Sermon #2925 Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit 1

REASONS FOR DOUBTING CHRIST

“Wherefore didst thou doubt?”

OUR Lord did not begin His dealings with Peter in this emergency by asking him that question. He
first stretched out His hand and saved him from his peril, and then He said to him, “O thou of little faith,
wherefore didst thou doubt?” When a man is in trouble, help him out first, and then blame him for
having got into it, if you feel it necessary to do so.
It is cruel to bring your censure to bear upon sinking Peter. First give him your help, lest he perish in
the sea, and when you have done that you may afterwards chide him for any fault that you perceive in
him. This is always the way with our Master. He gives liberally and upbraids not, except when there
shall come to be a special reason for our spiritual profit, when a little upbraiding may do us good.
Now I am going, first, to use our text and then I am going to alter it. I shall first speak to God’s
people, and say, “Wherefore didst thou doubt, O Christian?” And then put it into another tense
altogether, and address it to the unconverted, and say, “Why dost thou doubt, O thou who knowest the
Gospel, but hast not yet believed it?”
I. LET US USE THE TEXT AND QUESTION GOD’S PEOPLE—“Wherefore didst thou doubt?”
I am probably addressing some brothers and sisters—perhaps a great many who have been through a
season of profound gloom, and in the midst of that gloom there has been the element of spiritual evil. To
be gloomy and depressed is not sinful at all, but there may have been in the midst of that the sin of
unbelief. There may have been a doubting of God—a distrust of His providence—a questioning of His
love. Now I come at this time to such a brother or sister and say, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst
thou doubt?” Can you answer that question? Shall I help you?
First, I will suppose some reasons which, if they do exist, will justify you in having doubted. And
then I will take the reasons you yourselves assign one by one. I shall put them to you to know whether
the supposition is allowable.
You may doubt if on former occasions you have found God unfaithful to His promise. If He has lied
unto you—if, after having said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee,” you have found, say on one
occasion at least, that He has utterly failed you and forsaken you—then you are perfectly justified in
doubting Him in the future, and you were justified in doubting Him just now.
What do you say to this supposition? I would not ask you to speak what is not true, even for God
Himself, for there is nothing more detestable in God’s sight than for us to attempt to honor Him by
falsehood. A pious fraud is a most impious blasphemy. No, speak the truth. Has the Lord been a
wilderness or a land of darkness to you? Has He said and has He not done it? Can you put your finger
upon a single promise and say, “I relied upon this and I found it failed me.” He said that they that trusted
in Him would never be ashamed nor confounded. Can you say that you did trust Him in some particular
event and the failure you experienced made you to be ashamed?
Brothers and sisters, I know what you will say to that supposition. You are grieved almost to hear it
made. You rise up with loving indignation and you say, “God is faithful and true. He has not gone back
from His promise in any single instance.” Then, brother, very softly I will put it—and I have reasons for
doing it very softly—“O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? If He helped you before, why
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did you doubt Him in the next trouble? If He fed the five thousand with the loaves and the fishes, why
did you think that He could not also make you walk the waters of the sea?
There is another supposition. You may doubt if your case is a new one and so superlatively difficult
that it is quite certain that God cannot help you in it. You require something more than omnipotence and
the case is so perplexing that even omniscience cannot see a way out of it. Now, as I make that
supposition, my heart is laughing at the very absurdity of the terms I use, for if we say omni-potence,
that is all power. It is not possible that anything could be beyond that. And if we say omni-science, that
is all wisdom. It is not even imaginable that anything can surpass that. So I think I had better dismiss this
supposition at once.
Only it is sometimes put in Scripture by way of question, “Is anything too hard for the LORD?”
“The LORD’s hand is not shortened that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy that it cannot hear.” When
you answer, “I know that God is able and I know that God is wise to help me,” then I must whisper that
question again, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”
But I will suppose something else, that you may doubt if God has abolished the promise. Dear
brother, is it true that the Bible has run out and become like an old almanac that is done with—that God
has spoken somewhere in the dark places of the earth, and has said that the seed of Jacob may seek His
face in vain, and that He will not be held to His covenant or bound to a single promise that He has
made—that He has revoked them all?
You are astonished that I should even utter such a supposition. Your soul rises indignantly to repel
the imagination, for you say, “All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen unto the glory of
God by us.” You know, and you are assured, that He cannot change. He is “the same yesterday, to-day,
and for ever,” and you are quite certain that He speaks the truth when He says, “My covenant will I not
break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips.”
“God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent.” You are
persuaded of all this, my dear brother, are you not? Then all these promises being true and all confirmed
with the sprinkled blood of Christ, I must have your ear yet again while I just whisper into it,
“Wherefore, then, didst thou doubt?” Wherefore didst thou doubt?”
There is only one more supposition, but it is the worst of all. You may doubt, if God Himself has
entirely changed—a supposition which has been put by the psalmist in other language, “Will he be
favorable no more? Is his mercy clean gone forever? Doth his promise fail for evermore? Hath God
forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies?”
Now, do you believe for a single moment that God is changed in His love or in the objects of it? Do
you think that He has cast away His people whom He did foreknow? that Christ will lose that which He
bought with His precious blood? that He will strike off the precious stones of His breastplate the names
which from eternity were written there? that He will forget the children of His choice when He said,
“Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?
yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee”?
And again, “The mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart
from thee, neither the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee”? And
yet again, “I am God; I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed”? Do you not
remember reading the words, “Having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the
end”? Well, brothers, since those things are so, I shall have to come back to my old question, and say,
“O thou of little faith, with an unchanged God to trust to, wherefore didst thou doubt?”
Now, I cannot think of any other supposition that might make it justifiable to doubt, so now I am
going to hear—or I will repeat on your behalf—some of the answers to the question which, perhaps, you
would give.
First, I hear one say, “I doubted because my sinful life became unusually clear and distinct to me. I
hope I have been converted, have felt my need of Christ and have put my trust in Him. But I never had
such a sight of myself as I had a little while ago. It seemed as if the fountains of the great deep were

