Might Have Been, or May Be
A SERMON INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S-DAY, JANUARY 30, 1887.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"And some of them said, Couldnot thisMan, which opened the eyes ofthe
blind, have caused that even this man should not have died?" John
11:37.
"JESUS WEPT." It does not mean that He shed a tear or two, but that His
tears flowed freely. Such is to be gathered from the original word. He
wept copiously and continuously till He became the observed of all
observers. He was deeply affected and His tears were the fit expression
of His intense emotion. Love made Him weep–nothing else ever compelled
Him to tears. I do not find that all the pains He endured, even when
scourged or when fastened to the cruel Cross, fetched a single tear
from Him–but for love's sake–"Jesus wept." At first I feel inclined
to say, "Behold, how He wept!" And then I check myself and, borrowing
my language from the bystanders, I cry, "Behold, how He loved him!" The
Jews recognized, even with their unfriendly eyes, that His tears were
drawn from Him by love alone! From this Rock of our salvation no rod
but that of love could bring forth floods of tears!
So when we have noticed the tears and the power of love which brought
forth the tears, let us observe how, being such as we are, tears are
towards us a fit expression of His love. When you look upon your
children with love, your eyes flash joy. When they are in health and
strength, your love expresses itself fitly in delight in them. But love
in Christ towards us most fitly shows itself in tears. When He thinks
of what we are and how we have become subject to death–and how sin has
brought us under this bondage–since He loves us, He must weep. No, He
must die, for even His tears cannot suffice to manifest His love! Jesus
must pour out His soul, not only unto tears, but unto death, that all
may see how deeply He loves us!
I should like to begin my sermon with that thought deeply fixed upon
our spirits, if we are, indeed, the people of God–that Jesus loves
us–loves us unto tears! Inasmuch as He loved Lazarus when Lazarus was
dead and in the tomb, let us herein behold how He loved us when we were
dead in trespasses and sins. See how He loves us though, perhaps, our
spirits may be dull and dead–and how He will love us even when we come
to die. "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
He loves us so that He will love us when we die, even as He loved
Lazarus at the grave's mouth.
Let us turn away from our preface, which we have found in the context,
to look at the text itself. While there were some who thought only of
the love of Christ when they beheld His tears, there were others
standing by more full of reasoning, who argued, "Could not this Man,
which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that even this man
should not have died?"
Placing my text in various lights, I see, first, a vain argument.
Secondly a vile argument. Thirdly, a fair argument and, fourthly, if
read in connection with the verses which succeed it, a full and
faithful argument.
I. But, first, I see in the text A VAIN ARGUMENT. It is an argument
about what might have been if such-and-such a thing had been. It is a
very common thing to hear people thus talk–"If so-and-so, then so
and-so." Such talk is always vain, because it leads to no practical
result. What was the use of saying, "If Jesus had been here, then
Lazarus would not have died," when Lazarus was already dead? The thing
is done and cannot be undone–what is the use of asking about what once
might have been but now cannot be? Yet have I seen strange sorrows
wrung out of these suppositions! Perhaps the most bitter griefs that
men know come not from facts, but from things which might have been, as
they imagine. That is to say, they dig wells of supposition and drink
the brackish waters of regret!
The sisters of Lazarus did this. Each said, "Lord, if You had been
here, my brother had not died." In a more unbelieving way the Jews did
it and said, "Could not this Man, which opened the eyes of the blind,
have caused that even this
man should not have died?" Yes and so you say, "Now, if I had gone to
so-and-so, this would not have happened. And then the other might have
happened and a third thing probably would have occurred. And then how
different it would have been from what it is now!" You blame yourself
for steps which were not only innocent, but wise and right–and now
that you see the consequences of them, you begin to imagine that they
were not innocent, not wise and not right! And you fret to think that
you took such steps.
I have known some go a great deal further than vainly accusing
themselves–they have even accused God. They say, "Why was moral evil
admitted into the world? Why were men and women constituted as they
are? Could not God, who is Omnipotent, have so arranged things that
there should have been no sin and no sorrow?" What a fine mess we get
into when once we begin arguing over those points and conjecturing what
might have been under other circumstances! You see, dear Friends, these
things will not be and cannot be and, therefore, what is the good of
our worrying over what is not and cannot be? I will plow, but if there
is no field, excuse me, I shall not plow the sea, or the mist! I will
get to work on anything that is practical, but I will not break my
heart over fancies!
