Thank you, Allison. We look forward
Wednesday to hearing Brother Bill Parker preach. And we're
thankful that he and Debbie visiting with us in our worship services
today and again this coming Wednesday. And pray the Lord bless you,
brother, as you prepare and think about what you want to preach
to us. and give you a little bit more information about our
Bible conference coming up. I have managed to lasso a couple
of the elderly brethren to come and preach for us, Brother Tim
James and Garrett Shepard. Both of them have agreed to come
and preach and I'm Well, debating whether I want to get a third
one, maybe throw a young one in there. But I'm thankful that
these men agreed to come and preach for us, and we'll look
forward to seeing them. Well, tonight we continue our
journey through the 11th chapter of the Gospel. According to John,
this morning we saw the compassionate Savior Our Lord is the great I Am, and
He is also the tender Savior who wept with Mary and Martha
and the other Jews. He's an amazing Redeemer, all-powerful. All dominion belongs to Him. And yet the scripture says he
groaned in spirit. He's unique, for sure. None like
our compassionate Savior. The scripture says he has all
dominion over all things, and yet he's touched with the feelings
of our infirmities. A compassionate Savior. And then
I talked for a little bit about the chosen family. Bethany wasn't a big village. And like you, I Googled a lot
of things. And I Googled Bethany today. And today it's referred to as
the city of Lazarus. And it doesn't, even today, it
doesn't have many occupants, less than a hundred, and said,
I don't know how many people lived there in the days when
Mary, Martha, and Lazarus lived there, but I do know this, in
that village, that village was blessed because they had three
children of God who lived there, chosen in free and sovereign
grace, and the Savior visited them often. He spends time with his family. When we gather together like
we're gathering together tonight, the family of God, our Savior
is in our midst by His Spirit, and He assured us of that. He said where two or three are
gathered together My name, he said, I'll be in the midst. And he surely welcomed here in
me. Oh, blessed son of God, we're
thankful for your presence. Among your chosen family, the
household of faith, We're the adopted children of
our God. He loves to spend time with his
family. And we love to spend time with
our elder brother. And he comes and visits with
us when we gather as a church family. He comes and visits with
you folks by his spirit. And very soon he will call us
to his house. And we shall be with him forever
and ever in glory. Here's the chosen family, the
compassionate savior, the chosen family. And I talked this morning
about the common thread. And that common thread was that
our Lord loved each of these people. These were three chosen sinners,
Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, all saved by the free and sovereign
grace of God. Their names were written down
in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world.
They were very much alike. They were identical in being
the objects of electing grace. They were identical in being
redeemed by the exact same price, that being the bloody sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus. They were identical in the same
free and sovereign grace, sought them out and found them. And
there was given to them life in Christ. They lived to the
glory of the Son of God. But though they were alike in
many ways, they weren't alike in every way. They were different. Because all of the Lord's children
are different. Martha, from what we can gather,
she appeared to be rather pushy, perhaps. She kind of comes across as domineering,
but she was the head of her household, Simon The leper, whom we presume
was her husband, has passed away. Luke chapter 10, I told you this
morning, says when the Savior came to the home of Martha, Martha was a servant. She had a servant's heart. And
that's a good thing. It's a good thing to serve. When
the Savior came to visit them, she was quick to serve. Mary, on the other hand, she
was more of an introvert. I would say Martha was an extrovert. Mary seemed to be an introvert, kind of a deep thinker, even
in this passage, and I pointed out to you this morning When
Martha heard that the Savior was coming near, she immediately
ran out to meet the Savior, but Mary didn't. She sat in the house. She was a quiet sort, it seems
to me. And she may have been, one commentator
for what it's worth, he said she may have been negligent of
some earthly responsibilities. I don't know if that's fair or
not, but I'll throw it out there for you anyhow. She is altogether
different in many ways than Martha. And of Lazarus we are told nothing. Except that he got sick, very
sick and he died. And then the Lord raised him
from the dead. But here's what we do know, our
