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- C. H. Spurgeon - The Secret of Failure
"The Secret of Failure" by C. H. Spurgeon
 "Then
came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said, Why could not we cast
him out? And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for
verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed,
ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place, and
it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. Howbeit
this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting." - Matthew
17:19-21
"And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him
privately, Why could not we cast him out? And he said unto them,
This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and
fasting." - Mark 9:28, 29
I put these two texts together for this reason. Those of you who are
acquainted with the Revised Version know that the 21st verse in the
17th chapter of Matthew is left out. There seems to be little doubt
that it was inserted in certain copies by persons who thought that
it ought to be there because it was in Mark's narrative. It is put
in the margin of the Revised Version, but it is left out of the
text. It is, therefore, very satisfactory to find that the omission
from Matthew's account makes no real difference, because we have the
words in the 29th verse of the 9th of Mark, "This kind can come
forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting."
Only there is this fact to be noticed, in the Revised Version this
verse runs, according to Mark, "This kind can come out by nothing,
save by prayer." Whether the fasting was originally there, or not, I
cannot tell; but putting together the two accounts in Matthew and
Mark, we believe we have a full and true report of what the Master
did actually say on this occasion.
I. Observe then, dear friends, at the outset, without any further
preface, that WE MAY BE THE SERVANTS OF GOD, AND YET WE MAY BE
OCCASIONALLY DEFEATED.
Those nine disciples, who remained at the foot of the mountain when
the Savior took the other three to behold his transfiguration, had
each of them a true commission from the Lord Jesus Christ. They were
nine of his chosen apostles. He had elected them in his own good
pleasure, and there was no doubt about their being really called to
the apostleship. They were not only elected, but they were also
qualified, for on former occasions they had healed the sick, they
had cast out devils, and they had preached the Word of Christ with
great power. Upon them rested miraculous influences, and they were
able to do great wonders in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ; and
they were not only qualified to do this, but they had actually
performed many marvels of healing. When they went forth, girded with
divine power, they healed the sick, and cast out devils everywhere;
yet on this occasion you perceive that they were completely baffled
and beaten. A poor father had brought to them his epileptic son, who
was also possessed with an evil spirit; and they could neither cast
out the evil spirit nor heal the epileptic boy. They came, as it
were, to a great difficulty which quite nonplussed them; and the
scoffing scribes were there, ready enough to take advantage of them,
and to say in scorn and contempt, "You cannot cure this child, for
the power you have received from your Master is limited. He can do
some strange things, but even he cannot do all things. Perhaps he
has lost his former power, and now, at last, a kind of devil has
appeared that he cannot master. You see, you are mistaken in
following him; your faith has been fixed upon an impostor, and you
had better give it up." Oh, how ready the evil spirit ever is to
suggest dark thoughts if we cannot always be successful in our work
of faith and labor of love! I believe that it was for this very
reason that our Lord gave us this record of the defeat of the nine
apostles in order to let us feel that it is not so great a wonder
if, sometimes, we have to come back and say, "Who hath believed our
report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" It is no new
thing that we should be made a laughingstock to the enemies of the
cross of Christ because we cannot even do what we have formerly
done, and are beaten in the very field where aforetime we have
achieved great and notable victories for our Master.
Brethren, why do you think that the Lord allows his servants to be
beaten at all? Well, of course, the chief reason in this case
was—and of that we will speak presently,—because God gives the
victory to faith, and if we will not believe, neither shall we be
established. If we fall, as those disciples probably had fallen,
into an unspiritual frame of mind and a low state of grace, our
commission will not be worth much, our former qualifications will be
of little value, and all successes we have had in earlier days will
not take away the effect of present failures. We shall be like
Samson, who went out and shook himself as he had done aforetime; but
the Spirit of God had departed from him; and the Philistines soon
overcame him,—those very Philistines whom, if his Lord had still
been with him, he would have smitten hip and thigh with great
slaughter. If we are to do the Lord's work, and to do it
successfully, we must have faith in him, we must look beyond
ourselves, we must look beyond our commission, we must look beyond
our personal qualifications, we must look beyond our former
successes, we must look for a present anointing by the Holy Spirit,
and by faith we must hang upon the living God from day to day.