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broken up. I saw that I had sinned foully and fallen far—my best actions I discovered to be polluted, and
the whole of my life to be marred through and through with an evil spirit, and with everything that was
contrary to the mind of God. When I saw sin like that, then it was that I doubted.”
Yes, dear brother, I know your feelings and such doubts as yours often—too often—come upon men.
But did you not know, was it not told you from the beginning, that your sin was such that you were
condemned in the sight of God and accursed by His law? Did you not know that in spite of your sin,
“Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners,” even the very chief? Did not you know God willed
not the death of any sinner and that “the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin”?
Yes, you did know it and therefore I can only dismiss that excuse by saying that since you did know
that, with all your sin, the boundless atonement was able to meet it—since you did know that, with all
your blackness, the fountain filled with blood had power to wash it out, “O thou of little faith, wherefore
didst thou doubt?”
“Ah,” say you, “but it was not quite a sight of my past sin—it was because of my sinfulness by
nature. I thought after I was converted that I would not feel any sin within me, or that if I did know its
presence by experience that I would conquer it. Instead of that it has been a fight with me every day, and
only the other day, when I was exposed to temptation, I was carried right off my feet. When I got alone
in my chamber and saw how badly I had acted, I looked into my heart and discovered it to be still full of
all manner of evil. And though I hope there is some grace within me, yet there is so much of the old
nature that I know not what to do. That is why I doubt.”
Yes, but my dear brother or sister, whichever you may be, did you not know of old that the Lord
Jesus Christ came to destroy the works of the devil in you, and that where He has begun the good work
He will carry it on? Did you not know that the Spirit of God is given to help our infirmities, and that He
sanctifies us and all the elect people of God—that from day to day He leads us to the fountain for sin
and for uncleanness in order to be cleansed from sin, and that He brings us the power to overcome sin?
Did not you know that Christ is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before His
presence with exceeding joy? Yes, you did know that and therefore that meets all difficulty—and I have
to say to you again that the excuse will not hold water. “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou
doubt?”
“Ah, sir,” says one, “you do not know everything. I doubted because I have been in a case such as
never happened to anybody before. I was in a dreadful trouble. O sir, my trouble was so peculiar that I
could not tell it to anybody and I should not have liked to have done so. Wave after wave swept over
me. I could not see any way of escape from it at all. It was as extraordinary problem that I am sure that I
must be the man that has seen affliction, peculiarly marked out from all the rest.”
Yes, dear friend, that is very likely. I know a great many that have entertained the same opinion of
themselves that you do of yourself—and I have even sometimes put myself down in the category,
though you may not think so. But do not you know that it is said, “Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the LORD delivereth him out of them all”?
Did you never read, “In the world you shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome
the world”? Did you never hear of Gad, of whom it is said that, “a troop shall overcome him, but he
shall overcome at the last”? Have you not read, “They shall surely gather together against thee, but not
by me. Whosoever shall gather together against thee shall fall for thy sake. No weapon that is formed
against thee shall prosper, and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn.”
Did you not know that? If you did not, there was the Book which you might have searched to find
the promise. And knowing all that, dear friend, though your case may be peculiar, you should not have
given place to doubt at all, for you have a unique Savior. His people are a peculiar people, but He is a
peculiarly glorious Deliverer and Captain to them, and He will bring all of them safely to the eternal
glory. Therefore, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”
I can suppose another person answering on quite another score. He says, “Ah, sir, I doubted in
anticipation of the trouble because I felt I could not bear the trial. I felt that I should sink under it, if it

