May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in His Holy Word. Let's turn to the Gospel of Mark,
chapter 5, and we'll read verse 36. The Gospel of Mark, chapter 5, and
reading verse 36. As soon as Jesus heard the word
that was spoken, He saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be
not afraid, only believe. It's a very simple statement. It's a most important statement. And as we think of the context,
which it was spoken to realize that there was this man Jarius
who was obviously an important person and he was a ruler of
the synagogue And he come to Jesus because his little daughter
was lying at the point of death. And Jesus had said that he would
come and go with him. Jesus went with him. And much
people followed him and thronged him. And now we see that other
things Perhaps we might think it stood in the way. And he had
a woman who needed healing. And that woman was healed of
that which was upon her. And of course, Jesus also asked
her questions. It wasn't just something which
was dealt with in a moment or two. It was an important consideration. to be carried out. And then he
found that the woman did come and did confess. And it's good
to realize that we have an example like that in this chapter. The
woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her,
came and fell down before him and told him all the truth. it's a good thing when God blesses
us when God instructs us that we're able to come and confess
and tell what he has done and the Lord very graciously spoke
to her and said daughter thy faith hath made thee whole go
in peace and be whole of thy plague well this woman had faith,
she'd been given faith to venture to touch the Lord Jesus Christ's
clothes and to be healed. And now he tells her again, daughter,
thy faith has made thee whole. Go in peace and behold thy plague. And while he was speaking, we
then read, while he yet spake, They came from the ruler of the
synagogue's house, certain, which said, Thy daughter is dead. Why troublest thou the master
any further? Well, that didn't seem to be
an unreasonable comment, did it? There was the evidence that
this young child had died, and therefore why should Jesus be
called for to come and spend his time coming to see her. Well, it's interesting to read
then what occurred. As soon as Jesus heard the word
that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be
not afraid, only believe. This was a direct word to this
man. This man whose little daughter
apparently was dead and Jesus came and spoke these wonderful
words to her. Be not afraid, only believe. Well that had a great reference
of course to Jairus' daughter. and if we ponder such words like
this we should realize that they have a reference to every one
of us how important it is that God gives you and me grace to
as the word says only believe well of course to believe is
a great blessing and be assured of this that's the last thing
the devil wants you and me to do. And that's to believe the
great truth of the gospel. And yet how necessary and how
relevant it is that God does come and bless us with, the Word
of God tells us, faith to believe. The 11th chapter to the Hebrews,
as I'm sure you know, is a chapter which is given over to examples
of faith. and he commences the chapter
with these words, now faith is the substance of things hoped
for the evidence of things not seen and that really is if you
like a great proof text to show us what is right and what is
wrong and he goes on and as we come down to the sixth verse
in this chapter the Lord says but Without faith it is impossible
to please him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is and that he is a reward of them that diligently
seek him. There's a lot of truth in those
few words. And clearly it refers to those
who do come to God and do pray to him and do pray to him fervently
and diligently. So as we come to God in prayer,
and I hope we all do, I hope you young people, you children
also can come and pray to God because God does hear and answer
prayer and we must come in the right way it's not just praying
mere words it's coming to God the great almighty God the creator
of all things the ruler of the universe and come believing that
we come to a God who does hear and does answer prayer now we
can go right back through the Word of God to the beginning
of the Word in Genesis and find how prayer was put up and God
heard and answered prayers. And right through the Scriptures
there are so many examples of prayers which were answered. And what a blessing it is in
your life and my life if there are those occasions when we have
prayed And we prayed believing that God would hear, believing
that he would answer. And let's just pause for a moment
and realise that first of all, when we pray, we may have in
our mind a time scale. We may have our ideas of how
those prayers are going to be answered. But we should realise
that God's ways are higher. than our ways. And God never
makes any mistake. And sometimes we need much patience
to wait for God to hear and answer our prayers. And so just because
God doesn't answer immediately, just remember the Bible tells
us He waits to be gracious. you may say well why is that
necessary? it's necessary because in that
waiting our faith is tested as to whether it is real or whether
it's false what a mercy it is that God leads us we read that
in the 107th psalm he led them forth by the right way that they
might go to a city of habitation. And we read that very easily,
don't we? But if you think about it and think how the Israelites
were led for many years by the Spirit of God, and they wandered
in the wilderness for those 40 years. And again, just to come
back and realize why it was that they wandered those 40 years.
because they had lacked faith because they had not believed
because God had told them very clearly that they were to go
and possess the land the land of Canaan they'd only left Egypt
a relatively short time, a year or so and God had set before
them the way and he'd allowed them to send spies to go and
to search out the land and see what it was like and they came
back 12 spies and 10 of them gave an evil report and it was
only Joshua and Caleb who gave a good report and therefore God
had told them to go up and possess the land but they failed to believe
they failed to believe and the result was that God dealt with
them so that all those who were over 20 years of age all died
in the wilderness. None of them came into the promised
land. What did they possess? An evil
heart of unbelief. And really it's quite astounding
if you just ponder it or think about it. They'd been brought
out of Egypt in an amazing way. They'd been brought across the
Red Sea in an amazing way. God had appeared for them. He
was leading them by pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. He was providing for their needs.
