[0:00] Now let us turn this evening to the narrative which we read from the Gospel of Mark. But I want us to look at words from that narrative, not as we have it in fact in Mark, but as we have it in Luke.
[0:17] So I would like you to come with me to the Gospel of Luke on the 8th chapter. And let us read again at verse 51.
[0:28] Luke chapter 8 and verse 51. When he, Jesus, came into the house, the house of the Mongeras, he suffered no man to go in save Peter and James and John and the father and the mother of the maiden, the little girl, and all wept and bewailed her.
[0:49] But he said, Weep not, she is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn, knowing that she was dead.
[1:02] And he put them all out and took her by the hand and called, saying, Maid, arise. And her spirit came again.
[1:14] And she arose straight away. And I would like to isolate words from verses 53 on 54.
[1:27] They laughed him to scorn. And he put them all out.
[1:39] They laughed him to scorn. And he put them all out.
[1:49] And he said, The Bible has, I think, very fittingly been called the Handbook of Faith.
[2:01] Fittingly called that because the Bible is the only authority of source that we have for the doctrines of our Christian faith.
[2:22] And the Bible, being the Handbook of Faith, has a great deal to say about faith. It tells us what faith is. Faith is a whole soul test upon God and Christ for salvation.
[2:41] It tells us what faith does. Faith in Jesus Christ saves the soul. It does what nothing else that works in the heart of man can do.
[2:56] Or it does what nothing else that man can do could achieve. Faith saves the soul. And the Bible tells us where faith comes from.
[3:08] Faith is the gift of God. He gives people what they need in order to salvation. And one could go on just illustrating how the Bible is the Handbook of Faith.
[3:22] From Genesis right through to Revelation, the whole of Scripture, in many ways, all streams in toward this one purpose from a human point of view.
[3:36] To win the trust and inform the faith of the children of men in the Son of God.
[3:49] A faith through which they shall be saved with an everlasting salvation. And a faith without which they shall be lost forevermore.
[4:01] So the Bible is all about belief. In fact, the Bible has so much to say about faith and about belief that we forget.
[4:12] Or sometimes we overlook altogether. But the Bible also has a great deal to say about non-faith. About unbelief.
[4:24] Non-faith. And that's what comes before us especially in these words of our text.
[4:36] Non-faith. And unbelief. Now the Bible, as I say, has a lot to say about unbelief. For example, the Bible tells us that unbelief is not the sort of thing that many people believe it to be.
[4:57] Unbelief in God and in Christ and in the Word of God and the Gospel of Christ. Unbelief, for example, the Bible tells us is not a neutral thing.
[5:09] It's not an indifferent thing. It is not something that in the ultimate, eternal issue will not matter. Unbelief in these things, the Bible says, will condemn the soul.
[5:26] Unbelief will deprive the soul. Unbelief will shackle the soul. Unbelief will leave the soul an eternal death forever.
[5:40] Unbelief is not a neutral thing. Now we meet many people. And if they don't say this with their lips, they say it with their lives. Yes, Christianity and faith in God, all that may be very well.
[5:54] But I don't believe it. And the fact that I don't believe it doesn't matter too much. My friend, unbelief. God will not allow unbelief to be as neutral as that.
[6:07] And if you refuse to believe his testimony concerning his son, Jesus Christ, you are far from standing on neutral ground.
[6:18] And you are condemned already. And only one thing will take you out from condemnation. And that is a change from being happy in unbelief to seek enough faith in Christ that will save your soul.
[6:39] Unbelief is not just a neutral thing. And again, unbelief is not just a negative thing. Those who will go a little bit further and say, well, maybe it's not neutral.
[6:53] They'll still say, oh, well, at worst it's negative. And by negative they seem to say that, well, unbelief really leaves them still where it found them first of all, from birth in this world.
[7:12] But my friend, that's not true. Unbelief is not merely a negative thing. It is not something that does nothing and that stands still and that stays in the place of its origin.
[7:24] Unbelief is something which is working very actively and going on in the mind and the heart of every woman and man and boy and girl, every person.
[7:36] Where unbelief reigns, there is a continual, ongoing process of degration and disintegration.
[7:51] It is not just a negative thing. It is a positive enmity against God. Listen to this. This is illestated for us in the words of our text.
[8:04] Jesus comes. God in human nature, as we were hearing from Mr. MacLeod this afternoon, God in human nature comes into one of the most striking places of man's darkness.