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did happen. O sir, I had a fear upon me that if it did occur I should perish.” Yes, I too know that
experience too. How did it turn out? Did the dreaded ill occur? “No,” say you. Then why did you want
to be crossing the bridge before you came to it? “Oh, but it did occur,” say you. Have you perished by it,
then, brother? “No,” you are compelled to answer. “I found such strange assistance given in the time of
need and such singular succors just when I was in my deepest temptation. You know, sir, I had looked
for the trouble, but I never expected to find such friends as God raised up and such remarkable helps as
He found for me.”
Ah, I see, God has given you two eyes and you shut one of them. You had only looked at the dark
side, but you did not look at the bright side. “Oh, but” perhaps you say, “I did not think there was any
bright side.” No, I know you did not, but God knew that it was there. Has not He said to you of old,
many times, “Cast thy burden on the LORD and he will sustain thee”? That is to say whether there is a
bright side to it or not, cast it on the Lord and it will be well with you.
“He shall never suffer the righteous to be moved.” “Trust in the LORD and do good: so shalt thou
dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.” You may say, in confidence, “When my father and my
mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up,” for He has said, “I will never fail thee nor forsake
thee.” Well, you knew of this and so I come back to my question, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst
thou doubt?”
I could multiply these cases, but I ask each friend who has been doubting to state his own reason to
his own heart—he will easily be able to find an answer also.
Now, I want your ear just a minute or two in order to see how your doubts and fears look under
certain aspects. “Wherefore didst thou doubt?”
Look at your doubts in the light of your conversion. You remember when you first knew the Lord.
You remember those happy days and weeks when you were first converted—it was the time of your
spiritual honeymoon. Suppose, at those times, somebody had said to you, “You will doubt the Savior.”
You would have said, “Never! Why, the wonders of God’s grace to me in saving such a lost wretch as I
am are so extraordinary that others may doubt, but I never shall.” Well, then, just look at these doubts in
that light.
After that you had a severe trial, but now you have got out of the difficulty which troubled you, have
you not? You have gained the shore again after your buffeting with the waves. Now I want you to look
at your doubts in the light of your deliverance. The preacher need scarcely tell how disgusted he has
been with himself, when he has passed through a trial, to think that he could not have left it in the hands
of God—but he began tinkering with the matter himself and made a failure of it because he tried to meet
the need with his own wisdom, which was nothing but perfect folly and ignorance. Do you not feel the
same? Could not you set yourself up for a scarecrow and laugh at yourself? I am sure you could if the
Lord has delivered you.
Once more. How do you feel about your doubts when you get into Jesus Christ’s bosom—when your
head is where the head of John was and the Lord is looking at you and saying, “I have loved thee with
an everlasting love”? Suppose the next thing He said was, “Wherefore didst thou doubt?” Why, you
would look at Him with tears in your eyes and say, “Dear Master, I pray You do not say anything about
it, I am so ashamed of my doubt. Oh, let it be forgotten. I never had any cause to distrust You. I grieve to
think that I should ever have got into a state where such doubts were possible.”
I will put you in another position. How do you feel about your doubts when you try to teach other
people? Here is a dear, doubting sister, or brother, and you are trying to comfort the downcast soul. How
do you think about yourself when you wanted comfort—when you were down in that very way? It is a
dreadful thing for a man, when he is very sad and low-spirited, if some Christian brother goes and cuts a
bit out of the man’s own sermons and sends it to him.
I have had that experience myself sometimes and as I have read my own words, I have said, “What a
fool I am!” That is wonderfully near the truth when you say it about yourself, brother. I do not think we
have ever hit the nail on the head much more clearly than when we say we are foolish and ignorant—for