And now they were told to go and possess the land, and they
refused. And as a result, they wandered
about in the wilderness for 40 years. 40 years, a year for every
day that the spies went and examined the land well they lacked faith
they did not believe the Word of God and my friends we have
that before us recorded in detail in the Bible so that you and
I today might remember such things and to therefore understand that
if God tells us something we should not therefore doubt it
and think well that's not possible the things which are impossible
with man are possible with God and that's a wonderful and glorious
truth and that's the God that you and I deal with and therefore
how wonderful it is if God gives us faith. And remember, as we
read in that sixth verse, without faith, it is impossible to please
him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. So we come back to that very
simple statement, which the Lord Jesus made to that ruler of the
synagogue. Just two words. Only believe. Well, I know not what is in your
life in the present time. There may be things which are
mountains, things which appear impossible. Nothing is impossible
with God. and what a blessing it is therefore
to have faith to come to our God and believe that what God
has said will come to pass the tendency is for us to find we
have an evil heart of unbelief that doubts the Word of God. That was really the problem,
wasn't it? You go back to the Garden of Eden and the devil
came to Eve and cast in her mind doubt. Hath God said? A question mark. And when Eve
pondered it, obviously she believed what the devil said. She knew
what God had said. But she followed the advice of
the devil. My friends we should always remember
that we have a great adversary, a great enemy, the devil who
wants us to never believe the truth of God's Word. But what
a mercy if God speaks to our heart, speaks to our soul and
directs us and speaks just those two words only believe, only
believe. And then to realise that little
and small our faith is, God does give us faith to believe. And then to wait and to watch
for answers to our prayers. Now, on this occasion, of course, The people from the house and
the ruler of the synagogue had said to Charles, Dad, there's
no point wasting your time coming. But Jesus said, being afraid,
only believe. And he continued to the ruler's
house. And there in the ruler's house,
he was to perform a wonderful miracle. And what we read in
this little account we read and the people there they laughed
him to scorn and people may laugh at you and me in our life there's that little line of a
hymn faith laughs at impossibilities and says shall be done. And here we have a situation
just like that. This child was apparently dead
from all that the people could see and yet you see Jesus came
and Jesus told them, why make ye this ado and weep? The damsel is not dead but sleepeth. and then laughed him to scorn.
Well again, God has very graciously given us examples like this,
so that in the current age in which you and I live, there may
be those times and situations in our life which God speaks
to us about, directs us and tells us perhaps only believe and we
may therefore continue in our path believing that the Lord
will appear like these people did, like Jesus did and people
may scorn us and laugh at us well we have example here you
see to encourage us to not worry about what people think And not
worry about what people say, not worry if people laugh at
us. The great and wonderful blessing
is to only believe what Jesus has said. And he tells them,
be not afraid, only believe. wouldn't it be a great blessing
for you and me today if indeed we are wonderfully favoured with
that you know belief is a great and wonderful blessing we have
that amazing account in the Acts of the Apostles when Paul and
Silas were in jail in prison they'd been put in prison because
they were preaching the gospel Things haven't changed, have
they? People are still put in prison today because they preach
the gospel. Indeed, they're condemned, even
the day and age in which we live, if people pray in their minds.
