Though He Were Dead A Sermon

Though He Were Dead

A Sermon

(No. 1799)

Delivered on Lord's-Day Morning, September 14th, 1884, by

C. H. SPURGEON,

At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington

Martha saith unto Him, I know 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 believeth in Me, though he were
dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall
never die. Believest thou this?'John 11:24-26.

MARTHA is a very accurate type of a class of anxious believers. They do
believe truly, but not with such confidence as to lay aside their care.
They do not distrust the Lord, or question the truth of what He says,
yet they puzzle their brain about How shall this thing be?' and so they
miss the major part of the present comfort which the word of the Lord
would minister to their hearts if they received it more simply. How?
and why? belong unto the Lord. It is His business to arrange matters so
as to fulfil His own promises. If we would sit at our Lord's feet with
Mary, and consider what He has promised, we should choose a better part
than if we ran about with Martha, crying, How can these things be?'

Martha, you see, in this case, when the Lord Jesus Christ told her that
her brother would rise again, replied, I know that he shall rise again
in the resurrection at the last day.' She was a type, I say, of certain
anxious believers, for she set a practical bound to the Saviour's
words. Of course there will be a resurrection, and then my brother will
rise with the rest.' She concluded that the Saviour could not mean
anything beyond that. The first meaning and the commonest meaning that
suggests itself to her must be what Jesus means. Is not that the way
with many of us? We had a statesman once, and a good man too, who loved
reform; but whenever he had accomplished a little progress, he
considered that all was done. We called him at last Finality John,' for
he was always coming to an ultimatum, and taking for his motto Rest,
and be thankful.' Into that style Christian people too frequently drop
with regard to the promises of God. We limit the Holy one of Israel as
to the meaning of His words. Of course they mean so much, but we cannot
allow that they intend more. It were well if the spirit of progress
would enter into our faith, so that we felt within our souls that we
had never beheld the innermost glory of the Lord's words of grace. We
often wonder that the disciples put such poor meanings upon our Lord's
words, but I fear we are almost as far off as they were from fully
comprehending all His gracious teachings. Are we not still as little
children, making little out of great words? Have we grasped as yet a
tithe of our Lord's full meaning, in many of His sayings of love? When
He is talking of bright and sparkling gems of benediction, we are
thinking of common pebble-stones in the brook of mercy; when He
speaketh of stars and heavenly crowns, we think of sparks and childish
coronals of fading flowers. Oh that we could but have our intellect
cleared; better still, could have our understanding expanded, or, best
of all, our faith increased, so as to reach to the height or our Lord's
great arguments of love!

Martha also had another fault in which she was very like ourselves: she
laid the words of Jesus on the shelf, as things so trite and sure that
they were of small practical importance. Thy brother shall rise again.'
Now, if she had possessed faith enough, she might truthfully have said,
Lord, I thank Thee for that word! I expect within a short space to see
him sitting at the table with Thee. I put the best meaning possible
upon Thy words, for I know that Thou art always better than I can think
Thee to be; and therefore I expect to see my beloved Lazarus walk home
from the sepulchre before the sun sets again.' But no, she lays the
truth aside as a matter past all dispute, and says, I know that my
brother shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.' A great
many precious truths are laid up by us like the old hulks in the
Medway, never to see service any more, or like aged pensioners at
Chelsea, as relics of the past. We say Yes, quite true, we fully
believe that doctrine.' Somehow it is almost as bad to lay up a
doctrine in lavender as it is to throw it out of the window. When you
so believe a truth as to put it to bed and smother it with the bolster
of neglect, it is much the same as if you did not believe it at all. An
official belief is very much akin to infidelity. Some persons never
question a doctrine: that is not their line of temptation; they accept
the gospel as true, but then they never expect to see its promises
practically carried out; it is a proper thing to believe, but by no
means a prominent, practical factor in actual life. It is true but it
is mysterious, misty, mythical, far removed from the realm of practical
common sense. We do with the promises often as a poor old couple did
with a precious document, which might have cheered their old age had
they used it according to its real value. A gentleman stepping into a
poor woman's house saw framed and glazed upon the wall a French note
for a thousand francs. He said to the old folks, How came you by this?'
They informed him that a poor French soldier had been taken in by them
and nursed until he died, and he had given them that little picture
when he was dying as a memorial of him. They thought it such a pretty
souvenir that they had framed it, and there it was adorning the cottage
wall. They were greatly surprised when they were told that it was worth
a sum which would be quite a little fortune for them if they would but
turn it into money. Are we not equally unpractical with far more
precious things? Have you not certain of the words of your great Lord
framed and glazed in your hearts, and do you not say to yourselves,
They are so sweet and precious'? and yet you have never turned them
into actual blessing'never used them in the hour of need. You have done
as Martha did when she took the words, Thy brother shall rise again,'
and put round about them this handsome frame, in the resurrection at
the last day.' Oh that we had grace to turn God's bullion of gospel
into current coin, and use them as our present spending money.