If it is to be done and it is right to do it, let us go at it at once.
But if it cannot now be done, but is only a thing that might have been,
let us leave it. You may go to the "might have beens," I have better
work to do. This was David's method about his child, as it should be
yours about all your sick ones and those that have already departed.
David fasts, prays and cries to God as long as his child is alive, but
when his child is dead, he washes his face and eats bread because, he
says, "Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not
return to me." It is done and cannot be un-done–what is the use of
fretting over it now? Oh, that you would have Grace to leave this
foolish chopping of logic with yourself and Providence–and use your
reason for something better! Lazarus is dead–what is the use of saying
that he might not have died if Jesus had interposed?
I call this a vain argument, in the next place, because even though we
raise the question about what might have been and we push it until we
begin to think that it ought to have been, still, unbelief will never
get an explanation of it from the Lord. In the chapter there is no
explanation given to the Jews of why Jesus, being able to open the eyes
of the blind man and able to keep this person from dying, yet did not
keep him from dying. An explanation was given by the Lord to His
disciples by His assurance that it was for the glory of God. That
explanation you will get. You have received it already. If you are
God's child and He has denied you what you think He might as well have
given you. If He has permitted you to suffer under a calamity which you
think He might have averted, He will give you no other explanation than
this which He gives you now without any pressure at all, namely, that
it is for His Glory!
If it is for His Glory, is it not for your advantage? What can more
advantage a servant than the glory of his master? What can more profit
our loving hearts than to see God glorified? If you are not satisfied
with that answer, do not expect any other. "Why have I been bereaved of
my children?" "Why have I been ill so many years?" "Why did I fail when
I hoped to reach wealth?" "Why did I break down in the examination when
I might have obtained a degree?" It is an idle piece of business to
demand the reasons of unavoidable trials! It is mere dreaming to guess
what would have been if such another thing had been. "What you know not
now, you shall know hereafter." Let that content you.
Once again, I call this a vain argument because it cannot benefit you
to pry into this thing which the Lord has hidden from you. You are
fostering self-conceit in calling God's Providence to your bar. You are
practically sitting upon a throne and making God to be the prisoner at
your bar! You are weighing over again what He has already weighed in
the scale of wisdom. This will never do! A child-like spirit is
infinitely healthier as it is infinitely holier than the spirit of
questioning. Brothers and Sisters, we should not even thirst to know
all the things that are, for if it is the Glory of God to conceal a
thing, let it be concealed–and as for the things that might have
been–what have we to do with them?
If we begin lifting up these curtains, we cannot tell what we may one
day see. I have known persons intrude into this sphere until at last
they have stumbled on a horror which they were never intended to see
and which, indeed, they never would have seen if their own unhallowed
imaginations had not created it for themselves! They were ambitious to
alter Providence and change the times and seasons which God had
ordained–and at last they fell into such a morbid condition that if
they were not positively mad, they might have been happier if they had
been–for there is a state of mind, bordering on insanity, which has
still a guilt about it and is, therefore, worse than if responsibility
had been destroyed.
I shall beg you, therefore, Brethren, to forbear from prying into those
secret things which belong only to God. Your profit lies in the
direction of abstaining from such speculations. Do not talk about what
might have been, or should have
been, interfering with the good which God has given you by pining after
what He has denied. Oh, could you know as He knows and then love as He
loves, you would act as He acts! Believe in Him and sit still at His
feet! Talk no more about what He could have done, or might have done,
or what you fancy He should have done, lest evil come of it.
II. Secondly, as I have spoken upon a vain argument, I will now speak
of A VILE ARGUMENT, for I believe these Jews intended a piece of evil
argument against the Christ of God. They put it thus–"This Man says
that He opened the eyes of the blind and all the people think that He
did, but if He did so, why did He not prevent His friend, whom He
evidently loved, from dying? Either He has a lack of power which will
prove that He did not open the eyes of the blind, after all, but that
it was an imposture, or else, if He has such power and does not use it
for His friend, He does not love Him and these tears are a mere
pretence! He could have saved this man's life and now He stands here
and weeps because he is
dead."