It's a dark day in which we live. But remember, God is in control. And usually what happens is the
devil oversteps his mark. He thinks he's more clever than
he is. And therefore he brings things which go a full circle
often. And the church of God is delivered. Well, on this occasion, there
was this situation where Paul and Silas were imprisoned. No doubt the devil was very pleased
with what had been achieved. But you see, what happened was
that they were blessed indeed. In the prison, they sang praises
unto their God. What a mercy, what strength of
faith to sing praises in prison. They'd been there with many stripes
laid upon them. They were in a prison, and yet
we're told at midnight they prayed and sang praises unto God. And
it wasn't silent. We're told, and the prisoners
heard them. That's good, isn't it? They weren't
ashamed, were they, of the gospel of their Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ. And the effect was, as we read
further on down in that 16th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles,
when Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, do thyself no harm. we
are all here then the jailer called for a light and sprung
in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and silence
and brought them out and said then he asked this very important
vital question really it's a question that really reiterates in every
believer's heart at some time in their life. And the question
was, what must I do to be saved? Clearly the Apostle Paul had
preached to them the Gospel and had told them the result of their
sin and the need to be saved. And therefore they came and asked
this important question, What must I do to be saved? Well, I wonder whether if we
come here this morning, whether you've asked that question to
God. You see, these things are between
our soul and God. And what a blessing it is if
God's given us prayer to come to Him and ask, what must I do
to be saved? I realize that I've sinned. I
realise that I've fallen short. I realise that I've offended
God. I've disobeyed God. I haven't kept the commands of
God. I'm a guilty sinner. And therefore, what must I do? And what did Paul and Silas say? Believe, believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. Well what a mercy it is if we
hear such a word as that speaking to us and God gives you and me
faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that he came into
the world as the Apostle Paul says to save sinners of whom
I am chief well it's a blessing if the Holy Spirit which it is
the work of the Holy Spirit convinces us of our sin and we come in
guilty before God and there is this great statement come in
before our eyes only believe and that means in the same way
that these words were spoken to the jailer and his household
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy
house well what a mercy if you and I have come to that position to realize that
we need to be saved indeed that we must be saved and there's
only one way to be saved and that is to come to the Savior just as we are it's wonderful
isn't it Jesus knows about us he knows what influence the Holy
Spirit has put into our hearts to cause us to come to him and
to ask this great question what must I do? you see it's a very
personal statement wasn't it? he wasn't worrying about everybody
else it was a personal request and so it is in our religion
it's a personal request we don't look around it's as though we're
before God it's as though perhaps we're the only person standing
before God and God is looking at us the thing that his eyes
look right into our heart You may be able to hide things from
men and women but my friends you and I cannot hide anything
from the all-seeing eye of Almighty God and that eye looks right
into our heart and convinces us of our guilt and convinces
us of our sin and causes us To cry
out, what must I do to be saved? And then to hear those glorious
gospel words, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved. You see, it's a very positive
outcome, isn't it? What a blessing if you and I
are blessed with that. And so as we think of this simple
statement that Jesus spoke to the ruler of the synagogue, be
not afraid, only believe. Perhaps we're afraid. We're too
bad. Perhaps we're afraid. We've sinned
against light and knowledge. We've disobeyed the word of God. We turned our back upon it. We've
said, I would not have this man, the Lord Jesus, to reign over
me. I am free to do what I want to
do. Well, my friends, you and I are
not free to do what we want to do. what a mercy it is if God
has that which he does to all his church a great and glorious
plan for their salvation and to think perhaps that the Lord
has brought us to a position where such a statement is put
before us only believe and there we are struggling on trying to
justify ourselves trying to put right all those things which
are wrong well what a mercy it is to hear the Word of God speaking
directly to us directly to us to think that God takes notice
of us and indeed comes to us in power to our soul you know
when the Apostle Peter wrote his letter, first letter he gives
us some great and glorious words it's very well worth reading
the letters that Peter wrote and in the first chapter of the
first letter that he wrote he tells us this from verse 18 for as much as
ye know he's addressing those who are concerned
about their spiritual state for as much as ye know that you were
not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from
your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers
he very clearly tells us that you and I cannot purchase our
salvation silver and gold in the context of our soul has no
reference he says for as much and then he goes on to say we're
not therefore redeemed with such things of this earth but with
a precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and
without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation
of the world. That gives us a picture of the
Lord Jesus Christ who was foreordained before the world was created. Indeed, the Lord Jesus did create
the world but was manifested in these last times. Manifested. The last times in which Peter
wrote the last times which still exist to realise that the Lord
Jesus Christ was manifested through his word to our souls wonderful
truth was manifested what a great and wonderful blessing in these
last times for you who by him do believe in God that's who
the Lord Jesus is revealed to. Those who are given faith to
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, just like the Philippian jailer,
who by him do believe in God that raised him up from the dead
and gave him glory. your faith and hope might be
in God it's not you see anything that you and I possess in our
own our old nature it's the gift of God to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ who by him do believe in God so what a wonderful wonderful
blessing if God today has by His mercy, through His grace,
the unmerited favour of God, to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. My friends, the only person that
can tell you if that's true is God Himself and your own heart. And so it's good, therefore,
to examine ourselves whether we are in the faith or not. The Word of God encourages us
to do just that. We don't want to be deceived.
