DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, NOVEMBER 21, 1880,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"Do you believe this?" John 11:26.
THE Savior said to Martha, "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?" When
Believers are sorrowful, they may be assured that a consolation is
provided exactly adapted to their cases. For every lock that God has
made, He has provided a key. As every blade of grass has its own drop,
so every grief has its comfort. I doubt not that for every pain which
racks this mortal frame there is a pain reliever among the herbs of the
fields and for every disease there is a remedy in God's wondrous
laboratory if we could but find it.
As for us who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we may rest assured
that if we are borne down by excessive sorrow, it is almost always our
own fault and arises from a defect in our faith–for if our faith were
as strong as it ought to be, we would "take pleasure in infirmities, in
reproaches and in distresses for Christ's sake." We would find that as
our tribulations abounded, so would our consolations abound by Christ
Jesus. It will be well, therefore, when we are greatly distressed, not
so much to look to the apparent cause of the present trouble as at the
condition of our own hearts–it will be wise to inquire where our faith
is lacking and what it may be which prevents our laying hold upon the
comfort provided for the present distress.
It frequently happens that our faith is defective because of slender
knowledge. A man cannot believe what he does not know. My dear, tried
Friend, there is a promise in the Scriptures which would exactly meet
your case and, if grasped by faith, it would immediately cheer you! But
you know nothing of its efficacy because you may never yet have read
it, or, having read it, you may never have paused over it and
considered its meaning and so you are needlessly distressed because
your relief lies close at hand. It may be that as yet you have not
learned the whole circle of Gospel doctrines and this, also, deprives
you of comfort. You have laid hold upon the vital and saving part of
Revelation, but the strengthening and exhilarating part of it you know
not.
You have fed on the necessary bread of Christ's house, but not upon the
luscious fruits of His garden! You have been in the field, but you have
not walked in the garden to eat His pleasant fruit. Faith cannot
believe what it does not know and, therefore, you have missed fat
things full of marrow and wines on the lees well-refined which might
have been your strength and your joy. We would, all of us, grow in
comfort if we grew in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ and had a more intelligent appreciation of the
preciousness of the Truths of God which He has revealed! Faith may be
defective through ignorance and it may also be defective through a lack
of appreciation of the Person of Christ. It was so in Martha's
case–she did not know enough about her Lord to perceive His power to
meet her sorrow.
The Apostle Paul says, in the passage which I just now quoted, "Grow in
Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ," as if
the knowledge of Jesus were, indeed, the most important and gracious
knowledge which a Believer can obtain and so it is! If we are but half
instructed as to our Lord, we shall be but half-comforted. O mourners,
you have not rated the Savior highly enough! You have not yet a large
enough idea of His love for you and of His design of Infinite Wisdom in
permitting you to be afflicted. If the Lord Jesus were better known,
our afflictions would be lightened and our hearts would even rejoice in
them! If we did but know You, O blessed Christ, then if the same trials
remained with us they would lose their gloom beneath Your smile and we
would even come to rejoice in them as ministering to our fellowship
with You in Your sufferings! Jesus known, sorrow loses its
sting–surely even the bitterness of death is past!
It is not to be supposed that every true Believer in Christ is
assuredly a perfect Believer. Martha truly believed in Jesus, but she
did not perfectly believe in Him. I do not know how many here have, or
think they have, perfect faith–such good people will get very little
from the discourse of this morning–but then, happily, they do not need
it! Those of us who have
an imperfect faith–and I suspect that this would describe most of
us–may gather instruction from the Savior's question to Martha, "Do
you believe this?" May the Holy Spirit cause it to be so. Let us think
we hear His loving lips enquiring of us at this time concerning this
Truth and the other–"Do you believe this?"
We desire to believe everything that is true and we wish to receive
into our minds every doctrine which the Holy Spirit has revealed, for
we would perfect our discipleship and is not this one of its
privileges–"When He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, He shall guide you
into all Truth"? We long to believe everything that is within the range
of our spiritual knowledge, so that our faith, taking the entire range
of Divine Truth, may be complete for every emergency and mighty in
every conflict. Submit, then, to a heart-searching enquiry as to your
faith and hear Jesus say, by His Spirit, "Do you believe
this?"
