Well, please turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 16. You see our text here on the screen today, Mark chapter 16, verse six. But really, we're gonna be looking at the whole chapter. Mark chapter 16 is a interesting chapter in many respects. In one respect, it's interesting because it has a complicated textual history, which I'm not going to bore you with today. But instead, I'm just going to preach what is here. And if you would like to do further research and reading on the short ending of Mark and the long ending of Mark and how we got our English translation as it stands now. It is a fascinating study and I'd be happy to do that with you at another time. But this morning we're not focused on textual history, we're focused on the person of Jesus Christ and this text is going to show us the danger that lies before us all, even those who love the Lord Jesus Christ with a love that is incorruptible, there's a danger of unbelief creeping into our hearts and that we must be fortified against that unbelief. And to help us in this regard today, I'm going to call upon the words and the spirit of C.H. Spurgeon, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, a preacher of God's Word in the 19th century. And I'm not going to focus on Spurgeon this morning. I'm going to focus where he would want us to focus, on the person of Christ. So that's all the introduction you're going to get on C.H. Spurgeon. But I'm going to do something a little bit different for our classic sermon today. Instead of just reading the sermon that has been preserved for us, I'm going to interject. I'm going to try to put parts of it into my own words, and parts of it I will just read it as Spurgeon delivered it there in 1870. But before we get into Spurgeon's Sermon and my interaction with it, let's go ahead and read the text, Mark chapter 16, starting in verse one. When the Sabbath, that's Saturday, was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome brought spices, so they might go and anoint him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back. It was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were alarmed. And he said to them, do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples, Peter that he is going before you to Galilee there you will see him just as he told you and They went out and fled from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had seized them and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid Now when he rose early on the first day of the week He appeared first to Mary Magdalene from whom he had cast out seven demons She went and told those who had been with him as they mourned and wept But when they heard that he was alive and had been seen by her, they would not believe it. After these things, he appeared in another form to two of them as they were walking into the country, and they went back and told the rest, but they did not believe them. Afterward, he appeared to the 11 themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart. because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe. In my name they will cast out demons, they will speak in new tongues, they will pick up serpents with their hands, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them. They will lay their hands on the sick and they will recover. So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoke to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs. That is our text for today. We're going to follow the outline that was given to us by Spurgeon in his sermon from 1870. We're going to see that we have the unbelief of the disciples highlighted throughout this chapter. And then secondly, you're going to see the cure for our unbelief, that we also are in danger of the same unbelief and also have the same cure that we find in Mark chapter 16. And then, I love his third point on his outline, this is not my third point, this is the actual third point on his outline, other consequences of his rising. So just the rest of the stuff in the outline, that's great. Let's take a look at the first part here, that is the unbelief that existed among the disciples. And Spurgeon is going to use this, this specific instance of their unbelief on that resurrection Sunday morning as a type. of the plague of unbelief that still haunts the church today. But let's take a look at their unbelief on that Sunday morning. Remember that as we study the gospel of Mark and all the gospels, that Jesus had repeatedly, clearly told the disciples that he was going to die and that he was going to rise again. In Mark's gospel, we have it several times. Mark chapter eight, verse 31. Mark chapter nine, verse 31. Mark chapter 10, verse 34. If I had time, I'd show you those verses this morning. But the disciples, when they heard Jesus Christ talking about the impending death of Jesus Christ, they didn't believe it. Peter rebuked Jesus and said, this will never happen to you. You're not going to be crucified, you're not going to die. So they wouldn't even believe his words that he was going to die, much less were they ready to believe his words that he was going to rise from the dead. Now you might think that after his promise his impending death in Jerusalem came true, that then they would be quick to believe the promise that he was going to be raised. Well, he said he was gonna die, and he died just like he said, so you remember what he also said? He said he was gonna rise from the dead. But no, when we come to the disciples on that first Resurrection Sunday, we don't find one among all of his disciples who were expecting Jesus Christ to rise from the dead. even though he had clearly and plainly told them that was going to happen. Take an example of the women. Spurgeon does a great job of pointing out for us how the women who had tenderly ministered to Christ's necessities in the days of his flesh, that they had that loving heart towards the one who had reached them with the truth and the gospel of God, you would think that their love