Turn in your Bibles, if you would,
to the book of Luke. I read these words that we have
in our text of Luke 8. And as I prayed, Lord, what would
You have me bring before Your sheep this morning on these words?
I thought of this. Mark 7, verse 37, He hath done
all things well. Does that give you comfort? Does
that not bless the heart of one who knows our condition before
God? Knows our inability to do anything
well? That there is One who does all
things well? He hath done all things well. It doesn't seem like that sometimes,
does it? Is there not a time in your life
where something's going along and you just feel the Lord's
not close to you? I know all the truths. I know
the truth of who God is. I know the truth of as God, the
Lord Jesus, laid down His life, shed His blood for me. I know
the truth that if it wasn't for His love for me, I wouldn't love
Him. But today, it just doesn't seem that He's with me. Have
you ever felt like that? It comes more than we wish you
would, doesn't it, Roger? I can think of Those who have
to watch their family members suffer in pain. What a terrible thing that must
be to go through. The closest I've come to it is
to see my brother lose his son. What a terrible thing that was
for me to see the pain that my brother and his wife went through
losing their son. I can imagine in those times
of desperation or desperation about sin, what if sin, what
if there's something, what if you have a sin that's in your
life right now that's besetting you? What if something in your
life right now, you're praying, Lord, if you would just hear
me, please, please remove this from my heart. Please take this out of my life. And He hasn't answered you yet. What a feeling of desperation
that can be. We began a section of scripture
last week in Luke chapter 8. We began there at verse 41. And behold, there came a man
named Jairus, and he was the ruler of the synagogue, and he
fell down at Jesus' feet and besought Him. Here we see a man
who has power, a man who is the ruler of the synagogue. He's
got the authority to call whatever doctors may be available. In
those days, the rulers of the synagogue, they had the power
of the church behind them. The power of the congregation,
all of the tithing that went into the church was at the hands
of those who ran the church. He could have called anybody.
He could have called doctors from afar. Yet he ran to who? He ran to
the Lord Jesus, a ruler, a religious ruler. He wasn't just a ruler like some
Roman ruler. He was a religious ruler. In
order to be a ruler of the religious, you had to have an outward appearance
of following the law. Yet this one who taught others
fell at the feet of the One who teaches the hearts
of men. And it says, "...and besought
Him that He would come into His house." Will you please come
to my house? I'm desperate. I have a desperate situation. Verse 42, "...for He had only
one daughter, about twelve years of age." Do you remember when
your kids were twelve? They were just at that point
where they weren't quite old enough to say, I'm doing it my
way. They were just at that point
where they listened a little bit to what you had to say. Weren't
quite as precious as babes, but pretty darn close. He had only
one daughter, 12 years of age, and she was laying, she lay a
dime. She wasn't just six. She was going to die. But as
He went, the people thronged Him. Now listen to this. Here's
this man who heard about Jesus. A ruler who had heard about the
Lord Jesus and his only hope was to go to the One who had
been saving people all around the country. All around the countryside. Word had gone out that Christ
was healing people of this and healing people of that. The blind
would see, the lame would walk, the deaf would hear. I've heard about this one. I'm going
to him. I believe he can help me. And all these people had come
around him and was following him, thronged about him. It says
in verse 43, close look at this, but I need to bring this in to
today's message, because there's an important part that we did
not look at last week. It says that a woman, having
an issue of blood, 12 years, which had spent all of her living
upon physicians, neither could be healed of any, came behind
him, came behind Christ, and touched the border of his garment,
and immediately her issue of blood stopped. It was dried up. And Jesus said, Who touched me?
When all had denied, Peter, and they that were with him said,
Master of the multitude, throng me. Now remember, Jairus is watching
this. I want you to grasp a hold of
this man who is heartbroken, who is under massive stress of
this daughter that he loves so much is dying. And here He comes
to the Lord. Come to my house quickly. Come
now. Don't wait. I can imagine what's
going on in this man's mind. What's going on here? What are
we stopping for? Going on in verse 46. And Jesus
said, Somebody had touched me, for I perceived that the virtue
had gone out of me. And when the woman saw that she
was not hid, she came trembling and falling down before him.
