And here last Lord's Day, if
you were watching last Lord's Day, I began kind of a series
of messages that I kind of alliterated the points to it. And to just
kind of bring everybody up to speed, I first of all talked
about the compassionate Savior who is the complete Savior because
He's God over all. and he's the man Christ Jesus. And he showed great compassion
here to Mary and Martha and to Lazarus. Also showed you a chosen
family, those three individuals. There was unity in the house
because all of them believed the Savior. All of them loved
the Lord Jesus Christ. How wonderful it is when two
or three or four, however many is in the household, if you're
all pulling in the same direction, you can't, an unequal yoke can't
pull together. You know, in the law of God,
it says, an ass and an ox cannot plow together. Do you know it
says that? You know the reason? Because
they're not of the same nature. So God says, don't yoke them
together. And you know, the Savior comes
to us and he says, take my yoke upon you. Be yoked with me. You'll be pulling in the same
direction he is. How blessed is that couple or
even that single individual who is led to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. It's a chosen family. And then
here's a common thread. Christ loved Mary, Martha, and
Lazarus. Thank God he loves us. Aren't you just lost in the greatness,
the vastness of his love for you? He loves you. Maybe nobody else
loves you. I don't know. You may feel like
you're all alone in the world. But he loves you. He's always loved you. He's always
loved his own. He loved you to such a degree
that He laid down His life for you to save you by His grace. That's
a common thread. And then there's the confidence
of the sisters. The confidence of the sisters,
when they sent a messenger to the Lord Jesus Christ, They just
said, he whom thou lovest is sick, and left it with him. Do what you will. And to me, when they said that,
they were saying, Lord, not our will, but thy will be done. And
everything you pray about is a child of God. You certainly
realize that the Lord knows the desire of your heart. Bring the
matter to the Lord. When you're at your wit's end,
like the children of Israel, when they were at their wit's
end, they ran to Christ, they ran to the angel of the Lord,
they ran to the messenger of the covenant. We do not know
what to do. You don't know which way to go.
You don't know which way to look. Look to Him. Look up. Look up
to the Savior. Lord, whatever you do about this
matter or that matter, whatever it is, whatever you do will be
right. And give me grace to receive
what you do. That's the confidence of the
sisters. Now this morning, I wanna talk about the conqueror, the
conqueror of death. He is the conqueror of death.
You and I know this. This is not something that you're
not aware of. God sends to his people a host
of different kinds of trials. And among them is sickness and
death, as it is in this passage of scripture. And when things that are uncomfortable
for us happen, that's how I'm gonna express that, uncomfortable
for us. When things that are uncomfortable
for us happen, When we're unhappy and discontented, we're really laying the blame
for our discomfort on God and therefore having hard thoughts
against Him. We don't like to admit that,
but that's the way it is. If all things are of God, and
the Bible says they are, if every trial is of God, and the Bible
says every trial is of God, then whenever we bicker or we murmur,
we're not happy about it, we're discontented, we grumble about
it, whenever we do that, really, we need to understand that's
a sinful attitude. Forgive us, and He will through
the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember this. When difficulties come, whatever His intentions are regarding
the ungodly, that's a different story. But I can tell you this,
when afflictions come to the children of God, when sicknesses
arise or difficulties of any sort, we're certain that the
Lord only purposes good for His children. He cannot do otherwise. Let the people of God be assured
that whatever the difficulty is, whatever the affliction is,
God always has a two-fold purpose in sending everything your way,
in your direction. He has a two-fold purpose toward
His children in all things that He sends to us. And the first
thing is the glory of His name. You see, our Lord says to send
word back, or rather He expresses to His disciples back here in
chapter 11 and earlier, and look at verse four. When Jesus, when
He heard that Lazarus was sick, He tells those around Him, those
being his disciples, this sickness is not unto death, but for the
glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Whenever a difficulty comes to
you as a child of God, remember this, in some way, perhaps totally
unknown to you, God is going to be glorified. And the second thing we need
to remember is this. Whatever it is that God sends,
whatever the affliction, be it sickness, emotional upheaval,
trouble with employment, financial difficulties, anything, the Lord
sends it for His glory and for your good. because it will work
together with everything else for your good. Would you go back
with me into the Psalms, Psalm 119, Psalm 119. David has, if
you read through Psalm 119, and of course this is, we really
shouldn't, Think of the psalm as made up
of 150 chapters because the psalms are each individual. So in the
119th psalm, this being the longest of the psalms, you might, when
you get home, get a concordance and look up the word afflict
or afflicted or afflictions, and you'll be amazed how many
times one of those words, one or the other words, are used
in Psalm 119. Look at verse 71. David says,
Psalm 119, he said, it is good for me that
I have been afflicted. I hope that God would give me
grace to say that when I'm afflicted. That's good for me. I know it's
good for me or else the affliction wouldn't come. It wouldn't happen. And David says, it is good for
me that I have been afflicted. But now he's not finished. He
says that I might learn thy statutes, that I might learn thy word,
that I might learn thy word, that
is the incarnate word, as well as the written word. If you look
up the word statutes, you'll find that one of the meanings
is the governor, the governor of the afflictions. Well, who
is the governor of afflictions? Who is the first cause of all
afflictions, be it sickness or death or Family trouble or whatever
it is. Who's the governor of all things?
