Thank you, Brad and Phil. I appreciate
all that you do. And I know everyone else does
too. Yesterday, our youngest daughter,
Faith, gave birth to her first baby. And that always brings
joy. But because of the subject of
today's sermon, I realized that The Bible, it talks about our
regeneration as both a creation and a birth. And when you see
what a baby goes through and a mother goes through to give
birth, you can understand why. it's like a resurrection because
the baby is inside of the mother. We can't see or hear the baby.
The only evidence is that the mother's tummy and then of course
the pangs of birth come and then there's this long labor and there's
great concern because this is not by any means an easy process.
and the baby is born and we're so happy that the baby is well
and the mother has survived this process. And so you can see there
in that the comparison of birth to the resurrection. So I'm happy to think of it in
those terms, but it's actually far worse than that in the case
of a resurrection because it's from death. And that means there's
no life. Of course, a baby is alive in
the mother's womb, but because of the dangers associated with
childbirth, you see how the Lord has to bring that baby into the
world in a way that resembles a resurrection. So I want to
go through John chapter 11 with you. And like Brad said, and
as he always brings such good commentary on these chapters,
sometimes I should not tell him. I just say, just read it and
comment on it, and then we'll go home. But I do appreciate
that. The Lord has given him grace.
Anyway, so let's go on in the chapter, though. This chapter
is very, very significant. That's true of all of Scripture,
obviously, but it seems very significant. And I want you to
reflect on what you just heard Brad reading here. There was
a man and his two sisters, and Jesus loved them. Lazarus, their
brother, fell sick. They sent a message to Jesus
where he was, he wasn't with them at the time, to tell him
that Lazarus, their brother, was sick. It comments here in
this chapter more than once that Jesus loved them. It doesn't
just mention Lazarus, it mentions all three of them. He loved Martha,
he loved Lazarus, and he loved Mary. and yet he was sick, and
yet they were sorrowful, and yet he died. And so then we wonder
at that, but we learn a lesson from it, don't we? That sickness
comes to the Lord's people. Those Jesus loves get sick and
die. It's no indication of lack of
love on his part or lack of power on his part. But then, as we
read through this, what we see is that Jesus told his disciples,
because he waited two days after he heard that Lazarus was sick
to get up and go, he told his disciples that this sickness,
Lazarus' sickness, was not unto death, but it was for the glory
of God. And so we also learn not only
that the Lord's people, those he loves, get sick and die, but
their sickness and their death is for his glory. And that's
great comfort, isn't it? Because the Lord gets glory more
out of the resurrection than he does even in our lives in
this world. We want to go on living, but
sickness is helpful to us. It's not good for our bodies,
but it is actually good for our souls, isn't it? A sickness causes
us to look to death and face it, and beyond death to judgment,
and beyond judgment to eternity, and then beyond these things
to Christ. For the believer, that's healthy. That's health to our soul, isn't
it? And so we can see here that first and foremost in this chapter,
the first principle, the most important principle taught in
this chapter, is that what happens to the Lord's people Those He
loves, those who are dear to Him happens for His glory. It's to the glory of God. And
then we also see that He is glorified in our resurrection. And that
is super comforting. Because if the Lord is glorified
in our resurrection from the dead, and if death, and this
is also certain, that if because we're dead we can't contribute
to our resurrection, we can't contribute to our life, we can't
keep ourselves from dying, and death is the result of sin, all
of that then is brought to bear to what Jesus said in verse 25
and 26, I am the resurrection and the life. And so this comes
upon us like a wave of comfort. It is a wave of comfort, of tremendous
comfort, that even in our sickness and in our death, the Lord is
with his people, loves his people, and uses their sickness and their
death for his glory. and for our resurrection. It's
for our happiness, our eternal happiness, but most importantly,
for his glory. And then we also see many other
things in this chapter. What we see here are these two
sisters, and they're quite different, aren't they? We haven't looked
at this, but in the book of Luke, Martha is busy serving while
Mary is busy sitting and listening to Jesus. And Martha chides Jesus,
she says, why are you letting her sit there while I'm observing? I mean, it wasn't in those words,
but it was something like that. And Jesus told Martha, Martha,
Martha, you're troubled by many things, but one thing is needful,
and Mary has chosen that, that needful thing, that better. And
so we see the difference between these two, and we see these differences
in one another, don't we? And so one of the things we see
in this chapter is that the Lord loves his people, even though
they're different. And that's weird to us, because
we think, if the Lord loves me, how can he love that one? They're
so weird, different. But he loves his people. He loved
Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. And it wasn't because of something
in them. And that's why he could love
them all the same. He loved his own, he says in
the 13th chapter, he loved his own, and having loved his own,
he loved them to the end. There's no change in his love.