Moreover, Martha made another blunder, and that was setting the promise
in the remote distance. This is a common folly, this distancing the
promises of the Most High. In the resurrection at the last day'no doubt
she thought it a very long way off, and therefore she did not get much
comfort out of it. Telescopes are meant to bring objects near to the
eye, but I have known people use the mental telescope in the wrong way:
they always put the big end of it to their eye, and then the glass
sends the object further away. Her brother was to be raised that very
day: she might so have understood the Saviour, but instead of it she
looked at His words through the wrong end of the glass, and said, I
know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.'
Brethren, do not refuse the present blessing. Death and heaven, or the
advent and the glory, are at your doors. A little while and He that
will come shall come, and will not tarry. Think not that the Lord is
slack concerning His promise. Do not say in your heart, My Lord
delayeth His coming'; or dream that His words of love are only for the
dim future. In the ages to come marvels shall be revealed, but even the
present hour is bejewelled with loving-kindness. To-day the Lord has
rest, and peace, and joy to give to you. Lose not these treasures by
unbelief.

Martha also appears to me to have made the promise unreal and
impersonal. Thy brother shall rise again'; to have realized that would
have been a great comfort to her, but she mixes Lazarus up with all the
rest of the dead. Yes, he will rise in the resurrection at the last
day; when thousands of millions shall be rising from their graves, no
doubt Lazarus will rise with the rest.' That is the way with us; we
take the promise and say, This is true to all the children of God.' If
so it is true to us; but we miss that point. What a blessing God has
bestowed upon the covenanted people! Yes, and you are one of them; but
you shake your head, as if the word was not for you. It is a fine
feast, and yet you are hungry; it is a full and flowing stream, but you
remain thirsty. Why is this? Somehow the generality of your
apprehension misses the sweetness which comes of personal
appropriation. There is such a thing as speaking of the promises in a
magnificent style, and yet being in deep spiritual poverty; as if a man
should boast of the wealth of old England, and the vast amount of
treasure in the Bank, while he does not possess a penny wherewith to
bless himself. In your case you know it is your own fault that you are
poor and miserable, for if you would but exercise an appropriating
faith you might possess a boundless heritage. If you are a child of God
all things are yours, and you may help yourself. If you are hungry at
this banquet it is for want of faith: if you are thirsty by the brink
of this river it is because you do not stoop down and drink. Behold,
God is your portion: the Father is your shepherd, the Son of God is
your food, and the Spirit of God is your comforter. Rejoice and be
glad, and grasp with the firm hand of a personal faith that royal boon
which Jesus sets before you in His promises.

