt Me, I can endure their unbelief—but unbelief from you, My close personal acquaintances, My own familiar friends—oh, this is hard, indeed! You have sat under My shadow with great delight and do you doubt Me? You have eaten of My fruit and it has been sweet to your taste, and do you doubt Me? My left hand has been under your head and my right hand has embraced you—I have brought you into My banqueting house—I have fed you with food such as angels never tasted, I have filled your mouths with songs such as seraphs never sang, I have promised you a heritage such as princes upon earth might well envy—and do you doubt Me? Do you doubt Me and do you doubt Me about such a matter as whether you shall have food to eat and raiment to put on? Do the lilies doubt Me? Do the ravens doubt Me? And will you doubt Me about a matter concerning which lilies have no care and the ravens have no thought? Do your doubts relate to your eternal salvation? But have I not guaranteed to save you? Have I not sworn that I will surely deliver every soul that trusts in Me? What have I done to make you doubt Me thus? Wherein have I failed you? Show Me which promise I have broken, to which of My oaths I have been a traitor, or in what case I have turned My back upon My friends? Oh, doubt me no longer!”—