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that is exactly what we are—only with a dash of sin with the folly, when we begin to doubt the ever
blessed God, who ought to be trusted with very implicit confidence, even as a little child trusts to its
mother’s love. Never ought a doubt to come into our hearts towards our Savior.
And how do you think your doubts will look when you get to heaven and look back at them? Mrs.
Hannah More tells us that she went into a carpet factory and when she looked at the carpet, she could
not make out any design and she thought that there had been some mistake. There were long pieces that
seemed to have no beauty in them whatever. But the manufacturer said, “Madam, I will take you round
to the other side”—then she saw the beauty of the pattern that was being woven into the fabric.
Well now, while you and I are here, we are full of doubts because we cannot make the pattern out.
We are on the wrong side of the carpet. But when we get to heaven and see all that God intended and
worked for us, I think that even in heaven we shall call ourselves fools and say, “How could I have
judged before my time that splendid design of providence which was hidden in the infinite wisdom and
love of God’s gracious heart? How could I have been dissatisfied with that which was working my
lasting good?” Wherefore, then, didst thou doubt?
Two or three words just to say that I think that I can give the reason why some Christians
occasionally doubt. Perhaps their brain is weary. I pity them, but they must not pity themselves too
much. Perhaps they have not been living near to God. Perhaps they were getting rather proud and
thought that if they walked on the water they must be fine fellows.
Perhaps they took their eyes off their Master. I reckon that was what Peter did. He began to look at
the winds and the waves, and therefore he could not be looking at Christ too. Perhaps they began to walk
by sight, instead of by faith—and that is enough to make anybody sink. Some cause or other there must
have been, but whatever cause it was, it is cause for sorrow, cause for regret, cause for repentance—for
the Lord deserves to be implicitly trusted.
In answer to His question, “Wherefore didst thou doubt?” we give this reply, “Good Lord, forgive
Your servants in this thing and lead us in quietness and patience to possess our souls.”
Thus much to the people of God.
II. Now LET US SLIGHTLY ALTER THE TEXT AND QUESTION THOSE THAT ARE NOT
GOD’S PEOPLE.
We will pause a minute and use the text in another tense. The Lord Jesus Christ has been into this
world and done a great deal for sinners, and as the result of what He has done, He has bidden us go and
proclaim everywhere free salvation through His precious blood. He declares that whosoever believes in
Him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life.
Many know all about this. They are well acquainted with the truth of substitution, and the way in
which God can be just and yet the justifier of the ungodly. But they are still full of doubts. They have
not believed. Dear friend, I think I can give you some good reasons for your doubting, if I am allowed a
little scope for imagination.
And I suppose, first of all, that you have heard of a number of others that have been to Christ and
have believed in Him, and yet have perished. If you have really known such persons, you are perfectly
justified in not believing in Christ. You have a brother, I suppose, that trusted Christ and yet died in
despair. You have a sister, perhaps, that put all her confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ, and yet was not
saved.
Now, I am absolutely certain that nothing of the kind has ever occurred. I am equally certain that
beneath the copes of heaven, during all time since Adam fell, there has never been a solitary instance of
a soul sincerely seeking the mercy of God through Jesus Christ, and putting its trust in Him, and yet
missing eternal salvation. So if you cannot have that reason, why do you continue to doubt?
I will suppose another reason, namely, that you yourself have been to God with earnest prayer,
seeking salvation and trusting in Jesus, and yet you have been refused. Now, I am sure that that is not
so—absolutely sure. I remember the instance of a man who did not even believe in God, or at least, he
thought he did not, but he was awakened to a sense of his danger and he went to God with some such