Thus the adversary would put the believer in our Lord upon the horns of
a dilemma. We are not gored by either horn, for we know a way of
escape. Still, you see the drift, and this is often the drift of
Satan's arguments. Your brother, your mother, your child, your
friend–these are dead. You sent to Jesus. You cried to God. You
importuned for the precious life and yet they are dead. Well, then,
there must have been a lack of power on the part of God to save life!
Perhaps that conversion of yours, in which you have rejoiced and of
which you have said, "One thing I know, that, whereas I was blind, now
I see"–perhaps, after all, that was not a work of Divine power, but a
delusion! For He that saved your soul could have saved the life of your
beloved and, as He did not do so, has He any power at all? And have you
ever been the subject of that power?
You see the drift of the specious reasoning–is it not a vile argument?
Let us unveil the falsehood of it. Suppose that Jesus is willing to
open the eyes of the blind and does open them–is He, therefore, bound
to raise this particular dead man? If He does not see fit to do so,
does that prove that He has not the power? If He lets Lazarus die, is
it proven, therefore, that He could not have saved His life? May there
not be some other reason? Does Omnipotence always exert its power? Does
it ever exert all its power? May there not be some great reason why
Christ should open the eyes of the blind and yet should not step in to
prevent the death of Lazarus? We can see that there may be many such
reasons, but it is easy, when you wish to argue against Christ and the
Gospel, to forget a good deal! You can shut your eyes where it is
inconvenient to see and then you can rush on blindly like a mad bull!
On the other hand, if they say, "If Christ can prevent Lazarus dying
and He does not do so, there is a lack of love in Him!" Is it so? Is
that a fair argument? It is not true, as a matter of fact–nor will it
be thought to be true by our faith. It may be Infinite Love that
wounds, that chastens, that afflicts. There is as much love in the
Father when He wields the rod as when He gives the kiss–as much love
in the Savior when He permits Lazarus to die as when He raises Lazarus
from the grave! Yes, and it is possible that the less pleasing deed may
be the more greatly charged with love! The greatest blessings come to
us in the guise of sorrows. I should not wonder if the death of Lazarus
was the passing of Lazarus into a higher state of spiritual life than
he had ever enjoyed. I doubt not that he was a converted man before his
death, but, certainly, that wonderful passing into the region of
death-shade, (which I will not picture because the Bible does not
picture it), and that coming back, again, must have given him such a
vivid consciousness of the power of Christ that the spiritual life that
was within him must have become more strong, more clear, more supreme
than ever it had been before!
I should have liked to meet that man after he had been raised from the
dead by Him who said, "I am the resurrection and the life." I think he
could have preached from that text very wonderfully! He would have
understood it by an experience unknown to us. I should think that
Lazarus rose into the higher life in the very highest degree–and so it
was Christ's love to Lazarus that let Lazarus die! And it was
altogether a lie that he died because Jesus had a lack of love towards
him. It is Christ's love that has let some of you be ill and poor. It
is Christ's love that has suffered you to be despised and down-trodden.
It is Christ's love that has let you remain in affliction, because the
Divine benefit that has come of it is more to your profit than the
thing itself could ever be to your loss! So the vile argument may well
be driven away, whatever shape it takes in our minds.
There is no justification for our distrust as to what God has done for
us in the way of Divine Grace–it has been real and no dream. And there
is no justification for any doubt as to what God can do for us and will
do for us in the future. He that has helped us so far will help us to
the end. He that has done so much for us will withhold no good thing
from us, but bestow all that is necessary for this life and
godliness–and for the life to come and Glory!