There's no difference in the degrees of his love, one for
another. He loves all of his people, and
so we see this. And because he loved them, because
he loved them, notice, he comforts them, he has compassion on them,
and he gives them life, and he gives them life from the dead.
Christ's love is a saving love, and that's tremendous comfort,
isn't it? Because we see that in this,
not only did Jesus love them, but as a result of his love,
because he first loved them, because he gave them life and
faith, they also loved him. And that's a great comfort because
we who are sinners and hang our eternity upon the Lord Jesus
Christ and His saving work and His saving power, we find that
this hanging on Christ and calling on Him and coming to Him is a
result of life. and the life is the result of
his love. And that is all the reason why he gave himself for
our sins, to wash us from our sins and to bring us to himself.
And all these things just add to the wonder and the joy and
the peace and comfort and assurance of all of this. And then there
are different things in here we see also that because of the
differences in these two women, Martha was running out to Jesus,
but we see in Martha this faith in Christ when she says, you
know, Lord, if you had been here, my brother hadn't died. And he
says, your brother will rise again. I know he'll rise again
at the last day, but, and he said, I am the resurrection and
the life. And he goes on and he asks her, do you believe this?
And she goes, Lord, I believe you're the Christ, the Son of
God sent into the world. So you see that Martha truly
did believe she was given this faith, and yet her faith couldn't
comfort her. So she's a mixture of faith and
unbelief and discomfort and yet distress. And that also reminds
us of ourselves, doesn't it? this mixture of faith and unbelief
and comfort and distress, trouble and anxiety, and yet trusting
Christ through it all, and confessing that, and experiencing what she
had no control over, but was going to bring glory to Christ
and comfort her in it. So we see that in Martha. And
then Mary, I love what the Lord says here, In verse 28, when
she had said this, she went her way and called Mary, her sister,
secretly saying, and listen to these words. Understand this
chapter. Every phrase is so important. Martha said to her sister, now,
think about this, dear child of God, speaking to your brothers
and sisters in Christ. Hear these words. She said to
her sister, In verse 28, the master is come and calleth for
thee. Do you hear that? The master. Martha had such a
high respect and reverential awe for the Lord Jesus Christ,
she called him master. It was a special endearing term,
but not just master, he is come and he calls for thee. You see,
here in this chapter we see the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to
his people. Speaking to us. Speaking to Martha
and Mary and to Lazarus. And they recognize him. They
know he's the master. They recognize his voice. And
when he calls for Lazarus to come forth from the grave, do
you know what? Lazarus came forth. The dead heard the voice of the
Son of God and he recognized the voice of his master. The
master is calling for thee. So you see that too here. And
then you see the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ, as Brett
mentioned, appropriately mentioned here. You see, the Lord comes
to the grave where when Mary was come and saw him, she fell
down at his feet again in reverence and awe, saying to him, Lord,
Lord, if you had been here, my brother had not died, When Jesus
therefore saw her, she knew that Jesus could keep him alive. And
when Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews weeping also, which
came with her, he groaned in the Spirit and was troubled."
