By Gipsy Smith
Mark 16:7 -- "But go your way, tell His disciples and Peter that He goeth before you into
Galilee: there shall ye see Him, as He said unto you."
If we could go back to the faith of the cradle, Wouldn't it make a great difference?
If I could fill your eyes with star dust and just make you believe in fairies again, if I could bring you back to the simplicity of your cradle hope and faith, wouldn't it be heavenly?
The trouble with us is that we have drifted away from the faith in God, from His love, and from His presence. You have given it away. And what have you in the place of it? You have money. Well, what can it do for you?
Can it dry a tear? Not a tear. Can it cure you of that pain in your heart? Not a pain. Can it change your somber garments? Can it split the slab of the cemetery? Can it open the grave? No. It is impotent.
It stands useless before tears, heartache, suffering and death. Why, you can't get even new digestive organs with it, and some of you would give a lot for that. You can't get an appetite with it.
A friend of mine, the daughter of a millionaire in my own country, was sick. She had no appetite. The doctors were unable to diagnose her case. She was sent to the South of France and from there she wrote to a friend of hers who showed me the letter. She wrote: "Here am I, in the midst of the songs of birds, and in the midst of flowers; the skies are blue, the air is full of sunshine. There is everything here to make life happy. If I could only find an appetite I think I could get better."
You may starve in the midst of plenty. You may be decked, yes, positively decked, with diamonds, and you may live in a magnificent building that you call a home, you may ride in a luxurious car but your soul is a pauper because you have not faith in God.
Listen! The thing which your soul needs is acquaintance with God. If you could bring yourself back to the cradle, so you would be willing to say:
"Gentle Jesus, meek and mild,
Look upon a little child;
Pity my simplicity,
Help me, Lord, to come to Thee.
"Fain I would to Thee be brought,
Dearest God, forbid me not;
In the Kingdom of Thy grace
Give a little child a place."
If I could get you to pray that prayer, you would be a man again, you would be a woman again. Your soul could soar into the realms of God. Come back to your cradle faith. The world can't give it to you. The schools can't give it to you. The scholars haven't got it.
Vain philosophies and the philosophy of men won't help you. You have got to come back as Peter came to the place of rectifying and pardon.
I sometimes wonder if Peter would have become the apostle he became afterwards if Jesus hadn't said, "And Peter." Peter knew the torture of saying, "I don't know Him." And as he went out Jesus looked at him as if to say, 'Don't you know me, Peter? You were present at the opening of the eyes of the blind man; you were present with me when I raised your wife's mother from the fever. Peter -- Peter -- don't you know me?" No. He didn't tantalize Peter, when Peter's heart was already broken.
And do you know, Jesus is ever loath to condemn those who deny Him. He is. He knows the struggle every soul has, the fight that goes on in the arena of every man's private life.
Have you ever thought about Peter and Judas? There is not very much difference. One sold Him for thirty pieces of silver, the other denied Him. Suppose Judas had come back with Peter? I wonder what would have happened? I have faith enough to believe that if Judas had come back with Peter, Jesus would have forgiven Him and cleansed his heart. And remember, Jesus did wash his feet. If he had come back in penitence he would have washed his heart.
If Judas had only had sense enough to come back. I say that because I want every man and every woman here to feel, I don't care how big or how black your sins, that Jesus will open His arms if you come.
Jesus said to Simon Peter, "Simon, lovest thou me?" You know the interview. I wish you would let your soul have that kind of a little talk with Jesus this morning.
And to show you how wonderfully Jesus forgives, He made Peter the chief spokesman at the first great Pentecostal service.
Jesus wants you, my brother, and you, my sister. He wants to speak through your personality. Will you let Him, or will you disappoint Him? He wanted Peter. Go and tell Peter. I want Peter. Peter is to be a fisher of men. Tell Peter I want him. And I tell you He wants you. Will you respond to Him?
Will you say, "Lord Jesus, here's my life, here's my reputation, my position, here's my money, here's my social standing, here's my business, here's my all, take me as I am. Flood me, drench me with Thy Spirit, so that the world may praise God through me."
There are men and women listening to me this morning who could help God save the world if they were fully consecrated.
I looked into the face of a beautiful woman this morning and said, "God has given you that face and that body and that personality. What have you done for him?" He will say to you all: "What hast thou done with these gifts for me? I bestowed these things upon you that you might help save the world for which I died."
Will you meet a disappointed Christ some day? Suppose Peter had said, "No, I won't go to Galilee; I won't meet my Lord." You would never have read of Peter any more after the Crucifixion. All you know about Judas was that he went out and hung himself, and Peter, if he had not gone back to Jesus, might have done the same thing. But the world was enriched because Peter went to meet his Lord.
