Faith Seeing God's Glory
(No. 3342)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20, 1913.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Jesus said unto her, Said I not unto you that if you would believe,
you would see the Glory of God?" John 11:40.
IT is not every man whose deed is as good as his word, but of the Son
of Man, Christ Jesus, it may be said that whatever His lips have
promised, His hands perform. He can, after the fact has transpired,
turn to His disciples and say, "Said I not unto you, such-and-such, and
is it not even as I said?" Seeking Sinner, Christ has said that you
shall have peace if you believe on Him and He will not run back from
that word! If you cast yourself upon Him, you shall have peace right
now–you shall have happiness evermore, you shall have Heaven at the
last–for there is no promise which Christ has made which He is not
prepared to keep! There is no blessing which He presents to the hand of
our faith which is either unreal, a sham, or a mockery! You shall find
that Christ's gold is not mere tinsel, but true, and that His silver is
silver tried in the furnace–good spending money, both for time and for
eternity!
I shall hope to use the text tonight–may God, too, use it–first, with
regard to the case of our feelowmen, about whom many of us are much
concerned. And then, in the second place, with regard to our own case.
Dear Friends, I know that I touch a sympathetic chord in your hearts
when I speak–
I. WITH REGARD TO OUR CARE FOR OTHERS' SOULS.
I bless God that so many of you love your fellow creatures and fellow
sinners and earnestly desire to promote their highest interests by
bringing them to Christ!
You have tasted and known the sweetness of true religion for yourselves
and you are not selfishly satisfied merely to rejoice in this, but long
that others, too, may taste and see, as you have done, that the Lord is
good! Now, I know that if you are really in earnest about the matter,
you will often meet with cases which wiil stagger your faith, will
throw you back entirely upon your God and compel you to make your
passionate appeal to His Omnipotence. Well, the text addresses itself
especially to those who meet with such cases. Poor Martha, when she saw
the stone rolled away from the tomb of her dead brother, was shocked
with what would meet the eyes and nostrils of her Lord, and so, in deep
solicitude and almost alarm she declared, "Lord, by this time he
stinks." The spectacle was too revolting, for he had been dead nearly
four days–and in an Oriental climate that signified much that was
repulsive. Terrible havoc would already have been worked on the body
and she could not bear, I say, that the Savior should be exposed to
such a spectacle! Now, how often do we meet with men and women, young
and old persons, whose case is a very terrible one! We do not like to
speak of it. It is getting among the putrid things, for "it is a shame
even to speak of the things which are done of them in secret." There
are some cases which are shocking, terrible, fearful! We may well wish
that a stone may cover the cave so that they may not be seen, that they
may be left unobserved as cases too vile for the ordinary gazer to look
upon. Have you never met with such? I am sure, my dear Friends, if you
are City Missionaries, or lovers of City Missionary work, you must meet
in this great city with some of the most revolting instances of
immorality, debauchery, dishonesty and everything that is dreadful–and
you are very apt to think that these are cases in which the Gospel will
be out of place and the publishing of the news of pardoning love will
be like throwing pearls before swine! The text, however, tells you
something which may comfort you concerning such cases.
Perhaps I shall be addressing some tonight who have been laboring of
late in connection with cases which appear hopeless to them, not so
much from any gross immorality as from a hardness of heart which has
come over the people. There may be a mother here tonight who is much
concerned about her daughter–that daughter was once here, frequent-
ly here, but where she is at this moment the weeping mother does not
know, nor does her anxious father–and it is with deep concern and sad
hearts that some of us have asked, "Where can she have gone?"
While some thus actually leave the parental home and, we fear, plunge
into sin and excess, there are others who cause great anxiety in
another way. They do not want to hear the Gospel which once greatly
moved them–they have wearied of it–they contrive to stay away from
the public worship and now the mother's admonitions have become
positively irksome. The girl feels herself too big to yield to a
father's counsels and entreaties. Perhaps even worse than this is the
case you have been praying for–the case of one who actually denies and
flouts the religion of Jesus Christ, who declares it is all a sham, a
mere form got up that priests of all sects may get a living by it.
Perhaps even blasphemy has taken the place of attention to the Word.