That one who is the incarnate Word, our Lord Jesus Christ. David says, it's good for me
that I have been afflicted. And if you look up the word afflicted,
you'll find it means troubled, humbled, weakened. You say, why is it good for me
to be weakened? Because in your weakness, that's
when you find out the strength of our Lord. See, there are multiplied promises
in the Word of God. Especially when it comes to afflictions. Like the affliction that took
place in the family in Bethany. To Mary and Martha. That was
a terrible affliction. but they have some valuable lessons
that they have to learn from that affliction. Who is good
for them? Was it good for them? Any bobble
heads out there? Was it good for them? Well, sure
it was good for them. If it had not been good for them,
Lazarus would not have gotten sick. Afflictions are good. They remind us of our weaknesses. They remind us of the brevity
of life. Especially a serious illness. Because in the light of that
affliction, then you begin to think about the end of life,
which is death. And then you begin to think about,
hopefully, the result of death meeting God. And then the result of meeting
God immediately after death, eternity. And anything that makes
us think about and give consideration to eternity, that's good. That's good. Look back here in verse 65 of
Psalm 119. He says, thou hast dealt well
with thy servant, O Lord, according to thy word. Teach me good judgment
and knowledge, for I have believed thy commandments, thy word. Before
I was afflicted, I went astray. and didn't think anything about
it. But now I have kept thy word,
I have regarded thy word, I have taken heed to thy word. And what did God use to cause
David to take heed to the word of the Lord? Affliction, affliction. Look at verses 49 and 50 here in Psalm 119. I can't spend too much time on
this, but I think it would be time well spent. Look at verses
49 and 50. Remember the word unto thy servant,
upon which thou hast caused me to hope. Now the word is, number
one, the written word, And number two, the incarnate Word. What
does the word hope mean in the Bible? It's not a sanctified
wish. It's a confidence. It's a confidence
in the Lord who gives us His Word. That's why Paul could say,
we have a good hope through grace. We have a good confidence an
expectation of future glory, a full salvation in Christ through
the Word of God. And then David says, Remember
the Word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to
hope. We trust the Word of God. We trust Him who is the living
Word. We look unto Him. He's the only
Savior of sinners. He's our confidence. He's our
hope. I have a good hope. My hope is
built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. We have a good hope. We have
a confident expectation, a future joy. because of who he is that
died for us, who he is who bore our sins in his own body on the
tree, who he is who bore the punishment that is due our sins, who he is who not only laid down
his life, but took it again. And he's gone back to heaven
to make intercession for us. We have a good hope in Him. And
David says this in the next verse, verse 50, this is my comfort
and my affliction. And here it is, because thy word
hath quickened me. Because God has dealt with us
in regenerating grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. We trust
Him, we look to Him, we believe Him, we have a good hope. He said, this is my comfort. I know when you're hurting, when
I hurt, In pain, sometimes we lose good spiritual reasoning. But be comforted in your affliction. Maybe I'm talking to somebody
who's got serious affliction going on, serious trouble, I
don't know. Somebody watching. I have no
idea. In fact, when I prepared this
message, and then I, this morning I was
reading here from Psalm 119, I thought, Lord, who is this
for? And then, number one is for me. Because I need preaching too.
I need reminding. But all of you do as well, and
so do those of you who are watching. It's good that we have been afflicted,
that we might learn the word of the Lord, that we might know
more of Christ. You see, back over here, go back
to John 11. You know, Martha and Mary, Both had the same thing to say,
word for word, which indicates to me that they'd been talking
among themselves, which is not unusual for sisters to do. Look
at verse 21. Then said Martha unto Jesus,
first thing, okay, first thing, Then said Martha unto Jesus,
Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. John 11, 21. Now, look over a
little bit further. Verse 32. So Mary comes to him. Verse 32 of John 11. 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. I believe they'd been talking
together, don't you? But you know, the Lord Jesus
earlier in this, He says this to his disciples in verse 15.
In verse 14, he says to them very
plainly, Lazarus is dead. And then he continued, and I'm
glad for your sakes that I was not there. To the intent for
this purpose, in other words, that you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go unto
him. I'm glad for your sakes I wasn't
there. Because you see, if our Lord
had gone immediately, well, he would have healed Lazarus. And the greater glory of our
Lord would not have been demonstrated in his power over death. He is
the conqueror over death. But that would not have been
demonstrated. That would not have been seen
if he had immediately gone to Mary and Martha and then just
made Lazarus well, just healed him. So the Savior says, I'm
glad for your sakes I wasn't there. And I'll tell you what,
not only am I glad for their sakes that He wasn't there, I'm
glad for our sakes that He wasn't there. Aren't you? I'm glad. Because we see in this a demonstration
of the authority of our Savior, His power over death. That men live at His call. You see, when he went to the
tomb of Lazarus, he said, Lazarus, come forth. Somebody said if he hadn't called
the name of Lazarus, everybody in the cemetery had been raised.
