LivePrayerSermon 1568. The Believer Catechized
(No. 1568)
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 helive: and whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?" When Believers are sorrowful, they may beassured that a consolation is provided exactly adapted to their cases. For every lock that God has made, He has provided akey. As every blade of grass has its own drop, so every grief has its comfort. I doubt not that for every pain which racksthis mortal frame there is a pain reliever among the herbs of the fields and for every disease there is a remedy in God'swondrous 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 almostalways 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 "takepleasure 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 muchto look to the apparent cause of the present trouble as at the condition of our own hearts-it will be wise to inquire whereour 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, itwould immediately cheer you! But you know nothing of its efficacy because you may never yet have read it, or, having readit, you may never have paused over it and considered its meaning and so you are needlessly distressed because your relieflies close at hand. It may be that as yet you have not learned the whole circle of Gospel doctrines and this, also, deprivesyou of comfort. You have laid hold upon the vital and saving part of Revelation, but the strengthening and exhilarating partof 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 thefield, 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 yourjoy. We would, all of us, grow in comfort if we grew in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ andhad a more intelligent appreciation of the preciousness of the Truths of God which He has revealed! Faith may be defectivethrough ignorance and it may also be defective through a lack of appreciation of the Person of Christ. It was so in Martha'scase-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 SaviorJesus Christ," as if the knowledge of Jesus were, indeed, the most important and gracious knowledge which a Believer can obtainand so it is! If we are but half instructed as to our Lord, we shall be but half-comforted. O mourners, you have not ratedthe Savior highly enough! You have not yet a large enough idea of His love for you and of His design of Infinite Wisdom inpermitting you to be afflicted. If the Lord Jesus were better known, our afflictions would be lightened and our hearts wouldeven rejoice in them! If we did but know You, O blessed Christ, then if the same trials remained with us they would lose theirgloom 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 peoplewill 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 toMartha, "Do you believe this?" May the Holy Spirit cause it to be so. Let us think we hear His loving lips enquiring of usat 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 hasrevealed, 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, sothat 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 Scripturesin general. You can boldly declare that from the first word of Genesis to the last word of Revelation you believe all thatis written in the Inspired volume. Now, the point is to take out of this general mass of things believed, or supposed to bebelieved, 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 littleor 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 lostit as fast as we have found it. We may fancy that we embrace within our arms the whole of revealed Truth and yet, when wecome to a quiet examination of our soul, we may find that much is slipping away from us by a process of questions and doubtswhich we hardly dare acknowledge! Things believed and never used are like a sluggard's farm which lies fallow and is nevertilled-we hardly call such ground a farm and can we call such belief real faith? Why, some Truths of God taught in the Wordare not even known by numbers of professors and we cannot believe what we do not know! It is the same case as that supposedin the Apostle's question, "How shall they believe in Him when they have not heard?" If we do not see the surface meaning-whichis 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, ifYou had been here, my brother had not died." She believed in the Savior's power to heal the sick. She believed that so longas her brother breathed, the power of Christ could have kept him alive. She was convinced that Jesus was the Master of diseaseand could restore the suffering to health. This was something worthy of her faith, but it was not enough. Our Lord set a furtherfact before her and asked, "Do you believe this?" It is for us to grow in knowledge and to exercise faith in proportion aswe 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 itYou." She had faith in our Lord's prevalence with God in prayer and that to an unlimited degree. She believed in Jesus asa mighty Intercessor, One who had but to speak with the Most High and His request would surely be an-swered-this is a verycommendable measure of faith-I wish that we all had as much! So much faith was something admirable, but it was not enoughfor her present comfort and, therefore, Jesus puts before her a fact even more honorable to Himself and then adds, "Do youbelieve this?"