III. We shall now proceed very briefly to notice what is A VERY FAIR
ARGUMENT. If you take the text and press the malice out of it, it is
true. "Could not this Man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have
caused that even this man should not have died?" Yes, it is true. Jesus
Christ, by what He has done, has proved His power to do anything. I
need not enlarge upon the point, but I will put it before you. There is
not a life which He cannot preserve! You may cry to Him about your sick
ones. You are permitted to do so. Even if they are given over by the
physician, I counsel you to go to Jesus about them, though it is far
better to go to Jesus before you consult the physician. We often make a
mistake about the use of medicines by using medicine first. We should
first go to the Lord, that we may be guided as to what medicine shall
be used, what means shall be employed–and trust in God to bless the
means made use of for restoration. We may make idols out of physicians
as much as the heathen make idols out of blocks of wood.
Medicines are right enough in their place for healing, even as bread is
right for nourishment, but as men live not by bread, only, so are they
not healed by medicine, only. Before we eat bread, we ask God's
blessing on that bread–let us seek a blessing on medicines whenever we
use them. We are not healed by the physician, but by God who works
according to His own will and pleasure! Let us, then, believe that the
Christ, who has done this and that for other sick folk, can do the same
for those whom we bring to Him–and let us leave their cases in His
hands.
But take the text spiritually. I want you to believe that Christ can
preserve us spiritually from death. Are we forced by our employments
into the society of the ungodly? Does Providence call some of you
working men to toil side by side, or even at the same bench, with
infidels? The Lord Jesus can cause that you shall not be injured by
them. He can give you spiritual health and strength even when you seem
to be under the most deadly influences. He that opened your eyes, when
you were blind, can keep you alive, now that you can see! Trust in Him
for your final perseverance with the same unquestioning faith with
which you trusted in Him for the pardon of your sins. I say again, He
that opened your eyes, when you were in darkness, can cause that you
should not die even though the deadliest influences from the world, the
flesh and the devil should be set in operation against you. Because He
lives, you shall also live. Fly to Him in the time of your temptation!
Cry to Him in the hour of your need and He will help you and deliver
you! You shall not die, but live and declare the works of the Lord.
Beloved, what a mercy it is that we can look back upon Christ's having
opened the blind man's eyes and see the same thing in ourselves! Here
is a blind man whose eyes Christ opened. It is yourself! He was able to
give you sight and can you not transfer the argument to others? If the
Lord Jesus Christ could give you sight, He can give others sight. If He
opened your blind eyes, He can open the blind eyes of your children, of
your unconverted father, your unsaved brothers, your unsaved sisters.
Believe about your friends and cry to God about them! Take the text at
once and read it so–"Could not this Man, who opened my blind eyes,
open the blind eyes of those about whom my heart is heavy?" Remember
that the man who was blind, whose eyes Christ opened, was born blind.
Christ can deal with original sin and constitutional sin! Some seem to
have inherited a nature more wild than common–their heart does not
appear to be a heart of flesh, but a heart of stone–yet Jesus, who
dealt with this strangely blind man–blind from his birth–can deal
with those strange sinners, those sinners of a scarlet hue who develop
in their lives more of desperate viciousness than you see in others!
Christ can deal with the vilest of the vile! Take them to Him, believe
on account of them–and be fully convinced that no case is beyond the
power of the living Savior!
For my part, I never can or will despair of the salvation of one of my
fellow creatures, now that I am, myself, saved. I know that there were
certain traits in my character and certain elements in my disposition
which made my conversion to Christ more remarkable than that of the
conversion of anybody else–and so I shall have hope concerning the
most blasphemous, the most obstinate, the most unbelieving! This
glorious Man who, in the days of His flesh, opened the eyes of one born
blind–which thing had never been known before–can come and deal with
the very chief of sinners! Yes, with sinners that are dead in sin–with
sinners that lie rotting in their lusts! He can make them to be saints!
This is a fair argument. I am sure it is.
IV. But, now, lastly, they had never thought of THE FULL AND FAITHFUL
ARGUMENT from the text. All they said was–"This Man, who has opened
the eyes of one born blind, could have prevented Lazarus from dying."
That was a fair argument, but it was not a full argument. It never
occurred to them to go further and enquire, "Now that Lazarus is dead,
cannot this Man raise him from the dead?" The first piece of argument
did not go far enough to yield any comfort because it only dealt with
what might have been and what could not be!