Well, I know this. He could have raised everybody
in the cemetery. You agree with that? He could
have. But He was only pleased to raise
one. There is His sovereignty. He raises whom He will. Back
in John chapter 5, it says, The Son quickeneth whom He will. Here are all these dead people
buried in the tombs. And I expect, I don't know for
sure, but I would suspect that people probably put flowers outside
the tomb of their, that's not too far-fetched, is it? That
they'd put flowers outside the tomb? And since, you know, Lazarus
was dead and Mary and Martha there, maybe they just kind of
walked over, there's mom's grave. There's dad's grave. You know,
just like people, like we do. Kind of interesting to take a
stroll through the cemetery, isn't it? Read the things that
are on the grade markers. Our Lord is always sovereign
in his actions. He could have raised everybody.
He's after one. And maybe there's somebody in
this congregation He's after. Maybe somebody who's watching.
And there you are in the death of sin. I know who's able to raise you. That one who is the conqueror
over death. You see, when Adam sinned, God
had already told him, in the day thou eatest thereof, thou
shalt surely die. And Adam died. He brought death
into the picture, which was not there before. And there are three
kinds of death. Number one, spiritual death. Spiritual death. Adam died spiritually. And then his wife died spiritually.
Remember, Adam was a representative man. He represented all the human
race. When he lived, we lived. When
he died, we all died spiritually. That's the first kind of death. The second kind of death is physical
death. Read in Genesis chapter 5, and
one of the things that is continually set forth of these few words,
and he died, and he died. A person told me not too long
ago that somebody in their family said, you know, if you had faith
enough, you wouldn't get sick and you wouldn't die. Really? Well, I would take you to Hebrews
chapter 11, which by universal consent is the great faith chapter,
isn't it, Ron? It's the faith chapter. Somebody
said the heroes of faith. Well, just people who believed
God, who were gifted with faith. And there's a verse in there
that said, and these who believed, these all died in faith. That's what it says. in faith. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ
is vital, but it won't keep you from physical death. They believe
God. Pay no attention to these so-called
faith healers who say, if you believe God enough, you won't
get sick. Those people believe God. I got sick and died. Lazarus
believed Christ, he got sick and died. There's spiritual death,
there's physical death, but there's another kind of death that is most horrible. That's
called the second death or everlasting death. I don't wanna have anything to
do with that. I was born spiritually dead,
couldn't do anything about that. And I'm gonna physically die
someday, and I can't do anything about that. But for the grace of God, I would
experience the second death, and really, I can't do anything
about that. But I know who does. The one
who's the conqueror over death. Christ said, I am the resurrection,
I am the resurrection, I am. Oh, how powerful those two words
are. I am, that I am. That's what
the messenger of the covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ, the son
of God said to Moses. You tell him I am has sent you.
I am the resurrection and the life. raises those who are spiritually
dead. That's what the new birth is. That's what regeneration is.
We live at His Word. His Word quickens us. It makes us alive. You know what
the quick is. Up under your fingernail, you
ever... I know you've done this if you've
lived any time at all. You kind of splinter up under
your fingernail, and it hits the quick. And when it hits the
quick, and it hits the quick pretty quick, you say, oh, that
hurts. What is that? That's feeling.
I mean, you're in serious trouble if you get a splinter up under
your fingernail and you don't feel anything. That's not good. It's quick. It's alive. The Lord
quickens us, he makes us spiritually alive. Spiritually alive. And that's one kind of life that
Christ gives. He gives spiritual life. Number
two, he gives eternal life. What is eternal life? To know
God. John 17. This is life eternal,
to know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou hast
seen. And then there's everlasting
life, and that's a life that'll never end. He that believeth
on me hath right now, hath right now everlasting life. For you
see, if we have Christ Jesus, we have him who is the resurrection
and the life. That's why the Savior said to
Martha, he that liveth and believeth
on me shall never die. You say, well, you're saying
the body's not gonna die? It falls asleep. The death of anybody is called
asleep, that is for the body. and the Lord will wake us up
from our sleep. He'll wake up the body. But the
soul doesn't sleep. There are a lot of errors about
what happens to the soul after death. God said, all souls are
mine. And you read Ecclesiastes chapter
12, when that miraculous and mysterious connection between
the body and the soul is broken, then the body ceases to be active. Because that which gives life
to the body is the soul. And when the soul leaves, the
body begins to dissolve. The soul doesn't sleep though,
the soul goes back to God who gave it. And all in Christ Jesus. will
live in him forever. Until, you know what the resurrection
morning is? It's when he wakes up the bodies. He who is the conqueror of death
is coming back. And he will raise our vile bodies. And Philippians 1 says, and he
will fashion that vile body. He'll make it anew. fashioned like unto his own glorious
body. I tell you, our Lord Jesus, he's
the conqueror of death. Almighty conqueror. Conquer some
dead soul, if it be your will, right now. Because at his word, at his word,
at his word, People live. People live. And you won't live
till he says to you in effect, Lazarus, come forth. And you'll
come forth from the tomb. That will surely happen. Sing
the closing song. Or 75. Let's sing Redeemed. And we're just going to sing
the first stanza. Oh, this is the mighty conqueror. our Lord
Jesus Christ.