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‘If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed.’
Mat_17:20
I. Its limitations.—It is evident that different ages of the Church have called for different kinds of faith.
(a) The faith of a miraculous age would not be quite the same with the faith of a period when God worked only by ordinary operations.
(b) The faith of different men must vary. A common man, at the time of Christ, would not have been reproved as the apostles were, for not being able to cast out an evil spirit, because it was an authority given only to the apostles. Neither would Christ have said, nor did He ever say, to any but His disciples, that if they had faith, they could ‘remove a mountain.’ The faith could only rise to the level of the commission which it had received, and of the promises with which it is conversant.
(c) Faith and its achievements must be as God is pleased to give it to every one. Faith is a pure creation of God in a man’s soul. And a man can only believe, as it is given to him to believe.
(d) The state of every man’s faith depends upon the condition of his heart, and the life which he is leading. If you are not living in personal communion with God, you cannot have faith. Now all these determine the boundaries of the province of faith, and are faith’s limitations.
II. The ranges of faith.—Christ’s words make it plain, that everything hinges upon faith; but that the success of faith does not depend upon the quantity, but upon the quality of faith.
(a) What is true faith? True faith simply takes God at His word; it does not stop to ask questions,—it does not question itself, but has faith in its faith. Now, such a faith may be but a ‘grain’; but the grain will be greater than the mountain. Let us see how it is.
(b) You can still ‘remove mountains,’—mountains of sin, mountains of care, mountains of fear, mountains of difficulty.
(c) Are we, then, to suppose that God puts into a man’s mind to believe just what He intends that man to do? Unquestionably. We have only to follow our faith.
(d) But may we not mistake the leadings of Faith? Yes. Where is the security? The security is in a Scriptural mind, in a heart really disciplined and trained to know and discriminate still, small speakings,—the Shepherd’s voices.
—
The Rev. James Vaughan.
Illustration‘Faith is in its essence the power by which we grasp the future, the unseen, the infinite, the eternal; and in its application, it is a principle of knowledge, a principle of power, a principle of action. It is then on man’s side the condition and the measure of Divine blessing. By faith we lift up the sightless eye and it is opened: by faith we stretch out the withered arm and it is made whole; by faith, bound hand and foot with grave-cloths, we come forth from the tomb of custom which lies upon us
“With a weight
Heavy as frost and deep almost as life.” ’
‘Because of your unbelief.’
Mat_17:20
I. Why we fail.—We do not seek that first, and therefore we fail. The explanation is as simple as it is sad. We cannot be happier and better ourselves, much less can we make others so, unless the heart is influenced, for with the heart men believe unto righteousness.
II.‘Because of your unbelief.’—Had these disciples been not faithless but believing, so oft evoking their Lord’s sorrowful rebuke, ‘O ye of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?’—had they prayed more frequently and earnestly; had they shown more of that self-denial which He taught and set before them, distrusted themselves and humbled themselves instead of disputing which should be the greatest, they would have cast out that evil spirit. But he perceived, and prevailed over their want of faith. He said, ‘Jesus I know, but who are ye that utter His name, but do not believe in its power?’ We, too, are tempted to forget the Omnipresent God, to be of the world, worldly, and to set our affections upon the things of the earth, so to lose the power, the only true power over ourselves and others, which we have in exact proportion to our faith, our prayers, our self-denial; for they are inseparable, these three, trinity in unity.
III. The remedy.—It is impossible to believe in our heavenly Father and not to go to Him always as children, to rejoice in His love, to thank Him for His gifts, to be protected in danger, taught in ignorance, be relieved in pain, and to be forgiven when we have done wrong.
(a) True prayer. God has not only given us a voice to pray with, but a mind with which to think about our prayers, and capacities and means and time and money with which we may fulfil them. True prayer is prayer in action. Duty is prayer, and work is worship.
(b) Fasting. What is meant by ‘fasting’? God tells us what true fasting means. ‘Is not this the fast that I have chosen to loose the bands of wickedness?’
—
Dean Hole.
Illustration‘The Church of England, while she commends and commands the scriptural discipline of fasting, makes no severe definitions and lays down no rigid rule, for many and righteous reasons: because no rules could be applicable to all, the young, the old, the weak, the poor; because if it were compulsory, it would become a mere form or evasion, as, for example, a fast from flesh meat might be only a feast on other dainties; because a fast kept ostentatiously, in direct disobedience to the Lord’s warning that we appear not unto men to fast, would only be a feast of pride, the pride which “apes humility”; because under the Gospel in the liberty where-with Christ has made us free we fast by the love of virtue and the choice of our own rather than by the coercion of any law; because the best form of abstinence is to be temperate in all things; and because bodily fasting is but a part of that self-denial which Christianity teaches, and which has a far more definite and comprehensive scope.’