You feel, as you think of such an one, who is the object of your love,
that you would give up your very heart if you could but have a hope of
his ultimate salvation–but he seems to have gone too far. Now, you
cannot get him to listen to the Word. He is tonight–yes, good woman,
your own husband–where is he? He is possibly in the gin palace, or
even worse. You fear that at the very moment when you are sitting here,
some for whom you have been pleading night and day are plunging deeper
and deeper into sin and that when you reach home, the cross you will
have to endure will be to hear hard things and bitter against the
Savior whom you love, and to see and hear those dear to you thus
penetrating further and further into the lairs of wickedness! Now, you
see, you have a desperate case before you, and I want, if God shall
help me, just to push the text home. Christ says, "Said I not unto you
that if you would believe you should see the Glory of God?" This death,
this burial, this "stinking" of Lazarus–to use the expressive word of
Martha–all this is only a platform for the Divine Glory to display
itself! This horrible sin, this hardness of heart, this rejection of
the Word of God–all this is only a stage upon which the Grace of God,
in answer to your prayerful faith, shall come and do its wonders!
Let me tell you what you will yet see if your faith is able to lay hold
upon Christ. You will see the conversion of these lost ones and then
you will see the Glory of God, for you will say, "Could God have given
His only-begotten Son instead of such sinners as these?" Did it never
strike you as strange that there should be two–one, the perfectly holy
Christ, the beloved Son of God and, on the other hand, a reeling,
cursing, blaspheming drunk–and that God would sooner smite His Son
than smite that drunk? That He should even grieve His Son and make Him
smart, rather than that that blasphemer should smart? Truly, when the
Jews made the choice of a robber rather than Christ, it was a strange
choice and only to be understood by their wicked infatuation. But here,
such is the power of God's love that when one out of two must suffer,
He chooses that the innocent Christ should suffer and that the drunken,
blaspheming sinner should go free! Truly "God commends His love towards
us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us."
Look at it again. There is this great sinner whom we have been
describing–is it not marvelous that Jesus Christ could really give
Himself for such an one? He has been in prison, perhaps, two or three
times, and he has done everything that is bad, and yet, oh, wonder of
wonders–the Lord Jesus Christ gives Himself for him! Now, "scarcely
for a righteous man would one die: perhaps for a good man one would
even dare to die," but God commends His love towards us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. What? Did Christ shed His
blood for thieves, harlots, and drunks? Yes, Sir, as much as for the
self-righteous and even more so, for while the self-righteous miss
Heaven by reason of their pride and refusal of His salvation, some of
these, coming humbly to the Cross, find pardon through the precious
blood!
But it is a great wonder–and when a soul of this kind is converted you
do see the Glory of God! You do not understand the miracle of love it
expresses, in that Christ could die for such a mass of spiritual
corruption, as some of His creatures have really made themselves to be
before they had been helped by Sovereign Grace to trust in Christ. As
the Glory of Christ's power was seen in Lazarus coming out of the
grave, though He had been four days dead and was corrupt, so the same
Glory is seen in the conversion of every great sinner!
What? Does the former swearer pray? Yes, and prays better than half of
us and much more earnestly! Oh, what depth of feeling, what groaning
that cannot be uttered, comes welling up from his grateful, adoring
heart. Does "the woman who was a sinner" love the Savior? Yes, and she
washes His feet with her tears and wipes them with the hair of her
head, thus doing more for Christ than Simon did, whose guest He was,
though he thought he had done so much. Ah, yes, Grace can make bright
saints out of black sinners, can take the very scum and dregs of
Satan's dominions and make them into sparkling jewels to glitter in the
crown of Divine Grace forever! It is wondrous what the Grace of God can
do! My dear Hearer, if you should happen to feel yourself to be
degraded by sin, do not give up! Do not think that Christ cannot save
you! Do not let Satan tell you tonight that Christ can never save you!
Look upon this case of Lazarus–"By this time he stinks, for he has
been dead four days," and yet where the worm had been, where corruption
had been, life came back at the Savior's word! And so shall it be with
you. He can save you. He can save you now! He can save you from the
blackest of your sins and make you sing His praises! The Glory of God,
then, is seen in the conversion of every sinner, but most conspicuously
in the conversion of the chief of sinners!
