to a passage that you should
be pretty much acquainted with now, John chapter 11. I have, in fact, this morning,
I've been thinking about a message from, another message from John
11, and I started preparing that, and then I got sidetracked or turned away
from that, I'll bring that message the Lord willing this coming
Lord's Day. But this evening I want to talk
to you about Martha's confession. I got to looking at this this
morning in John chapter 11 and I'm going to begin reading back
here where our Lord Jesus is coming toward Bethany and Martha, as soon as she heard
that the Lord Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him. Mary
didn't. Mary remained in the house. And
so I'll pick up the reading there in John 11 and verse 21. Then Martha said unto Jesus,
Lord, that's a good way to address
him. That's the best way to address
him. Lord, if thou hast been here,
my brother had not died. I detect a little bit of rebuke
in that, just a little. But she said this in the 22nd
verse, 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. Meaning in the general resurrection. Verse 24, Martha saith unto him,
I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last
day, Jesus said unto her, 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? Martha,
do you believe this? Now listen to her confession
of faith. She saith unto him, yea, Lord,
I believe. What do you believe, Martha?
I want to know. What do you believe? She said,
I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God. which should
come into the world. And then she went to go talk
to Mary and tell her that the Master's there and called for
her. You know, in this miracle of
the raising of Lazarus from the dead, we see undeniable evidences,
not only of the reality of our Lord's manhood, which is obvious,
and he wept. He was troubled in spirit. We know that the evidences of
his humanity are seen here, but also there's very clear evidence
of his deity, of his deity. Martha, in her confession, she
acknowledged the fact that he is the incarnate God. For at the end of her confession,
she said, which should come into the world. She readily acknowledged
that he came from heaven into the world. But she said more than that.
There's more of an acknowledgement of his human nature made by Martha. There's also a great confession
of his deity. And let's break it down. First
of all, she said, yes, Lord. The root word for Lord is a word
which comes to us meaning the absolute supremacy. or the supreme one. The possessor and disposer of
all things. That's what the word Lord means. He's the possessor of all things
and therefore he's the disposer of all things. After all, he
made all things, he owns all things, and he will do with all
things according to his own sovereign will and purpose. And in our
belief of the Lord Jesus Christ, it is imperative that we believe
that he is the Lord. When Paul, in silence, were met by the Philippian jailer
who was ready to commit suicide. Paul said, don't harm yourself,
we're all hearing. And the jailer called for light,
and he came in to those two preachers, having heard them preaching and
quoting scripture and singing through the night. And he said
to them, he said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. And they began with the Lord. That's his title. That's who
he is. He is the supreme one. He is
the possessor of all things. He's the possessor of heaven
and earth. He's a sustainer of all life,
be it physical life or spiritual life. And He's the giver of all
life. He's the Lord. He's the Lord
over all, blessed forever. He who made all things, owns
all things, possesses all things, and He will dispose of all things,
that is, bring everything to the end that He Himself has determined,
He will surely do that. He who doesn't want Jesus to
be the Lord knows nothing of salvation. It's one thing to believe that
He's Jesus. Oh, that's necessary. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus, He shall save His people
from their sins. Jesus, Jehovah who saves. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the anointed one. He's the
sent one from God. But He is to be believed in all
three words, Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Supreme One. While hanging upon the cross,
our Lord Jesus was bleeding. He had been beaten. He had been
mocked. He had a crown of thorns on Him.
Blood streamed down from His brow. He had been beaten with
the cat of nine tails. He had been nailed to the cross.