I fear a great deal of our religion is of that kind. But what a mercy
it would be if God would give some Christians six-penny-worth of
commonsense! Oh, if some people could but believe what I am sure is
true–that true religion is sanctified commonsense–that there is about
the religion of Jesus Christ that which is just as practical as if our
life were to be spent in keeping shop! True, it is spiritual and
Divine, celestial and sublime, but it is as accurate as if we were to
be nothing but mathematicians calculating and estimating through all
our days! There is a mathematical truthfulness about our holy faith as
well as a lofty, eagle-winged aspiration! So then, they should have
argued thus–"Jesus Christ, who opened this blind man's eyes, has come
to a corpse in its grave and He is able to make it live."
Friend, is there laid upon your mind at this time some poor sinner who
is dead in trespasses and sins? You cannot get at him. You do not know
how to make him feel or think. There does not seem to be a vital spark
anywhere about him and you know not how to deal with him. Believe that
the Gospel is meant for such a case as this and that the living God, in
Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit, can meet with this clay-cold dead
heart! "Oh, it is worse than that," you say, "it is worse than that!
The person I am thinking of is put out of society and is too corrupt to
be spoken with." Yes, I know what you mean. Perhaps you speak of a
fallen woman. We are always more eager to bury the fallen women than
the fallen men. A man, of whom we must say with Martha, "By this time
he stinks," may still be tolerated in society. But if it happens to be
a woman that sins, they cry, "Bury her out of sight! Roll the stone to
the mouth of the tomb! We never speak to her, or mention her!" If you
have an anxiety on your soul about a person who is thus shut out from
society, I want you to believe that Jesus can bring out the buried and
corrupt.
"Oh," you say, "but it is not merely that the person I think of is
buried away, but the case is really one which may not be described. He
has been dead four days. He has gone so far that his crime is
unmentionable." I know the case. Yet you may mention it before the
Lord–in His Presence no harm will come of it. I do not read in the
Gospel narrative of anybody being distressed by the odor when the
sepulcher of Lazarus was opened. When Jesus said, "Take away the
stone," He knew that He had Divine disinfectants ready at hand. He knew
what He did. When you seek after gross sinners, prudent people say,
"Well, if you go after such people as that, your own character will be
injured before long." The Lord will prevent any harm coming from it,
for He can speak to the most corrupt sinner and say, "Live," and he
shall live and then the corruption is no more!
Therefore let us drive out of our minds the notion that any sinner is
too far gone for Christ to save him! I used to hear in my youth about a
"day of Grace," and about persons having passed that day of Grace. But
I do not believe it. As long as you are in this world I am bid to
preach to you, for the Gospel message is to be proclaimed to every
creature and I dare not draw vain distinctions about a "day of Grace."
If you have a disease about you that will carry you off before the
clock strikes 12 tonight, I still bid you believe in the Christ of God
and live! If you are so bad in your own esteem that there never lived a
worse man or a worse woman out of Hell, yet still believe in Jesus
Christ! My Lord loves to save great sinners, even as He delighted to
bring from the grave the long-dead Lazarus, that he might be received
into the bosom of his family, to be the joy of the house and the glory
of Christ!
I have not gone too far. I am sure that I have not. No, I could not go
too far. The shoreless, bottomless love of my great Lord–I wish I had
the tongues of men and angels to tell of it! You have not sinned beyond
His power to save you! He is a great Savior, a mighty Savior! And His
precious blood can remove all your death and corruption! When I think
of those whom He has saved, I argue, "Could not my Lord Jesus, who
opened the eyes of the blind, make these dead sinners
live?"
I will tell you something else. If you yourself, tonight, are that dead
sinner, I say to you, in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, "Thus
says the Lord, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
saved." "I cannot," says one, "I am dead." I know that you are, but if
the Lord speaks to you, you will live–and He does speak to you by this
voice of mine. I speak to you in His name! You careless sinner, in the
name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, consider your ways! You dead sinner,
in the name of Jesus, live! His Spirit has gone with the word which I
have spoken! The thing is done in some who have heard me and will be
done in others who will read these words. Glory be to the Father, and
to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, forever and ever! Amen.