[8:21] He comes where the shadow of death abides, where man really is. And he says, weep not. She is not dead but sleeps.
[8:32] Sometimes unbelief looks him in the face, looks God in the face, and it laughs him to scorn. Unbelief derides God.
[8:48] Unbelief flaunts itself in the face of God. Unbelief will deny what God says. That's the character and that's the nature of unbelief and nothing will ever change it.
[9:04] It is enmity against the living God. And if there is one man in all the stream of history that should have won the trust and the confidence and at the very lowest, let us say this, the respect.
[9:21] If there is one man in the whole stream of history who should have won the respect of other men, not man, is the man Christ Jesus.
[9:35] And there are men still who tell us that they admire him. They admire him for his moral teaching. And they admire him for the philosophy of life that he left in this world by which if men lived, peace would reign on earth.
[9:55] Thou shalt love God and thou shalt love thy neighbour as I said. Yes, men admire him for that. And they say there was never such a religious genius in all the world.
[10:09] But when they face his claims to be God and when they face the exclusiveness of his claims that there is no other saviour under heaven but himself, what do men do?
[10:24] Their unbelief comes out and they laugh and to scorn. You may say that you're not scorning God. And you're not deriding the gospel.
[10:37] And you're not, as it were, spitting in the very face of Christ. And then if unbelief is reigning in your heart, the principle is that what?
[10:49] Which will bring you yet to the place where these things will be true of you. Unbelief is not negative. It's a very positive, virulent activity of the soul of man.
[11:03] When we talk of what faith is and belief is, we talk of the soul being exercised in trust upon Christ, God in Christ. Well, unbelief is also an exercise of the mind and the soul of man.
[11:17] And it is an exercise of his mind and his faculties and his soul in an anti-Godward direction. Unbelief is not negative.
[11:31] It is not neutral. It is the most virulent power that's working in the world apart from the power of the Holy Ghost. And it will carry men down to a place where they are lost forevermore.
[11:47] That's what unbelief is. Look at it. It laughs and is scorn. Ah, but God doesn't leave unbelief in its enmity, does he?
[12:04] Mmm. They laughed and scorn and he put them all out.
[12:18] Now there, I think, we see or we can gather a very simple biblical principle. We would find the principle, I suppose, if we look for it from the very beginning of the Bible to the end.
[12:34] We would find it given in very formal, dogmatic, doctrinal form. But here we find it illustrated in a very simple human way.
[12:46] It's a very simple, basic principle. And I want to look at it with you tonight. And my prayer simply for this service is just this, that God would impress that principle upon our hearts.
[13:02] upon the heart of every believer here and upon the heart of every unconverted person. What is the principle? The principle is this, those who refuse to believe Christ's message are forever barred from knowing Christ's power.
[13:25] It's a very simple principle. Those who refuse to believe Christ's message are debarred from witnessing Christ's power.
[13:38] And I want to take our text and the incident, the whole incident from which it comes, and just use it by the way of illustrating that biblical principle that unbelief has a power in it to exclude, to deprive, and to bring the soul of man down into a retrievable loss.
[14:02] Now, let's look at our principle and illustrate it from our text.
[14:13] Those who refuse to believe Christ's message debarred from knowing Christ's power. And we can see it here, first of all, in this, that unbelief bars men closes them off from any vision of Christ's grace.
[14:36] They do not see the grace of God manifested in Jesus Christ. Now, Christ here in this narrative, this history, is about to give to men one of the most wonderful manifestations of his power as the Prince of Life.
[14:59] It's the kind of incident that was to happen or at least to be recorded as happening on only three occasions in the whole of his earthly ministry. Raising one from the dead.
[15:13] And it's in the presence of the imminence, the nearness of the manifestation of that kind of power that unbelief digs in its heels and reveals its great score for God and his Christ.
[15:34] Now, you remember these three occasions, don't you? Let me just mention them to you. This power was manifested, for example, it was manifested, first of all, at the house here of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue.
[15:49] It was manifested again just outside the city of Nain. And it was manifested also at the grave of Lazarus. Anybody who knows the New Testament knows these three occasions when the power of Christ was shown in relation to death.
[16:05] Now, each of these encounters has, I think, its own aspect of the grace of Christ to teach us. We're dealing with just one of them.