Apart from that, however,—which we will dwell upon directly,—I think
our Lord intends that we should often have something fresh come
across our path to keep us from getting into ruts. It is a very bad
thing for anyone when even the Christian life gets to be merely
mechanical; you know what state of things that is, you may have come
here to this service just as a matter of course, almost without
thinking what you were doing. I have known many persons, in the
public worship of God, sing simply because the time far singing has
come; and they frequently prove that they are singing only in a
mechanical fashion, for they sit down before the hymn has come to an
end, showing that they are not sufficiently interested to find out
how it closes. So we may kneel apparently in prayer, and not really
be praying, for the mind is gadding to and fro. The minister also
can get into a way of preaching that is almost like a parrot
repeating by rote what it has been taught to say. This will not do,
brothers and sisters. The Lord will not have us always moving in
ruts, so he does what men do sometimes in our roads when they put
great blocks of timber to turn travelers off from one side of the
road an to the other. In that way, this lunatic child was put right
in the disciples' road, so that they should not go on sleepily doing
the same work without heart and without thought. This strange case
wakes them up; they have something to deal with now that is very
different from that they have had before, it is not a common fever,
or even an ordinary case of Satanic possession, but it is a dreadful
demoniac who is now before them, foaming, and raging, and wallowing
in their presence, and altogether beyond their power to heal. This
wakes them up; and the Lord permits us sometimes to have trouble in
the church, or a shock in the family, that we may wake right up, and
not go on mechanically with no spiritual life in us.
Next, it was to make the disciples see the infinite superiority of
their Master. Had he been there, there would have beep no devil that
would have nonplussed him. Whatever needed to be accomplished, he
spoke, and it was done. The soft utterance of his voice, the gentle
uplifting of his hand, nay,-the very glance of his eye, or the
willing in his mind, was sufficient to work his marvellous cures.
But the disciples had to come to him, and say, "We could not do it;
we could not cast him out." No, and it is the same still; He cannot,
but he can; wherefore, let us worship before the omnipotent Christ,
to whom nothing is difficult, much less impossible.
Then they were driven to wish for more of his company. They were
made to see that they could not do without him. Soldiers, without
their ever-victorious Captain, driven before the enemy, they now
felt that their strength must lie in him, and that they must keep
close to him, and entreat him not to leave them again.
This experience also drove them to him in prayer. They now want
their Master, and they begin to cry to him. "Why could not we cast
him out?" was now their humiliating confession and enquiry; and
there was, within the heart of their question, this earnest prayer,
"O Master, help us to cast out devils again! Take not thy Spirit
from us, but renew in us our former strength, and give us even
more." I am sure that anything that makes us often came back to our
Lord must be a blessing to us. It is very humiliating to have so
long preached in vain; to have gone to that village so many times
and yet to see no conversions; to visit that lodging-house so often,
and apparently to have made no impression upon the careless inmates,
or to have gone into that dark garret, and told out the story of the
cross, only to find that the hearer is just as dark, and, possibly,
just as brutal as ever. It seems as if our hearts must break, when
we are really in earnest, yet we cannot achieve the blessed purpose
that we feel sure must be dear to the Savior's own heart; but it may
be that our non-success has much of divine instruction in it, and it
may be the preface and preparation for future success that shall
greatly honor the Lord Jesus Christ. This was a part of the training
of the twelve. They were at college now, with Christ as their Tutor.
They were being prepared for those grand days, when they should do
even greater things than he had done, because he had gone back again
to his Father, and had received still greater power, and had given
it to them. "It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his
youth." It is good for you, young brethren in college, when you go
to your first pastorate, to get battered about, to have all manner
of troubles, to go through fire and through water. It will make men
of you; you will be all the grander and the better servants of God
in after years, when your own weakness shall have driven you back
upon the divine strength, and you shall have learned to trust, not
in man, much less in yourself, but to cast yourself confidently on
God.