He had been treated miserably. The Jews wanted Him to die the
most painful death that was known to them. Die one that involved
excruciating agony. And there our Lord hung. And one of the thieves, looking
toward the Redeemer, he saw a bloodied man. He saw a man who was in great
pain as he was. And yet he saw a man that had
unusual power still, even in his voice. And the Spirit of God did a work
of grace in the heart of one of those thieves. And he looked
at that bloody, beaten body, pierced with nails, that one
hanging on the middle cross, and in the agony of that thief,
looking at the Savior, who didn't look like He was the possessor
of all things, He said, Lord, Lord, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. He acknowledged what most people
will not acknowledge and what will only be acknowledged by
the grace of God, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Lord of all. He said, Lord, Remember me. O thou possessor and disposer
of all things, remember me. And the Savior answered him as
only the Lord can answer. Verily I say unto thee, today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. as if to say, it is a truth,
I'll bring it to pass because I am the Lord. I am the possessor
and I'm the disposer of all things. When Saul of Tarsus was on the
war path, Seeking the arrest of and the
persecution of all who believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the
Son of God, the Lord. He's on his way to Damascus,
Saul is. The scripture says, suddenly
there shined round about him a light from heaven. He fell
to the earth. He heard a voice saying unto
him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And that arrogant, prideful,
self-righteous Pharisee answered, who art thou, Lord? Who art thou, O possessor of
all things? and disposer of all things. What has happened to that man? In an instant, in an instant,
he goes from a persecutor of the church of our Lord Jesus
Christ to a worshiper of Jesus of Nazareth and he calls him
Lord, Lord. The Savior said, I am Jesus whom
thou persecutest. Peter said on the day of Pentecost
to the people of Israel to whom he was preaching, he said, therefore,
let all of the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath
made that same Jesus whom you crucified, both. Lord, and Christ. And someday, the Apostle Paul
wrote in Philippians, the second chapter, this one who humbled himself
and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
God has highly exalted him in one of these days. Every knee
is going to bow to Him. Every tongue is going to confess
that Jesus, who is the Christ, is Lord. By the grace of God, here's what
salvation is. We've been made to bow ahead
of time. We've been made to worship Him
now. And we do worship Him, do we
not? We worship Him not perfectly
as we're going to and as we would love to, but we do honor Him. We do worship Him for He is Himself
the Lord of lords and the King of kings. He is the possessor
and the disposer of all things. And we can say what we will about
Thomas. But after our Lord Jesus had
resurrected the second time that the disciples were gathered together
with the Savior, Thomas was there. He missed the first time, but
he didn't miss the second time. And the Savior, I'm sure, probably
motioned to him and said, touch me, thrust your hand into my
wounds. And Thomas said, my Lord and
my God, thou art the possessor, the owner of all things. And you're the rightful disposer
of all things. He called him Lord. He called
him God. Martha said, yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. And then she said, Yes, Lord,
I believe that thou art the Christ. I believe thou art the promised
one. I believe thou art the Messiah,
whose coming was constantly predicted and prophesied and announced
in the Old Testament. I believe that thou art that
one that God has sent from heaven. He is the anointed one. He is
the sent one. Hold your place here and turn
to Psalm 2. Psalm 2. And our Lord Jesus is referred
to in the Old Testament as God's anointed. God's anointed. You know, in the Old Testament,
three offices required anointing to fulfill that office. Prophet,
priest, and king. And our Lord Jesus is the anointed
prophet who brings the message of God to us, for He is the Word. He is the full alphabet of what
God has to say to us. He is the prophet. He is the
anointed prophet. He is the anointed spokesman
for God. He is the A to Z of God. He is the anointed prophet. He
is the anointed priest. In the Old Testament, the priest
was the one who did business with God on behalf of the people,
while the prophet was the one who did business with the people
on behalf of God. He delivered the Word of God.
The priest, his mission, his ministry was to offer sacrifices
to God and then present the offerings of the people to God and to pray
to God for the people. That's our Lord Jesus. He is
the anointed priest. He's the high priest. He's the
one who offered to God the only sacrifice that could put away
our sins and satisfy divine justice. He offered himself, his humanity
upon the altar of his own deity. For you see, God can't suffer and man can't satisfy. There's
the dilemma. There's the problem. God can't
suffer. God can't die. God can't lay
down his life. And man can't satisfy God. After 4,000 years of man being
upon the earth, it was abundantly evident that no man, no man could
please God. In fact, Solomon said, there's
not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not.