I. Our first head will be–DO YOU BELIEVE THIS PARTICULAR DOCTRINE? I
will not just now suggest any one doctrine above another, but merely
advise your putting the question about every revealed Truth of God. You
who are Believers have faith in the Scriptures in general. You can
boldly declare that from the first word of Genesis to the last word of
Revelation you believe all that is written in the Inspired volume. Now,
the point is to take out of this general mass of things believed, or
supposed to be believed, each one separate item and look it over in
detail and then say with your heart and conscience, "I believe this."
It is easy to talk in the whole and it is very easy to think that we
have a vast amount of faith and yet we may have little or none worth
having! We may have put the treasure of the Truths of God into a bag
that is full of holes and so may have lost it as fast as we have found
it. We may fancy that we embrace within our arms the whole of revealed
Truth and yet, when we come to a quiet examination of our soul, we may
find that much is slipping away from us by a process of questions and
doubts which we hardly dare acknowledge! Things believed and never used
are like a sluggard's farm which lies fallow and is never tilled–we
hardly call such ground a farm and can we call such belief real faith?
Why, some Truths of God taught in the Word are not even known by
numbers of professors and we cannot believe what we do not know! It is
the same case as that supposed in the Apostle's question, "How shall
they believe in Him when they have not heard?" If we do not see the
surface meaning–which is within our reach–we cannot be said to
believe in any real sense.
Martha, when our Savior questioned her, had already expressed her faith
in certain great Truths of God. She said, "Lord, if You had been here,
my brother had not died." She believed in the Savior's power to heal
the sick. She believed that so long as her brother breathed, the power
of Christ could have kept him alive. She was convinced that Jesus was
the Master of disease and could restore the suffering to health. This
was something worthy of her faith, but it was not enough. Our Lord set
a further fact before her and asked, "Do you believe this?" It is for
us to grow in knowledge and to exercise faith in proportion as we do
so.
Next, Martha believed that though her brother was dead, such was the
efficacy of Christ's prayer that He could do something. She does not
quite say what, to comfort the bereaved–"I know, that even now,
whatever You will ask of God, God will give it You." She had faith in
our Lord's prevalence with God in prayer and that to an unlimited
degree. She believed in Jesus as a mighty Intercessor, One who had but
to speak with the Most High and His request would surely be
an-swered–this is a very commendable measure of faith–I wish that we
all had as much! So much faith was something admirable, but it was not
enough for her present comfort and, therefore, Jesus puts before her a
fact even more honorable to Himself and then adds, "Do you believe
this?"
Martha also expressed her firm conviction as to the certainty of the
general Resurrection–"I know that my brother shall rise again in the
Resurrection at the Last Day." She had gathered this, doubtless, from
the Old Testament Scriptures and from the general belief among orthodox
Hebrews. She may also have learned this master Truth of God from the
teaching of the Savior, Himself. She was, in this great fundamental
doctrine, a thoroughly sound believer, but she had not yet seen the
Resurrection in the Christian light and perceived our Lord's connection
with it. She had not yet learned enough to afford her comfort under her
heavy loss, for it is clear that she derived very little consolation
from the fact of a distant and general Resurrection–she needed
resurrection and life to come nearer home and to become more a present
fact to her.
Our Savior points her to a Truth concerning Himself which would answer
that purpose and says to 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?"
Here was a well of comfort from which she had never drank, because,
like Hagar in the wilderness, she had never seen the Divine supply!
Christ points her to it and asks her if she will not drink. I would to
God,
dear Friends, that all of us who call ourselves Christians would, every
now and then, go over the Bible and rehearse the great doctrines, in
order, before our minds. We need to stop at each one of them and ask
our heart and mind, "Do you believe this?"
Take, for instance, that great and earliest of doctrines, the Election
of Grace. "Whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of His Son." "Blessed be the God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ; according as He has chosen us in Him
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love: having predestinated us unto the adoption of
children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of
His will." Pause over these texts and consider their evident meaning
and then say to your own hearts, "Do you believe this?"