[16:16] the raising of this little girl. And this manifestation of the power of Jesus, I think, manifests supremely the tenderness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[16:33] The gentleness of grace. Now, that may not be something that many of us associate with God, gentleness. And it may not be something that we associate with His grace.
[16:47] grace. And yet, it's something which attaches to His grace all the time. The psalmist could say long before this took place, he could look up to God who had dealt with Him in mercy, and he could say, Thy gentleness hath made me great.
[17:06] And here we see Jesus coming and dealing not just with death, but with death in our little girl.
[17:19] She's only 12 years of age. How will the Son of God manifest His power in the personality of this little girl?
[17:30] He's going to reach down into the depths of our personality. And He's going to lay hold of our bond that had been severed. And He's going to bring it together in healing.
[17:42] He's going to raise her from the dead and reunite the bond between soul and body. How will the Son of God do it? He does it very tenderly.
[17:55] And I think this illustrates for us, really, from one point of view, what grace is. Grace is omnipotence. All the power of God applied in love.
[18:10] And so applied that it meets the need and the character of its object in the very best way.
[18:22] A little girl. And did you notice how Jesus exercised His power to order? That's why we read the Gospel of Mark because the very words He used have given us there.
[18:37] He used two words only. Two Aramaic words. The language of the everyday. The language that was spoken in the home and round about.
[18:47] He said, Talitha, come in. And in using these two words, Jesus was laying hold probably of the two words that this little girl had first ever come to understand of any words in the world.
[19:12] because they were the morning call of a mother to her baby. Taken literally the meaning of this. A mother was saying, Up.
[19:24] Time to be up. Up, my little lamb. My lambkin. Up, my little lamb. When this little girl was just days old and her mother went to lift her out of the cot, she would say to her, Talitha, come in.
[19:38] You can imagine the tones in which she would say it. Up, my little one. And she would hear that every day. Perhaps it were the first words that began to mean anything.
[19:49] When she heard Talitha Kumi, she knew that hands that loved and cared would go around her. She knew that she would be born to the breast of someone who nourished and cared for her.
[20:02] There would be words that she would come to love and trust and associate with love and trust in personality in her mother. And as time would go on, it would mean different things to her.
[20:13] And they would be used in different ways. Perhaps when she was four or five, I almost said, when she was going to school. I don't know if we girls went to school there or not. But I'm sure she would be going out to play and she would have to do things for her mother.
[20:26] And sometimes when the mother called Talitha Kumi, it wouldn't be as gentle as it used to be. It would be, Talitha Kumi, come on, up, time to be up.
[20:37] You've got to shout at them sometimes or they don't get up at all. These were the words that Jesus laid hold of. Words that this little girl and she had gone through a traumatic experience.
[20:50] Who of us can understand what the sundering of the sword of death does to person of it?
[21:02] Who of us can understand what our little girl have felt went through when she underwent the experience of death?
[21:16] And now Christ is going to reach into the place of the dead. He's going to reach down into the very depths of her soul and he's going to lay hold of her soul and unite them together and he does it with two last words with which she is totally familiar.
[21:34] I ask you is that not an illustration of how God if I can put it like that God in his grace he adapts himself to us exactly where we are and as we are.
[21:51] Can I put it like this? My friend how like Jesus this is. is this not a Jesus who deserves your trust who draws it out?
[22:05] Is this not the kind of saviour that you would trust to the very uttermost? A saviour who adapts his grace to meet you just where you are at this moment whatever you need.
[22:19] and there were those who saw it. How marvellous to be a witness of the tenderness of Christ.
[22:32] There were those who saw it and there were believers we believe they had faith every one of them Peter and James and John and a father who had enough faith to go to a saviour for his girl and a mother from whom the little girl had learned the very words that Christ used.
[22:55] They were all present. Isn't it wonderful that men should see God at work in the mystery of bringing life out of death.
[23:10] But if there was those who saw there were those who did not see and they did not see for a very simple reason they had scorned the words of the Christ of God.
[23:28] And my friend to scorn the words of the Christ of God is to be excluded from his grace forevermore. Can I put it very simply there were some who did not see for a very simple reason they were on the wrong side of the door.
[23:50] Let me ask you and if you hear nothing else tonight my friend may God make you hear this. What side of the door are you on? Are you in the place where you see and know the power of the power of the power of Christ to raise your soul into everlasting life?
[24:18] Are you on the side of the door that only faith can put you on and only faith can keep you on? Or are you on the wrong side of the door?