And this Glory is also seen in the fact that these sinners, when saved,
hold on and continue to the end. I have sometimes heard it said of such
an one, "Ah, he will never hold out!" I bless God that there have been
so many whom God has blessed in this house who have held out year after
year! Look over our Church records–see the names of very nearly 3,600
souls associated here in Church fellowship, and in a year how many are
excommunicated for their sins? Why, enough to make us grieve, but so
few that they make us wonder at the Grace of God which keeps them! Many
of them have been brought in while young and they have been exposed to
many temptations–some plucked from the depths of sin–and yet they are
an honor to the Christian Church of which they are members! And I can
speak of them in every company into which I move and say that they
honor Christ and prove the power of the Gospel and the reality of
conversion! Brothers and Sisters, we see the Glory of God, not only in
the regenerating of those who were once great sinners, but even more
remarkably displayed when we see that they do not go back to their old
sins, but they have become such new creations that it is impossible for
them to return to the old evil life and its evil loves and longings!
So, then, it appears from the text that if we are praying for our
friends, their present condition ought not to stagger us and, however
bad their state may be, we should only hear the Savior telling us that
He is making herein larger room for the display of His matchless Grace!
So we should be encouraged to pray more earnestly for such–rather than
even for a moment to give them up as though such case were hopeless!
Now, who is it that sees the Glory of God in the conversion of a soul?
When a man has produced some masterpiece of art or other genius, he
likes others to see it. Who are they who see great sinners when they
are converted? Who are they? We read of one stone upon which were seven
eyes. When such a sinner is saved, all eyes are set upon him. Why, his
neighbors see him. Some of them hate the change, but they cannot help
seeing it. When a great sinner is converted, beloved Friends, his wife
knows of it, his children know of it, his relatives know of it and it
is a matter of wonder to them all! "Oh," they say, "So-and-So has
become a Christian." Very likely they say he has become a Methodist, or
a "Spurge-onite," or some such ugly name. They are sure to call him by
the name of the minister whom God has blessed to him. And then they
talk of it in the workshop and he gets jeered at for it, but they say,
"Ah, what is this? Here is a kind of religion come among us which
really has power over people to alter their lives, which takes them out
of the old ruts in which they were known to run and puts them on a new
highway, and turns their minds in another direction! What is it?" So
that friends and relatives see it and enemies see it, too, and, what is
still more remarkable, it becomes a theme of wonder in other
worlds!Devils see it and they do not like it–and they resolve to
overthrow the man–but all the devils in Hell cannot destroy a true
child of God! You know Toplady's saying about the Grace of God. He says
it is like leaven–if you once get it into the cake you may boil it,
you may fry it, you may bake it–but you cannot get it out! And so,
once get the Grace of God into a man's heart and you cannot get it out
again! God does what the devil cannot undo when He makes "a new
creature in Christ Jesus." And then the angels see it. We have God's
Word for that, for we are told that they rejoice over one sinner that
repents. A poor woman upstairs in an attic found the Savior and her
finding the Savior affected three worlds in one moment! It made earth
glad. It made Hell howl with indignation and it set Heaven in a blaze
of extraordinary joy! Do not the harps of the angels thrill with
super-celestial harmonies when they hear of sinners being eternally
saved? Do they not lift up a new paean, and yet more exalted praise
unto Him who trod the wine-press alone, and of whose victory these
souls are the reward?
Yes, earth, Heaven and Hell, all know of it! We know it for the text
says, "Said I not unto you, that if you would believe, you should see
the Glory of God"? It is a very great comfort in one's labors to see
those who are truly converted. Of course, we ought to be able to work
on and to believe in success even if we cannot yet see it, but it is a
great delight to be privileged to see the sheaves cut and then carry
them to the Great Husbandman and say, "That is a sheaf You gave me." I
have heard of Mr. Matthew Wilks, the famous but eccentric preacher,
being waited on by some of his very excellent and very proper members
to reprove him for some of his quaint sayings. "Well," said Mr. Wilks,
"if you will wait just a little, I will answer you." Going upstairs, he
brought down a long roll which contained the names of those whom God
had blessed and saved through his ministry. "Now," he said, "all these
precious souls have been brought to God by these sermons which you feel
moved to criticize. By the Grace of God I will preach yet more of
them!" And so may every minister say when God gives him success, for it
strengthens him in his work! You dear Sunday School teachers who teach
in your classes. You who distribute tracts. You who preach in the
streets–if God gives you conversions, I am sure you will go on with
your work! It will whet your appetites! You will want more! You will
never be satisfied, but will press on in your Master's service!