Some believers in Christ do not attempt to accept this doctrine and
even call it horrible! And others speak of it as so mysterious and
unpractical that it is not to be preached in public! I would invite
such, honestly, to look the doctrine in the face and see whether they
believe it or not, for if they do not, they may as well take a pen and
cross out of the Word of God all passages which plainly teach it! They
would not want to do this and yet they do that which amounts to the
same thing! When a man is afraid of a doctrine–or ashamed of it–has
grave cause to suspect that he does not believe it!
Take another grand Truth of God–"A man is justified by faith and not
by the works of the Law." "Being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ." "He that believes in Him is not
condemned." The perfect pardon of the Believer–the complete justifying
power of the righteousness of Christ to them that believe is plainly
taught in the Bible–"Do you believe this?" If you do, why do you go
every day and perpetually call yourself a "miserable sinner," when you
are so no longer, but a blood-washed saint and a happy child of God?
Why do you talk about your sin as if it were not forgiven and speak of
yourself as if you were still "an heir of wrath, even as others,"
whereas you are justified in Christ Jesus and accepted in the Beloved?
Look at the Scriptural Truth of God and at your conduct and then say to
your-
self, "Do you believe this?"
Suppose you turn to the Scriptures and read of the union of Christ to
His people, "I in them and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in
one." "I am the vine, you are the branches." When you thus read,
inquire of your heart, "Do you believe this?" Do you believe that all
who live unto God are one with Christ? Do you believe this? If so, why
are you troubled as to your acceptance with God since you are one with
Christ? Why do you think that you shall ultimately perish if you are
one with Him? Will Christ lose the members of His body? Shall it be
that one after another the limbs of His mystical frame shall rot away
and die? Has He not said, "Because I live you shall live also"? "Do you
believe this?"
It may be that Brothers and Sisters will say of a certain Truth of God
that this is a high doctrine, or a mysterious doctrine which seems
almost too good to be true–but all this is wide of the mark. The one
question is–Is it revealed? "King Agrippa," said Paul, "Do you believe
the Prophets? I know that you believe." So would I say to each one of
you–if you believe the Prophets and the Apostles, why do you not
believe, one by one, those great Truths of God which He has spoken by
them? And if you believe them to be revealed, how dare you cast a slur
upon them as being this, that and the other? I will not ask you to
believe my statement, nor the statements of theologians and divines,
but turn to the Infallible Book, itself, and see what is written there
and then ask yourself, "Do you believe this?"
As you meet with such-and-such a statement of Holy Writ, do not cut it
down or quibble at it, nor twist it, nor try to see if some eminent
commentator has not evaporated the very soul out of it! But believe it
just as you find it and if you cannot do so, stop until you can and cry
out to God for further Light till you can, without hesitation, answer
the Savior's question and say, with Martha, "Yes, Lord." How this
enquiry, well managed and pressed home, will enlarge the range of
faith! How it will strengthen its grasp and hold! How rich would our
souls become! Upon what meat would our inward confidence be fed if we
would but treasure up each crumb of revealed Truth!
Search the Scriptures and take the teaching of the Word of God in
detail, line by line and word by word–and then ask your soul, "Do you
believe this?" Ask for an anointing from the Holy One that you may know
all things and understand with all saints what are the heights and
depths and know the love of Christ which passes knowledge. There will
be profit connected with this, our first point, if each one will
conscientiously catechize his mind and say, "Do you believe this
particular doctrine of the Word?"
II. Our next division shall be briefly handled. DO YOU BELIEVE THIS
DISTINCT DOCTRINE? I find, especially
among members of certain churches, great cloudiness as to their faith.
I would not judge severely, but I notice that those
converted persons who come to us from certain quarters, which I will
not now name, believe the Gospel, but it is too much after the manner
of the collier in the old story. When he was asked, "What do you
believe?" He answered, "I believe as the church believes." He was then
questioned, "But what does the church believe?" He replied, "The church
believes what I believe." Being further asked, "And what do you and the
church believe?" He answered, "We both believe the same thing."