So therefore, God came down. God joined himself to our humanity. And God can satisfy God, and
the God-man can die to satisfy God. And that's our Lord Jesus
Christ. He's the anointed one. Look here
in Psalm 2, verse 1. Why do the heathen rage the foreigners,
the strangers? Why do they rage and the people
imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves. They've taken a stance against
the Lord. The rulers take counsel together
against the Lord. And against his, watch it, his
anointed. There's Christ. There's Christ. They took a stance against him.
That's what Pilate did. That's what Herod did. That's what the Sanhedrin did.
They took a stance against God's Christ, God's anointed. And they
said in verse three, let us break their bands asunder and cast
away their courts from us. He's not gonna be Lord over us. He's not gonna be the governor
of all things, certainly not over us. We'll fight with you over the
fact that we have a free will. And verse four, he that sitteth
in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord, the Lord. the possessor and disposer of
all things, the Lord shall have them in derision. He shall hold
them in utter contempt. He will mock them. Martha said, thou art the Christ. Thou art the anointed one. And
in Ephesians 1 in verse 10, Christ is the head of the body. He's
the head of the church, this anointed one. And so Martha identifies
him. First, he's the Lord. And then secondly, he's the Christ. And then she says this back in
our text in John 11, 27. Yes, Lord, I believe that thou
art the Christ, the Son of God, the Son of God. I love Peter's confession back
in Matthew chapter 16. When the Savior asks him, Who
do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And some said, well,
they think you're Elijah. Some say you're Jeremiah. Some
say you're John the Baptist raised from the dead. He said, but who
do you say that I am? And I would ask each of you,
who do you say that he is? You see, it really doesn't concern
you what others say. It's like the Lord Jesus said
to those Jews, what think ye of Christ? That's what he said,
wasn't it? What think ye of Christ? Whose
son is he? Is he the son of God? Well, then
how can he be the son of God and the son of David? What a
riddle. Who do you say that I am? Simon Peter said, thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. And that's virtually what
he said there in John chapter six that I read to you a little
bit ago. You see, this is the basics of
all true Christianity. This is the foundation upon which
the church is built. Who is Jesus of Nazareth? He is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the son of God. This is a vital revelation of
the gospel. And he isn't a son of God. No, he's not a son of God. We're sons of God by adoption. That's true. but He's the Son
of God, and nobody can really give an adequate explanation
for this. He's the Son of God by eternal
generation. He's eternal with the Father.
You see, God is the everlasting Father, He's the everlasting
Son, and yet the everlasting Son is called, in Isaiah 9, 6,
the everlasting Father. When you speak of one, you speak
of all of them. You see, if Jesus of Nazareth
is not the Christ, if He is not the Messiah, if He is not the
Son of the living God, then His obedience to God is worthless. And that means that His birth
is nothing any more significant than the birth of any other baby. That means His death upon the
cross had no virtue, had no value. If He's not the Son of God, this
has got to be settled. It's no use talking about what
He did until we come to grips with and bow to the Word of God
as to who He is. What is His identity? They said of Him, He said He's
the Son of God. Let's kill Him. That was to them an awful crime
worthy of death. because they thought he spoke
blasphemy. Well, if he wasn't the son of
God, it was blasphemy. But he is the son of God. He
is the son of God. Peter said, we believe and are
sure, we're sure that thou art the Christ, the son of the living
God. We're sure of this. Are you sure? Is that settled in your heart? There have been a lot of others
who claim to be a savior, a Messiah. Maybe we ought to ask like the
disciples of John the Baptist went and asked him, are thou
he should come or do we look for another? Well, look no further. Look no further. You see, this
is what angered the Jews so much. When Martha said, when she said,
thou art the Christ, the Son of God, when she said that, She
said what others refused to say, what others refused to believe. But she also stated what some
others acknowledged. Turn with me to John 20. Look at John chapter 20. Last couple of verses in the
chapter. John 20. Verse 30, and many other signs truly did
Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written
in this book, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might
have life through his name. He is the Son of God. And look at this, go over to
1 John. I won't take you to too many
references here, but look in 1 John chapter four. 1 John chapter four. 1 John chapter four and verse 15,
first of all, 4.15. 1 John 4, verse 15, Whosoever shall
confess that Jesus is the Son of God, hey, that's what Martha
did, right? That's what Martha did. She confessed
that Jesus is the Son of God. And now John, by divine inspiration,
says, God dwelleth in him, and he in God. And if you want to know, if you
want assurance of your salvation, You say, I need assurance, Jim. Well, let me show you. Here's
assurance. Chapter five and verse one. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that
loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of
him. Do you acknowledge and truly
believe that He's the Christ? And as it says back in verse
15 of chapter 4, that He's the Son of God. And let me tell you what's involved
in believing that He's the Son of God. It involves believing He has
all of the characteristics and the attributes of God. Is God eternal? Christ is. Christ is eternal. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God. Is God the Creator? Christ is the Creator. He's the
Son of God. Creation is attributed to Him
in John chapter 1 verse 3. All things were made by Him and
without Him was not anything made that was made. Is God self-existent? So is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, in Him is life. John chapter one, verse four,
in Him was life and the life was the light of men. In Him
existed life. You see, we have life given to
us. It has to be physical life was
given to us. He wasn't given life, He is life. That's what he said in John 14.