We don't want to go down the wrong road. We don't want to
be looking to our own abilities, to our own strength. We want
to be looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. As the prophet Isaiah
says in the 45th of Isaiah, 22nd verse, look unto me. and be ye saved for I am God
and there's none else there's no one else no one else who can
save our souls and so what a mercy it is and so he tells us Peter
goes on seeing you purified your souls in obeying the truth through
the Spirit the Holy Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren
see that you love one another with a pure heart fervently being
born again born again as the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus in
that third chapter of John you must be born again being born
again not a corruptible seed but are incorruptible. Incorruptible. You and I have a corruptible
body. We have an incorruptible soul.
Being born again, not a corruptible seed, but are incorruptible by
the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Oh, my friends,
the Word of God is true. Don't despise the Word of God,
don't think It's irrelevant in your life. It's the most important
thing that you and I have in our life to be able to read. And what a mercy, therefore,
if God gives you and me that faith to read the Word of God
as the Word of God. Not as the Word of man. God used
men to write it, but it was His Word. And what a wonderful blessing
it is, therefore. To understand this great truth
and be encouraged by such words as this. Yes, be not afraid,
only believe. Be not afraid, but only believe. Another reference in the letter that John wrote when he
wrote his letters and it's a great wonderful blessing to have these
truths in the fifth chapter that first letter the last chapter
in the first letter the first verse he says whosoever there's
some wonderful whosoever's in the Word of God whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God. That means you and
I are born again of the Spirit of God. And everyone that loveth
him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. By this we know that we love
the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God.
that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not
grievous. And if the Lord God has touched
our heart to come before him and desire to believe and given
us grace to believe, we will recognise the wonderful love
of God which has come down into our hearts and caused us to come
to that place Will we stand guilty and helpless, and yet to plead
for that grace, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Oh, my
friends, only believe. It's very simple, isn't it? Very
simple. It's not a long, great text,
is it? You've got to commit your memory. Just two words. Only
believe. and what a mercy therefore if
God enables you and me to believe again there's sometimes encouraging
words that we have in the word of God to show us the truth and
the encouragement that God gives you might remember there was
an account in the 9th chapter of Luke where there was a dumb
spirit cast out and the father came to Jesus and brought him
unto him and when he saw him straightway the spirit tear him
and he fell on the ground and wallowed foaming and he asked
his father how long is it is it ago since this came unto him
and he said of a child and oftentimes it has cast him into the fire
and into the waters to destroy him but If thou canst do anything,
have compassion on us and help us. And Jesus said unto him,
If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. You might think, well that's
a straightforward answer and how is this father going to respond? Well, He responds in this way. He calls, he cried out and said
with tears, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief. It's a great blessing that God
has put such statements in the Word of God because sometimes
it may be very hard for us to believe. well says this man and
it's good to realize that such statements are recorded he says
Lord I believe he did want to believe and then he says help
thou mine unbelief that means he didn't want to not believe
he wanted to believe but he was aware that there was a spirit
which might come upon him which would cause him not to believe
to be an unbeliever and he wanted to be delivered from that what
a mercy that would be perhaps you're fearful today I don't
know in your condition whether you want to believe But you're
fearful that you won't be able to. Well, 24th verse of this
ninth chapter in Mark tells us straightway. Father cried out
with tears. It was a real concern to him. It wasn't something frivolous.
It was important. Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief. What a mercy that is for us today. to be encouraged. You see how
encouraging the Word of God is. Because God knows all about us.
He knows our infirmities. He knows that naturally we possess
an evil heart of unbelief. What a mercy if he comes and
gives us that grace to believe. Well, we know, of course, the
outcome of this account was very wonderful and we should be very
thankful. It was so because they came to the house, the ruler
of the synagogue, and saith the tumult, and them that wept and
wailed greatly. And when he was come in, he saith,
Why make ye this ado? And weep, the damsel is not dead,
and sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn.
But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and
mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, which of
course were Peter, James, and John, and entereth in where the
damsel was lying, and took her by the hand, and said, Talitha
cumi, which is being interpreted, damsel, I stand of thee, arise. And straightway the damsel arose
and walked, For she was of the age of twelve years, and they
were astonished with a great astonishment." Well, that was
a very wonderful and remarkable occasion. But it's recorded for
the benefit of the Church of God. It's wonderful. Therefore, if it's recorded for
our benefit even today, we may hear the words may be spoken
into our heart and we may have faith to do so and go on our
way rejoicing. Be not afraid, only believe.