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prayer as this—“O God,” he said, “if there be a God, convince me of Your Being. Lead me to Yourself,
if it be that I have sinned against You and You are angry with me—and I fear it is so. And if You have
sent Your Son to be an atonement for sin, let me know the power of that atonement.” He said that that
was all he dared to say at first—but he ended in solid faith and in a renewed heart and life.
No matter how far off a man may be from God, if there be a hearty and earnest seeking after Him
through Jesus Christ, he must find Him. You have not tried it—I am sure you have not tried it. If you
had done so, you must have succeeded. Were it possible that a man had tried simple trust in Christ and
were not saved, then, indeed he might give a reason why he doubts. But you have no such reason.
I cannot think of any other except that you have been informed that the blood of Jesus Christ has lost
its power. Have you been assured that the Gospel is abrogated? Have you been given to understand that
the New Testament is a dead letter? Have you been persuaded that the gates of mercy are shut? Have
you been led to believe that the invitations of grace are no more to be given?
“Oh, no,” say you, “our state were wretched indeed, if that were the case.” Well, then, brother, as
long as there is blood in the fountain, wherefore do you doubt its power to cleanse you? As long as there
is good news for sinners, why do you write bitter things against yourself? As long as a promise stands
and there is the invitation, “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely,” wherefore do you
doubt? Surely, if these things be as the Book declares—that the Lord is ready to have mercy upon the
very chief of sinners who come and put their trust in Jesus Christ—you have no cause whatever to start
back.
Well, now, I am inclined here to quit your reasons, as I cannot suppose any others that are not
conspicuously false. But I can imagine that you suppose that you have such great and special sins that
you cannot think Christ can save you. Now I undertake to say this from a very wide experience and
observation of persons converted to God—that if you will mention any sin that you have committed, I
will mention someone who fell into that same sin and who has been saved from it.
If you mention the peculiar aggravations connected with your life, I think that even my own
observation will enable me to mention some person who, if not exactly in that form, yet in some other
equally bad, has gone as far into sin as you have done and yet has been saved, who, though guilty of
unmentionable crimes, has yet been washed in the blood of the Lamb and made whiter than snow.
O beloved, we cannot be telling you always of what we know, but we do sometimes delight to think
that there are cases in Holy Scripture which we may tell of as much as we like. There is cruel, savage
Manasseh. There is blood-thirsty, threatening-breathing Saul. There is the woman that was a sinner. And
there is the dying thief that rejoiced to find cleansing in the wounds of Christ. And why should not you
be forgiven? There is no cause for doubt.
“But my point,” says one, “is, Can this be for me?” You believe the Gospel is true, but you doubt
whether it is for you. Well, no, it is not for you, if you are not a sinner. If you can say, “I am not guilty,”
then farewell to all hope, for Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. If you are a sinner, surely
He came to save such as you are.
The blessings of the Gospel covenant are directed to the lost. “The Son of man is come to seek and
to save that which was lost.” Can you not get in there? Perhaps you remember Mr. Whitfield’s speech to
his brother, who had long been in distress of mind, who said at last, across the table, “George, I am lost.”
George said, “I am glad to hear it,” and answering his brother’s startled expression, he continued,
“because the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
That brief utterance of the Gospel lifted his brother out of despair into a clear and abiding hope in
Jesus Christ. Perhaps you have heard of Mr. Whitfield again, in the Countess of Huntingdon’s house,
when some great lord complained to her ladyship that Mr. Whitfield had used most extraordinary
language in his last sermon—most repulsive to men of taste.
Mr. Whitfield said he was there to answer for himself and he asked what the expression was that he
had used. “Why,” said the nobleman, “you said that Jesus Christ was willing to receive the devil’s
castaways.” “Yes,” he said, “I did say that, and I mean to say it again. Did your ladyship observe that I