II. The next thing to be learned from this narrative is that, when
Christ's servants do get baffled, they should make haste to their
Master, and ask him this question, which his disciples put to him,
"Why could not we cast him out?" That is to be our second division.
WHEN WE ARE BAFFLED, THERE MUST BE A CAUSE, and it is well for us to
try and find it out. We must go to the Master, and ask, "Why could
not we cast him out?"
This enquiry, if it leads up to a correct answer, is evidently a
very wise one, for every man ought to try to know all he can about
himself. If I am successful, why is it that I succeed? Let me know
the secret, that I may put the crown on the right head. If I do not
succeed, let me know the reason why, that I may at any rate try to
remove any impediment, if it be an impediment of my own making. If I
am a vessel that is not fit for the Master's use, let me know why I
as not fit, that I may, as much as lieth in me, prepare myself for
the great Master's service. I know that, if I am fit to be used, he
is sure to use me; and if he does not use me, it will most probably
be because there is some unfitness in me. Try to know, brethren and
sisters, why you get baffled in holy service, for it will be wise to
know.
Probably, it may tend very greatly to your humiliation. It may make
you go, with tears in your eyes, to the mercy-seat. You may not yet
know all that is in your own heart; there may be a something, which
to you seems to be a very trifling affair, which is grieving your
God, and weakening your spiritual power. It may seem to you to be a
little thing, but in that little thing may lie the eggs of so much
mischief that God will not tolerate it, and he will not bless you
until you are altogether clear of it. It will be wise and right,
therefore, even though it be to your sorrow and regret, that you
should find the answer to the question, "Why could not we cast him
out?"
For, whatever may be the reason of your failure, it may be cured. In
all probability, it is not a great matter, certainly not an
insuperable difficulty to the Lord. By the grace of God, this
hindrance may be taken away from you, and no longer be allowed to
rob you of your power. Search it out, then; look with both your
eyes, and search with the brightest light that you can borrow, that
you may find out everything that restrains the Spirit of God, and
injures your own usefulness.
I would at the present time earnestly put into the mouths of a great
many people this question, "Why could not we cast him out?" Let the
Church of God get to the windows of her sanctuaries, and look out,
and say, "Why do not these thousands of people come to hear the
gospel that we preach?" There is all the harlotry in our streets;
why has not the Church of God swept that away? The vilest sin is
rampant,—sin of which we dare not speak, it is so vile; how is it
that we cannot cast this out? And all this social discord, this
complaining and confusion, this aiming at the disruption of
everything; what have we been at that all this unrest has come? Why
could we not cast these vile forces out? Then, perhaps, in your
family there is a son, and you cannot bring him even to respect
religion. It is not so very long ago since you nursed him on your
knee; you did not think then that he would live to be an opponent of
the Christ in whom your soul delights. There are in your family
certain evils that you pray against, and yet they remain there.
Father, you are responsible for your family, and you cannot get rid
of your responsibility. Mother, much responsibility for your
children's characters must lie with you; if they are not what you
would have them to be, oh, ask the question, "Why could not we cast
the evils out of them?" That question each teacher may ask
concerning his class, and each worker concerning his sphere of
labor. I ask it concerning my hearers, when I remember some of them
who have made a profession of religion, and then have foully fallen,
and others who have backslidden into coldness or lukewarmness, and
many who, after years of preaching, remain just the same as ever.
What devil is this that has got into them? Why cannot we cast him
out?
I will tell you another time when you may well ask this question; it
is, when you realize the evil that is within your own heart. There
are certain sins there that have cost you much pain, and they are
not cast out yet. In your life, they have no rightful place; in your
heart of heart, they have no welcome place, for you desire your
heart to be clean before God. Still, those sins do come. Perhaps, in
your case, a hasty temper is the demon that takes possession of you;
or possibly you have a spirit tending to despondency. I do not know
what your particular sins are, but do you not sometimes ask the
question, "Why could not we cast them out?" We have got rid of some
sins, "bag and baggage;" they never torment us now. It is long since
we had a temptation to certain forms of sin, we sent them adrift in
the name of the Lord; but there are certain others of these
Diabolonians that hide away in dens and caves and corners, and we
cannot rout them out. Why could not we cast them out? It is a
question that may be asked from so many quarters and so many points,
and it ought to be pressed home. I have put it to you; but let each
one's own conscience get alone with Christ, and ask him; "Why am I
baffled and defeated? Why cannot I cast this evil out?"