[24:28] It's a very simple question. Are you on the wrong side of the door? And if you are on the wrong side of the door let me ask you a question. When are you ever going to try and get around to the right side of the door? What's got you on the wrong side of the door tonight?
[24:43] Perhaps you're blaming God. Perhaps you're blaming other people around about you. Perhaps you may even be blaming the men that preach the gospel to you. I don't know what you're blaming if you're on the wrong side of the door tonight.
[24:55] But my friend let me tell you this from the word of God. Only one thing finds you on the wrong side of that door tonight and that is your unbelief. And at the root of your unbelief is enmity that scorns the gospel that you're listening to at this very moment.
[25:13] We laughed him to scorn. And you put them all in. Unbelief today denies the reality of spiritual quickening just as truly as unbelief denied the power of Christ then.
[25:32] So unbelief will not be given any vision of the Savior's grace. And secondly I think we can never state our principle along another divine power.
[25:44] And I was thinking this afternoon when Mr. MacLeod was speaking to us about Gethsemane and the sufferings and the death that was to follow that the only times we read of him being in the presence of death although there were of course other times but the only times we read of him being in the presence of death he showed death just a little of his power and yet at Calvary he became obedient unto the death that he had already defeated on three occasions in a measure he used to be obedient man he used to be under the power of death for a time but three occasions when we see Christ the Lord Jesus in contact with death and you know it's the last enemy of the believer and it was the enemy of the
[26:45] Savior and it was death that he had to overcome the death of death is in the death of Christ and it must have been something aborrent to him wherever it appeared we talk about death as something natural my friend death is not something natural in the creation of a good God death is there as a result of God's curse and God's curse has been inflicted because of man's sin death is not natural it's one of the most unnatural and awful things in the experience of a fallen world and Christ came to deal with it and one of the first things he said when he came into this house of death and it's just a microscopic picture of the world isn't it one of the first things he said was weep not what
[27:46] I want from God what a word from anyone when he comes where death is raining imagine death in your home and a loved one gone now do you reach wherever more and your minister comes in and he said what on earth are you crying about don't be crying don't be weeping that in fact was what first drew my attention to the words of our text what a strange word to come from a gentle tender hearted saviour weep not he came to weep with those who went and then when he went among them he said weep not and the very words he used prodded and stung their unbelief and it brought out the scorn that's why they scorned him because he said he gave a reason for sorrow to be banished she's not dead but sleepeth under a new birthday now
[28:50] I was saying that we have three encounters like this recorded and I want us to look at that for a moment in each of these three encounters we see Christ dealing with death in three different stages in this little girl he's dealing with death we could say in the very first flush of its triumph she has just died her body still warm a man had walked up the road and Jesus had walked down and that was all the time she had been dead and Christ comes and he so easily deals with death in the first rush of its triumph that some men I'm sure have said she wasn't dead at all that's why Luke says I think that her spirit came again there might be some among us who could say ah yes and there are
[29:51] I've actually seen it in a comment on a by a certain book by a certain man who shouldn't be writing books in the bible I think he said this was probably the kiss of life resuscitation and when you say when you read the bible says her spirit came again you say some kiss he was dealing with death in the first rush of his triumph that might be something easy but take the take the the case of the son of the widow of Nain he was actually being carried out to be buried his body was cold here was death and it was open victory it was on the way to the burial ground and even there our Jesus can stand and say young man arise take Lazarus and he stands at the grave of Lazarus and even his sister should love him use a terrible word and it's a terrible word in the original
[30:53] Greek just as it is in the authorised the translation of the authorised version lord leave him alone because by now he is stinking death in the fullness of corruption and still our Jesus is master of it so story told I'm going to tell you this just to ease your concentration for a moment story told about a minister who once was questioning either his own family or another family we children who were in his house about the death of Lazarus and he had three or four wee boys and girls and he was asking he said to one wee girl maybe he said why do you think Jesus called out Lazarus by name why did he shout Lazarus why did he not just shout come forth and the wee girl looked and said oh well she said the bible says that he calleth his own by name and he said oh yes he said maybe that's very good to call his own by name so he does and then he turned to a wee brother