I'm the way, the truth, and the life. I am the life. Nobody gave
him life. He is life in and of himself. What did he say to Martha? I
am the resurrection and the life. I am the life. Is God eternal without beginning
of days or end of years? So is Christ. He's the one who
is, who was, who is, and who is to come. Revelation chapter
1 says that. He's Alpha and Omega. He's the
beginning and the end. He's the eternal God. Is God
omnipresent? So is Christ. You know that while
He was here on earth, He said He was in the bosom of the Father? He's omnipresent. And though now he is seated in
the heavens at the right hand of the majesty on high, he is
right here with his people tonight. He's omnipresent. Only God can
do that. Is he omniscient? Well, God is,
so he is too. He knows what's in man. He told
the Samaritan woman all that she ever did. And she went back
to Samaria and said, you gotta come meet this man. He told me
everything I've ever done. It's the first time I've ever
met him. Is God omnipotent? So is Christ. By his own power, he created
and he sustains and rules all things. Is God sovereign? So is the Son of God. He quickneth,
listen, whom he will. Whom he will. He only raised Lazarus. There
are a lot of other dead folks there in that cemetery, I suppose,
but he only raised one. when he went and healed the man
who was lame there in John chapter five, there's a whole lot of
other people there sick, and I bet you if he had said, how
many of you wanna be healed? If they could raise their hand,
they'd raise their hand. He went to one man. Because sovereignty,
that belongs to God only. Is He the Savior of sinners?
He's God our Savior. Does He forgive sins? Our Lord came upon a lame man. First thing He did was forgive
him of his sins. And the Jews said, well, who
can forgive sins but God? That's right. And you got it
right. That means this man who healed
the lame man is God incarnate. Then the Lord just healed him
too. Is God immutable? Is God changeless? So is the Son of God. He's the
same yesterday, today, forever. Can God ever fail to do His will? No. The psalmist said, Whatsoever
the Lord please, that did He in heaven, earth, and in all
deep places. And of Christ, the Son of God,
it says in Isaiah 42 verse 4, and if words mean anything, mean
anything, pay attention to this, He shall not fail. I don't know
how you can get anything else out of that. That means whoever
He redeemed, it was a redemption that was accomplished. Whoever
He sets out to save, He will save them. Whoever he's gonna show mercy
to, he'll show mercy to, because he's not gonna fail. You see, all that God is, Jesus
Christ is fully, completely, and absolutely. And our Savior,
our Savior, he is Lord. He's the possessor
and the disposer of all things, and He is the Christ. He's the
one promised and predicted, the one who's anointed. Throughout
the Old Testament, He's set forth. And Martha said, I believe you're
the one that should come into the world. And He did come. He did come. And He accomplished
what He came to do, because He can't fail, already established
that, Isaiah 42, 4. And having accomplished His will,
He went back to heaven, and there He sits. And here He is with
us tonight. Nobody knew that but God. And
that's who He is. O come, let us adore Him. Christ the Lord. Let's sing a closing song. Get
your hymn books one more time.