III. Now, in the third place, consider OUR LORD'S ANSWER, upon which
I cannot dwell very long, because our time is short.
The first answer that the Lord Jesus gave to his disciples was,
"Because of your unbelief." He told them that their failure was due
to their want of faith. He did not say, "Because of the devil, and
his peculiar character, and the strength of his entrenchment within
the poor sufferer's nature;" but he said, "Because of your
unbelief." They might have said, and it would have been true, "This
demon has been long in possession." The father said that the
affliction came upon him when he was a child. You know that it is
not easy to turn out a devil that has lived in any place, say, for
twenty years; he says, "I have been in possession three, seven,
twenty-one years, and I am not going. Does not even the law of the
land give me a right to remain after I have held undisputed
possession so long? I am not going; and especially, I am not going
for anything you say or do!" So, the long duration of a sin makes it
all the more difficult matter to deal with it. "Can the Ethiopian
change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Then may ye also do good,
that are accustomed to do evil." It is a difficult thing to cast out
evils of long standing; still, if we have faith, there will be no
difficulty in overcoming even those sins that have held possession
of the sinner for a great length of time.
Moreover, in this case, there was the strength of this devil as well
as the length of his possession. He took this poor child, and threw
him into the fire or into the water, and hurled him to and fro at
his cruel and wicked pleasure. He did this even before the
disciples' eyes. Yes, but if they had had faith, they would have
understood that, though Satan is strong, Christ is far stronger. The
devil is mighty, but God is almighty. If the disciples had only
believed, they might have overcome the demon by the power of Christ.
In addition to the length and the strength of this possession, there
was a tremendous fury shown by this evil spirit. The child was not
simply vexed as in ordinary cases of epilepsy, but he was
tremendously tossed and torn; and I think there was in this case a
feature of sullenness also, it was apparently so, at any rate, for
it was a dumb spirit. The child could not or did not speak; whatever
happened to him, he was still silent. When people can speak of their
troubles of soul, when they can tell you their grief of heart, and
ask your prayers, you can get on with them. But here was one who
could not speak, yet there was the devil rending and tearing him. It
was a horrible case, yet the failure did not lie in the child; it
lay mainly, as the Savior put it, in the disciples' want of faith:
"Why could not we cast him out?" "Because of your unbelief."
You see, the want of faith breaks the connection between us sad
Christ. We are like the telegraphic wire, which can convey the
message as long as the electricity can travel along it; but if you
break the connection, it is useless. Faith is our connection with
Christ; break the connection, and then what can we do? It is by
faith that God works in us and through us; but if unbelief comes in,
we are unfit for him to work with us. Would you have God to bless
the man who will not believe in him? Would you have God to set his
seal to the works of the unbelieving? That cannot be. The first
condition of success in any work for God must be hearty faith in the
God for whom we are working. "Trust me," says he, "and I will do
anything for you." If we distrust him, what can happen to us but
what happened to the children of Israel whose carcasses fell in the
wilderness? Now, you know that even the body of a child of God is
precious in his sight; for there is faith in him, and he is precious
in the sight of the Lord; but as for those who have no faith, Paul
calls their bodies carcases! "Whose carcasses fell in the
wilderness." If you have no faith in God why, what are you? Like
brute beasts-"carcases." But faith gives God somewhat of his due; it
trusts him, and God says, "I will never let you trust me beyond what
I will do for you. If you trust me, I will be as good as your
faith." Would you have him change a condition which is so natural,
so proper, so beneficial for ourselves? O brethren, we shall do
great things when God gives us more faith!