Lord Jesus loved all three of them exactly alike. And he loved all three of them
for exactly the same reason, because he would. There was an
everlasting The Lord said to Jeremiah, I
have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore in loving kindness
have I drawn thee. All that are beloved of the Savior
are drawn to the Savior. There's the free and effectual
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that seeks them out through the
gospel. And that gospel of redeeming
grace, that gospel of substitution, that gospel of divine satisfaction,
that gospel has a magnetic pull on all of the chosen redeemed
of God. And when our Lord sends forth
that effectual call of grace, it is irresistible. And you will
come to the Savior. Our Savior loves us, notwithstanding
what we are, what we've done, what we shall do. He loves us
no matter what we fail to do. And that love he has for us never
varies and it never changes at all. It is never dependent upon
our faithfulness, though we want to be faithful, but it's not
dependent upon our faithfulness. That love is not dependent upon
how much we believe Him? Because you see, we were loved
of Christ before we ever believed Him. In fact, the faith that
we have in Him is really a direct result of the drawing power of
His love and of His grace. We must never undervalue others
who are not like us in some ways. Within this congregation, we're
all different. But all of you who know Christ,
or rather who are known of Christ, you are loved of our Savior,
just like I am. And there is no degrees of love. There are no degrees of salvation. There are no degrees of justification. There are no degrees of sanctification. There are no degrees of glorification. When we arrive safely on the
shores of heaven, there are no degrees of status in heaven. There aren't the important ones,
the servants of the Lord, the preachers, the missionaries,
the evangelists, the apostles, and then the rest. No, there's
no difference because we're all born again by the same Spirit,
by the same incorruptible seed, the Word of God that liveth and
abideth forever. We're all bought with the exact
same price. didn't cost any more for you
to be redeemed than it cost for me to be redeemed. You see, the death of our Lord
Jesus Christ was for a designated number of people. But whether
it was more people or less people would not have required him to
have suffered the justice of God in his soul anymore. to redeem
one sinner took the voluntary death of the Son of God. And
He didn't die anymore or suffer anymore for all of the tens of
thousands of thousands of saints that the Father gave Him in the
covenant of grace. Where equally His children and
equally And I would say to you, kind
of the way we put it, He loves us with all of His heart. And we rejoice in that love. And certainly it is a fact we're
not worthy of His love, but He didn't love us because we were
worthy of it. He loved us because he loved us, because he purposed
it. The Lord loved Martha, Mary,
and Lazarus. And then as we continue on this
little journey, let me say in the fourth place, the confidence
of the sisters. In the third verse of chapter
three, it says this, Therefore, his sister sent unto him, sent
unto the Savior, saying, Lord, that's a real good way to address
him. Lord, behold, look. Lord, see. He whom thou lovest is sick. This is not a specific prayer
request. They didn't ask the Savior to
come to Bethany. They didn't ask Him to heal their
brother, though that is certainly and obviously what they hoped
for. But they simply left the matter
in His hands. And they were very confident
that he would do what's best. It was sufficient in their minds
and in their hearts that the Lord be notified. And that was enough for them. The sisters would surely have
acknowledged the seriousness of the situation. There's no
denying of that. They don't pretend that nothing
is wrong. But it seems that in their words,
they essentially presented the matter to the Savior and left
it with Him to do as He would. And I would say to you and to
me, To those of you who are believers, who are watching this service,
I would say to us, may our Lord bring us to rest
fully in Him, and to rest all the concerns of our life, all
the concerns of our family, all the concerns of our health, all
the concerns of our church, all the concerns of the world. May
we just rest them all in the capable almighty hands, the nail-pierced
hands of our Redeemer. Leaving with him. Weary, I have discovered, is
a needless thing. It is a useless thing. Because
I have never found that it has changed anything. Other than
caused me some sleepless moments or hours. Let us be like Martha and Mary. present our case unto our Savior, and then rest all the concerns
of our lives in His most capable hands. I'll tell you, He who
chose us, He who redeemed us, He who paid our ransom, He who
removed our sins from us as far as the East is from the West.