But now comes in an "if," and then I will leave this point. "Said I not
unto you, if you would believe, you should see the Glory of God"? That
is the thing! Why is it that we are not more successful? It is because
we do not believe. I heard a conversation the other day, something like
this. A Brother said–and a very excellent Brother, too–"When I go
into the pulpit I go hoping that perhaps God will bless the word that I
am going to deliver, prayerfully seeking that He would do so, and
feeling satisfied that it will be according to His mind and will and
believing that if I preach the Word, perhaps it will be blessed."
Another Brother said, "Well, my Brother, I think you are right, but I
do not go into the pulpit in that way at all." "How then?" asked the
other. "Why," was the answer, "I go into the pulpit believing that God
is going to save souls tonight, that I am going to be made by Him the
instrument of it and I preach believing that while I am preaching,
souls must and will be saved–that there is not a chance they maybe,
but they willbe, that God's Word will not return unto Him void, but
will prosper in the thing whereto He has sent it. I hope I am as humble
as if it were a pe-radventure, but I am all the more earnest, I trust,
because I feel certain that now souls will be blessed." Now, I do
believe that God does bless in a very great measure according to what
we believe will be the result and that if we can only stand and preach
Christ, believing Christ will come to souls and souls will find Him,
then the more of such faith that we have, the greater will be the
results. Beloved, do we always pray in faith, as we ought? We pray here
at every Prayer Meeting that God would save souls–but do we believe
that He certainly will hear us? If we do not, we shall lose the
blessing. We must believe not only that God is, but that He is the
rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, or we shall miss His
blessing!
Oh, what a mercy to rise from your knees and say, "I have got it! I
asked for souls and God has heard me–and I shall see my desire and be
satisfied! I have prayed definitely for conversions, and conversions
will be given me." Brothers and Sisters, in such a Church as this,
where God is so manifestly and so marvelously working, we ought to be
forever expecting conversions!
You Christian people, as you sit in the pews should be looking out for
God to bless your friends, believing that your dear children will
manifest the first signs of His gracious saving power. Then should you
encourage these seedlings of promise and put the young plants in the
hothouse of deep love during the winter of their conviction, so that
they may not be withered or blighted, but come to be plants of God's
right hand planting! Expect the blessing! It is coming! It is coming!
God is blessing His Church and He intends to bless it yet more. He has
opened the windows of Heaven and He is pouring out the blessing so that
we have not room enough to receive it! We have not even now room enough
to receive the hearers–the day is coming when we shall not have room
enough to hold the Church! Only let us pray and work– and God, even
our own God, will bless us and bless His other Churches, too–and the
ends of the earth shall fear Him! So you see, then, the whole matter is
if you can believe. Now, Mother, can you believe about your child? Now,
good Woman, can you believe about your husband? Now, my Brother, can
you believe about your wife? May God help you to believe Him! Depend
upon it, the struggle is there. It is much harder for you to believe in
God than it is for God to convert your wife, much harder for you to
trust God about your child than it is for Him to save your child! It is
much easier for God to save the harlot, the drunk, the thief, than it
is for us to think He will do it! But when we can believe in Him and,
believing, boldly pray for it and expect it, we shall get it, and he
that was repulsive but yesterday shall be fragrant with Divine Grace
tomorrow! He that rotted in his tomb but the other day, so far gone
that men turned away from him, shall come into the midst of God's
Church, be found among the living in Zion and make the Church on earth
and the Church in Heaven glad in his society! But now we must have a
few minutes in which to use the text for–
II. THE COMFORT AND BLESSING OF THOSE WHO ARE NOT THEMSELVES SAVED.
I do not suppose, dear Friends–speaking to those of you who are
awakened and quickened in your consciences–I do not suppose I could
give a descriptive character of you which you would think to be too
bad. You once thought yourselves very good and excellent, but it is
quite a different tale with you now. God the Holy Spirit has met with
you and
made you see yourselves–and now you are ashamed of yourselves. You
feel as if you were dead, as if you had no power, no life.