I beg you to observe how the Lord Jesus Christ in great wisdom dealt
with Martha. In the first place, He did not grow angry with her. There
is not a trace of petulance in His speech. He did not say to her,
Martha, I am ashamed of you that you should have such low thoughts of
me.' She thought that she was honouring Jesus when she said,'I know,
that even now, whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it Thee.'
Her idea of Jesus was that He was a great prophet Who would ask of God
and obtain answers to His prayers; she has not grasped the truth of His
own personal power to give and sustain life. But the Saviour did not
say, Martha, these are low and grovelling ideas of your Lord and
Saviour.' He did not chide her, though she lacked wisdom,'wisdom which
she ought to have possessed. I do not think God's people learn much by
being scolded; it is not the habit of the great Lord to scold His
disciples, and therefore they do not take it well when His servants
take upon themselves to rate them. If ever you meet with one of the
Lord's own who falls far short of the true ideal of the gospel, do not
bluster and upbraid. Who taught you what you know? He that has taught
you did it of His infinite love and grace and pity, and He was very
tender with you, for you were doltish enough; therefore be tender with
others, and give them line upon line, even as your Lord was gentle
towards you. It ill becomes a servant to lose patience where his Master
shows so much.

The Lord Jesus, with gentle spirit, proceeded to teach her more of the
things concerning Himself. More of Jesus! More of Jesus! That is the
sovereign cure for our faults. He revealed Himself to her, that in Him
she might behold reasons for a clearer hope and a more substantial
faith. How sweetly fell those words upon her ear: I am the resurrection
and the life'! Not I can get resurrection by my prayers,' but I am,
myself, the resurrection.' God's people need to know more of what Jesus
is, more of the fullness which it has pleased the Father to place in
Him. Some of them know quite enough of what they are themselves, and
they will break their hearts if they go on reading much longer in that
black-letter book: they need, I say, to rest their eyes upon the person
of their Lord, and to spy out all the riches of grace which lie hidden
in Him; then they will pluck up courage, and look forward with surer
expectancy. When our Lord said, I am the resurrection and the life,' He
indicated to Martha that resurrection and life were not gifts which He
must seek, nor even boons which He must create; but that He Himself was
the resurrection and the life: these things were wherever He was. He
was the author, and giver, and maintainer of life, and that life was
Himself. He would have her to know that He was Himself precisely what
she wanted for her brother. She did know a little of the Lord's power,
for she said, If Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died,' which
being very kindly interpreted might mean, Lord, Thou art the life.' Ah,
but,' saith Jesus, you must also learn that I am the resurrection! You
already admit that if I had been here Lazarus would not have died; I
would have you further learn that I being here your brother shall live
though he has died; and that when I am with my people none of them
shall die for ever, for I am to them the resurrection and the life.'
Poor Martha was looking up into the sky for life, or gazing down into
the deeps for resurrection, when the Resurrection and the Life stood
before her, smiling upon her, and cheering her heavy heart. She had
thought of what Jesus might have done if He had been there before; now
let her know what He is at the present moment.

Thus I have introduced the text to you, and I pray God the Holy Spirit
to bless these prefatory observations; for if we learn only these first
lessons we shall not have been here in vain. Let us construe promises
in their largest sense, let us regard them as real, and set them down
as facts. Let us look to the Promisor, even to Jesus the Lord, and not
so much to the difficulties which surround the accomplishment of the
promise. In beginning the divine life let us look to Jesus, and in
afterwards running the heavenly race let us still be looking unto
Jesus, till we see in Him our all in all. When both eyes look on Jesus
we are in the light; but when we have one eye for Him, and one eye for
self, all is darkness. Oh, to see Him with all our soul's eyes!

Now, I am going to speak as I am helped of the Spirit; and I shall
proceed thus'first, by asking you to view the text as a stream of
comfort to Martha and other bereaved persons; and, secondly, to view it
as a great deep of comfort to all believers.