There was no getting further with him. Is not this kind of faith common
enough at this day? Many who are called Christians have this blind
faith and little more. This doting faith, in you know not what, is more
fit for idiots than rational beings! Let those delight in it who are of
slavish mind, or too idle to think for themselves. As for us, so long
as we have eyes we shall not yield to walk blindfolded! We like a man
to do his own thinking. Put your garments out to wash, if you please,
but your thinking, you should do at home. There is no reaching the land
of the Truth of God unless you will work your passage by thinking over
the teaching of the Lord.
What I tell you, you may believe or not at your pleasure. But I beseech
you, do not accept it for any other reason than that in your own
judgment it is in accordance with the mind of God as unveiled in Holy
Writ. God has given to each man a judgment and a conscience and an
understanding–and these, the owner of them is bound to use! The Light
of God is not given to all alike and hence the use of guides to such as
have not great knowledge. But it can only be seen by a man's own eyes
and he cannot look at objects by proxy. By experience some men have
learned far more than others and hence they are useful helpers. But
still, no man's experience of Grace can stand instead of my own–each
one must feel and know the Divine Life in his own soul. As food must be
masticated and digested by each man for the sustenance of his own body,
so must the Truth of God be read, marked, learned and inwardly digested
by each man for the sustenance of his own soul.
The church of Rome says, "Yield an implicit faith to the church"–this
is a fine platform for priestcraft and you see through the scheme in a
minute! But we say the very reverse and charge you not to believe a
single word that any one of us, or all of us put together, shall say to
you if it is contrary to the Word of God! Read that Word for yourselves
and search the Scriptures to see whether these things are so or not,
for so did the Bereans of old and they were noble because of it and you
shall be noble if you rise to the dignity of your manhood and, by the
help of God, use your own sense and understanding and pray for the
teaching of His Spirit that you may know what the Truth of God is.
Our Savior puts a certain Truth before good Martha in distinct terms.
He left the general haze of the Resurrection in which she believed and
said, "I who stand before you am the Resurrection and the Life. Do you
believe this?" Do you believe the doctrine put in this clear form and
shape? He gave her crisp, sharp, definite teaching and said, "Do you
believe this?" He brought before her mental vision not an impalpable,
shadowy image and specter of truth, but a solid, substantial statement
that He, Himself, was the Resurrection and the Life, raising those who
believe in Him from the dead and keeping in life those who, being
alive, believe in Him. And then He demanded–"Do you believe this?"
A great many persons see doctrines in a kind of dim, hazy light and in
that "darkness visible" they exercise a sort of faith, but they will
never get comfort out of the Truth of God in that fashion. We must
believe revealed Truth as we see it, in its own clear, well defined and
accurate form as Scripture shows it. For instance, the doctrine of the
Atonement is robbed of half its delight if indistinctly stated.
Thousands of Christians believe in a kind of atonement, a means of
reconciliation, a sort of propitiation made by Christ, which, in some
way or other brings us to God. But, Beloved, I would have you believe
that, "He, His own self bore our sins in His own body on the tree."
"The Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Do you believe this?
"He has made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be
made the righteousness of God in Him." Do you believe this? Read the
53rd chapter of Isaiah, in which you have Substitution set forth most
clearly. Yes, read the chapter through and pause over such a verse as
the 11th, "He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be
satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many;
for He shall bear their iniquities." And then put it to yourself–Do
you believe this? The very life and soul and sweetness of Atonement
will be found in the Substitution of the innocent Savior for the guilty
sinner in the actual bearing of the penalty of sin, the real payment of
the debt–for then I know that I am clear, because He, in my place, has
vindicated Justice, honored the Law and glorified God! Do you believe
this?
Dear Friend, ask God to give you Grace that you may believe in what
Christ has taught and what the Prophets and the Apostles have spoken
exactly as it was meant that you should believe it, not in a haphazard,
unreal way, but with your whole heart and soul and mind, accepting
God's Word as it stands, in all its clearly cut lines and features.