You feel more, you seem as if you were buried. Satan tells you that
there is no hope for such as you are and you feel as if you were like
Lazarus, really corrupt in soul, so that you cannot sometimes endure
yourselves. You cannot sleep at night–your fears distract you. You are
afraid that God will do with you as Abraham did with his dead, that is,
bury you out of His sight. I have known many like you and whenever I
have met with them, I have been glad, for I have always felt that God
was about to bless them when they could never stand, much less, bless
themselves! It was just then, when they thought so badly of themselves,
that God thought well of them. Now, dear Friends, I say I cannot
describe your condition as being worse than you really think it to be,
for you really now feel yourselves to be about as bad as a person could
ever be. Now, what about you? Why, this–that the badness of your
present condition is no barrier whatever to your salvation if you can
now, enabled by Divine Grace, trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save
you! I will not enter into your past life, nor into your present state.
We will suppose both to be outrageously bad, if you like. You may say
that you have no feeling, no sensibility–that you cannot repent and a
great many other things. But now, can you believe that Christ can save
you? Can you trust Him to do it? If you can, then all there is of
hardness in you–even if it were ten times more–could not keep you out
of Heaven! "Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as white as
snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." If your
heart is hard, pardoning love can melt it! If you have no repentance,
Christ is exalted on high to giverepentance! If your will is stubborn,
He can make you willing in the day of His power! Can you believe this?
Have you not heard the story? It was God, Himself, who died on Calvary!
It was none other than that same One who made the heavens, who came
down on earth and became a Man for the sake of men–and on the bloody
tree expired in extreme agonies! He, "very God of very God," though a
Man like you, died that sin might be put away and that sinners might be
saved!
Sinner, can you believe this? Can you trust Him? "Yes, I should trust
Him," says one, "but I cannot." I do not mean what you can do, but can
you trust Him to do? Can you believe? For if you will believe on Him,
you shall see the Glory of God. "But I cannot see." No! No! No! It does
not say if you can see, but if you believe, you shall see! Believing
comes first, and then the seeing follows! And what is it you are to
see? The Glory of God. Now, supposing you were a very good sort of
person and had not any sin, it would not be much Glory to God to save
you. Why, you would not need saving– you could save yourselves, or
there would be nothing from which to be saved! What glory would then be
His? But if, on the other hand, you can see nothing to nurture
it–then, in your wondrous salvation would the Glory of God be
gloriously seen! You, and others, too, would see God saving you in
spite of your sin, in the teeth of your soul's corruption and in
defiance of all the powers of evil! Such a sight of God's Glory will
make it impossible for a single note of praise to be given to
yourselves, but all the Glory, all the Glory shall be to His rich,
all-conquering, Sovereign Grace!
Now, can you believe this? Can you trust Jesus Christ, alone, to
utterly save you? Sink or swim, can you throw yourself into the sea of
Jesus' love? Now, can you just give yourself up to Christ to save you,
for if you will believe, you shall see the Glory of God. You shall see
that Glory in your pardon, in your new creation, in your being
sustained under temptation, in your being kept in the hours of life, in
the night of death, in your being lifted up at the Day of Judgment to
receive an acquittal and in your being presented faultless before His
Presence with exceedingly great joy! Mercy, in her dream–if you
remember–laughed, and when Christiana asked her why she laughed, she
said it was because of what she had dreamed. Now, verily, I have known
what it is to laugh in the same way. I have thought of myself as black,
defiled, corrupt, unworthy. And then I have thought of myself as one
day wearing a crown, of waving a palm branch, of bowing before the
eternal Throne of God, having neither spot nor wrinkle, nor any such
thing–and, verily, I have seemed to laugh that that should ever be
true and my soul has leaped at the very thought that I–yes I, shall
tread the streets of gold, passing through the gates of pearl and see
His face and bow before Him–I, who was once filled with sin and
corruption, filled to the brim with the vision of God! And, Brothers
and Sisters, we will meet there and what a wonder it will be that we
should ever get there! Do you not think they will sometimes say to one
another in Heaven, "I remember– it is almost enough to make me weep to
remember–when I stood in the tavern and made others laugh at a
lascivious jest and when I could sing a merry song. Oh, how different
from the song that now engages this happy heart and from the music that
comes from these blessed strings!" And do you not think that another
will say, "And I remember haunts of wickedness and vice that dare not
be mentioned here, but I am washed!" And oh, when they think of that,
they will strike up again the grand old song that will always be
new–"Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own
blood, unto Him be Glory forever and ever." I am of the same mind as
the good old soul who said that if Jesus Christ ever took her to
Heaven, He would never hear the last of it. And He never will!–
"I'll praise Him in life, I'll praise Him in death, I'll praise Him as
long as He lends me breath! And say when the death-dew lies cold on my
brow, If ever I loved You, my Jesus, 'tis now." Yes, and up there in
Heaven we shall still praise Him! We shall not have time to think of
anybody else, nor to think of any but our Lord–
"Jesus sought me when a stranger Wandering from the fold of God. He to
rescue me from danger, Interposed His precious blood."