And she declared unto him before all the people for what cause
she had touched him and how she was healed immediately. And he
said unto her, Daughter, be good, good, comfort thy faith that
made thee whole. Go in peace. Now, that was last
week. Look at this next verse, verse
49. While he yet spake, while the
Lord Jesus was speaking to her, there cometh one from the ruler
of the synagogue's house, saying unto him, thy daughter is dead. Treble not thy master. Do you think, is it possible
this poor man thought in his mind, oh, maybe if we hadn't
stopped, maybe we could have got there in time. Was his prayer
answered the way he wanted it to be answered? I want you to
grasp a hold of this, folks, because this is you and I. Our prayers, even in desperation,
are not always answered the way we want them to be answered. for Him to help you yet. I'm
telling you here today, our Lord doeth all things well. And if that means leaving you
in your desperation for a moment, well, praise God. I think of the two elderly folks
that I love so much for the last year telling me every day, I'm just waiting for the Lord
to come. Come today, Lord. Come now. Come quickly. Take
me now. I can't stand what I'm seeing
in the world around me. I can't stand what I'm seeing
in those who I love so much that care nothing for You, Lord. All
the things that trouble us. The sin that is within us. Maybe
the Lord hasn't answered that prayer yet. Maybe today is the day for Judy. Maybe that prayer is not to be
answered yet. While he yet spake, there cometh
one from the ruler of the synagogue's house saying unto him, thy daughter
is dead, troubled not the master. Now listen to the Lord's response.
He's talking to you and I. When you think the Lord is not
answering your prayer, when you think the Lord is not hearing
your prayer, because He's not answering it the way that you
want it answered, listen to these words. But when Jesus heard it,
He answered Him saying, Fear not, believe only, and she shall
be made whole. Believe. Fear not. Believe only. Let's finish this chapter, and
then I want to jump over to John chapter 11. And when he had come
into the house, he suffered no man to go in, save Peter and
James and John and the father and the mother of the maiden.
And all wept, bewildered. But he said, Weep not, she is
not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn,
knowing that she was dead. And he put them all out, and
took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arrive. And her
spirit came again, and she arose straight away. And he commanded
to give her meat. And her parents were astonished.
But he charged them to, they should tell no man what was done. Now turn over to John, chapter
11. These two incidences we have
here, if you don't mind me calling them that, are mingled together
for our learning. They're brought together as one
story for our admonition that we may learn from Him and that
we might grow in grace and in trusting our Savior. Can we not
imagine what a great trial it must have been for Jairus' faith
to see the Lord Jesus stopped by that woman? What fears must
have risen in his heart? And then those fears came to
reality when he was told that she had passed. Lord, teach us
to trust in you as this man Jairus did. Even though he was stopped,
he continued to keep his mouth closed. He did not speak up against
the Lord. Come now, don't spend any time
with that woman. Come with us now. Go to my house
now. He did not do any of those things.