I. First, I long for you to VIEW THE TEXT AS A STREAM OF COMFORT TO
MARTHA AND OTHER BEREAVED PERSONS.

Observe, in the beginning, that the presence of Jesus Christ means life
and resurrection. It meant that to Lazarus. If Jesus comes to Lazarus,
Lazarus must live. Had Martha taken the Saviour's words literally, as
she should have done, as I have already told you, she would have had
immediate comfort from them; and the Saviour intended her to understand
them in that sense. He virtually says, I am to Lazarus the Power that
can make him live again; and I am the Power that can keep him in life.
Yea, I am the resurrection and the life.' A statement so understood
would have been very comfortable to her. Nothing could have been more
so. It would there and then have abolished death so far as her brother
was concerned. Somebody says, But I do not see that this is any comfort
to us, for if Jesus be here, yet it is only a spiritual presence, and
we cannot expect to see our dear mother, or child, or husband raised
from the dead thereby.' I answer that our Lord Jesus is able at this
moment to give us back our departed ones, for He is still the
resurrection and the life. But let me ask you whether you really wish
that Jesus would raise your departed ones from the dead. You say at
first, Of course I do wish it'; but I would ask you to reconsider that
decision; for I believe that upon further thought you will say, No, I
could not wish it.' Do you really desire to see your glorified husband
sent back again to this world of care and pain? Would you have your
father or mother deprived of the glories which they are now enjoying in
order that they might help you in the struggles of this mortal life?
Would you discrown the saints? You are not so cruel. That dear child,
would you have it back from among the angels, and from the inner glory,
to come here and suffer again? You would not have it so. And to my mind
it is a comfort to you, or should be, that it is not within your power
to have it so; because you might be tempted in some selfish moment to
accept the doubtful boon. Lazarus could return, and fit into his place
again, but scarcely one in ten thousand could do so. There would be
serious drawbacks in the return of those whom we have loved best. Do
you cry, Give back my father! Give me back my friend'? You know not
what you ask. It might be a cause of regret to you as long as they
lingered here, for you would each morning think to yourself, Beloved
one, I have brought you out of heaven by my wish. I have robbed you of
infinite felicity to gratify myself.' For my own part, I had rather
that the Lord Jesus should keep the keys of death than that He should
lend them to me. It would be too dreadful a privilege to be empowered
to rob heaven of the perfected merely to give pleasure to imperfect
ones below. Jesus would raise them now if He knew it to be right; I do
not wish to take the government from His shoulder. It is more
comfortable to me to think that Jesus Christ could give them back to
me, and would if it were for His glory and my good. My dear ones that
lie asleep could be awakened in an instant if the Master thought it
best; but it would not be best, and therefore even I would hold His
skirt, and say, Tread softly, Master! Do not arouse them! I shall go to
them, but they shall not return to me. It is not my wish they should
return: it is better that they should be with Thee where Thou art, to
behold Thy glory.' It does not seem to me, then, dear friend, that you
are one whit behind Martha: and you ought to be comforted while Jesus
says to you, I am even now the resurrection and the life.'