Have a quick and
true answer to the question, "Do you believe this distinct and clear
Truth of God?" Pray to be able to answer, by His
Grace, "Yes, Lord!"
III. We will now go a little further, in the third place, to ask, "DO
YOU BELIEVE THIS DIFFICULT TRUTH?" Certain Truths of God are hard to
grasp. There are points about them which almost stagger faith till
faith rises to her true character and is no longer dwarfed into carnal
reasoning! But these difficult things are to be believed. It was not
easy for Martha to understand how the Lord Jesus could, Himself, be the
Resurrection and the Life and yet her brother was dead. It was not an
easy Truth for her to believe, for it is not easy for us. How can he
that died be alive? How can the Son of Man have such a wonderful power
that resurrection and life should be entirely dependent upon Him? How
can these things be?
We know the fact, but we do not understand it. It is well for us if we
do not need to understand it, but regard it as sufficient for us to
believe what is revealed even though, to our reason, it may seem a
fathomless deep. Indeed, it was difficult for Martha to believe her
Lord to be the Life because it seemed contrary to her experience.
"Though he were dead, yet shall he live." She might hope that this was
possible in the case of Lazarus, but then the Lord had said, "He that
lives and believes in Me shall never die." How could that be true?
Lazarus lived and believed in Jesus and yet he had died! Her experience
seemed to be contrary to Christ's statement and this might have
rendered it difficult to believe and, therefore, the Lord asked, "Do
you believe this?"
But, my Brothers and Sisters, when we become Christians we cease to
consider difficulties of belief, for we take the Scriptures upon Divine
authority and submit ourselves implicitly to their teaching. At any
rate, I have done so. What their church is to the Romanists, that is
what the Bible and the Holy Spirit are to me! This done, no difficulty
remains one-half so great as those which I have surmounted! I believed,
first of all, that God was in Christ–that He who made the heavens and
the earth came down below and took upon Himself human nature, was born
at Bethlehem, was cradled in a manger and did suck His nourishment from
a woman's breast. After having believed that, I can believe anything!
An Incarnate God, once accepted, no difficulty need stagger my faith!
Martha's speech–"I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God,
which should come into the world"–proved her readiness to believe all
else that Jesus might teach. The Incarnation, to begin with–without
which believing a man can be no Christian at all–is so profound a
mystery that other teachings are simple in its presence! "Without
controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the
flesh." Once rejoice in the Light of God, which is the very daystar of
hope to us–that God has taken into union with Himself our human
nature–and you are ready for all Light! Only let me know that God says
anything is true and that is enough for me!
I do not quite join with the poor old woman in her words, but I agree
with her spirit, who put her implicit faith in Scripture in the most
unguarded way, when someone ridiculed her for believing that the whale
swallowed Jonah. "Dear," she said, "if the Word of God had said that
Jonah swallowed the whale I would have believed it." Brothers and
Sisters, prostrate yourselves before the utterance of God! Not before
man's dictum or dogma! Not before the utterance of priest, presbyter,
pastor, or philosopher! But before God, who cannot err, we prostrate
our souls! In Him you must place implicit faith. Let Him say what He
wills, we must believe it and that not in one case or 20, but in all
that He says. "Do you believe this?"–and this?–and this? Whatever it
is?
Yes, if it is, indeed, taught in Infallible Scripture by the Holy
Spirit of God, we believe it! If your faith does not rise to this mark,
evil will happen to it. Our Lord said, one day, to a company of those
who were His followers, "Except you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and
drink His blood, you have no life in you. For My flesh is meat, indeed,
and My blood is drink, indeed. He that eats My flesh and drinks My
blood dwells in Me and I in him." What followed? Read on. "Many,
therefore, of His disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an
hard saying; who can bear it? From that time many of His disciples went
back and walked no more with Him."