[32:02] Donald he said Donald he said now Donald he said why do you think Jesus used the name Lazarus oh he said I think he had to shout Lazarus in case they all came out you see the faith he had in the power of Jesus he called Lazarus so that only Lazarus will come out and you see there's a truth there if you're sitting in death and darkness there's only one thing that will take you out of it my friend and that's the call of Christ through the Holy Spirit and God could quicken he could call every single person in the island of Harris tonight and bring them into life he could call every single person in the city of Glasgow tonight he could even call every single person in the island of Lewis tonight and bring them out couldn't he he could but he called his own by name both of them are a truth death in the advanced state of corruption it doesn't matter what stage death is at and then we see
[33:06] Christ dealing with death in three spheres of life here's death reigning in the freshness of childhood and if death ever seems unnatural it's when it's death in a child isn't it the most unnatural looking thing I in my ministry have ever seen I think and I've seen it on two occasions has been a father carrying a little coffin to a grave what a terrible thing sin is when knots its weight well Christ comes and hears death working in the freshness of childhood death is no respecter of persons McChain wrote a letter to I think a little boy once I can't remember it was a boy or a girl a young person exhorting them to seek Christ because he said if you look at the graveyard round the church you'll go to you'll see that there are little graves as well as big graves and boys and girls need to be converted if they're going to be saved that's still true well Christ deals with death in the freshness of childhood
[34:26] Christ deals with death when it's raining in the vigour of manhood I don't know what age the son of the widow of Nain was but he was probably I think of him anyway in his late teens his mother was a widow and this fellow was the support of his mother and you can imagine him as a big strong fellow his mother depended on him but death doesn't respect people like that I can remember one of the first times I ever became conscious perhaps one of the first times God spoke to me in my teenage years was when I was working in a field one day in the spring time and a friend came walking up the field it was a long field and I wondered why he was coming at four o'clock in the afternoon he shouldn't have been anywhere near it I was sixteen years of age so was he I had been out of school for two and a half years he was still in school but he was there early and I wondered why he was coming to see me and shouting to me shouting to me before he reached me and before
[35:30] I could hear him almost and he was shouting to me Douglas Lenny is dead and Lenny was the biggest strongest most athletic boy in the school and that was Thursday and I had seen him playing football on Tuesday and I said it can't be things like that don't happen when you're sixteen you don't die I'm going to eternity forever and forever more but you do sometimes in God's things purpose and two years later I was working in the same field and the same fellow came and said to me he did it quietly he said Douglas once just come that Tommy has been drowned in Malaya during his national service for lessons I got from God and how hard I was death reigning in the vigour of manhood
[36:32] Tommy Cronus from the world of Murrow there were apparently in Malaya in the jungle a commander group trained commanders and one of the fellows was lost in crossing some sort of river and the best swimmer in the company was stripped and sent in to look for him and he never came back he almost swung perhaps he did even the sound of Mal and he's drowned in a dusty pool in Malaya for a war that seems nothing at all and it makes you wonder what it's done about well that's death the wages of sin and Jesus even when it's death reigning in circumstances like that is the prince of life and then death death in the rightness of manhood Lazarus also to kill and Lazarus died Jesus said Lazarus is dead but
[37:36] Jesus could raise Lazarus and these are just illustrations of what Christ can do as the prince of life now the master of death and he was seen at work by those who had eyes to see and by those who had hearts to believe and his power was known and you see here in this instance what a vindication of the power of Christ I sometimes think of Peter and James and John in that room and you say to yourself oh well what what a confidence their faith must have found when they saw the power of Jesus to raise from the dead surely they would never doubt again and then we follow Peter just to take one of them we follow him down the road of his own following of
[38:41] Jesus and it's not too long after this that we find him following afar off and then we find him denying this Jesus with oaths and curses what a strange thing the one who was on the right side of the door there were those who were on the wrong side of the door they laughed Jesus to scorn why because of unbelief do you notice how it's put they laughed and scorn knowing that she was dead they knew better than he did and you know that all was true of unbelief unbelief knows better than God God says except you repent you shall perish and unbelief says no repentance or not I'll never perish I'll get messy somehow at the end unbelief always makes
[39:46] God a liar unbelief always knows better than God my friend don't be wise with the wisdom of unbelief because it's not the wisdom which is from above it's the wisdom which is from below they knowing that she was dead why did that matter because they thought he was as helpless in the face of death as they were let me put it like this they measured his power and his ability to cope with this situation they measured his power by the standard of their own helplessness and I saying this especially to the Christian believers I sometimes look out to the church today and I think that we do the same thing we measure the power of Christ by the standard of our own helplessness and we shouldn't do that some belief that does it they were wrong you see knowing that she was dead and it was thinking he was wrong but it wasn't he was wrong it was they who were wrong and if you're in here tonight my friend and you're unconverted it's not
