37 - Matthew 21:21

’Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also, if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.’ -Matthew 21:21. This corresponds with what our Lord said to his disciples the evening before his crucifixion: "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works; because I go unto my Father; and whatsoever ye shall ask in my name I will do it." In his mighty works Christ was not merely intent upon showing forth the power that dwelt in him, but also on showing his disciples the Divine power which would be theirs in him. The believer is joint-heir with him here, as well as in the world to come. They were astonished when they saw the fig-tree perish at his rebuke; far more astonishing were the words that followed. ’Have you faith? are you one with me? then this power is yours, even omnipotence, to which it is alike easy to say to a mountain or to a tree, Be thou removed. All things are possible to him that believeth. For all things whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.’ And when about to ascend on high he says, "All power in heaven and on earth is given unto me; go ye, therefore, into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature." There has been no revocation of the promises given to believers by our Lord, and we consequently are assured that the same Divine power is with believers as was of old, is as ready to be manifested at the demand of faith as it ever was.

Some in these days seek to make men believe that the Gospels were not written for a century after Christ had left the earth. These teachers do not believe in the supernatural. Will it not puzzle them to account for the fact that they who wrote the Gospels should have introduced into each of them words purporting to be of Christ, by which believers are invested with such boundless power to work miracles? Accepting their representations of things, these promises were preposterous in the mouth of Jesus, and equally preposterous in the memory and confession of disciples.

Why was the fig-tree stricken with death? Three years the Lord had come to Jerusalem seeking fruit and finding none, when he spoke the parable of the barren fig-tree. He had now come up for the fourth and last time, and it was made very evident that they would none of such a Messiah as he was. The tree was ready on which they would in a day or two suspend him in the face of heaven and earth. But this tree, leafy yet without fruit, standing here on the Mount of Olives, directly facing the guilty city, should stand as a memorial of their past and lost opportunities, and as a foreshadowing of the destruction that was coming upon them.

Thus in all the miracles of our Lord we find not only the power of God but the wisdom of God; and the faith which unites itself to the wisdom of God is the faith with which the power of God allies itself. The apostles and other believers of their day wrought many wonderful works. Rather let us say that God wrought many wonderful works in attestation of their mission. He that would receive this testimony from heaven must understand well the true nature of faith. A man may suppose that he has undoubting faith, yet his faith may be resting on a deceitful basis. As many as are the children of God, true believers, they are led by the Spirit of God; not visited now and then, but habitually guided; they believe that the will of God is to be sought in the most insignificant as well as the greatest matter. They are in habitual harmony with that will. They cannot desire aught but what shall be for the glory of God. Faith leads to entire consecration; faith shows that what seemed a little while ago entire consecration was defective, and leads to a truer consecration; and faith is content that she and her consecrations should be thoroughly proved. The believer, before he will say to a mountain in the name of Jesus, Be thou removed, must have the consciousness that God had guided all his steps to that mountain, and the assurance that the removal of that mountain will be more for the glory of God than anything else that he might ask God to do.

There is no such thing as lightning faith, flashing out of non-existence, and gone. There is a continuity of faith just as essential as its boldness. Where there is faith there the soul is receptive of God, as the branch is of the vine-sap; habitually receptive. When Moses was going with his rod into Egypt to do those mighty works, God sought to kill him at the border; he was in danger of his life, whether through sickness or what we know not; because he had allowed himself to be over-persuaded by his Midianite wife, in the matter of the circumcision of his children; this breach of faith, this defect of consecration, had to be remedied before he could take a step over the border. "If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal this unto you," who are pressing towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Peter fancied he had faith to follow Christ to death: ’All may forsake, I will not: I will lay down my life for thy sake.’ And he thought he was giving good proof of it when he drew his sword on Malchus. He had to go back and learn over again some of the earlier lessons of faith. There was something of his own wisdom, his own will, resting like a stone upon the feeble plant of faith. But what does this promise that we are considering say unto us? Have we nothing to do with it? It is for every believer. It assures us that the almighty power of God is with him who believeth in Jesus, and that according to our faith it shall be unto us; and says to us, O ye of little faith, how long shall I be with you and suffer you? Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me? Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might, and open a wide avenue in your heart for the power and wisdom and love of the Saviour into the world.