would cause them to believe what Jesus Christ had said concerning his resurrection. But instead, what does their love for Jesus lead them to do on that Sunday? Well, they're coming to embalm the body. They're bringing spices with them. It is an act of love, but as Spurgeon rightly notes, it's an act of unbelieving love. Their unbelief leads them to bring spices to anoint the dead body of Jesus. But if they had believed what Jesus said, they would have left the spices at home. They wouldn't have brought them. They wouldn't have recognized there's no need to minister to the body of Christ because he's not going to be dead. He's going to be alive. And as they were walking to the tomb, they wouldn't have been saying to one another, who's going to roll away the stone for us? But they would have known that God was going to move the stone because it was time for the Lord of glory, the Lord of life to emerge from the tomb, even as he said. But these women who loved the Lord Jesus Christ so much that they were coming to minister to him in his death, they had this unbelief within their hearts. What about the men? Should we expect that the men who are the stronger sex, the ones who had personally heard Jesus Christ predict his death and his resurrection, who have the sound judgment that are not swayed by their strong emotions, are they going to believe that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead? No. Even when they hear testimony from people who are their friends, from people whom they have known to always speak the truth and not tell lies, people who walked with the Lord Jesus Christ and were sincere in their devotion, when they hear the testimony of the women, they think, well, this is just foolish woman talk. They just have lost their minds or they're making up stories and they're just wishful thinking. You would expect that the men would have looked for the resurrection of Jesus. But out of all of his disciples, not one was found who was expecting Jesus Christ to rise. The 11 disciples, they didn't believe it. Peter, James, John, the inner circle. Think about the inner circle of Jesus' disciples. They were with him on the mountain of transfiguration. They were the ones that Jesus brought into the inner room when the little girl had died and the whole family was mourning. And they laughed at Jesus for saying that she was asleep. And they were there with him when he took her by the hand and told her to rise up. They saw his power over death on more than one occasion. Peter walked on the water with the Lord Jesus Christ. They beheld all of his miracles. You would expect that they could believe that Jesus Christ could rise from the dead. But they also had unbelief in their heart. And Spurgeon takes this as an example for us, that we have to fight against this sin of sins, as he calls it. The sin of sins is unbelief. And as we look out in the church, and as Spurgeon looked at the church, he saw that it was still all too common among God's people. For example, when the pastor visits the saints in their households, as Spurgeon did, and he would ask how they're doing and see their life and converse with them, and he says, do you think I find them full of faith, giving glory to God? No, I'm not long with some of them, but I hear their doubts as to whether they really belong to him or not. True, I see many of them happy and joyful, contented and trusting God, but not always so. Even those who are strong in the faith, sometimes they seem to give way to fears and doubts. They think that God has forgotten to be gracious to them and will not be mindful of them anymore. Jesus Christ said in Luke chapter 18 verse 8, When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth? Faith is a rare thing, hard to be discovered. Spurgeon says, in its essence, it's always in the church, but yet how feeble a thing it is. But if you turn away from looking at just the common Christian, the ordinary Christian, and you start to look at, well, what about the leaders in God's church? Take a look at the elders and the deacons, the preachers, the evangelists. Among them, surely you find that they are full of faith. that they're strong, that they're ready to undertake great things for God, that they fall back upon God's omnipotence and His power, and they don't look to their own resources and their lack of strength. But that's not what you see among many leaders in God's church. And I'm thankful for the faith that God has given us here in this church, but I don't think even in this church that we have pastors, preachers, elders, and deacons who are always full of faith. who are willing to step out and trust in the Lord to do things that would otherwise be impossible. Spurgeon says, I fear that the chapter of church history which is now being written is in the sight of God much blighted by the unbelief of all his people. There is faith, I bless God for it, and in some cases very eminent faith, but taking us as a whole, we make up a sorrowful confession of our shortcomings in the matter of our faith in the living God. So unbelief among the disciples. You see it here throughout the chapter. They were slow to believe, slow of heart, and Jesus had to rebuke them for their slowness of faith. And so I think that also for us, we have to pray the prayer, Lord, I do believe, help. my unbelief. We have a belief mixed and tinctured with unbelief. We must excise, cut out that unbelief, throw it away and allow belief in God, faith in his word, faith in his promises, faith in his power, faith in his person to fill our hearts and our minds and our plans and our expectations. We need more faith as Spurgeon noted. So let's take a look at the cure. for our unbelief, and as far as Mark chapter 16 goes, the cure for their unbelief in that instance was the resurrection of Christ. When they saw him, when they beheld him. It wasn't until the women saw Christ that they believed and were able to tell others. It wasn't until the 11 saw Christ and he rebuked them that they believed and were