[41:01] God who's wrong it's you that's wrong and you better get it right and the Bible even says you better get it right tonight because you haven't got the promise of tomorrow today if you will hear his voice harden not your hearts and then finally let's the principle along just one more avenue we've been looking at how this principle of those who refuse to believe Christ's message are barred from witnessing Christ's power we've seen first of all they'll not see any vision of his grace and his tenderness they'll never know how lovely Jesus is how sad and then they'll never have any verification of his power over spiritual and physical death and again how sad and finally just this they'll never have any vindication of the Savior's teaching they will never come to know the truth as it is in
[42:04] Christ you see these people were closed off from the truth as it is in Jesus here is as I said already a sort of microscopic sample a little sample of the world sorrow death and it tells us that all men live and abide in the shade of death and isn't it wonderful here's the very essence of the gospel that to the very place where men abide in darkness and under the shadow of death God has come in the passion of Christ and there's a light shining in the darkness and he comes in all the power of the Son of God to teach them new truths about death and about life to give them a new perspective on what physical and spiritual death is that's why he says she is not dead but sleep with he was telling the truth he was saying that the separation of soul from body is not the end he he was saying still the soul lived on he was saying he was intimating if only they could see it that there was yet to be an awakening she was not dead but sleeper ah you see but they refusing to believe the
[43:46] Lord Jesus and that's typical it's just a small picture of what men do Christ came into this world to interpret the ways of God and the ways of men and to explain them to us here he is coming you see into this house where death rains to reinterpret it and to explain what death really is and to demonstrate his own power over it and why he has come he has come that the dead might hear the voice of the Son of God and live and when he calls into this home to do that and tells them almost tells them what he's going to do unbelief refuses to believe it all it laughs into scorn and you know when we get Christ reinterpreting life and reinterpreting death for us what a difference what a different shade things take on don't they
[44:58] I spoke just now about the burial of babies and young men and often since then I've had to visit homes as every minister has had to do where there has been death physical death you know there are homes where you know that physical death has been the greatest blessing that that soul has ever experienced let me just give you one illustration I remember being called one morning about quarter to eleven in my ministry in Aberdeen down to her home by the daughter of I think she was the oldest member we had in our congregation then she had originally come from Orte Bay or round about that direction and she had been nil for a few months really she was 92 or 93 or 94 she was very old and she had been a very godly woman and her daughter phoned about quarter to eleven one morning she said could the minister come so
[46:11] I went out to me I just about ten minutes or quarter of an hour and I got to the door of the house and only the daughter was in and she said oh Miss woman you're just too late my mother has just gone but she said come on up to the room and I was very reluctant to go to the room I thought what kind of superstitious creator is this that she wants me to go just where the woman has died but I went to the room and I was glad that I did it was just a little room a wee single bed and the shell of the old godly old lady lying there and do you know this that room was full of the presence of God and the peace of Christ and I sat down in a little chair chair beside the bed and with what was in that room I would have sat there for all eternity the peace of God filling the place and the daughter who as far as I know was not a
[47:15] Christian she said to me oh miss what on earth's in this room it doesn't feel sad at all it feels very good and I said it is very good it's God and the interest of God and you see that's not death that's life and death already quenched the death of God's people and that's not many as many experience I'm sure of many people in here already Christ is the master of death and when he reinterprets death for us then something of the gruesomeness of death and the coldness of the grave is taken away for us it's still there it's a terrible reality and even for the believer it's our last enemy but my friend it's the very last one and there'll be no more enemies and some of us have seen
[48:24] God's people die as they were dying telling us that they have been afraid all through their lives that God wasn't answering their prayer for grace to die and then they would say to us he didn't answer my prayer he didn't give me what I was asking for because I never needed it until now but now that I need it I have it and that is often the case but you see here is Christ coming with his own passion and with teaching that touches the very fountain and essence of life and of our death and of time and of eternity and men how do men in unbelief react they laugh him to scorn and my friend there's only one thing that Christ will do with unbelief he'll banish it from his presence the
[49:28] Bible very solemnly tells us that that God vanishes unbelief now there it is the illustration of that principle unbelief in the message of Christ closes man off from knowing the power of Christ I do need to say more that principle is expounded for us again and again and again in many ways through scripture let me just remind you of it as I close but they might let me remind you of what is said in the Bible about people who sat under the preaching of the word as you are sitting under the preaching of the word tonight and do know what said of them by the