He stood silent. Lord, teach us to trust you as
this man drives. While he yet spoke, there cometh
one from the ruler's house. This is our text that we're looking
at back there. "...saying unto him, Thy daughter
is dead. But Jesus heard and answered, saying, Fear not, believe
only, and she shall be made whole." If we were to be saved, our Lord
says, believe only. If we would honor God, His command
to you and I is to only believe. If we would see the Lord God
work, He says, only believe. If we would see the glory of
God, we must only believe. In John chapter 11, verse 40,
we read these words, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest
see the glory of God. In all of our exercises of faith, If the Lord seems to give no
gracious answer to prayer, if and so He might bring us into
trials when our hearts appear cold and dead and our spirits
languish, let us remember Jairus and look still to our blessed
Savior. He hath done all things well. It is one thing to trust the
Son of God when things appear hopeful, but it is something
else to trust Him when everything else seems to be hopeless. If
God has given one the gift of faith, they will believe. The
strength of their faith may vary at times. It may be a time of
weakness in faith, or it might be a time of strength, but we
still believe. True faith is a gift of God that
can never be extinguished. Now, I want you to catch that
and grasp a hold of that. Wait a minute, John. My faith has been so weak, I
don't even know if I have it. If God has given you true faith,
you can never extinguish it. It will always be there. That's
His Word. Once God has given life, to a
spirit that was once dead, and that's the spirit that has faith
in Him, it cannot die. You say, oh yeah? Listen to the
words of John 11 verse 25 through 26. 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." Here in John 11, we have a story that you and
I have seen many times over the years, haven't we? We haven't
looked at it personally together in quite a while, though I refer
to Lazarus over and over again. And I want to look at it today
because there's some words in here that I had forgotten our
Savior had included in the story of saving Lazarus. It's not just
Lazarus come forth. It's not just the power of God
calling His people out of darkness. There's a reason for these things
that God did it in front of everybody. Now I am fully aware fully aware, and so are you, if you are the called, if you
are the church, those who are called of God, that our faith
does not save us. Our faith is a product of the
one who saved us. It's a product of the Lord Jesus.
We believe on Him because He has given us the gift to believe
His Word. And we know that. We know there
was a day when we all walked in darkness and loved that darkness
we walked in. And it wasn't until God in His
grace and mercy shined the light, His Son, in a living heart. when
He had taken that old stony heart that shook its fist at Him, and
we're going to see that in the stone that was removed, and said,
I will not have that one to rule over me. It took His mighty hand,
the power of God, to give us a new heart, the new birth, with
a heart that says, I love you because you first loved me. And
you are God. You are my God. You are my Lord. I am the resurrection and the
life, he says, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall
never die. It's not your faith, folks. It's
not the strength of your faith. It's not how much faith you have
at this particular moment or another. It's who your faith
is in. That's our strength. It's in
Him. We believe and trust Him. That's
what faith is. It's having trust in what He
says is true. Here in the book of John, beginning
at chapter 11, verse 1, now a certain man, isn't that just, bless your
heart, God chose somebody here. A certain one. A certain man
was sick. This one person, I'm not saying he only saved
one person, he may have saved, well we know he saved others
at different times, but this particular time he's talking
about one guy. One man. I'm going to show you that this
is the one who I particularly love. And we'll see that in a
moment. This certain man was sick. His name was Lazarus. You think
he was the only one sick in those days? He was the only man at
this moment in time that God was going to save. He was Lazarus. And just to be sure that you
know who he's talking about, he's of Bethany, the town of
Mary and her sister, Martha. You remember those two? Verse
2, it was It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with the ointment
and wiped his feet and her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. So just to be sure you know which
Lazarus he's talking about, it's Mary's brother. That's how particular
he wants you to see. That's this certain person that
he wants you to see. There was a certain man who was
put in a position where he came to this church one day, wanting
to cry on his brother's shoulder, and the Lord brought him here
that he would hear the gospel. That's the certain man that he's
talking about right here. Those that he has loved from
before the world was. Those that he has loved who were
written, their names have been written on his breastplate before
anything was ever created. Verse 3, therefore his sisters
sent unto Christ, sent unto the Lord, saying, Lord, behold, he
whom thou lovest is sick. This one that you love, Lord,
this one whose name was written on your breastplate, he's sick! John Reeves was sick! He was
blind! He couldn't walk straight! He
couldn't hear the Word of God! He's sick. He's dying. And when Jesus heard that, He
said this. Now listen. Take this into consideration
with what we saw a moment ago. How desperate Jairus must have
been when his daughter was sick and how the Lord didn't answer
his prayer the way He thought He should. It didn't come to Jairus the way
He had hoped maybe it would. This sickness, death, but for
the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby."