Groaning, groaning. I've often spent many, many hours
wondering, what does this mean? And maybe we'll have an entire
sermon on this. But then it says, he was troubled. And verse 34, and then he said,
where have you laid him? They said, Lord, come and see. And Jesus wept. And the Jews
said, behold, how he loved him. I think we should take that just
exactly as it's spoken. He wept, behold, how he loved
him. The Lord loved Lazarus, and yet
he let him get sick and die in order that God the Son might
be glorified in his resurrection. And so our life, our entire life,
The Lord loves His people. He calls them by His grace in
the gospel. They hear His voice. They come
forth to life in their spirits. And then throughout their life
they walk with Him and they constantly are drawing comfort and life
from Him. And then they get sick and they
die. But it is all for His glory.
Through the whole thing He loves them, groaning, weeping over
the effects of sin as a man as God and man, the great power
of God in the resurrection and the life of God given to his
people, and yet the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ. You
see these things? What a powerful chapter this
is. So I want to focus today on some
of these things with you. And I especially want to focus
on verse 25 and 26. But let's read what happened
leading up to that verse, verse 25. It says in verse 20, Martha,
as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him.
But Mary sat still in the house. Then said Martha to Jesus, Lord,
If thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. Again, she's confessing
the fact that Christ had power over life. But I know that even now whatsoever
thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. Now, no doubt she
understood that Jesus was the Christ, the God-man. But yet there was this sense
where she knew that Jesus would do only His Father's will and
needed His Father to give Him the power to do that will. And she had, I think, a limitation
to her understanding that He was God in the flesh. God in
the flesh. Notice back in verse four. It
says in verse three, his sisters sent to him saying, Lord, behold,
he whom thou lovest is sick. Now, take that verse by itself. He whom thou lovest is sick.
There's so many times, every time I pray, I don't know what
to pray. And here we have a model prayer,
don't we? A model prayer. Why is it a model
prayer? Because the plea in the prayer
isn't demanding, but simply expressing the truth. And not just truth,
but the truth that Christ himself had demonstrated in his actions
and by his words to these in what he told them and what he
did for them, and they therefore took his words and his works
back to him in their prayer as their plea. They plead his cause. They plead his love. Lord, he
whom thou lovest is sick." What could you say more than that?
Leaving it there, that is expressing an understanding that everything
that the Lord does, he must do because it is according to his
will, his purpose, and that he will do it. And so she rests
everything, the sisters sent this, they rest everything on
the Lord's will and on his work, his purpose. Verse four, when
Jesus heard that, when he heard that he was sick, He said, this
sickness is not unto death, but for the glory, notice, the glory
of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Don't pass
over that quickly either. It's for the glory of the particular
glory of the Son of God who is God. And so when Martha, says
that if you had been here, my brother had not died in verse
21, we understand that she believed that Christ could have kept him
alive, but there was this imperfection in her faith that required further
growth, further maturity, and so In verse 22, she adds to her
expression of disappointment that he hadn't come. In verse
22, I know that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will
give it thee. And yet he is God. He is God. And Jesus said to her, thy brother
shall rise again. Now that means everything in
the resurrection. your brother shall rise again."
Notice how the Lord speaks what will be as certain before it
happens. He calls those things which be
not as though they were. Abraham believed God who calls
those things which be not as though they were. He believed
God who raises the dead and gives life to them. In Romans 4 it
says that, verse 17 of Romans 4, but here, Jesus said, thy
brother shall rise again. And it means rising in every
way, rising, rising from the dead. Verse 24, Martha said to
him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at
the last day. What we know to be true is true.
but there's a certain amount of convincing on our part that
still needs to take place, doesn't it? Hope is real, hope is expectation,
and it's a certain expectation, but even our hope is imperfect. Our faith, our confidence in
Christ, and the assurance of faith is still far from perfect,
isn't it? And so here Mary says, I know
he shall rise at the end of the last day, at the resurrection
of the last day. It seems so far off. I don't know when it's
going to be. What does that do for my present
sorrow? My brother's in the grave now. You can hear all of this
coming to her. But again, Jesus has a particular
purpose in view in the sickness and the death of Lazarus, and
in the sorrow of Martha and Mary, and in the attendance at the
funeral of Lazarus, which isn't really a funeral as much as it
is a resurrection. The Jews are going to be there.