able to tell others. And it's beholding Christ the power of Christ in his resurrection that is the cure for unbelief in Mark chapter 16. But what about us? I haven't seen the Lord Jesus Christ risen from the dead. I haven't seen him in power and glory. Well, as we talked about Friday night, this special blessing rests upon us. That our situation, our station, is actually better that God has given us faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ without having seen. And the eye of faith that beholds Jesus Christ resurrected and glorified, having not seen with the physical eye, receives a greater blessing from God. And so it is true for us as it was true for them that the great cure for our unbelief is beholding Jesus Christ risen from the dead. What are some of the things that we struggle with? Same types of things you see here in this chapter. The women had a problem. Who's gonna roll away the stone for us? You have problems in your life. It's a providential thing, a providential problem. How's this situation gonna work out? How's that situation gonna work out? We've had this problem, this obstacle. We don't know how to deal with it. We don't have the resources. We don't have the power, the strength. What are we gonna do? God. in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ is the master of providence. I love that word providence. What a wonderful word. It's related from the word to provide. God shall provide. Is there a problem in front of you that is going to hinder you from doing the will of God? Then as soon as you get to where that problem needs to be dealt with, do you know who's gonna deal with it? God. God will provide, God will make a way. He's not going to lead you to a dead end. He's going to lead you to an apparent dead end, and then he's going to remove it so that you can give glory and honor to God, like the people of Israel being led to the sea, and they're between the sea and the army of Pharaoh, and they are going to die and be hauled back into slavery. God led them into a dead end. But He's the Master of Providence. He led them there for a reason, for a purpose. The very dead end was the way of life, the way of deliverance. And so don't look ahead at the dead ends that are in your life and say, well, I can't go that way because there's no way out and God's not going to be able to deal with that situation. Walk in the way that God has told you to go, and when you get to the dead end, there's going to be a way. I've seen this in my life. God provides. He will do amazing things. when you trust in him, when you walk in the way that he wants you to go. Spurgeon said, if the captain of the host were dead, it would be an ill thing for us to be serving in his army. But since he lives, girt with omnipotence, difficulties must vanish before him. Your captain is alive. Follow him. Walk in his way. He's going to deal with it. He has a plan. He's got the power. Maybe you have difficulties in your service to the Lord. You're trying to minister to somebody who's got a hard heart and won't change. You ever been in that situation? Maybe you're dealing with a group of people and they won't go the way that God wants them to go. They've got mistrust, they've got prejudices, they've got backbiting and fighting. How are we going to get through those problems of the hard heart and the sinful people? This is what Spurgeon says. Here is the one comfort concerning this all. The Lord lives. He is not in the tomb. He is risen. He is not dead. His power lies not paralyzed in the grave. He lives and goes before you, leading the vanguard of all the noble, of those who died for his crown and glory. So onward then, in the name of God. Be this your might, that Jesus lives. Henceforth, let difficulties be only rejoiced in, listen to this, let difficulties be only rejoiced in as things to be overcome, as opportunities for glorifying Him by the exercise of your faith in Him, which will be followed by the revelation of His power. A difficulty is an opportunity for God to be glorified in dealing with the difficulty. Is God sovereign? Is He alive? Is He directing? Or is He not? Where is your faith? If unbelief raises a difficulty, then this is what you say. The Lord is risen. The Lord is risen. Sometimes our unbelief makes us afraid. You see the women alarmed in verse five, they were afraid. They fled from the tomb in verse eight, trembling. And that caused them to not speak. The angel had told them, go and tell his disciples. And they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid in verse eight. Unbelief will often create fear. Fear doesn't create anything good in this sense. When it comes from unbelief, that kind of fear only produces bad consequences. Very often, it's the fear that you feel that leads to the disaster that you fear. Spurgeon had these wise words. He said, self-possession, calm composure, a quiet mind, these have often saved lives. They have frequently prevented the destruction of a cause that was just then in peril. If you can be calm amidst bewildering circumstances, confident of victory in the end, that will half win the battle itself. Be calm. Be cool. Be collected. Because your trust is in the Lord. The Lord lives. What did Moses say to the people when they were caught in between the sea and the chariots of Pharaoh? Fear not. Fear not. Stand firm and see the salvation of the Lord. Don't be afraid, stand firm, see the salvation of the Lord. He's brought you here to glorify himself and his salvation. And the God who did it then is going to do it now. He is alive, he's at work. If you can rest in the Lord, then you will come out unscathed. The best cure for being afraid, Jesus is risen. If you struggle with fear, Jesus is risen, is the cure. Here's a great collation of quotes from scripture on this subject. Who are you then that you should be afraid of a man that dies and of the son of man that is like a moth? Rest in your living Savior. Fear not, He says. I am with thee. I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with the right hand of my righteousness. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. The floods shall not overflow you. When you go through the fire, you shall not be burned. So, come back. If you are tempest-tossed, terrified, trembling, afraid, Because Jesus lives, be quiet and have patience in your souls. As you come down further in the chapter, chapter 16, verse 10, you see there that the disciples, when Mary Magdalene came to them, were weeping and mourning. the whole congregation of Jesus' disciples on that Resurrection Sunday morning, what were they doing? When heaven was rejoicing, when the angels were glorifying God, when the Word and the promise of Jesus Christ had come to pass, and Christ had conquered sin and death, backhanded death across the room, what were the disciples doing? They were hiding, weeping, and lamenting. The dearest friend they ever had, Spurgeon says, who had given them spiritual conceptions and lifted them out of their former state, he was gone. He was dead. They couldn't help but weep because they had no faith. They would have quit weeping if they had believed that he was risen. It was the last thing they should be doing, be weeping. God is rising and they are weeping. All the harps of heaven are ringing out melodious praise and those most concerned in the glorious fact are weeping. Every angel in heaven is bending from the sacred battlements to look down upon a risen savior with admiring gaze and yet his own dear disciples who had known and loved him sitting and weeping amidst heaven's festival. Very strange indeed. And so, Spurgeon makes the application to our funerals. We recently had a funeral, and there's nothing wrong with weeping at a funeral. I encourage people to weep. But when we weep, it's mixed with hope. It's mixed with joy. Yes, there is sorrow in parting, especially in an untimely death, the death of a child, the death of a spouse. I was speaking with a woman this last week who had married 50 years. Her husband died three years ago, if I recall, and she's still weeping. Still sorrowful. But let our weeping at the loss of those that we love for a moment be mixed with faith that we have not lost them but only for a moment and that those in Christ are not dead but they are alive and they will receive the resurrection life that Jesus Christ himself rose with and we will share in that glory too. Let our weeping end with the truth, Jesus Christ lives. Now, for point number three, other consequences of His rising, and there are many, I'll try to keep it brief. Notice Mark chapter 16, verse 15, you have the text there in front of you. He said to them, Jesus said to His disciples, go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Then come down to verses 19 and 20 for another such commission. The Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God and here they do what he told them to do, in verse 20. They went out and preached everywhere while the Lord worked with them, notice that, the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs. So, what do we observe here at the end of the chapter is that one of the consequences of Jesus Christ being alive and not dead is that his disciples, his church, They work. They do what God has told them to do. And so the more we believe that Jesus Christ is risen, the more we are going to be active in his service. If our captain is dead, then let's all go back home. But if our captain is alive, then let's follow him out into the battle where he leads. Is he alive? Spurgeon rightly notes that it's hard to get worked up and excited about just an idea. But a person, that's somebody that we could follow. Until a person embodies the idea, the idea really doesn't go anywhere. Nobody gets behind it, nobody does anything. But when there's a person who stands up and embodies that idea and leads the charge, then people get excited and people follow and something gets done. And that's what Jesus Christ is. That's who Jesus Christ is. He is the man that God has chosen to embody truth. He is the truth, and he walks in the truth, and he leads in the truth, and he leads the charge out onto the field, and we get excited about his person, and we follow him, and we work with him, and he works in and through us. Men, that's something to get excited about. We're not just here singing songs and writing doctrine. We're following a leader. We're doing a work. We're doing the work in the world that is more important than any other work. The work of God. And we have God as our man on the field. Spurgeon noted that the most enthusiastic people in the church, you look at the church and you say, which ones are the ones who are really excited about serving the Lord and doing it? Who are they? They are those that know Him. and love him, and live with him, and serve him. It's your relationship to the person of Jesus Christ that drives your passion for his work. The enthusiasm of heaven exists in those who know, love, and live with him. Listen to this. Spurgeon said, we have a living savior, a living captain, He's not out of the fight. He still looks down upon us. He's still fighting with us in the grand cause. Who wants to be a laggard when the captain's eye is upon him? Jesus' eye is upon you. He's the author and finisher of our faith. He's looking on as we run the course. So let us run. Let us run with patience. Because we look at and are looked upon by him. May this principle of Christian patience move every person here. This is a good prayer for us. May this principle move every person here, young, old, middle-aged, to do something. Do something for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ. What are you going to do for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ? What are you going to do for the honor and glory of the risen Jesus Christ? Good question to ask myself. But in addition to this, one other thing that Spurgeon wants us to note here, maybe, at least one more thing that Spurgeon wants us to note here, is the miracles that were