"Why, if an angel had come to me 17 years ago and had said to me, "Now,
my lad, get up from that bedside"–there was I, about that time, on my
knees before God, with many tears, thinking that I should never be
saved. I had longed and entreated for mercy from my childhood, without
having any comfortable answer. And I considered that I was among the
reprobate and was meant to illustrate forever the Justice of God in
Hell–if, I say, an angel had come to me at that time and said, "Come,
my lad, you will one day preach the Gospel to thousands of sinners, and
tell them what a dear Savior you have found"–do you think I would have
believed him? "No," I would have said, "that will never be." Why, it is
such a change for me to be here talking to you from being there, afraid
of the wrath of God, that I do not know how to talk of it! But oh, that
is nothing! That is no change at all compared with our being taken away
to Heaven! With our being taken up where angels dwell! Above all, where
He dwells, that Blessed One whom, though we have not seen, we love and
unceasingly adore, to be in His bosom forever, to be kissed with the
kisses of His mouth, to be His dear ones, to live in His Father's house
where the many mansions are! Oh, the Glory of God! What a sight that
will be! And, Sinner, if you will believe, you shall see it! Where did
you come from tonight? Where are you going when you leave this service?
I hope you will leave a different man, a different woman! If you will
believe, you shall see the Glory of God! Oh, may the Holy Spirit
constrain you to believe tonight! May this be the time when you shall
come empty-handed and take Christ to be your All-in-All! May this be
the instant when you shall be done with your self-righteousness, when
you will give up trying to save yourself and come and rest where God
would have you rest–in the blood of His dear Son! In His death! His
Resurrection! In His intercession before the Throne of God!
Oh, come, Sinner! God help you to come! Come! All black and ruined,
come! All lost and defiled, come! Though you are as one dead, no, like
Lazarus rotting in the tomb of your sins, "Awake, you that sleep, and
rise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light." In the name of
Jesus, thus I speak to you and He speaks to you through me. Come forth!
Come forth! You corrupting Lazarus, come forth! 'Tis Jesus bids you
come! Trust Him! He bids you trust Him and whoever trusts Him shall see
the Glory of God forever! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN111-26.
Verse 1. Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the
town of Mary and her sister, Martha. In God's Book, towns are most
remarkable for saints that dwell in them. "The town of Mary and her
sister, Martha." A day will come when a city shall be more illustrious
for a saint than for a Caesar–be more renowned for deeds of faith than
for deeds of battle! It was "the town of Mary and her sister, Martha."
2, 3. (It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped
His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick). Therefore his
sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick
They did not say anymore. They felt that it was quite enough to tell
Him that Lazarus was sick. They left it to the tender heart of Jesus to
do whatever seemed good in His sight. Some prayers would be all the
better if they were shorter–all the better if they did not so much
declare our own will as declare our confidence in the good will of
Christ! I like the omissions of Martha's and Mary's prayer.
4. When Jesus heard that, He said, This sickness is not unto death, but
for the Glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
Our Savior speaks in a different style from us. We would have said that
the sickness was unto death, but, ultimately, to the Glory of God. But
He who sees the end from the beginning speaks with a grandeur of style
which could not be imitated by us! So the Lord speaks of things, not as
they seem to be, nor even as they are in the present moment, but as
they shall be in the long run–"Not unto death, but that the Son of God
might be glorified."
5. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus. Yet Lazarus
died. Jesus loved Lazarus, yet Lazarus was sick. Jesus was not of that
cruel sort of people, of whom we have some in these days, who call
themselves saints, and who attribute all sickness among God s people to
their sin or to their lack of faith. Not He. Here was one that was
sick, but Jesus loved him just as much for all that.