You are making history now just like Peter. You are being made to think and feel of the things of Christ. What are you going really to do?
My dear friend, you had better never have felt the power of Christ or have heard these things you are hearing in these days and then drift back to the old way of feeling, to the old doubt, the old bondage. May God help you to be willing in this day of His power.
Great things are possible for you, if you will only obey the light and lift up the standard. Get down before your Lord today. And if anything in your life wants straightening out, like Peter's, He will straighten it out and then say, "Feed my sheep."
And the things that He would put into your life will be of the quality and quantity you can pass on to those around you who are perishing. And the word of the Lord will go out of you and there will be a Pentecost somewhere near you, through you, and you will be able to say to the crippled, the lame, and the man in need, "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." For in His name you may claim the same power and work the same miracles which Peter did, if you are as obedient as he.
Meet Jesus in Galilee. Obey Him. Listen to Him. Open your heart to Him. Let Him have His way with you. Woe be unto you if you don't obey.
For Jesus said unto the Scribes and Pharisees, "Woe unto you, ye generation of vipers, how shall you escape the damnation of hell?" The tender Christ said that.
You have got a great chance. God help you to use it. Jesus is in your city. He is speaking to you. And he is speaking to the city. Bow before Him and say, "Speak, Lord, "for thy servant heareth." And when He speaks, answer again, "Be it according to Thy word."
Again I say, Come back to the simplicity of childhood and you will find your mother's God, your mother's Christ and your mother's joy.
You know it isn't a new Bible you want. It is no new church you want. I have been receiving letters from people. They say they want a new church, a new Bible, a new program. Well, listen! Who is to write the new Bible --the people who criticize it? I say yes -- if they die and rise again in three days. You go and die on a cross and rise in three days and walk about and I will let you write the new Bible.
And you say a new Church. Who is to give us the new Church? If you who criticize it do, you will have a theater on one side and a dance hall and a jazz band playing in the basement. Oh, no; I object. I believe it must be founded by Christ.
Do you need a new gospel? No. That is not necessary. I will tell you what is necessary. Eyes to see and hearts to believe and then your mother's Bible and Church will be good enough for you.
Come back to the cradle faith. Again I say, if I could fill your eyes with star dust we would have Heaven here below. Lord, bring us back to our simple childhood and mother's faith. Give us back our faith in God, our faith in Christ and the Holy Ghost, our faith in the Holy Bible and in the Holy Church, the Bride of the Lamb.
I have heard it sung sometimes, "All I want is a little more faith in Jesus." Don't you feel that is true?
I wonder if there is any one here that doesn't pray for more faith. I will tell you how to get it. Use what you have got.
If a man wants a stronger muscle he has to use his arm. If he wants to be athletic he must take plenty of exercise. If he wants to ride a bicycle, he must go forward, for if he stands still, he will tumble. There is no standing still on a bicycle. And listen, if a man wants faith in God, he must use it. And every man, woman, boy or girl has got the capacity for believing or Jesus would never have said, "Have faith in God."
You have faith in the seat you are sitting in. You saw those seats and you had faith that they would bear you up, and you sat.
And if you will just believe in God like that, He will bear you up too. Just step out on the promise. He holds the world in His hands, and He will hold you, and if you feel yourself a poor sinner this morning, he is strong enough to keep you from falling.
I was preaching in the Rhonda Valley during the revival in Wales, when I was the guest of a local magistrate. I sat at my table reading my mail; my table was near a window which looked out over the valley, the little valley nestling below. I could see through the falling snow the outline of one of those beautiful Welsh mountains beyond the valley.
I was reading a letter from a man who had heard me preach three months before in another city, and had been convicted of his life of sin, and who now wrote:
"Every time I look at my family, my double life haunts me like a ghost. I have abandoned my sinful living, but I have found no rest. I am writing to ask you if you think God will have mercy on a poor wretch like me."
I laid the letter down to think and while thinking I watched the falling snow. As I did so, I seemed to see a snowflake pause in mid-air and thought I heard it say to the mountain in front of me, "Oh, mighty mountain, I am only a little snowflake and I want a resting place; if I fall, can you bear me?" Then I thought I heard the old mountain rumble out of the eternities and say, "Little snowflake, I have my roots in eternity and underneath me are the everlasting arms. If you want a resting place, fall on me, and see if I can bear a snowflake."
I then penned my little parable on paper and sent it to my friend in the distant city. The next day I received a telegram from him in which he said, "Thank God, I am on the mountain and it bears."
Can a mountain bear a snowflake, can an ocean bear a bubble? Don't ask can God save you. Have sense to let Him.
Just step out on His omnipotence. And you will find the thrill of a new heart, a new life in Christ Jesus. God grant it may be so just now. Oh, have faith in God. Amen!