They're going to see, and many of them are going to believe.
They're going to see the glory of God, the glory of the Son
of God, the particular glory that God has designated and been
pleased to give to his Son in the resurrection of his people
from death. And so the Lord is telling her,
Martha says, I know he shall rise in the resurrection at the
last day. And then Jesus says these amazing
words, I am the resurrection and the life. Death is followed
by resurrection, then life, and then life is sustained. So we
see the order, the sequence here, don't we? The dead shall rise. Christ is the resurrection. The living shall go on living.
He is the life. Do you see the connection? So
there's always this coming from death to life, and then the living
are living to eternal life. There's three kinds of resurrection
spoken of in the Bible, and it's important that we understand
them. The first resurrection is the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He was delivered for our offenses.
He was raised again for or because of our justification, Romans
4.25. And so we see this emphasis on Christ being the first to
rise. Remember what we had in 1 Corinthians
15, Christ the first fruits. By man came death, therefore
by man came the resurrection of the dead. But Christ the first
fruits. By Christ as our second Adam,
the last Adam, came the resurrection from the dead. and all died in
Adam, but all in Christ shall be made alive. So every man in
his own order, Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ
at his coming." This is important. First Christ, then his people. But not Christ by himself, even
in his resurrection. Because when the Lord Jesus rose
from the dead for our justification, then we also, representatively,
rose with him. in our head, that's what he says
in 1 Corinthians 15, 22. As in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive. In Christ, Christ is the life. If we're in Christ, then therefore
we live and we were in Christ of God when God chose us in him. In Revelation chapter one, I'll
read this to you. In the first chapter of Revelation,
verse 18, Jesus says this, I am he that liveth and was dead,
and behold, I am alive forevermore. So we see here that the Lord
Jesus is telling Martha and us, obviously, that he is the resurrection
because he rose from the dead, and having risen from the dead,
he is the resurrection to his people. In Psalm 68 verse 20,
which is a prophecy really, speaking of Christ's entry into Jerusalem.
when he rode into Jerusalem on the donkey, and the people threw
the branches in the way, and they cried out, oh, save Hosanna,
the King that comes in the name of the Lord. But in Psalm 68,
verse 20, he says, he that is our God. This is speaking of
Christ's entry into Jerusalem, and the actual entry of Christ
into glory, having accomplished our salvation as the King of
glory. It says in verse 18 of Psalm
68, thou hast ascended on high, Thou hast led captivity captive,
thou hast received gifts from men. Yea, for the rebellious
also, that the Lord God might dwell among them. Blessed be
the Lord, who daily loadeth us with benefits, even the God,
notice, of our salvation. He that is our God is the God
of salvation. Unto God the Lord belong the
issues from death. The issues from death, that's
resurrection. Jesus is the resurrection because
to him belong the issues from death. He himself lived, died,
and rose. It says in Romans 14 verse 9,
it says, To this end, Christ both died
and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead
and the living, both of his dead saints and his living saints,
but also of all people, whether they be his in purchase by redemption
or whether they be his because he's the Lord of all. All of
those born to Adam are under his control, but his people especially,
He's the Lord of them, the dead and the living, and he gives
them life. He is our God, and he's the God of salvation. Unto
him belong the issues from death. And so we see in John chapter
11, when he says, I am the resurrection and the life, he's speaking of
the fact that resurrection is not a thing. It's a person. And I know that that seems like
a conundrum. What do you mean by that? I don't know how to
express it. But that's what this verse says. I am the resurrection. And the best way I can understand
it is that everything preventing our life, everything that holds
us in death, every barrier, every impediment to life, every just
cause, why we were brought to death and kept in death, and
everything required to give us life. And not just life, but
life in our soul. Life that's eternal. Life to
know God. Life to have communion with God
in our very soul and to enjoy the indwelling presence of the