6. When He hadheard, therefore, that he was sick, He abode two days,
still, in the sameplace where He was. Notice the connection. "Jesus
loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus"–and yet when He had heard
that Lazarus was sick, "He abode two days, still, in the same place
where He was." Sometimes true love may think fit to make us wait. It
may be the truest love on God s part to let us lie sick and not to come
post-haste to us to make us well. Yes, the truest love may demand that
the sickness should turn to death, for out of the death He may bring
the greater Glory. The Lord acts not upon the scale of man, for He sees
not as man sees. He sees the end as well as the beginning.
7. Then after that He said to His disciples, Let us go into Judaea
again–And that because He loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus! If
that love in its wisdom made Him tarry, yet that love in its sincerity
at last moved Him to seek the house of grief.
8. 9. The disciples said to Him, Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone
You, and are You going there again? Jesus answered, Are there not
twelve hours in the day?Is there not a time in which the sun will not
go down–in which it is safe and right for men to work?
9. 10. If any man walks in the day, he stumbles not, because he sees
the light of this world. But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles
because there is no light in him. There is a singular turn, is there
not, in that expression? We expected it to be, "Because he sees not the
light of the world," instead of which the Savior says, "Because there
is no light in him"–because in spiritual things our light not only
comes from above, but it shines within–and without that inner light we
are sure to stumble.
11. These things said He: and after that He said unto them, Our friend
Lazarus sleeps, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep.It is the
Savior s way to use terms concerning His miracles, which, so far from
exaggerating them, even appear to depreciate them. He is about to raise
a man from the dead, but He says, "Our friend Lazarus sleeps; but I go
that I may awake him out of sleep." I am afraid that our tendency is
always to describe our actions in the largest possible terms consistent
with truth, perhaps sometimes forgetting those last words. But the
Savior describes truthfully what He does, but still in terms which,
like His Humanity, seem to veil the Glory. Wonderfully condescending is
it of Him to speak thus–
12. Then said His disciples, Lord, if He sleeps, He shall do well. It
is considered to be a sign of getting better when a patient can sleep.
13-16. However Jesus spoke of his death: but they thought that He had
spoken of taking of rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes, that I was not there, to
the intent you may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him. Then said
Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also
go, that we may die with Him. A singular mixture of faith and unbelief!
He so believes his Master that he is willing to die with Him. He so
doubts Him that, although the Savior had plainly told him that He was
immortal till His work was done, yet he is afraid that His Master and
all of them will be put to death. Oh, the Lord knows us better than we
know ourselves–and the Lord accepts us notwithstanding our
infirmities.
17. Then when Jesus came, He found that he had lain in the grave four
days already. So that he was probably dead as soon as the messengers
arrived to tell the Savior that he was ill.
18. Now Bethany was near unto Jerusalem, about fifteen furlongs off.
Just a nice little walk which our Savior had often taken in the evening
after the toils of the day in Jerusalem. He had loved to make Bethany
His quiet resting place. "Fifteen furlongs off."
19-20. Andmany of the Jews came to Martha andMary, to comfort them
concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus
was coming, went and met Him: but Mary sat still in the house. Because
she had not heard that Jesus was come, or else, no doubt, she would
have been there as soon as Martha.
21. Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if You had been here, my brother
had not died. They had often said to one another, "Oh, we wish the Lord
would come." They had sent for Him. They felt sure that He would come.
But, alas, their brother had died before the Master had arrived–and
now this thought which was uppermost in their hearts is uppermost in
their speech, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother had not died."
22. But I know that even now, whatever You will ask of God, God will
give it to You. There is faith there, and there is unbelief, too. She
believes that Christ can have what He wills of God, but she does not
recognize His own personal Godhead–His own power to work resurrection.
23-26. Jesus said unto her, Your brother shall rise again. Martha said
unto Him, Iknnow that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the
Last Day. Jesus said unto her, I am the Resurrection, and the Life: he
that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And
whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you Believe
this?She looked upon the Resurrection and the Life as things that were
to be in some dim and misty future. "No," says Christ, "I am the
Resurrection and the Life. Not only do I get these things by prayer
from God, but I am these things." And then He goes on to explain it. He
says, "I am the Resurrection. He that believes in Me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live. I am the Life. Whoever lives and believes in
Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" He has taken her out of the
thought of this poor common animal-life into the thought of the
spiritual and higher life, which is, indeed, to the soul what the
resurrection is to the body! It was well for the Savior thus to teach
her higher truth than as yet she knew.