They said, "Can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" and they came to
the conclusion that it could not be and deserted their Teacher. Do we
wish to do this? The Lord Jesus Christ, at the very outset of His
ministry, prepares us to believe hard things. He bids us count the cost
about this as well as everything else. Although we already believe
certain mysteries, there are many more that we do not know of as yet
which will, in due course, demand our faith. Did not Jesus say to
Nicodemus when Nicodemus had been told of being born again and that had
staggered him, "If I have told you earthly things and you believe not,
how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" As if even
regeneration, which is really full of heavenli-ness, were but a
commonplace Truth of God compared with what Nicodemus had yet to
believe!
If Nicodemus had said, "Good Master, I can go as far as this, but I
reserve my judgment and shall venture no further," then the ruler of
the Jews and the Son of God would have parted, for he cannot be
Christ's disciple who will not receive all Christ's words–let those
words be what they may. Do you believe this, then? This difficult Truth
of God? I put this very earnestly to some of you because it may be that
at this moment you are in trouble from lack of faith in a promise or a
doctrine which seems hard to you. You have a promise, "When you pass
through the fire you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame
kindle upon you." Do you believe this, though all things appear to be
consumed in the heat of your affliction?
It may be that you are under a peculiar cloud and dense gloom and yet
Jesus declares, "I am the Light of the world, he that follows me shall
not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of life." And, again,
"Whoever believes Me shall not abide in darkness." Do you believe this?
Can you laugh at impossibility and say it shall be done because God has
said it? Do you not know that things impossible with men are possible
with God? Can your faith leap over the head of carnal reason? Can
present circumstances and the deductions of your own judgment all be
waved aside by the left hand as you say, "Let God be true and every man
a liar"? If so, you have the faith which will comfort and bless you!
But if not, like Martha, you will be bowed down with sorrow since you
have not yet believed the Truth of God which can cheer you.
IV. Fourthly, to pass on–"Do you believe this?" that is, DO YOU
BELIEVE THIS TRUTH AS IT STANDS CONNECTED WITH JESUS? I called your
attention, just now, to the fact that Martha believed that there would
be a resurrection. "Yes," says Christ, "but I am the Resurrection. Do
you believe this?" Now it is one thing to believe doctrine, but it is
another thing to believe that doctrine as it is embodied in the Person
of Jesus Christ. "Do you believe this?" There the comfort lies–in
believing the Truth of God as you find it in Him who is the Truth of
God! Martha was called upon to believe, first, in Christ's personal
power. "The dead will rise." "True, Martha, but do you believe that I
shall make them rise–that it is through Me the dead shall live? Yes,
that I am the Life and Resurrection? Do you believe that?"
She was to believe, moreover, in His present power. Mark that. "Even
now," says Jesus, "I am the Resurrection and the Life; he that lives
and believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live and whoever
lives and believes in Me, shall never die." It is one thing to believe
that Jesus will have power at the Last Day to raise the dead–but do we
believe that He is, even now, the Resurrection and the Life? Oh the
bliss of believing in the personal power of Christ and in the present
power of Christ! Jesus, the I AM, says, "I am the Resurrection and the
Life."
Moreover, Martha was called on to believe in the union of Christ with
His people–that they are one with Him, that they are partakers of His
life, that if they should come under the power of death they should be
delivered out of it and that being out of the power of death they shall
never come under it–in Christ the dead shall live, the living shall
not die. "Oh," says one, "but I myself do not comprehend this, for I
see good people die." Yes, you see what you think is death, but they do
not truly die–they rise into a higher life. That which is the essence
of death never touches Believers–they "depart out of the world unto
the Father." They go "to be with Christ, which is far better"–they do
not die! Death as a penal sentence, in its innermost meaning, never
comes near to those for whom Jesus has borne death upon the Cross! His
death, in their place, is the death of Death to them. Do you believe
this?