worked. That Jesus Christ was doing the accompanying signs, and the signs listed there in verses 17 and 18, casting out demons, speaking in tongues, not being hurt by poison or serpents, healing the sick by laying their hands, Spurgeon rightly notes that this is not what we do. We don't work miracles. This is one place where it's a little bit different than what you see there in the apostles as the foundation of the church and us who are built upon that foundation of the apostles. But even though I'm not casting out demons or handling snakes up here on the stage today, there is a certain miracle that we are involved with. There's a greater work of God that is just as miraculous, perhaps more so than those signs that accompanied the preaching, is the power of the preaching itself, the power of the gospel. Not just when you're preaching it here in the pulpit, but when you just go out and declare the good news of Jesus Christ. The power to tell those who are spiritually dead, who are spiritually blind, who have legs that cannot walk, tell them, get up and walk. Let your eyes see, live and believe the gospel. We go out into a world of those who are spiritually dead and we tell them to live. And they live. Because the power of God is at work in and through us. We've got the gospel power. We've got the power to be able to go and preach to those who are blind and open the eyes of the blind. We've got the power to go and preach to those who are spiritually dead and they live. This is as real as any physical healing that takes place in the scriptures. And it's the miraculous power of God that is at work in the church today. Spurgeon recognized it and he criticized preachers who would say, as for those in my audience who are dead in sin, I have nothing to say to you. God did not give us a message of nothing to say to those who are dead in sin. It's true, I mean, how could I speak to somebody who's dead in sin of righteousness and expect anything to happen? I don't have any power to raise the dead spiritually. I don't have any power to open the eyes of the blind. But it's not just me. I'm not here alone. You might just see me, but there's someone else here. There's another power at work. There's another person here on the stage besides Timothy. It's the person of Jesus Christ who lives in me. And so I can preach and I can tell people, believe the gospel, turn from your sin. And they have no power in themselves to do that, but God has the power. God is the one through the preaching of the word that causes the dry bones to come together like in Ezekiel's vision, to be able to bring life where there was none. And so while we are preaching, God sends the power and people do receive it and are changed. I'd like to read the closing thoughts of Spurgeon's sermon here for you. The last four paragraphs, short paragraphs. Spurgeon starts off by talking about a time in his life where he had a severe depression. I'm not too familiar with his life, but he talks about a period of three weeks where he was desponding and broken hearted and constantly weeping. He came to the end of this period. God brought a Bible verse into his mind. He says, it dropped into my mind as if from heaven. And it was this one. Him hath God highly exalted, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. And so on, he says. And as this verse came into him from heaven, the thought that was in his mind was this. I am one of His soldiers. And I'm lying in a ditch, ready to die. But that doesn't matter. The King has won the victory. Christ has won. Christ is to the fore. If I die like a dog, I don't care. The crown is on His head. He's safely exalted. In that moment, I became happy. My trouble was gone. I found myself perfectly restored. I fell on my knees in a solitary place, praising God, who in infinite mercy had made that text to be the balm for my spirit. Self-love will make you sick. Self-love will make you sad. Love of Christ will cure you of that soul sickness. Christ is alive. Christ is exalted. Christ is glorious. What does it matter what happens to me now in this life? If I lose my health, if I lose my mind, if I lose my job, if I lose my family, Christ is alive. Christ is resurrected. Christ is glorified. All my hope is in Him. And He's going to bring me into His kingdom and restore me. And I love Him for who He is, not even for what He can do for me. I love Him because He is worthy of being loved. And even if He didn't give me heaven, even if He didn't give me resurrection, the important thing is that He is glorified, that He is exalted because I love Him. He's better than me. He's more worthy than me. That's Christ love as opposed to self love. We don't love Christ for what we can get from Him. That's the way the world loves. We have a love that is from God that loves the person for who He is in Himself. and there's no one who is more worthy of your soul's love than the Lord Jesus Christ. Love him and you'll be happy because he is blessed. So Spurgeon says this, now there may be someone here who feels much as I did, depressed, cast down, If you really love Jesus, there is not a nobler balm for your care than this. He reigns. He is glorious. The government is not taken from his shoulders. Our king is not captive. Our emperor has not yielded up his sword. Our prince imperial is not banished. If men will die for country, then will we not die for God? Let the heathen rage, let the people and nations be moved. Let the whole earth rock and reel, and the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. God is our refuge and strength, our very present help in time of trouble. God reigns, and the coming kingdom of Jesus is settled by his unchangeable decree. So rejoice. Therefore, lift up your heads, ye saints. Your redemption draws nigh. Clap your joyful hands and go back to the conflict of life until your master calls you home like a true hero. That henceforth shall know no fear and shall never turn your backs in the day of battle. God grant it may be so for his namesake. Amen.