Looking now upon the condition of our times, and upon the work
allotted to each one of us, I feel that what we want is more faith.
Never mind how firmly fixed are the mountains of iniquity; they must
move if faith be strong. Never mind how deep have gone the root of
the sycamore tree; it shall be plucked up by its roots, if faith be
strong. O brethren, we do not half believe! Drive the sword in up to
the hilt. Believe in God to the uttermost; dare and venture, and yet
find no daring and no venturing in it, as you simply trust your God
as a child trusts his father. Many of us must feel, brethren, that
we have often failed because of our unbelief.
I must not dwell longer on that point because I want you to notice
that the Savior added that, in some cases, faith must rise to
prayer, and must manifest itself mainly by prayer, or else it will
do nothing. I am afraid that these disciples were so satisfied with
their commission, and their qualifications, and with what they had
already done, that they proceeded to work upon this epileptic child
without prayer. The Savior says, "This kind—this sort of devil—this
peculiarly furious kind of demon—will not go out by the exercise of
ordinary faith. It must be faith that rises into prayer." You will
frequently meet with persons to whom you desire to be blessed, but
you never will be blessed to them till first of all you pray for
them; and it may be that you will have to pray long and earnestly,
and that the praying will have to rise to wrestling, and the
wrestling may have to be continued all night, as in the case of
Jacob, and you may have to go to God as often as the importunate
widow went to the unjust judge. It may be that there are cases in
which God will not yield to your faith until your faith works in
prayer; and then, when prayer has wrought to its utmost, you shall
get the blessing.
I think that I can understand some of God's reasons for acting thus.
First, he wants to make us see the greatness of the mercy, so he
occupies our thoughts with the greatness of the distress that needs
to be relieved, and with this impossibility of that distress being
relieved except by his own power and Godhead. That experience does
us good, dear friends, does it not? It makes us feel that the mercy,
when it does come, will be remarkably precious to us.
The Lord intends also to excite our desires, and that, likewise,
does us good. To be all aglow with holy desires is, in itself, a
healthy exercise. Then the Lord means to create in us unity of
action. One brother finds that he cannot get on alone, so he will
call in another to help him in prayer; and much holy united
supplication will be called forth by the very desperateness of the
case which cannot be met by simple faith, or even by the prayer of
one. Let us always seek the united prayers of many brethren and
sisters. You remember that man who was carried by four, and let down
from the roof into Christ's presence. Oh, I wish that, in your
houses, brethren, you met frequently, in two's and three's, for
united prayer! I should like to hear of little bands formed of
Christian men and women, who pledged themselves to pray, four at a
time, for somebody possessed by a devil of the kind that will not go
out by ordinary means, and must be ejected by four of you. Get
together, and say to yourselves, "We will not rest until this soul,
and that soul, shall have the devil cast out, and shall sit,
clothed, and in their right mind, at Jesus Christ's feet." "This
kind"—these certain kinds of devils are not to be driven out, except
by special, importunate, continued, united prayer. They can be cast
out if you only believe and pray; there is never a devil but will
have to go, if you have faith enough and prayer enough to drive him
out.
But then my text says, "By prayer and fasting." Our Lord Jesus
Christ never made much of fasting. He very seldom spoke about it;
and when the Pharisees exaggerated it, he generally put them off by
telling them that the time had not come for his disciples to fast,
because the Bridegroom was still with them, and while he was with
them their days were to be days of joy. But, still, Holy Scripture
does speak of fasting, in certain cases it advises fasting, and
there were godly men and godly women, such as Anna, the prophetess,
who "served God with fastings and prayer night and day." I do not
mean to spiritualize this away. I believe, literally, that some of
you would be a great deal the better if you did occasionally have a
whole day of fasting and prayer. There is a lightness that comes
over the frame, especially of bulky people like myself; we begin to
feel ourselves quite light and ethereal. I remember one day of
fasting and prayer, in which I realized to myself, spiritually, the
meaning of a Popish picture, which I have sometimes seen, of a saint
floating in the air. Well, that, of course, was impossible; and I do
not suppose that, when the picture was painted, it was believed in
its literal sense; but there is a lightness, an elevation of the
spirit above the flesh, that will come over you after some hours of
waiting upon God in fasting and prayer. I can advise brethren
sometimes to try it; it will be good for their health, and it
certainly will not harm them. If we only ate about half what is
ordinarily eaten, we should probably all of us be in better health;
and if, occasionally, we put ourselves on short commons, not because
there is any virtue in that, but in order to get our brains more
clear, and to help our hearts to rest more fully upon the Savior, we
should find that prayer and fasting have great power.