Martha also expressed her firm conviction as to the certainty of the general Resurrection-"I know that my brother shall riseagain in the Resurrection at the Last Day." She had gathered this, doubtless, from the Old Testament Scriptures and from thegeneral 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 Resurrectionin the Christian light and perceived our Lord's connection with it. She had not yet learned enough to afford her comfort underher heavy loss, for it is clear that she derived very little consolation from the fact of a distant and general Resurrection-sheneeded 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 Resurrectionand the Life: he that believes in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whoever lives and believes in Me shall neverdie. 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 greatdoctrines, 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 predestinateto be conformed to the image of His Son." "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us withall 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 JesusChrist to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will." Pause over these texts and consider their evident meaningand 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 mysteriousand unpractical that it is not to be preached in public! I would invite such, honestly, to look the doctrine in the face andsee 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 passageswhich plainly teach it! They would not want to do this and yet they do that which amounts to the same thing! When a man isafraid 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 theBeliever-the complete justifying power of the righteousness of Christ to them that believe is plainly taught in the Bible-"Doyou believe this?" If you do, why do you go every day and perpetually call yourself a "miserable sinner," when you are sono 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 andspeak of yourself as if you were still "an heir of wrath, even as others," whereas you are justified in Christ Jesus and acceptedin 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 maybe made perfect in one." "I am the vine, you are the branches." When you thus read, inquire of your heart, "Do you believethis?" Do you believe that all who live unto God are one with Christ? Do you believe this? If so, why are you troubled asto your acceptance with God since you are one with Christ? Why do you think that you shall ultimately perish if you are onewith Him? Will Christ lose the members of His body? Shall it be that one after another the limbs of His mystical frame shallrot 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 doctrinewhich 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 Prophetsand the Apostles, why do you not believe, one by one, those great Truths of God which He has spoken by them? And if you believethem 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 mystatement, nor the statements of theologians and divines, but turn to the Infallible Book, itself, and see what is writtenthere 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 seeif some eminent commentator has not evaporated the very soul out of it! But believe it just as you find it and if you cannotdo so, stop until you can and cry out to God for further Light till you can, without hesitation, answer the Savior's questionand say, with Martha, "Yes, Lord." How this enquiry, well managed and pressed home, will enlarge the range of faith! How itwill strengthen its grasp and hold! How rich would our souls become! Upon what meat would our inward confidence be fed ifwe 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 yoursoul, "Do you believe this?" Ask for an anointing from the Holy One that you may know all things and understand with all saintswhat 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 ofthe 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 muchafter the manner of the collier in the old story. When he was asked, "What do you believe?" He answered, "I believe as thechurch 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 Christianshave 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 weshall not yield to walk blindfolded! We like a man to do his own thinking. Put your garments out to wash, if you please, butyour thinking, you should do at home. There is no reaching the land of the Truth of God unless you will work your passageby 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 thatin your own judgment it is in accordance with the mind of God as unveiled in Holy Writ. God has given to each man a judgmentand a conscience and an understanding-and these, the owner of them is bound to use! The Light of God is not given to all alikeand 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 cannotlook at objects by proxy. By experience some men have learned far more than others and hence they are useful helpers. Butstill, 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 throughthe 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 allof us put together, shall say to you if it is contrary to the Word of God! Read that Word for yourselves and search the Scripturesto 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 benoble if you rise to the dignity of your manhood and, by the help of God, use your own sense and understanding and pray forthe 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 whichshe believed and said, "I who stand before you am the Resurrection and the Life. Do you believe this?" Do you believe thedoctrine put in this clear form and shape? He gave her crisp, sharp, definite teaching and said, "Do you believe this?" Hebrought before her mental vision not an impalpable, shadowy image and specter of truth, but a solid, substantial statementthat He, Himself, was the Resurrection and the Life, raising those who believe in Him from the dead and keeping in life thosewho, 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 itsown clear, well defined and accurate form as Scripture shows it. For instance, the doctrine of the Atonement is robbed ofhalf 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 believethat, "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." Doyou 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 believethis? Read the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, in which you have Substitution set forth most clearly. Yes, read the chapter throughand pause over such a verse as the 11th, "He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied: by His knowledgeshall 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 guiltysinner in the actual bearing of the penalty of sin, the real payment of the debt-for then I know that I am clear, becauseHe, 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 Apostleshave spoken exactly as it was meant that you should believe it, not in a haphazard, unreal way, but with your whole heartand 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 ofGod are hard to grasp. There are points about them which almost stagger faith till faith rises to her true character and isno longer dwarfed into carnal reasoning! But these difficult things are to be believed. It was not easy for Martha to understandhow the Lord Jesus could, Himself, be the Resurrection and the Life and yet her brother was dead. It was not an easy Truthfor 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 wonderfulpower 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 sufficientfor us to believe what is revealed even though, to our reason, it may seem a fathomless deep. Indeed, it was difficult forMartha to believe her Lord to be the Life because it seemed contrary to her experience. "Though he were dead, yet shall helive." She might hope that this was possible in the case of