Furthermore, here is comfort which we may each one safely take, namely,
that when Jesus comes the dead shall live. The Revised Version has it,
He that believeth on me, though he die, yet shall he live.' We do not
know when our Lord will descend from heaven, but we do know the message
of the angel, This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven,
shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.' The
Lord will come; we may not question the certainty of His appearing.
When He cometh, all His redeemed shall live with Him. The trump of the
archangel shall startle the happy sleepers, and they shall wake to put
on their beauteous array; the body transformed and made like unto
Christ's glorious body shall be once more wrapt about them as the
vesture of their perfected and emancipated spirits. Then our brother
shall rise again, and all our dear ones who have fallen asleep in Jesus
the Lord will bring with Him. This is the glorious hope of the church,
wherein we see the death of death, and the destruction of the grave.
Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Then we are also told that when Jesus comes, living believers shall not
die. After the coming of Christ there shall be no more death for His
people. What does Paul say? Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not
all die, but we shall all be changed.' Did I see a little school-girl
put up her finger? Did I hear her say, Please, sir, you made a
mistake.' So I did; I made it on purpose. Paul did not say, We shall
not all die,' for the Lord had already said, Whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die'; Paul would not say that any of us
should die, but he used his Master's own term, and said, We shall not
all sleep, but we shall all be changed.' When the Lord comes there will
be no more death; we who are alive and remain (as some of us may be'we
cannot tell) will undergo a sudden transformation'for flesh and blood,
as they are, cannot inherit the kingdom of God'and by that
transformation our bodies shall be made meet to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light.' There shall be no more death then.
Here, then, we have two sacred handkerchiefs with which to wipe the
eyes of mourners: when Christ cometh the dead shall live; when Christ
cometh those that live shall never die. Like Enoch, or Elias, we shall
pass into the glory state without wading through the black stream,
while those who have already forded it shall prove to have been no
losers thereby. All this is in connection with Jesus. Resurrection with
Jesus is resurrection indeed. Life in Jesus is life indeed. It endears
to us resurrection, glory, eternal life, and ultimate perfection, when
we see them all coming to us in Jesus. He is the golden pot which hath
this manna, the rod which beareth these almonds, the life whereby we
live.

But further, I have not made you drink deep enough of this stream
yet,'I think our Saviour meant that even now His dead are alive. He
that believeth on me, though he die, but yet they live. They are not in
the grave, they are for ever with the Lord. They are not unconscious,
they are with their Lord in Paradise. Death cannot kill a believer, it
can only usher him into a freer form of life. Because Jesus lives, His
people live. God is not the God of the dead but of the living: those
who have departed have not perished. We laid the precious body in the
cemetery, and we set up stones at the head and foot; but we might
engrave on them the Lord's words, She is not dead, but sleepeth.' True,
and unbelieving generation may laugh us to scorn, but we scorn their
laughing.

Again, even now His living do not die. There is an essential difference
between the decease of the godly and the death of the ungodly. Death
comes to the ungodly man as a penal infliction, but to the righteous as
a summons to his Father's palace: to the sinner it is an execution, to
the saint an undressing. Death to the wicked is the King of terrors:
death to the saint is the end of terrors, the commencement of glory. To
die in the Lord is a covenant blessing. Death is ours; it is set down
in the list of our possessions among the all things', and it follows
life in the list as if it were an equal favour. No longer is it death
to die. The name remains, but the thing itself is changed. Wherefore,
then, are we in bondage through fear of death? Why do we dread the
process which gives us liberty? I am told that persons who in the cruel
ages had lain in prison for years suffered much more in the moment of
the knocking off of their fetters than they had endured for months in
wearing the hard iron; and yet I suppose that no man languishing in a
dungeon would have been unwilling to stretch out his arm or leg, that
the heavy chains might be beaten off by the smith. We should all be
content to endure that little inconvenience to obtain lasting liberty.
Now, such is death'the knocking off of the fetters; yet the iron may
never seem to be so truly iron as when that last liberating blow of
grace is about to fall. Let us not mind the harsh grating of the key as
it turns in the lock; if we understand it aright it will be as music to
our ears. Imagine that your last hour is come! The key turns with pain
for a moment; but, lo, the bolt is shot! The iron gate is open! The
spirit is free! Glory be unto the Lord for ever and ever!

II. I leave the text now as a stream of comfort for the bereaved, for I
wish you to VIEW IT AS A GREAT DEEP OF COMFORT FOR ALL BELIEVERS. I
cannot fathom it, any more than I could measure the abyss, but I can
invite you to survey it by the help of the Holy Ghost.