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was called out of the room a few minutes ago because the bell rang?” “Yes,” said the Countess. “And
when I went to the door,” continued Mr. Whitfield, “a poor creature stood there who had been living in a
state of sin and had come to such a condition that even those that associated with her before were
unwilling to come near her. She had become unfit even for the lowest work to which the devil himself
could put her—and she found all her old companions had cast her away. She heard me preach in
Tottenham Court and use that expression. It exactly fitted her case, she felt that she was one of the
castaways of the devil himself, and so she sought to tell of pardoning grace and dying love.”
You see, then, that Christ can save to the uttermost. Ah, it is so. It is so. If you have gone far into sin,
weep over it. Confess it before God with deep repentance, but come to Jesus Christ just as you are and
whoever you may be, there is no room for doubting. The door of the ark was a big door. There was room
for the hare to go through, who went in quickly, and room for the snail to go through, with his slow
pace.
But there was plenty of room for the elephant when he came marching along—there was a chamber
on purpose for him and fodder on purpose for him. And so, you elephantine sinners, there is a door big
enough for you to come into the house of mercy. There is provision made and a place for you—and
without you, the company will not be complete within the ark of saving grace.
May God bless that open declaration of the Gospel to some poor devil’s castaway who has got into a
corner of the tabernacle tonight. May such be able to find hope too.
Well, now, I think I hear another say, “But I have a cause for doubt which has not yet been
mentioned.” I think I can guess it. You doubt because you have so many times refused Christ that you
say you cannot expect Him to receive you now. That is the reason, is it not? “I have gone into great sin,
sir,” you say, or “I have been trying to save myself by my self-righteousness and my good works. And I
cannot expect Him to receive me now.” You think Christ is like the sons of men, such as you have
known.
Once a man went to a stable keeper and asked him what would be the price of a horse and gig for the
day. “So much,” he answered. The inquirer went round the town to see if he could not get one cheaper
and when he found that he could not make a better bargain, he came back and said that he would have
the one which he had asked for at the first. “No,” said the owner, “you will not. You have been going
everywhere else and now you may go where you have been. I do not want your custom.”
You fancy that Jesus Christ is like that, do you? You have been round to Moses and asked him the
expense and you find that you cannot meet the claims of the law. And you have been round to the pope
and asked him the price, and you find that ceremonies do not satisfy you. You have tried the Oxford way
to heaven and tried the Roman way to heaven, but they do not suit you.
You cannot get there by them and now you think you dare not come to Christ because you have so
long neglected Him. But you may come—He is willing to have you at any price. Nay, he is willing to
have you at no price and if you will come at no price—come without money and without price—He is
still willing and able to receive you, for the Gospel peals out yet these clarion notes, “Come and
welcome! Come and welcome! Come and welcome! Whosoever will, let him take of the water of life
freely!” O thou who doubtest Christ, wherefore dost thou doubt?
Now I will say no more but this. The way to deal with this state of mind of everlasting doubt and
hesitation is to end it—to end it once for all. Repent, dear hearer, and may the Spirit of God help you to
do so now. Repent of ever having disbelieved the Son of God. Repent of ever having distrusted the
blood of Jesus Christ. Repent of ever having doubted the power of the omnipotent Spirit of God.
I know not to whom this Word will come with power, but in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of
God, I command you to leave off doubting Him and to begin to believe in Him at once. Cease your
doubts without a moment’s deliberation. You believe Christ Jesus to be God. I know you do. You
believe what the Scripture says concerning Him—that He is a Savior able to save.
Man, by the living God I charge you not to perpetrate such an insult to Christ as to go on doubting
Him. You have the burden of all your sin, but then He is a Savior. Trust Him with it, trust Him now.

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“No,” you say, “I will get home and pray.” Do not wait for that. I wish you to pray when you get home
as much as ever you like, but first of all, believe in Jesus Christ. Trust Him on the spot.
“Oh,” says one, “it will be a venture.” Venture, then, friend—venture. “May I pass in by the gate of
mercy?” asks another. Pass through it, whether you may or not, for there never was a soul sent back for
coming to Christ by mistake. Never was heard of such a thing as a soul attempting to pass in by the
portal of faith and Jesus Christ saying, “Ho, there! What are you at? You have no right to trust Me. You
are not one of My elect. You must go back and you must not dare to trust Me. You are not the kind of
man I want.”
There was never such a case known and there never will be such a case, for Christ’s own words are,
“Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” That is, any “him” in all the world that comes to
Christ, He never will, He never can, cast out. I would make a dash for it, sinner, if I were you. Sink or
swim, neck or nothing, here it is.
I do believe—I must believe—in Jesus Christ, and if I perish, I shall still be clinging to His cross.
You will never perish there. May the Lord of covenant mercy draw you to this tonight, or drive you to it.
I care not which—so long as you get to it and Christ becomes all in all to your souls. Let us pray for
that.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON

MATTHEW 14:14-33

Verse 14. And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward
them, and he healed their sick.
Different persons take different views of multitudes according to the state of their minds. Many an
officer, when he sees a multitude, considers how long it would take to march them from a certain place.
Another man begins calculating how much food they will all need. Another begins to estimate their
wealth, another to calculate what per cent will die in the year. But the Lord Jesus Christ’s heart was so
full of pity and mercy that the thing for Him to do as He looked upon them was to have compassion
upon them. He healed their sick and helped them in their sorrows.
15. And when it was evening, his disciples came to him, saying, This is a desert place, and the time is
now past; send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves victuals.
This really meant “Get us out of the difficulty.” There was no hope that so many of them could get
victuals in the villages, but the disciples as good as said, “We cannot bear to see them starving. Help us
to forget it.”
16. But Jesus said unto them, They need not depart; give ye them them to eat.
“You do not know what you can do, seeing I am with you,” the Lord answered. “You can feed them
all.” O Christian church, never give up the most difficult problem. It may be worked out. The city may
be evangelized, crowded as it is. The nations may to brought to Christ, superstitious though they be, for
He is with us.
17-18. And they say unto him, We have here but five loaves, and two fishes. He said, Bring them
hither to me.
He will not work without us. Whatever little gift or ability we have must be consecrated. Christ
could easily have made loaves and fishes without taking their little stock, but that is not His way of
working. “Bring what you have hither to me.” Whenever we have a church that brings all its store to
Christ—(when shall we ever see such a church?)—then He will be pleased to make enough for the
multitude.
19-21. And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass, and took the five loaves, and the
two fishes, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and brake, and gave the loaves to his disciples, and the
disciples to the multitude. And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that

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remained twelve baskets full. And they that had eaten were about five thousand men, beside women and
children.
A wonderful evening that must have been. Just as the sun’s slanting rays would fall upon the mighty
mass of people, Jesus Christ, the Sun of righteousness, was scattering His beams of mercy over them at
the same time. To Him it is nothing to feed five thousand—nothing to do it with five loaves. Where He
is present we may expect wonders, unless indeed our unbelief should hamper Him, for sometimes it is
too sadly true He could not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. O my soul, chide
yourself if you have ever thus hampered the hands of Christ.
22-23. And straightway Jesus constrained his disciples to get into a ship, and to go before him unto
the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. And when he had sent the multitudes away, he went up
into a mountain apart to pray.
It was a very busy day that He had had. If you read the narrative for yourself, you will be astonished
at the number of miracles which He wrought that day—and all of them in addition to the preaching—so
he must have been well worn with weariness, but He sought rather the rest and refreshment of prayer
than that of sleep.
23-24. And when the evening was come, he was there alone. But the ship was now in the midst of the
sea, tossed with waves: for the wind was contrary.
It did not matter however. For if His disciples are in a storm, so long as Christ is praying for them,
all the storms in the world are unable to sink them. They had a good protector. From the outlook of that
hill His eyes, which could see through the distance, observed and regulated every breath of wind and
every wave upon the lake.
25-26. And in the fourth watch of the night Jesus went unto them, walking on the sea. And when the
disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit;
“A phantom!” Having all the superstition so natural to sailors, they thought that this was something
quite supernatural and boded ill to them.
26-28. And they cried out for fear. But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer;
it is I; be not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the
water.
Strange impulse! It showed genuine faith mixed with that imperfection and presumption which was
so common a feature in Peter’s character. However, his Master admired the confidence.
29-30. And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water,
to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried,
saying, Lord, save me.
When he began to be afraid he began to sink. As long as his confidence in his Master lasted he could
walk the waves.
31-33. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of
little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased. Then
they that were in the ship came and worshipped him, saying, Of a truth thou art the Son of God.
Well might they worship, for they had seen abundant proof of His deity. They worshipped Him,
saying, “of a truth thou art the Son of God.” They could not have meant by this, “You are a superior
person, an excellent character.” They would not, if they were Jews, have worshipped a mere man, for of
all things you ever saw in this life, you never saw a Jew that would worship any form that was visible to
the eye.
The captivity of Babylon delivered the Hebrew race from idolatry altogether. They may fall into
superstition of another sort, but never into idolatry. Mark that. There has not been since that time a man
of Jewish race who would have worshipped Christ if he had not believed Him to be God.

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10 Reasons for Doubting Christ Sermon #2925
Taken from The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit C. H. Spurgeon Collection. Only necessary changes have been made, such
as correcting spelling errors, some punctuation usage, capitalization of deity pronouns, and minimal updating of a few archaic
words. The content is unabridged. Additional Bible-based resources are available at [Link].

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