Lazarus, but then the Lord had said, "He that lives and believesin Me shall never die." How could that be true? Lazarus lived and believed in Jesus and yet he had died! Her experience seemedto 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 Scripturesupon Divine authority and submit ourselves implicitly to their teaching. At any rate, I have done so. What their church isto the Romanists, that is what the Bible and the Holy Spirit are to me! This done, no difficulty remains one-half so greatas those which I have surmounted! I believed, first of all, that God was in Christ-that He who made the heavens and the earthcame down below and took upon Himself human nature, was born at Bethlehem, was cradled in a manger and did suck His nourishmentfrom a woman's breast. After having believed that, I can believe anything! An Incarnate God, once accepted, no difficultyneed 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 readinessto believe all else that Jesus might teach. The Incarnation, to begin with-without which believing a man can be no Christianat all-is so profound a mystery that other teachings are simple in its presence! "Without controversy great is the mysteryof godliness: God was manifest in the flesh." Once rejoice in the Light of God, which is the very daystar of hope to us-thatGod has taken into union with Himself our human nature-and you are ready for all Light! Only let me know that God says anythingis 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 Scripturein the most unguarded way, when someone ridiculed her for believing that the whale swallowed Jonah. "Dear," she said, "ifthe Word of God had said that Jonah swallowed the whale I would have believed it." Brothers and Sisters, prostrate yourselvesbefore 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, wemust believe it and that not in one case or 20, but in all that He says. "Do you believe this?"-and this?-and this? Whateverit is?
Yes, if it is, indeed, taught in Infallible Scripture by the Holy Spirit of God, we believe it! If your faith does not riseto this mark, evil will happen to it. Our Lord said, one day, to a company of those who were His followers, "Except you eatthe 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, ofHis disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can bear it? From that time many of His discipleswent 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 theirTeacher. 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 aremany more that we do not know of as yet which will, in due course, demand our faith. Did not Jesus say to Nicodemus when Nicodemushad been told of being born again and that had staggered him, "If I have told you earthly things and you believe not, howshall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?" As if even regeneration, which is really full of heavenli-ness, werebut 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," thenthe 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'swords-let those words be what they may. Do you believe this, then? This difficult Truth of God? I put this very earnestlyto 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 whichseems hard to you. You have a promise, "When you pass through the fire you shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindleupon 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 thatfollows me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of life." And, again, "Whoever believes Me shall not abidein darkness." Do you believe this? Can you laugh at impossibility and say it shall be done because God has said it? Do younot know that things impossible with men are possible with God? Can your faith leap over the head of carnal reason? Can presentcircumstances and the deductions of your own judgment all be waved aside by the left hand as you say, "Let God be true andevery man a liar"? If so, you have the faith which will comfort and bless you! But if not, like Martha, you will be boweddown 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 calledyour attention, just now, to the fact that Martha believed that there would be a resurrection. "Yes," says Christ, "but Iam the Resurrection. Do you believe this?" Now it is one thing to believe doctrine, but it is another thing to believe thatdoctrine as it is embodied in the Person of Jesus Christ. "Do you believe this?" There the comfort lies-in believing the Truthof 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 neverdie." 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 powerof 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 arepartakers of His life, that if they should come under the power of death they should be delivered out of it and that beingout of the power of death they shall never come under it-in Christ the dead shall live, the living shall not die. "Oh," saysone, "but I myself do not comprehend this, for I see good people die." Yes, you see what you think is death, but they do nottruly die-they rise into a higher life. That which is the essence of death never touches Believers-they "depart out of theworld unto the Father." They go "to be with Christ, which is far better"-they do not die! Death as a penal sentence, in itsinnermost meaning, never comes near to those for whom Jesus has borne death upon the Cross! His death, in their place, isthe 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 Himas God over all, blessed forever? Do I believe He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that I ask or even think? Andwhen I come in prayer before God, do I so believe in Christ that I remember His promise, "Whatever you shall ask the Fatherin My name I will give to you"? Not the Father, but Jesus! Even Christ Himself will give you all things! Have you such a notionand 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 cangrant you any blessing and save you out of any trouble and every trouble-do you believe this? If you do not you have no rightidea 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 Youand 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 believegreat Truths of God and yet we are staggered by lesser Truths because, it may be, the great Truth has no practical bearingupon us just now, while the present Truth, though it is somewhat less in other respects, has a greater practical bearing uponourselves 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 smallerthing to believe that one would rise! She doubts whether Lazarus can rise because he is in the grave, yet she believes thatmillions upon millions will rise from the ground. Doubtless that was because of the distance of the time and the scene. Somesuch feeling must have operated on her mind, for the general Resurrection is the greater difficulty. Is it hard to believethat Lazarus can rise who has been dead four days? Well, then, it is a great deal harder to believe that bodies can be quickenedwhich have been dead several hundreds of years! Yet she did believe that the dead would rise at the Resurrection at the LastDay-not only those who were stinking, but those whose bodies had been dissolved by corruption and scattered by the four windsof 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 daysshe could not believe it! She believed that there should be a general Resurrection of all sorts of people and yet, if thatcan be believed, it is much easier to expect that a favorite of Christ like Lazarus should rise! Jesus loved Lazarus- surelyHe will call him from the tomb! I say she professed to believe the larger Truth of God and then she staggered at the lesserbecause it was applicable to herself. I beg you to see whether you are not often walking in the same path. Yonder is a poorsoul who believes that Jesus Christ can wash away all sin. Now, my dear Friend, do you believe that He can wash your sinsaway?