But I will take the fasting in another sense, for I believe that
this also is what is meant by our Lord Jesus. Suppose that we have
such cases as these to pray for, a church full of discord, a nation
or an individual full of sin. We might say to one another, "We will
appoint such-and-such a time for prayer." Fast or not, according as
your body would be the better or the worse for it. To some, it would
be mischievous and injurious to fast; but say to yourselves, "We are
going to take a whole day to ourselves. Two or three of us have
agreed to devote an evening, or a whole night if it is a hard case,
and we are going to meet together for no purpose but just to pray
about that one matter; and if that does not do, we will meet again."
I have often heard of instances in which persons, who knew that they
were thus made specially the object of some remarkable occasions of
prayer, have been impressed by the fact, or, if not by the fact, yet
the outcome of that special, particular, marked season of prayer has
been that, before long, they have been brought to Christ. There is a
kind of devil that will not go out by ordinary prayer, there must be
added to that pleading something by which our zeal shall be yet
further increased; there must be "prayer and fasting."
I think also that I may spiritualize this expression now, and say
that, when your mind gets into such a condition that you begin to
sorrow over a lost soul, when you realize the meaning of that
agonizing cry of Jeremiah, "Oh that my head were waters, and mine
eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the
slain of the daughter of my people!"—it is then that the devil will
have to go. When your soul is clothed in sackcloth and ashes, and
you go mourning, without the light of the sun, saying, "I could die
rather than that soul should die; I could wish myself accursed
rather than that soul were accursed; I put myself in the dust before
God, even in the dust of self-abasement on account of that soul,
that I may win it to Christ," then that sort of devil will have to
go out. Starving him out by starving yourself, and making your own
spirit wretched and miserable for the poor sinner's sane, you will
make that devil find the person untenable any longer as a
lodging-place.
Permit me to say just one thing more. I believe that the devil of
drunkenness will not go out of some men, unless some of you
Christian people, who pray for them, and talk with them, will
practice fasting in the matter of total abstinence. I do mean this,
not that it is wrong for you to take what you do take, but that
there are some souls that you cannot win unless you say to them,
"For your sakes we are going to give up what might be lawful to us,
that we may save you from the public-house and all its temptations.
Come, Jack, I intend to take the pledge; I never was drunk, and
probably never shall be, but I will sign the pledge for your sake."
There are some devils that will not go out till you act like that;
and, brothers, we ought to do anything that may result in the saving
of a soul. We ought to deny ourselves anything of which we can deny
ourselves, if it be necessary to bring one single person to the
cross of Christ. Let us see to it that we are quite clear in this
matter, for there are still many devils that will not go out without
prayer and fasting. Well then, say, "I will not fast to please the
devil, or to please other people; but I will fast to spite the
devil, and to get him out of that man. I will fast from anything so
that I may but bring him to the feet of Jesus, that he may be
saved." We who love the Lord are, I trust, all agreed on that
matter, that no cost on our part should be spared to win a soul from
the dominion of Satan, and bring him into the glorious liberty of
the children of God.
O you who are not saved, see how concerned we are about you! It
seems nothing to you to lose your souls, but it seems everything to
us, and it was everything to Christ. You would not suffer even a
little self-denial that you might be saved; yet Christ died—so
highly did he value the souls of sinners,—rather than that you
should perish. Oh, may that love of his make you begin to love
yourselves so as to trust him, and love him, and find in him eternal
life! God bless you, for Christ's sake! Amen.C. H.
Spurgeon
February 25, 1886
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