Chapter 13
Human beings are very reluctant to think poorly of themselves, and most are very prone to make excuses for sin. They say, “If we had lived in better times, we would have been better people. If we had been born into this world with better examples, we would have been holier. If we had been placed in better circumstances, we would have been more inclined to do right.”
The majority of people, when they seek the cause of their sin, seek it anywhere but in the right place. They will not blame their own nature for it or find fault with their own corrupt heart, but they will lay the blame anywhere else. Some of them find fault with their peculiar position. “If,” says one, “I had been born rich instead of being poor, I would not have been dishonest.”
“If,” says another, “I had been born into the middle class instead of being rich, I would not have been exposed to such temptations of lust and pride as I am now; but my very position is so unfavorable to piety, that I am compelled by my place in society to be anything but what I ought to be.”
Others turn around and find fault with the whole of society. They say that the whole structure of society is wrong. They tell us that everything in government, everything that concerns the state, and everything that melts people into societies is all so bad that they cannot be good while things are what they are. They believe they must have a revolution and change everything before they could ever be holy!
Many, on the other hand, throw the blame on their training. If they had not been brought up by their parents in a certain way or if they had not been exposed to certain things in their youth, they would not have been what they are. It is their parents’ fault. They lay the sin at their father’s or their mother’s door.
Or it is their physical constitution. Hear them speak for themselves: “If I had the same demeanor as So-and-so, what a good person I would be! But with my stubborn disposition, it is impossible. It is all very well intentioned to talk to me, but people have different characters, and my personality is such that I couldn’t by any means be sincerely pious.”
Others go a great deal farther and throw the blame on the ministry. They say, “If the minister had been more passionate in preaching, I would have been a better person. If it had been my privilege to sit under sounder doctrine and hear the Word more faithfully preached, I would have been better.” Some lay the blame at the door of professors of Christianity and say, “If the church were more consistent, if there were no hypocrites and no formalists, then we would change!”
You are putting the saddle on the wrong horse and laying the burden on the wrong back. The blame is in your heart, and nowhere else. If your heart were renewed, you would be better. Until that is done, if society were remodeled to perfection, if ministers were angels and professors of Christianity were seraphs, you wouldn’t be any better. Having less excuse, you would be doubly guilty, and you would perish with a more terrible destruction. However, people will always make the excuse that if things were different, they would be different too. If they see the truth, though, they know that the difference must be made in themselves.
If a preacher came from another world to preach to us, we would naturally suppose that he came from heaven. Even the rich man did not ask that he or any of his companions in torment might leave hell to preach (see Luke 16:19-31). Spirits that are lost and given up to unutterable wickedness could not visit this earth, and if they did, they could not preach the truth or lead us on the road to heaven that they had not traveled themselves. The occurrence of a damned spirit upon earth would be a curse, a blight, a withering blast. We have no reason to suppose that such a thing ever did or could occur. The preacher from another world, if such a person could come, would come from heaven. He must be a Lazarus who had lain in Abraham’s bosom as a pure, perfect, and holy being.
Imagine for a moment that such a one had descended upon earth. Suppose that we heard that a revered spirit who had been buried for a long time had suddenly burst from his grave clothes, lifted up his coffin lid, and was now preaching the Word of Life. What a rush there would be to hear him preach! What place in this wide world would be large enough to hold the massive congregations? How many thousands of pictures would be published of him, showing him in his grave clothes or as an angel fresh from heaven? Faraway nations would soon hear the news, and every ship and plane would be filled with passengers bringing men and women to hear this wondrous preacher and traveler who had returned from the great unknown. How you would listen, and how solemnly you would gaze at that unearthly spirit! Your ears would pay attention to his every word! His faintest syllable would be recorded and published everywhere throughout the world – the utterances of a man who had been dead and was alive again.
We might want to suppose that if such a thing happened, there would be numberless conversions, thinking that surely the congregations attracted by this would be immensely blessed. Many hardened sinners would be led to repent, and hundreds of those who had been putting off a decision would be made to decide, and much good would be done.
Stop! Even if the first part of the imaginary dream occurred, the second would still not happen. If someone rose from the dead, sinners would not be any more likely to repent through his preaching than through the preaching of any other. God might bless such preaching to salvation if He desired, but in itself there would be no more power in the preaching of the risen dead man or of the glorified spirit than there is of feeble man today. And he said unto him, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, even though one rose from the dead (Luke 16:31).
If the testimony of one man who had been raised from the dead were of any value for confirming the gospel, would not God have used it before now? It is undoubtedly true that some have risen from the dead. We find accounts in Holy Scripture of some men who by the power of Christ Jesus, or through the instrumentality of prophets, were raised from the dead, but you will note this memorable fact, that not a single one of them spoke one word that is recorded, telling us what they saw while they were dead. Oh, what secrets he could have told us, who laid in his grave four days (see John 11)! Do you not suppose that his sisters questioned him? Do you not think that they asked him what he saw, whether he had stood before the burning throne of God, if he had been judged for the things done in his body, and whether he had entered into rest? They may have asked, but it is certain that he gave no answer. Had he given an answer, we would know it now. Tradition would have cherished the record.