How do you know that the Lord is not glorifying Himself by
keeping Judy here in this world today? How do you know the Lord may
not be glorifying Himself by keeping me? here today. How do you know He may not be
glorifying Himself by keeping you? Verse 5, Now Jesus loved Martha
and her sister and Lazarus. And when He had heard, therefore,
that he was sick, take note, what did He do? What did He do to Jairus? He
stopped on the road. and dealt with a woman who had
an issue of blood. Here He abode two days still
in the same place where He was. He didn't even bother to get
up and start making His way. Remember, this is all to glorify
our Savior. Do you know that everything that
happens, including the wickedness of this world, including that,
will glorify our Lord? His glory is in His Son. What
was His Son sent to do? His Son was sent to glorify the
Father by redeeming a people unto Himself. Even the wickedness,
those two towers that came down, oh, what a wicked thing that
was. Absolutely, I'm not trying to
make any light of that. All those people that died, but
I'm telling you here today, when we get to heaven, we will see
the glory of God in everything that has happened on this earth
and throughout every ounce of time. Verse 7, then after that, saith
he to his disciples, let us go unto Judea again. Okay, so he's
waited two days, and now, you know what, let's go on over to
Judea. Well, wait a minute, Lord, what about this over here? His
disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late, you don't want
to go over there. They sought to stone me, and
they goeth out thither again. You're going to go back over
there? What about Lazarus? Jesus answered, Are they not twelve hours in
the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because
he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night,
he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. Now that's a
subject we can talk about another time, so let's go on with verse
11. These things saith he, and after that he saith unto them,
Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may wake him
out of the sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord,
if he sleep, he shall do well, howbeit Jesus spake of his death. But they thought that he had
spoken of taking a rest in sleep. Then Jesus saith unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not
there to the intent you may believe." Did you catch that? See how the Lord teaches us to
believe? He's got to first teach us not
to trust in the flesh that we walk in. It's trusting in Him. In all
things. Good and bad. Answering prayers
and withholding answers. Nevertheless, let us go into
Him. Okay, now it's time. I did that so that you would
believe. That you would believe what you
are about to see. Now it's time, let's go. Verse
16, then said Thomas, which is called Deutymus, unto his fellow
disciples, let us also go that we may die with him. This is
another subject that we may account another time. Then when Jesus
came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already. Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem,
about 15 furlongs off, and many of the Jews came to Martha and
Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as
soon as she had heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him.
But Mary sat still in the house, then said, Martha, unto Jesus,
Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But
I know that even now whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will
give it Thee. Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother
shall rise again. Martha said unto him, I know
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
And Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Folks, when God comes to his
people, When the Lord comes to His people
under the preaching of the gospel and gives you life, you can't
lose it. And with that life comes belief,
the gift of faith. We may think we lose it. We may
go through this world and the things that we see with these
eyes may flare up against us just like the waters. Remember
in the ship? Remember when the Lord went to
cross over to the other side of the sea, and they got in the
ship, and the Lord went down into the belly of the ship and
went to sleep, and the waves were crashing over the edge of
the ship? Are the waves crashing over your ship today? Trust in Christ. First thing
He said to them when they came to Him, He said, Lord, do you
care? Have you ever said that? Lord, do you care? What about me, Lord? I'm in pain.
I'm troubled. The waves are crashing over my
little boat. Oh, ye of little faith. And it calmed the storm. 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, it says? Do you believe? She said, Lord, I believe. She
saith unto him, yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the
Son of God, which should come into the world. And when she had so said, she
went her way and called Mary her sister, secretly saying,
The Master has come and calleth for thee. And as soon as she,
Mary, had heard that, she arose quickly and came unto Him. Now
Jesus was not yet coming to the town, but was in that place where
Martha met Him. The Jews then, which were with
her in the house and comforted her, When they saw Mary, she
rose up early, hastily, and went out and followed her, saying,
She goeth unto the grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come
where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying
unto him, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not
died." She didn't have the great faith that Jairus had at that moment,
did she? She came and blamed the Lord. Lord, if you'd just
talk to me for a minute, if you'd just let me know, if you'd just
give me a sign. Well, maybe He's not intended
for your good to give you a sign, John. It really comes down to this. Do
we believe that He doeth all things well? If you believe He's God, then
you do believe that He has all things well, because He can't
do anything not well. Even what you and I think are
unanswered prayers, it's for our good. And He's doing it well
right now. I'll bet some of you are sitting
here right now saying, John, where was that message three
months ago when I needed to hear it? I'll tell you where it is,
it's right here today, because today is the day the Lord wants
it set. I want to drop down at 39. Jesus said, take 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 for four
days, and the Lord saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that
if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone
from the place where the dead was laid, and Jesus lifted up
His eyes and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me.