Spirit of God. And then on the last day, to
be raised in our body to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ
as the Son of God. All of that is in Christ. And
because it's all in Him, then He is all and we are to look
to no one else and to nothing else but to the Lord Jesus Christ. I am the resurrection and the
life. Life itself is in Christ. Christ is our life. There's no
such thing as life apart from Christ. Even those who don't
know the Lord Jesus Christ, He is the one who breathed into
their bodies the breath of life and became a living soul. So
the Lord gave life even to animals and to those who are never His
by purchase of redeeming blood. And yet, to His people especially,
He is the resurrection and the life. The resurrection and the
life. Christ is our life, he says in
Colossians 3, 4, he says, Christ our life. And the Apostle Paul
says, I live, yet not I, Christ liveth in me. And the life that
I now live in this body, this flesh, I live. This is what that
life produces. faith, the faith of the Son of
God who loved me and gave himself for me." So this life that is
Christ, Christ is our life. He comes to dwell in us, therefore
we live. And because we live, we believe
Him. That faith is the result, it's
the produce, it's the fruit of that life. And therefore, believing
Christ, we know that we have the Son of God. Look at 1 John
chapter 5. These things are spoken of not
just in one place, but throughout scripture. This is the only way
we know them. This is the way we know what life is, and whether
we have it or not, and what it is, and the evidence of it. 1 John 5, verse 11, this is the
record that God has given to us, eternal life. And this life
is in his son. That reaffirms to us what Jesus
said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that hath the Son
hath life. Well, that makes sense, doesn't
it? If the Son is eternal life, then he that hath the Son hath
life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Well, how
do I know if I have the Son? How do I have the Son? How do
I know if I have life? Well, the next verse tells us.
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name
of the Son of God. That means to believe Him, that's
His name. That you may know that you have
eternal life. and that you may believe on the
name of the Son of God. You who believe, I'm writing
to you that you may know that you have eternal life because
you have Christ, and that you might believe on Him, continue
believing Him, look to Him, and look nowhere else. It is in looking
to Christ that we live. Remember Isaiah 45, 22? Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there is none
else. That's life. This life we have
in Christ is because of righteousness. The body is dead because of sin,
but the spirit is life because of righteousness. Romans 8 and
verse 10. This is what Jesus tells Martha,
and that's what he's telling us. And then he goes on to expound
what he says in John chapter 11 and verse 25, I am the resurrection
and the life. And he says, notice, he that
believeth in me, we just read about this, he that believeth,
he that believeth in me. That means we believe in him
as the resurrection. the one who has overcome death.
And what brings death is sin. He therefore had to overcome
sin. As sin has reigned unto death, even so now grace reigns
through righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our
Lord. Sin brings death, Christ brings
life. Because He overcame death by
taking away our sins, burying it in His own body, and bearing
the curse for it. Like those children of Israel
in the wilderness, bitten by the serpents, dying, and God
tells Moses, now you take a serpent and you hammer him out, and you
hang him on a pole, a brass serpent made out of the fire and the
hammer, hang him up there and tell all those bitten who are
dying without remedy, you look upon that serpent hanging there,
blazing as the brass, enduring the fire. And you look, and you
shall live. And they who look lived, and
Jesus tells Nicodemus, everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus
Christ, crucified, has eternal life. You see? Believing, looking
to Christ, the one who is the resurrection and the life. I'm
dying. I've been bitten. I have no remedy. I'm certain to die. I can't get
out of it. Yet there hangs Christ, bearing
my sin, bearing the curse for my sin. And looking to him who
did this, the one who is the resurrection, who was living,
who died, and lives forevermore. That's the faith of God's elect. That's the faith of a living
soul. And that's what he's saying here. He says, he that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Okay, how do we
unravel this? There are three resurrections.