Methinks, first, this text plainly teaches that the Lord Jesus Christ
is the life of His people. We are dead by nature, and you can never
produce life out of death: the essential elements are wanting. Should a
spark be lingering among the ashes, you may yet fan it to a flame; but
from human nature the last spark of heavenly life is gone, and it is
vain to seek for life among the dead. The life of every Christian is
Christ. He is the beginning of life, being the Resurrection: when He
comes to us we live. Regeneration is the result of contact with Christ:
we are begotten again unto living hope by His resurrection from the
dead. The life of the Christian in its commencement is in Christ alone;
not a fragment of it is from himself, and the continuance of that life
is equally the same; Jesus is not only the resurrection to begin with,
but the life to go on with. I have life in myself,' saith one. I
answer'not otherwise than as you are one with Christ: your spiritual
life in every breath it draws is in Christ. If you are regarded for a
moment as separated from Christ, you are cast forth as a branch and are
withered. A member severed from the head is dead flesh and no more. In
union to Christ is your life. Oh that our hearers would understand
this! I see a poor sinner look into himself, and look again, and then
cry, I cannot see any life within!' Of course you cannot; you have no
life of your own. Alas,' cries a Christian, I cannot find anything
within to feed my soul with!' Do you expect to feed upon yourself? Must
not Israel look up for the manna? Did one of all the tribes find it in
his own bosom? To look to self is to turn to a broken cistern which can
hold no water. I tell you you must learn that Jesus is the resurrection
and the life. Hearken to that great I'that infinite EGO! This must
cover over and swallow up your little ego. I live; yet not I, but
Christ liveth in me.' What are you? Less than nothing, and vanity; but
over all springs up that divine, all-sufficient personality, I am the
resurrection and the life.' Take the two first words together, and they
seem to me to have a wondrous majesty about them'I AM!' Here is
Self-Existence. Life in Himself! Even as the Mediator, the Lord Jesus
tells us that it is given Him to have life in Himself, even as the
Father hath life in Himself (John 5:26). I am fills the yawning mouth
of the sepulchre. He that liveth and was dead and is alive for
evermore, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, declares,
I am the resurrection and the life.' If, then, I want to live unto God,
I must have Christ; and if I desire to continue to live unto God I must
continue to have Christ; and if I aspire to have that life developed to
the utmost fullness of which it is capable, I must find it all in
Christ. He has come not only that we may have life, but that we may
have it more abundantly. Anything that is beyond the circle of Christ
is death. If I conjure up an experience over which I foolishly dote,
which puffs me up as so perfect that I need not come to Christ now as a
poor empty-handed sinner, I have entered into the realm of death, I
have introduced into my soul a damning leaven. Away with it! Away with
it! Everything of life is put into this golden casket of Christ Jesus:
all else is death. We have not a breath of life anywhere but in Jesus,
Who ever liveth to give life. He saith, Because I live, ye shall live
also,' and this is true. We live not for any other reason'not because
of anything in us or connected with us, but only because of Jesus. For
ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.'

Now, further, in this great deep to which we would conduct you, faith
is the only channel by which we can draw from Jesus our life. I am the
resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in Me': that is it. He
does not say, He that loves me,' though love is a bright grace, and
very sweet to God: He does not say, He that serves me,' though every
one that believes in Christ will endeavour to serve Him: but it is not
put so: He does not even say, He that imitates me,' though every one
that believes in Christ must and will imitate Him; but it is put, He
that believeth in me.' Why is that? Why doth the Lord so continually
make faith to be the only link between Himself and the soul? I take it,
because faith is a grace which arrogates nothing to itself, and has not
operation apart from Jesus, to Whom it unites us. You want to conduct
the electric fluid, and, in order to this, you find a metal which will
not create any action of its own; if it did so, it would disturb the
current which you wish to send along it. If it set up an action of its
own, how would you know the difference between what came of the metal
and what came of the battery? Now, faith is an empty-handed receiver
and communicator; it is nothing apart from that upon which it relies,
and therefore it is suitable to be a conductor for grace. When an
auditorium has to be erected for a speaker in which he may be plainly
heard, the essential thing is to get rid of all echo. When you have no
echo, then you have a perfect building: faith makes no noise of its
own, it allows the Word to speak. Faith cries, Non nobis Domine! Not
unto us! Not unto us! Christ puts His crown on faith's head,
exclaiming, Thy faith hath saved thee;' but faith hastens to ascribe
all the glory of salvation to Jesus only. So you see why the Lord
selects faith rather than any other grace, because it is a
self-forgetting thing. It is best adapted to be the tubing through
which the water of life runs, because it will not communicate a flavour
of its own, but will just convey the stream purely and simply from
Christ to the soul. He that believeth in me.'