He who established righteousness for us. And we stand before God
in the beauties of this dear Redeemer. He will always do what's
best for his children. all of those things being true
that he chose us, he redeemed us, he regenerated us, all of
those things being true, then he will also deal with the lesser
things. Don't you think? The lesser,
he chose in eternal sovereign election, he chose me to be one
of his children. He's loved me with an everlasting
love. And our Savior laid down His
life. He gave His last blood to purchase
us. He ransomed us from the justice
of God. And He rescued us from the power
of sin, Satan, and the world. All of those major things He's
done for us, surely He'll take care of the lesser things. After all, we're the sheep of
his pasture. He came to seek and save us. And having redeemed us and eternally
justified us by his grace and at the cross by his blood, surely
he will work all things together for our good And may we just
rest all matters in his hands being confident that he cares
for us. He knew of the sickness of Lazarus. Nothing that concerns his children
ever escapes his attention. I don't care how small it is. He knows every intricate detail
of your life. And all of your needs are an
open book to Him. Even the hairs of your head are
numbered. All things that concern you are
under the absolute authority of your best of friends, your
elder brother, the savior who is wounded and smitten for your
transgressions. He misses nothing when it comes
to you. I mean, everything is open to
him. If you have a problem in your
family, he knows it. And he's governing that. Because
all things are of God. If there's something about you,
if you have an ache or a pain, and you get on up in years, you
got a few of those, I know you do. Well, I'll tell you this, there's
not a pain that you have, but what your sovereign savior doesn't
know about it, and actually he appointed it. Because nothing ever happens
to you by accident. You agree with that? That's right
isn't it, Ron? And if nothing ever happens to
you by accident, that means that those things that do happen to
you are on purpose. That's equally true and it's
gotta be. And since the things that happen
to me are on purpose, then I've got to ask this question, whose
purpose? Is that right, Alan? That's right. Whose purpose? His purpose. The sickness of Lazarus, that whatever disease, whatever
illness it was, the Savior inflicted it upon Lazarus. And then consider this sickness
and it's kind of an amplification of that. Sickness, it cannot
invade the body of a child of God apart from the purpose of
our Father. All things are of God. And all things that happen to
you will, first of all, glorify God somehow, some way. And then it worked together with
all other things for your good. Look at verse four of chapter
11. When Jesus heard, when the messenger arrived, and he didn't
have to hear, all things are naked and open before the eyes
of him with whom we have to do. But when Jesus heard, he said,
this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God. that
the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Hear me, everything
that happens to you and everything that happens in this wide, wide
world in some way or other brings glory to our God. And it doesn't matter what it
is. I think of two terrible things
that happened in history. First of all, the fall of Adam. What a despicable thing that
our father, our father, as it were, put his fist in the face
of God and said, I'll be God, thank you very much. And yet that act of defiance,
whereby all of the human race became sinners, alienated from
God. If I could say it this way, gave
God the opening that was necessary to implement this eternal salvation
that brings him the greatest glory. The fall of Adam was horrible,
but it brought glory to God. And the death of our Lord Jesus
Christ, worst thing ever happened. And the best thing that ever
happened. What a criminal act against the
Son of God. Innocent, pure. Went about doing
good. Teaching, healing. He healed
people that cursed his name. He healed people who never came
to believe him. And he was crucified. But oh,
what great glory was brought to the name of our God Salvation
by crucified, buried, risen, exalted Savior. For his glory. This, the attitude of Mary and
Martha remind me of what Eli said of old. When Samuel told
him that God's gonna kill his two boys, his two sons, evil
priests, he said, it is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. That's a wise thing to say, isn't
it? Well, he's the Lord. You see, our Lord Jesus Christ
being Lord is not an empty title. He has all power. The man Christ
Jesus who suffered, bled, and died for us, as a reward for
his obedience unto God, even to death, for redeeming his people,
all authority has been given to him over all creation. Let him do what seemeth him good
in his sight. You see, our best, our wisest,
our all-powerful and most considerate helper is God our Savior. Remember, Lazarus, his name means
God is my helper. Let me leave all my cares, cast
them upon him. Peter said, casting all your
cares upon him, because he careth for you. He careth for you. And what's even more astounding,
he cares for me. He is a friend indeed, as one
writer wrote. And he says, a friend indeed
is a friend to us in our time of need, and he always is. Have
you ever turned to the Lord and he wasn't there? Have you ever spoken to the Lord
and you think, well, he's not hearing me now? In the Psalms, David sometimes
represents our God cupping his ear like this to hear what we
have to say. And Mary and Martha said, he
whom thou lovest is sick. And the messenger said, is that
all you want to say? You got anything to add to that?
I start to say telegram. Got anything you want to add
to that email? Got anything you want to add
to that note? No. I don't need to add anything
to that. They spread their case before
the Lord. And Job one, when he was severely
tried, lost his children, lost his property, lost his possessions, he bowed down and worshiped.
Let me do that. Oh God, give me grace to do that. When Hezekiah was sick, Isaiah
went in to visit him on his deathbed. And Isaiah said, get your things
in order. You're going to die. King Hezekiah turned his face
toward the wall and prayed, oh, God. Oh, God, if it please thee,
give me some more years. The Lord said, I'm going to give
you 15 more years. He said, that's all? I'll give
you 15 more years. Tell you what, may God give us
grace to believe our Lord more fully. Don't you find that faith
is a rather fragile thing? I believe that's an accurate
way to put it. Faith is a fragile thing. Because even though we're believing
Him, yet in our believing, there's so much unbelief. Let me show
you a verse scripture. Isaiah 50. Look at Isaiah chapter
50. And verse 10. Isaiah 50 in verse 10. Isaiah 50 verse 10. Who is among
you that feareth the Lord? This is a reverential fear. It's not being afraid of God,
but you reverence Him, you honor Him, you worship Him. You obey
the voice of His servant, look to the Lamb of God. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. Who is among you that feareth
the Lord, that obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh
in darkness, and hath no light? Now that's not the absolute absence
of light, Being children of light, sometimes
we walk in darkness and I don't know what's going on. You ever
been there? Oh, you're in darkness. You fear the Lord. You believe
the Lord. You trust Christ. The messenger of the gospel said,
look and live. And you look by faith to the
Son of God. And you walk in darkness. and
you have no light. I think I know a little something
about that. And actually, I suspect all of
you do. You know something about that.
And here's what the prophet of God says, let him trust in the
name of Jehovah. Let him trust in the name of
Jehovah. Be confident in the Lord. Don't
have any confidence in yourself. Say, well, I'll hold up under
this. You can't. Trust the Lord. And then he says,
let him trust in the name of the Lord, the name of Jehovah,
God our Savior. And stay upon his God. Lean upon
your God. Lean on him. Lean the full weight
of your body and soul upon him. Lord, I'm weak. I can't do it. I can't bear up anymore. I lean
myself upon thee. And I'll tell you this, he will
hold you up. He will. Let's go back to the text. I'll
tell you this, Mary and Martha, their request was wonderful. The message that they sent was
wonderful. But they were perfect in Christ,
but their faith wasn't perfect. They were true believers, but
they demonstrated, both of them did, that their faith in the
Almighty Son of God was weak. Like I said, the faith of the
strongest believer is a fragile thing. And it's apt to fail in time
of need. Mary, Luke 10, she's the one
that sat at the feet of Jesus and learned from him. And the
Lord rebuked Martha and said, Mary's chosen that good thing,
that good thing, she's sitting at my feet. But here's Mary, Alan read it
for us, verse 32. When Mary was come to where Jesus
was back in John 11, 32, and saw Him, she fell down at His
feet. She's often found at the Savior's
feet, and that's a good place to be. That's the best place
to be. But she said, Lord, if Thou hast
been here, my brother had not died. That doesn't set forth
too much faith there. What she's saying is, if you'd
have got here earlier, he wouldn't have died. You shouldn't have
delayed. So she didn't manifest the greatest
of faith. And then Martha, verse 39 and
40. Jesus, when he came to the tomb,
and it was a cave, we read that, Alan read that for us. and it
had a stone upon the mouth of it. Verse 39, Jesus said, take
ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that
was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh. For
he has been dead four days. What she is saying is, it's useless. Can't anything be done? A believer often has lapses of
faith. But you know what? Even when
we believe not, he remains faithful. That's second Timothy two says
that, he remains faithful. And I'll just leave this with
you, because I'm not gonna get very far tonight. I'll pick it
up again next Sunday morning. We all have imperfect faith. But we have imperfect faith and
a perfect Savior. There's the good news. And though
we fail Him, He will not, he cannot fail us. And whether we're sick or well,
and whether in life or in death, our Lord Jesus Christ never fails
his children. It is always working all things
together for the good of his dear people. Well, get your,
uh, songbooks.