Now listen to this. Read along with me. Absorb what
our Lord is saying to you and I. And verse 42, And I knew that
thou hearest me always, but because of the people which stand by,
I said it. He said it for us. He said that so that you and
I would hear these truths and believe." Faith, belief, cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. He said it. He said it that for
those which stand by, He said it, that they may believe that
thou hast sent Me. Isn't that glorious? Doesn't
that just bless your heart? Because we know that if it wasn't
for His grace, we wouldn't believe. We'd still be wandering in the
world trying to save ourselves by what we do with our own foolish
works. Or not even trying to save ourselves
because we don't even know we're lost. We don't even know we need
saving. We don't need a doctor. We don't
need a physician. But because of His grace, we
have been brought to know Him. And because of His Word, we have
desired to see in His Word. He has taught you and I to believe. Belief doesn't save us. We're
saved because of Him who gives us that belief, who blesses us
with that gift. We started to praise the Savior. That was our opening hymn. That's
what we're doing here right now. We're praising Him for giving
us the ability to believe His Word, to trusting Him. And it's all His work. It's all His glory. And to prove that this was all
set up for you and I, that we would believe Him, who He is,
that He is able to raise us from the dead, through the shedding
of His blood, through dying in our place, where we deserve to
die, He has the authority. We looked at this Friday night.
People were amazed because God speaks with authority. Well,
duh. He's God. And because He is redeemed
us, because He laid His life down, because He shed His blood
for us, because He took our place in death. We are raised in Him. And when He had thus had spoken,
He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And look at the results.
And he that was dead came forth. You think Lazarus knew he was
dead? You think Jonah knew he was dead in the fish's belly?
Oh, you know they did. You know it. The dead came forth
bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound
about with a napkin. Picture that. That's not Jesus
Christ offering you salvation. And when you call with power,
things happen. Even bound in his grave clothes,
he came forth. Look what it says next. Loose
him and let him go, the Lord said. Now we know the rest of the story
there. With regard to our own selves, When we most feel and know our
own weaknesses before God, we know the depravity of our
hearts and the corruption of our souls. When we feel utterly
dead before him, it is a good thing to have the sentence of
death in ourselves. What is that? It's good to know
that what we deserve, like that beggar, like that publican over
in the corner beating on his chest, crying out, Lord have
mercy on me, is because he knows there is nothing worthy but death. He has done nothing worthy of
anything but death. You and I know that, don't we? By God's grace, we've been taught there is nothing in us of any worthiness in God's eyes
outside of His Son, the Lord Jesus. The sentence of death
in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves. but in God, which raises the
dead. That's 1 Corinthians 1, verse
9. Paul, writing to the Philippians,
writes this in chapter 3, Finally, brethren, rejoice in the Lord,
to write the same things unto you. To me, indeed, is not grievous,
but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs. Beware of evil
workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus. Praise, praise the Lord. And have no confidence in the
flesh. I hope and pray the Lord used
his word today use His words to speak to your
hearts and give you comfort. If it seems like He's not answering
your prayers, and I know, I know some of you who may feel
that way right now. Lord, I can't do this. You're
not listening to me, you're not hearing Patience. Keep looking to Christ. Keep
turning to God. He doeth all things well. In
such times, let us rejoice to trust Him who speaks to our hearts, that we might As Paul writes
to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 1.31, that we might according
as it is written, glory in the Lord. Amen.