Come now, let us each one ask, Do I really believe that Christ Jesus
has all power in Heaven and in earth? Do I worship Him as God over all,
blessed forever? Do I believe He is able to do exceeding abundantly
above all that I ask or even think? And when I come in prayer before
God, do I so believe in Christ that I remember His promise, "Whatever
you shall ask the Father in My name I will give to you"? Not the
Father, but Jesus! Even Christ Himself will give you all things! Have
you such a notion and idea of your Lord that you know that He can do
all things for you right now and, that in answer to your prayer He can
grant you any blessing and save you out of any trouble and every
trouble–do you believe this? If you do not you have no right idea of
Christ, for He is Lord of all. "You are the King of Glory, O Christ,"
and as such we do believe in You and trust You and find comfort in Your
present, personal power!
V. We must now pass on to a fifth head. Do you believe this?–that is
to say, DO YOU BELIEVE THIS TRUTH
WHICH IS APPLICABLE TO YOURSELF NOW? That was the point with Martha and
this was the place wherein she fell
short. She believed that all would rise. But Jesus virtually says–"Do
you believe that I am the Resurrection and the Life, because if it is
so, I am able to raise your brother at once–do you believe this?" Now,
observe that we sometimes believe great Truths of God and yet we are
staggered by lesser Truths because, it may be, the great Truth has no
practical bearing upon us just now, while the present Truth, though it
is somewhat less in other respects, has a greater practical bearing
upon ourselves and our condition.
We doubt the promise most necessary to our comfort! For look, she
believes that all will rise–well, then, it was a much smaller thing to
believe that one would rise! She doubts whether Lazarus can rise
because he is in the grave, yet she believes that millions upon
millions will rise from the ground. Doubtless that was because of the
distance of the time and the scene. Some such feeling must have
operated on her mind, for the general Resurrection is the greater
difficulty. Is it hard to believe that Lazarus can rise who has been
dead four days? Well, then, it is a great deal harder to believe that
bodies can be quickened which have been dead several hundreds of years!
Yet she did believe that the dead would rise at the Resurrection at the
Last Day–not only those who were stinking, but those whose bodies had
been dissolved by corruption and scattered by the four winds of heaven
to the utmost ends of the earth!
She believed the miracle on a grand scale, so she said, but when it
came home to one person who had only been dead four days she could not
believe it! She believed that there should be a general Resurrection of
all sorts of people and yet, if that can be believed, it is much easier
to expect that a favorite of Christ like Lazarus should rise! Jesus
loved Lazarus– surely He will call him from the tomb! I say she
professed to believe the larger Truth of God and then she staggered at
the lesser because it was applicable to herself. I beg you to see
whether you are not often walking in the same path. Yonder is a poor
soul who believes that Jesus Christ can wash away all sin. Now, my dear
Friend, do you believe that He can wash your sins away?
That is the point because all the sins of millions are much greater
than yours can be and if Jesus can take away the sins of so many,
surely He can take away yours! Do you believe this? Will you come and
trust Him for yourself? And you, Christian, you believe, in general,
that all things work together for good to those who love God–do you
believe that all your ills, little and great, are working good for you?
Will that toothache of yours work for your good? Do you believe that
yesterday's bad debt will work for good? Do you believe that the death
of your child will work for good? You know it must be easier to believe
that the events of one day will work for good than to believe that all
things in the world throughout life will do so and yet it may be you
are staggered at your present trials and you confess your misgivings!
Have you faith in everything but that which would comfort you? Have you
everything but the special requirement of the hour? How odd! How sad
that the carpenter needs to drive a nail and he has all his tools with
him except his hammer! What is he to do? What is the good of all his
other tools? If you can believe everything except the Truth of God
which would cheer you at this present moment, you are depriving
yourself of comfort and strength! Believe this present promise given
for this very day–the Lord has said, "I will never leave you nor
forsake you." Do you believe this? "Underneath are the everlasting
arms." Do you believe this?
"Your shoes shall be iron and brass, and as your days so shall your
strength be." Do you believe this? God's Word is as the Tree of Life
which yields its fruit every month. What a blessing to take the fruit
from the Tree of Life in its month just when it is ripest and full of
flavor. He has said, "Delight yourself, also, in the Lord and He will
give you the desire of your heart." Since you delight in Him, He will
hear your prayer and give you the light of His Countenance. "Do you
believe
this?"