[50:29] Holy Spirit of God the word preached did not profit them such a thing as profit less preaching and profit less hearing the word preached did not profit them why not being mixed with faith in them that heard it why why does the preaching of God's word not profit your soul and profit mine because of unbelief we did again in the same epistle to the Hebrews of a people whom God was graciously taken out of bondage into a land that flowed with milk and honey and yet they perished in the wilderness they didn't enter in to what God had for them why they entered not in why because of unbelief and man is still the same men long for and look for peace and they do not enter into peace because of unbelief there's only one source of peace and that is from the prince of peace men look for life and they look for it in all the wrong directions and they don't get it because of unbelief
[52:00] I don't want to stop in that note I want to turn the thing around because if that is true and my friend it is true men are lost they shut out not only from the blessing of God but that means that they're shut out from the heaven of God and they're shut out eternally forever and forever and forever from the light and the mercy and the blessing of God because they refuse to believe this McLeod I think it was in a sermon said something that struck me very fortunately I think it was this morning I've been listening to him so much I'm not sure when but I think it was this morning he said in an instant the instant of death a destiny fixed in a moment and my friend if that moment catches you in unbelief you're lost without chance of retrieval forever more a lost soul no gospel no preaching no mercy nothing but the unrelenting presence of a holy
[53:39] God who punishes sin for if I lie in the belly of hell behold thou art there unbelief yes unbelief deprives it shuts off from heaven itself but if that's true the opposite is also true and let's close on that note if unbelief shuts out my friend faith brings in faith simple trusting obeying believing faith admits into all the riches and all the riches of the saving grace of God Father Son and Holy Spirit and if you place your trust in among Christ Jesus you shall never perish none perish that trust him
[54:42] Jesus said come unto me and that just means believe on me come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest he that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out did you notice when we were reading in Mark and as the same in Luke how Jesus stressed faith let me just remind you how he did that he stressed faith he said first of all to a father who although he believed was tormented in his mind because his little girl was dying on the point of death he said be not afraid are you afraid tonight oh my if you're not in Christ you should be afraid he said be not afraid only believe and he said out with a man
[55:49] Jesus went with him did you notice that I hope he goes from here with you too and if you trust me will and then the whole process got stopped and I often wonder how on earth the father felt he must have felt terrible the saviour stood still because another one had drawn virtue and power from him and he wanted wanted to find her and bring her out to profess and confess her faith and what she had done and he gave her no rest until she told she herself came forward and said Lord it was me and remember what he said to her thy faith hath made thee whole what was he saying to her only believe and you did if
[56:51] I but touch the hem of his garment and my friend those of you who have been at the conference if through this weekend you've touched the hem of the saviour's garment by faith again you've been blessed and those of you who are just in for the service this evening if by faith you touch the hem of Christ's power you're blessed too and then wash forward remember the men came certain came I don't know who they were whether they were men or women sometimes I think they must have been women and that's why the apostle said certain came because very often women are ready to look at things from the worst point of view and to spread the bad news maybe that's unfair but certain things are coming to your mind just now don't bother you'll have forgotten this sermon in an hour's time you'll get out and you'll talk about the weather and the fear in your soul will go and if you don't get over it tonight you'll be alright tomorrow once you're back at your work and things will be normal and you'll forget the fanatic that thought that salvation was the most important thing in all the world don't trouble the master love and and before
[58:27] Jesus could say even one word Jesus turned to him how gracious and tender Jesus was and he said again don't be afraid only believe and and and that and that and that and that he is able to give only believe and my friend only believe and thou shalt see that Christ is all in all to thee and how difficult it is to believe you say that to me now yes my friends difficult it's impossible and yet what is impossible with man is fully possible with God as the whole narrative philistates and what you can do
[59:29] God can enable you to do God commands you to believe and with the command he is able to give the power we all need to pray every one of us needs to pray the prayer of another man in the gospels that we meet we need to pray this prayer Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief they laughed him to scorn is that what you will do well remember what happens when men do that when they laugh him to scorn he puts them all out my friend our wisdom is not to laugh and to scorn but to trust him with all our souls and if we do that he will not put us out he will take us in and instead of being on the wrong side of the door we'll be on the right side of the door and we'll be there forever more none perish that trust him to