Do you remember when Paul preached a long sermon, even until midnight, and there was a young man in the third-floor window named Eutychus (see Acts 20:7-12)? He fell asleep, fell down, and was taken up dead. Paul came down and prayed, and Eutychus was restored to life. Did Eutychus get up and preach after he had come back from the dead? No. The thought never seems to have struck a single person in the assembly. Paul went on with his sermon, and they sat and listened to him. They did not care one bit about what Eutychus had seen, because Eutychus had nothing more to tell them than Paul had. Of all the ones who by divine might have been brought back from the shades of death, we don’t have one secret told or one mystery unraveled by any of them.
Even if someone would rise from the dead and confirm the truth of the gospel, the unbeliever would be no more near believing than now. Here comes Mr. Infidel Critic. He denies the evidences of the Bible that so clearly prove its authenticity that we are required to believe that he is either blasphemous or senseless, and we leave him his choice between the two. He dares to deny the truth of Holy Scripture and insists that all the miracles it contains are untrue and false.
Do you think that one who had risen from the dead could persuade such a man as that to believe? What? When God’s whole creation having been ransacked by the hand of science has only testified to the truth of revelation? When the whole history of buried cities and departed nations has only provided evidence that the Bible was true? When every strip of land mentioned in the Bible has been an exposition and a confirmation of the prophecies of Scripture? If people are still unconvinced, do you suppose that one dead man rising from the tomb would convince them?
No. I see the critical blasphemer already armed for his prey. Listen to him: “I am not quite sure that you were ever dead. Sir, you profess to be risen from the dead, but I do not believe you. You say you have been dead and have gone to heaven. My dear man, you must have been in a trance. You must bring proof from the obituaries that you were dead.”
The proof is brought that he was dead. “Well, now you must prove that you were buried.” It is proved that he was buried, and it is proved that some grave digger in old times took up his dry bones and cast his dust in the air.
“That is very good. Now I want you to prove that you are the identical man who was buried.”
“Well I am. I know I am. I tell you as an honest man, I have been to heaven and have come back again.”
“Well then,” says the unbeliever, “it is not consistent with reason. It is ridiculous to suppose that a man who was dead and buried could ever come to life again. I don’t believe you, and I tell you so straight to your face.”
That is how people would answer him. Instead of having only the sin of denying many miracles, they would have to add to it the guilt of denying yet another; but they would not even be as much as a tenth of an inch nearer to being convinced. Certainly, if the wonder were done in some far-off land and only reported to the rest of the world, I can imagine that the whole unbelieving world would exclaim, “Simple childish tales and such traditions have been accepted elsewhere, but we are sensible people and do not believe them.”
Even if an entire church graveyard would come to life and stand up before the unbeliever who denies the truth of Christianity, I do not believe there would be enough evidence in all the graveyards in the world to convince him. Unbelief would still cry for something more. It is like the horse leech mentioned in Proverbs 30:15. It cries, “Give, give!” Prove a point to an unbeliever, and he wants it proved again. Even if it’s as clear as the light of noon to him from the testimony of many witnesses, he still will not believe it. In fact, he does believe it, but he pretends not to, and is an unbeliever in spite of himself. Certainly the dead man’s rising would not be worth much to convince such people.
The most numerous class of unbelievers are people who never think at all. There are a great number of people in this land who eat and drink, and do everything else except think. At least they think enough to open their shops in the morning and close them at night. They think enough to know a little about the stock market, or the interest rate, or something like how their merchandise is selling, or the price of bread; but their brains seem to be given to them for nothing at all, except to meditate upon bread and cheese.
To them, following Jesus is a matter of very small concern. They will say that the Bible is very true and that Christianity is alright, but these things do not concern them much. They suppose they are Christians because they were baptized when they were babies. They must be Christians, or at least they suppose they are, but they never stop and ask what real Christianity is. They sometimes go to church, but it does not mean much to them. One minister might contradict another, but they do not know; they dare say they are both right. One minister might be far from another in almost every doctrine, but it does not matter to them.
They pass over Christianity with an unorthodox idea. They say, “God Almighty will not ask us what we believed or if we went to a church that taught what the Bible says.” They do not exercise good judgment at all. Thinking is such hard work for them that they never trouble themselves at all about it. If someone were to rise from the dead tomorrow, these people would never even be startled. They would go and see him once, just as they go and see any other curiosity, like the living skeleton or Tom Thumb. They would talk about him a good deal and say, “There’s a man risen from the dead!” Some winter evening, they might possibly read one of his sermons, but they would never trouble themselves to consider whether his testimony was true or not.
No. They are so set in their ways that they could never consider any other. If a dead person raised to life were to come to any of their houses, the most they would feel would be that they were somewhat frightened, but as to what the person said, that would never exercise their dull brains or stir their stony senses to even consider truth. Even if one would rise from the dead, the great majority of these people would never be affected.
If Moses and the prophets have failed, no outward means in the world can ever bring you to the footstool of divine grace and make you a Christian. All that can be done now is that God the Spirit must bless the Word to you; otherwise, conscience cannot awaken you, reason cannot awaken you, powerful appeals cannot awaken you, and persuasion cannot bring you to Christ. Nothing will ever do it except God the Holy Spirit.