That is the point because all the sins of millions are much greater than yours can be and if Jesus can take away the sinsof 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, littleand great, are working good for you? Will that toothache of yours work for your good? Do you believe that yesterday's baddebt will work for good? Do you believe that the death of your child will work for good? You know it must be easier to believethat the events of one day will work for good than to believe that all things in the world throughout life will do so andyet 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 heto do? What is the good of all his other tools? If you can believe everything except the Truth of God which would cheer youat this present moment, you are depriving yourself of comfort and strength! Believe this present promise given for this veryday-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 theTree of Life which yields its fruit every month. What a blessing to take the fruit from the Tree of Life in its month justwhen it is ripest and full of flavor. He has said, "Delight yourself, also, in the Lord and He will give you the desire ofyour 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 didnot 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 consideredas 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 mostdespised 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 reasonthat many people are worse than their creed, because their creed is asleep and is not operating upon them-they believe asthough they did not believe! This is a poor imitation of faith. There is, at this moment, a house on fire in London. I willsuppose 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 ifyou saw the engine hurrying along the street and believed that your own house was blazing, I guarantee you, you would bestiryourselves!
Your belief would come a little more home to you as your own concern. So there are certain Truths of God which do not seemto concern us to any high degree, at least for the present. They are true and important, but they operate no more upon usthan 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 timehe stinks!" She fears the obnoxious consequences of uncovering such a mass of corruption, though He who is the Resurrectionand the Life stands at the grave's mouth! Ah, Martha, where is your faith in Him? Dear heart, she says that she believes inJesus as the Resurrection and the Life and yet she is afraid that her brother will not rise though the Mighty One stands thereto 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 surpriseus, He has only to answer our requests! I have seen God's children running with vast astonishment to tell their friends, "Hereis a wonderful thing! Oh, such a marvelous event has happened to me! I offered a prayer and God has heard me." An amazingthing that God should do as He said He would? They put these things in books as marvels and call the volume, "Remarkable Answersto Prayer." Dear me, is it remarkable that it is cold when it freezes? Do we speak of the remarkable warmth of the sun's beamsat midsummer? Is it remarkable that the fires in our houses should warm us when we put our hands to them? Is He a remarkableGod because He says He will hear prayer and does? An answer to prayer should be remembered with gratitude and yet it shouldregarded 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 promiseto 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, weare, to a great degree, unpractical in other respects, also, and we may take up many and many a Truth of God that we do notact upon and say to our heart, "Do you believe this?" Might I not step outside the door, this morning, and, putting my handupon a fainting Believer as he left the house say, "Do you believe your God?" You say, "I am so faint in spirit that I shallutterly 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 willHe withhold from them that walk uprightly.' Do you believe this?" What would the complainer say? How could he reconcile hisdiscomfort and his murmuring with his belief in the comforting promise? My Brothers and Sisters, let us, then, go over thesematters with our souls. We call ourselves Believers, but are we? If it is so that one after another we doubt the preciousthings of God when they come before us in detail, where is our faith? Let us entreat our God to grant us Divine Grace thatwe 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 Youhave told me."
God bless you, Beloved, and be always with you for Christ's sake. Amen.