Taking the Stone Away
C. F. Deems, D. D. John 11:39 Jesus said, Take you away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said to him, Lord, by this time he stinks… I. GOD NEVER PERFORMS AN UNNECESSARY ACT. We know most of God in Christ, and Christ never spoke an unnecessary word or did an unnecessary deed, although He had omnipotence at His command. Had this merely been delegated to Christ as a man it is inconceivable that He should not at some time have put forth His power to gratify the curiosity of friends, or to bind the hands of foes. But He never did; then God never does. It is the merest fanaticism to pray that God would give us a sign and set the universe agape. II. GOD NEVER DOES DIRECTLY WHAT HE CAN DO THROUGH OTHERS. He has begotten children capable of knowing, feeling, and acting. He has made them free, He gives them the field, He allows them time; they must do the rest. 1. He will never do for the race what the race can do for itself. He could have stocked the world at the first with all the implements of agriculture, travel, and research. But He did not. He put man down among the quiet facts and laws of His universe, with physical, intellectual, and moral powers, and man was to produce the result. God made the garden because man could not, and then set man to dress it because God would not. 2. The same rule holds good spiritually. Man's agency precedes God's working. In regeneration there is first the agency of man in Churches, preaching, books, etc., and then the power of God doing what man cannot do. III. THE HELP WE CAN RENDER GOD IN THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF HIS GREAT DESIGNS. We can remove the stones which hinder spiritual resurrections. What are they? 1. Indifference. This is produced by — (1) The engrossing work of life. Your friend is like the racer who does not notice whether the sun is shining or clouds gathering, all he thinks of is the goal. All he needs is to be arrested and made to feel that he is wasting his energies for a prize he may not gain, or if gained, nothing in comparison with what is lost. (2) Ignorance. He does not know that there is gold in California, and so keeps at his potato patch. Not knowing the treasures of religion he satisfies himself with the best he knows — worldly pursuits and joys. (3) The frigidity of the religious atmosphere he breathes. When people are at freezing point they would rather die than stir. It is no mercy in a fellow traveller to indulge a freezing man with a short nap. It may be the sleep of death. 2. Scepticism. There are two courses open to doubters. They may open their minds to their friends. Their friends may sympathetically enter into their questions and answer them, and thus remove the stone. Or their friends may do, as too many do, treat them as lepers, in which case they bury their doubts in their own hearts, and a stone is placed over them. Don't do that. Do as Christ did with Thomas. 3. The inconsistency of Christians. How many neighbours, employes, are kept away from Christ by the practical unbelief of the professors with whom they are in daily contact. 4. Vicious indulgence which can only be removed by personal influence and example. (C. F. Deems, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days. WEB: Jesus said, "Take away the stone." Martha, the sister of him who was dead, said to him, "Lord, by this time there is a stench, for he has been dead four days."