Now notice, to the reception of Christ by faith there is no limit. He
that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and
whosoever'I am deeply in love with that word whosoever.' It is a
splendid word. A person who kept many animals had some great dogs and
some little ones, and in his eagerness to let them enter his house
freely he had two holes cut in the door, one for the big dogs and
another for the little dogs. You may well laugh, for the little dogs
could surely have come in wherever there was room for the larger ones.
This whosoever' is the great opening, suitable for sinners of every
size. Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.' Has any
man a right to believe in Christ? The gospel gives every creature the
right to believe in Christ, for we are bidden to preach it to every
creature, with this command, Hear, and your soul shall live.' Every man
has a right to believe in Christ, because he will be damned if he does
not, and he must have a right to do that which will bring him into
condemnation if he does it not. It is written, He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned,'
and that makes it clear that I, whoever I may be, as I have a right to
endeavour to escape from damnation, have a right to avail myself of the
blessed command, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and live.' Oh that
whosoever,' that hole in the door for the big dog! Do not forget it!
Come along with you, and put your trust in Christ. If you can only get
linked with Christ you are a living man; if but a finger touches His
garment's hem you are made whole. Only the touch of faith, and the
virtue flows from Him to you, and He is to you the resurrection and the
life.

I desire you to notice that there is no limit to this power. Before I
was ill this time, and even since, I have had to deal with such a swarm
of despairing sinners, that if I have not pulled them up they have
pulled me down. I have been trying to speak very large words for Christ
when I have met with those disconsolate ones. I hear one say, How far
can Christ be life to a sinner? I feel myself to be utterly wrong, I am
altogether wrong; there is nothing right about me: though I have eyes I
cannot see, though I have ears I do not hear; if I have a hand I cannot
use it, if I have a foot I cannot run with it'I seem altogether wrong.'
Yes, but if you believe in Christ, though you were still more
wrong'that is to say, though you were dead, which is the wrongest state
in which a man's body can be,'though you were dead yet shall you live.
You look at the spiritual thermometer, and you say, How low will the
grace of God go? will it descend to summer heat? will it touch the
freezing point? will it go to zero?' Yes, it will go below the lowest
conceivable point,'lower than any instrument can indicate: it will go
below the zero of death. If you believe in Jesus, though you are not
only wrong, but dead, yet shall you live.

But, says another, I feel so weak. I cannot understand, I cannot lay
hold of things; I cannot pray. I cannot do anything. All I can do is
feebly to trust in Jesus.' All right! Though you had gone further than
that, and were so weak as to be dead, yet should you live. Though the
weakness had turned to a dire paralysis, that left you altogether
without strength, yet it is written, He that believeth in me, though he
were dead, yet shall he live.' Oh, Sir,' says one, I am so unfeeling.'
Mark you, these generally are the most feeling people in the world. I
am sorry every day because I cannot be sorry for my sin'that is the way
they talk; it is very absurd, but still very real to them. Oh,' cries
one, the earth shook, the sun was darkened, the rocks rent, the very
dead came out of their graves at the death of Christ.

Of feeling all things show some sign

But this unfeeling heart of mine.'

Yet if thou believest, unfeeling as thou art, thou livest; for if thou
wert gone further than numb-ness to deadness, yet if thou believest in
Him thou shalt live.