VI. The last point shall be this–DO YOU BELIEVE THIS PRACTICAL TRUTH?
Martha said that she believed it. But her actions did not prove it. She
comprehended the belief in the Lord's word in her declaration, "Yes,
Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, which should
come into the world." But yet she did not believe so as to act on the
belief. Coleridge says, "Truths, of all others the most awful and
mysterious and at the same time of universal interest, are too often
considered as so true that they lose all the power of truth and lie
bed-ridden in the dormitory of the soul, side by side with the most
despised and exploded errors."
How true is the remark! Do you not know people who are better than
their creed? Why is that? Why, for the very same reason that many
people are worse than their creed, because their creed is asleep and is
not operating upon them–they believe as though they did not believe!
This is a poor imitation of faith. There is, at this moment, a house on
fire in London. I will suppose that I know the fact and tell you of it
and you believe it. But what do you care? Not one of you stirs. Yes,
but if you saw the engine hurrying along the street and believed that
your own house was blazing, I guarantee you, you would bestir
yourselves!
Your belief would come a little more home to you as your own concern.
So there are certain Truths of God which do not seem to concern us to
any high degree, at least for the present. They are true and important,
but they operate no more upon us than if they were fictions. Martha
says she believes in Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life, yet what
is her action?
Christ commands the bystanders to take away the stone from the
sepulcher and she interposes with her cry, "Lord, by this time he
stinks!" She fears the obnoxious consequences of uncovering such a mass
of corruption, though He who is the Resurrection and the Life stands at
the grave's mouth! Ah, Martha, where is your faith in Him? Dear heart,
she says that she believes in Jesus as the Resurrection and the Life
and yet she is afraid that her brother will not rise though the Mighty
One stands there to raise him!
Is she not just like you and I? We believe that God hears prayer and,
therefore, we pray. But if the Lord desires to surprise us, He has only
to answer our requests! I have seen God's children running with vast
astonishment to tell their friends, "Here is a wonderful thing! Oh,
such a marvelous event has happened to me! I offered a prayer and God
has heard me." An amazing thing that God should do as He said He would?
They put these things in books as marvels and call the volume,
"Remarkable Answers to Prayer." Dear me, is it remarkable that it is
cold when it freezes? Do we speak of the remarkable warmth of the sun's
beams at midsummer? Is it remarkable that the fires in our houses
should warm us when we put our hands to them? Is He a remarkable God
because He says He will hear prayer and does? An answer to prayer
should be remembered with gratitude and yet it should regarded as the
most natural thing in all the world that our heavenly Father should
fulfill His promises to His children.
It is a great wonder that God should promise, but not a wonder that He
should perform. It is marvelous that God should promise to hear prayer,
but no wonder at all that when He has promised to do so He is as good
as His Word. Brothers and Sisters, we are, to a great degree,
unpractical in other respects, also, and we may take up many and many a
Truth of God that we do not act upon and say to our heart, "Do you
believe this?" Might I not step outside the door, this morning, and,
putting my hand upon a fainting Believer as he left the house say, "Do
you believe your God?" You say, "I am so faint in spirit that I shall
utterly fall and perish at the last." But the Lord has said, "He gives
power to the faint and to them that have no might, He increases
strength." Do you believe this?
I might go to another who is sighing and crying because of his poverty
and say to him, "God has said, 'No good thing will He withhold from
them that walk uprightly.' Do you believe this?" What would the
complainer say? How could he reconcile his discomfort and his murmuring
with his belief in the comforting promise? My Brothers and Sisters, let
us, then, go over these matters with our souls. We call ourselves
Believers, but are we? If it is so that one after another we doubt the
precious things of God when they come before us in detail, where is our
faith? Let us entreat our God to grant us Divine Grace that we may put
our finger on this doctrine, on that promise and on the other assurance
and say of each one, "Lord, I believe this, and I believe this, and I
believe this–for I believe whatever You say in Your Word and I know
that it shall be even as You have told me."
God bless you, Beloved, and be always with you for Christ's sake. Amen.
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The Golden Lamp and Its Goodly Lessons