Remember I said Jesus Christ first rose. He's the first fruit.
The second resurrection is this resurrection of our souls to
life, spiritual life. We were dead in trespasses and
sins. Even when we were dead in trespasses
and sins, God, who is rich in mercy for his great love, wherewith
he loved us, just like he speaks of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary,
quickened us, gave life to us, raised us up with the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's what he's talking about
here. First and foremost, the second resurrection is that Christ,
who is the resurrection and the life, speaks life to our souls. And how do we hear that? Well,
his voice overcomes our death. His voice speaks life to us. And with that word of life concerning
His own self and His own work, He gives us life to see and look
to Him. And in so looking, we see that
He is our life. Our sins have been taken away
by Him, washed from our sins. God is propitiated. We're reconciled
in the sin-atoning death of Christ. And then we realize that we see
Him and we've heard His voice. It's of grace, it's not of our
work. And we're so thankful and somehow
we find in ourselves this adoration and admiration for Christ and
confidence in God because of Him and an assurance that it
didn't depend on me and it doesn't depend on me, it's all of grace
because of His great love wherewith He loved us. an everlasting love
and an everlasting salvation because the Lamb was slain from
the foundation of the earth. He loved us and gave himself
for us. And suddenly, we realize we've
heard his voice. And therefore, we know we live
because no one ever resisted his life-giving voice. It's an
irresistible call from death to life. He that believeth on
me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. He not only lives
spiritually, but he lives eternally. He has, as we just read in 1
John 5, eternal life because he has the Son. Christ dwells
in us. The life I now live is an eternal
life. It's an eternal life. The life
of Christ in us is an eternal life. We're never going to lose
this life. Though our body go through all
these changes, we have eternal life. Christ's life is in us. Our spirit will not die. We will
never face condemnation. He says in John 5, 24, he that
believeth on me and hears my words and believes on him that
sent me has passed from death to life. He shall not come into
condemnation. He has everlasting life. He has experienced a resurrection. He's passed from death to life.
Condemnation is passed in Christ. A resurrection has taken place
with Christ. But then there's the other resurrection
here. Whoever liveth and believeth on me, I'm sorry, he says, he
that believeth on me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
You see, a believer has eternal life, but our body needs to go
to sleep. As we understood from 1 Corinthians
15, the body must. This is part of God's design.
This is how the Son of God will be glorified. Our body that is
mortal and corruptible and weak must go into the ground, experience
decay and dishonor and weakness, but it will be raised in incorruption
and glory and power and spiritual no more, natural. And this is
all to the glory the evidential proof that Jesus is the Son of
God, that he accomplished the victory over our sin and over
death and the grave. So he that believeth in me, though
he were dead even in his body, he shall live in his body. And
then in verse 26, so you see the resurrections here, Christ
He was delivered for our offenses. He was raised because of our
justification. We were raised representatively
with Him. Then we experienced because we
were justified by Him, this eternal life is given to us spiritually
because of righteousness. He calls us forth through the
gospel to this life. And then though we die according
to his will, in order that he might be glorified in our death,
he raises our body from death to life. But here in verse 26,
and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. And that
underscores the second part. I am the resurrection and the
life. His life is eternal. His life
is constant. It's continuous. It never ends. We look to Christ. We trust Him. We're trusting not a thing, but
a person. We're coming to Him through His
words, which are life itself. My words are life. They're spirit
and life to our souls. And so we're constantly listening
to his words because that's where our souls live, is what he says
about himself and about his work and about what he's going to
do for us. And we're assured, we're confident,
and we're looking to him and we're receiving and drawing life
from him. Just like the vine, the branches
draw life from the vine. And in so many other ways, we
draw our life from Christ, eating his body, drinking his blood,
in faith, hanging upon him. And so we never die, never die. And this is something that surprises
us. I just saw my loved one die. It seems like, how could you
say you never die? Were they not believers? No.