But the poor creature fetches a sigh, and cries, Sir, it is not only
that I have no feeling, but I am become objectionable and obnoxious to
everybody. I am a weariness to myself and to others. I am sure when I
come to tell you my troubles you must wish me at Jericho, or somewhere
else far away.' Now, I admit that such a thought has occurred to us
sometimes when we have been very busy, and some poor soul has grown
prosy with rehearsing his seven-times-repeated miseries; but if you
were to get more wearisome still, if you were to become so bad that
people would as soon see a corpse as see you, yet remember Jesus says,
He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.'

Oh, sir, I have no hope; my case is quite hopeless!' Very well; but if
you had got beyond that, so that you were dead, and could not even know
you had no hope, yet if you believed in Him you should live. Oh, but I
have tried everything, and there is nothing more for me to attempt. I
have read books, I have spoken to Christians, and I am nothing
bettered.' No doubt it is quite so; but if you had even passed beyond
that stage, so that you could not try anything more, yet if you did
believe in Jesus you should live. Oh, the blessed power of faith! Nay,
rather say the matchless power of Him Who is the resurrection and the
life; for though the poor believer were dead, yet shall he live! Glory
be to the Lord Who works so wonderfully.

To conclude, if you once do believe in Christ, and come to live, there
is this sweet reflection for you, Whosoever liveth and believeth in me
shall never die.' Our Arminian friends say that you may be a child of
God to-day and a child of the devil to-morrow. Write out that
statement, and place at the bottom of it the name Arminius,' and then
put the scrap of paper into the fire: it is the best thing you can do
with it, for there is no truth in it. Jesus says, Whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die.' Here is a very literal
translation'And every one who lives and believes on me, in no wise
shall die forever.' This is from The Englishman's Greek New
Test-ament,' and nothing can be better. The believer may pass through
the natural change called death, as far as his body is concerned; but
as for his soul it cannot die, for it is written, I give unto my sheep
eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck
them out of my hand.' He that believeth in me hath everlasting life.'
The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water
springing up into everlasting life.' He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved.' These are not ifs' and buts,' and faint hopes; but
they are dead certainties, nay, living certainties, out of the mouth of
the living Lord Himself. You get the life of God in your soul, and you
shall never die. Do you mean that I may do as I like, and live in sin?'
No, man, I mean nothing of the sort; what right have you to impute such
teaching as that to me? I mean that you shall not love sin and live in
it, for that is death; but you shall live unto God. Your likes shall be
so radically changed that you shall abhor evil all your days, and long
to be holy as God is holy; and you shall be kept from transgression,
and shall not go back to wallow in sin. If in some evil hour you
back-slide, yet shall you be restored; and the main current of your
life shall be from the hour of your regeneration towards God, and
holiness, and heaven. The angels that rejoiced over you when you
repented made no mistake; they shall go on to rejoice till they welcome
you amidst the everlasting songs and Hallelujahs of the blessed at the
right hand of God. Believest thou this? Come, poor soul, believest thou
this? Who are you? That does not matter, you can get into the
whosoever.' That ark will hold all God's Noahs. What is any man that he
should have the filth of another man's drains poured into his ear? No,
no: confess to God, but not to man unless you have wronged him, and
confession of the wrong is due to him.

Ah,' saith one, you don't know what I am.' No, and I don't want to know
what you are; but if you are so far gone that there seems to be not
even a ghost of a shade of a shadow of a hope anywhere about you, yet
if you believe in Jesus you shall live. Trust the Lord Jesus Christ,
for He is worthy to be trusted. Throw yourself upon Him, and He will
carry you in His bosom. Cast your whole weight upon His atonement; it
will bear the strain. Hang on Him as the vessel hangs on the nail, and
seek no other support. Depend upon Christ with all your might just as
you now are, and as the Lord liveth you shall live, and as Christ
reigneth you shall reign over sin, and as Christ cometh to glory you
shall partake of that glory for ever and ever. Amen.

PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON'John 11:1-27.

HYMNS FROM OUR OWN HYMN BOOK'414, 839, 327.