No, Lazarus was obviously a believer and he died. And he experienced
corruption. He was dead four days. Martha
was concerned. He stings, Lord. Don't open the
keys. No, take the stone away. And
so we see here that the Lord Jesus Christ loves his people. But His love for them is not
just a love for them in their spirit, but in their body. And
this surprises us, doesn't it? It surprises me. I mean, I know
I love myself, and that's a sinful problem, but Christ loves His
people, and He loves their bodies. Do you know He purchased our
bodies? Remember in 1 Corinthians 6, let me just read this text
of scripture to you so you're assured of this. In 1 Corinthians
6, he says, but know ye not that your body is the temple of the
Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, you're not your
own, for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God
in your body and in your spirit, which are God's, both of them,
body and spirit. He purchased us with his own
blood. And so in Ephesians 1, we're
not surprised to read this. Ephesians 1, he says, verse 14. which is the earnest. The Holy
Spirit is given to us, he says in verse 13, in whom you also
trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel
of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed, you
were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. That Spirit of promise
is the earnest of our inheritance, the redemption of the purchased
possession, that's our body, to the praise of his glory. You see it? I love the way scripture
says the same thing throughout. Don't you? And so Jesus says,
he that believeth on me shall never die, whoever lives and
believes. We can't believe unless we live,
but if you live and believe, you never die. So what then is
this death in our body? Well, Jesus describes it here.
It's sleep. Sleep. Our bodies go to sleep.
And in this sleep, it's not long, is it? It's temporary. Just like
sleep in our bodies, we know what that is. It's refreshing. So, in sleep, something wonderful
happens. We lose this body of death. We lose this corruption, but
we also lose something else, this inward sin that's connected
to our body. So that when we die in our body,
immediately we go to be in the presence of the Lord, and immediately
we're free from all of the cumbrances of sin and doubt and fear. and our eyes, everything we're
given in that resurrected soul in the presence of Christ, is
enabled to see the Lord Jesus Christ in His glory, who raised
us from the dead, who brought our souls, who called our souls
forth from our body, and we stand in His presence, not ashamed,
But in the Lord Jesus Christ, it describes in Luke 16, Lazarus
the poor beggar was in the very bosom of Abraham. John the Apostle
says he leaned on Jesus' breast. The souls of God's people are
in the bosom of Christ. They're knowing his love and
seeing his face completely and forever. Nevermore distracted
by that selfish sin and pride that limits us and impedes us
from seeing and knowing Christ in His glory and all of His glory. When we see Him, we shall be
like Him. There won't be any remorse or
any tears. Everything will be perfect. But
our body will be sleeping. And it's sleeping in order that
when it is raised up again, With all of the bodies of all of God's
people, by the voice of the Son of God, that body is going to
hear the voice and we're going to recognize it. The Lord, the
Master is calling for thee. That body that the Lord purchased
and loves is going to hear his voice and we're going to recognize
it as the voice of grace, the voice of redeeming blood, the
voice of my almighty Savior who rose from the dead. And we're
going to rise, all of us at one time, and we will be changed.
And that's amazing, isn't it? I am. the resurrection. We won't be looking for some
goodie bag of things God gives us. We'll be looking at Christ,
who is himself the resurrection and the life. Let's pray. Lord
Jesus, we thank you that everything we need and everything that life
is and liberty and eternity is all found in you. We need not
look, nor should we look, beyond for any other. Help us, Lord,
to come even now in our souls, which you have given life to
by faith in the Lord Jesus, which is the result of your indwelling
spirit and life in us. that we would so come in our
hearts, even now, and have communion with you, pouring out our hearts,
confessing our weakness, our sin, our death, and trusting
also in expressing our hope, even as Martha did, that we shall
rise in the last day. Help us to see that you are the
resurrection and the life, and you are all that we need to bring
us from death to life, and to give us life for all eternity,
to be in your presence, and to know you in truth. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen.