All right, brethren, let's turn
our Bibles to John chapter 11. John chapter 11. This has been a very enjoyable
trip for me. I've enjoyed visiting with everybody
and getting to spend some time with you. And thank you so much
for having me. John chapter 11, you're familiar
with the story of Lazarus and how that he died and the Lord
came and raised him from the grave. I want to read the first
four verses here. It says, now a certain man was
sick named Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister
Martha. It was that Mary which anointed
the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose
brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent unto
him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. And 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." Let's look at that
one more time, that last verse. 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. For God's elect, this
is true of everything we face in this world. This is true for
God's elect of everything that comes to pass in this world,
whether before we face it or whether we face it or not. This
is so for God's elect. This, and you can fill in the
blank here, this sickness, this trial, whatever sort it might
be, this fall, this physical death, is not unto death. but for the glory of God, that
the Son of God might be glorified thereby." Now here's the point. This is the point of this passage
and this is the point of this message. Christ is the life for
all who believe on Him. Christ is the life for all who
believe on Him. Your pastor used to always tell
me, The first words you speak in a message are of utmost importance. That's what people hear. Well,
here's what I want you to hear. This is the first word I want
you to get. This is the point of this passage.
This is the point of this message. Christ is the life. He that hath the Son hath life. Here's what our Lord tells us
right here in verse 25. 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. Christ is the life of all who
believe in him. He is the life, He is the life,
the resurrection and the life. And so, therefore, nothing that
a believer faces in this life, nothing we face even when we
die physically, shall be unto death. But for the glory of God,
that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. When our Lord
said, this sickness is not unto death, He meant far more than
just the fact that He would raise Lazarus from the grave that day.
Far more than that. He's declaring, I am the life. He that believeth on Me shall
never die. Now this is so, and here's the
good news, brethren. Here's the good news. This is
good news for our loved ones who do not know the Lord, who
are yet dead, and trespassing and sin for our children. This
is the good news. Christ is the life of His elect
before we ever know He's our life. He's the life of His people
before we ever even know it. He said there in verse 26, Whosoever
liveth and believeth in Me shall never die. But we're born spiritually
dead. We're born spiritually dead.
How do we live spiritually so that we have faith to believe
on Christ? It's due to Christ being the
life of His people that He sends the Spirit and regenerates us
and gives us life. He's our life before we ever
even know ourselves that He's our life. That's how He gives
us faith and spiritual life to believe. Christ is our righteousness. Now when he speaks here about
death, there is a second death. Scripture speaks of a second
death. That's that death of condemnation,
that death of separation. For all who meet God after we
die physically, all who meet God without Christ, all who meet
God trusting in their own merit, their own works, there is the
second death. But those that the Lord makes
partake of the first resurrection, those that He comes and regenerates
and brings to faith in Him, shall not face that second death. Because Christ is our righteousness.
You know the word, when He says here, He is the life, it's the
same as saying He's our righteousness. Because righteousness is life. Life is righteousness. When Adam
sinned, Death in her, because sin in her. And the Lord, Paul
said, if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin,
but the spirit is life because of what? Righteousness. Life
and righteousness are the same. Where you have no sin, where
one is made righteous, you have life. And that's why we'll never
taste of that second death. Christ is our righteousness.
He's our life. Blessed and holy is He that hath
part in the first resurrection, on such the second death hath
no power. But they shall be priests of
God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years. I
quoted it to you the other day, but let's turn over and read
Romans 8. I want you to see this and listen to what Paul says
here. Verse 28, we know that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the called according to His purpose. Well, how are we brought to love
God? How are we the called? How do
we become the called? Well, it's according to His purpose.
He says here, for whom He did foreknow. That word foreknow
is for love. It's to foreordain. Remember
what He says? The Lord didn't set His love
on you nor choose you because of anything in you, but because
the Lord loved you. That's called grace. Any other
reason that God chose somebody other than simply that God loved
you, because He would. Any other reason is works. It's not grace. It's a man trusting
his own merit. People say, He foreknew, He looked
down through time and saw who would believe on Him and that's
who He chose. Wouldn't it be a shame to say
that and then cry, God defied knowing who would not believe
on Him, sent His Son to lay down His life for people who would
not believe on Him? For everybody, including people
who would not believe on Him? That's not what that means. It
means He foreloved His people. He foreordained His people. Of
course, God knows everything. But when you read the scriptures,
the scripture says, God looked down from heaven and saw there
was no man. There were none. So what did
he do? Those that he foreknew, foreordained, those he elected,
he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his
son. And here's why. Here's why he
did it. that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. That's the purpose. Our Lord
said, this sickness is not unto death. It's for the glory of
God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. That's
the purpose for which God even made this world and purpose salvation
to be accomplished. It's that his Son might be glorified. that He might be glorified in
His Son. He says, and them He also called,
and them that He called He also justified, and whom He justified,
them He also glorified. You see, it's Him. It's Him.
He did it all. He did it all. Now listen to
this good news. What shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? That's what our Lord's
teaching us in our text. This sickness, whatever it is,
believer, that you encounter in this life, one, it's of God's
sovereign hand, He's working it all together, it's according
to His purpose, and it's not unto death. It's not unto that
second death, it's not unto separation from Christ in any way for His
people. It is for the glory of God that
the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Listen to this. He that
spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? Who is the us
all for whom he delivered up his son? Who's the us all for
whom he delivered up his son? Read the next verse. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? So he chose in Christ. It's God that justifies it. That's
why no charge can be laid, it's God that justifies it. It's Christ
that died, gay brother that's risen again, who's even at the
right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. We're going
to see in our text the glory, part of this glory of God that
they beheld in Christ. He prayed to the Father before
them all. And he said, Father, I know you
always hear me. And he said, but they might believe.
He prayed openly so they heard him. He's the intercessor. He's the intercessor. Now here's
the point I want you to get. Here's what our Lord's saying
when He says, this sickness is not unto death. Whatever it is
that you face, believer, it's not unto death. Here's what He's
saying. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Absolutely
nothing. Listen. Shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril,
or sword? As it's written, for thy sake
we're killed all the day long. We're counted as sheep for the
slaughter. We're just weak sheep. So then how, what's going to
keep us from being separated from Him? No, and all these things
were more than conquerors through Him that loved us. I'm persuaded,
neither death, he said this sickness is not unto death, neither death,
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
should be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is what our Lord is talking
about. Nothing, you think of, we think of physical death, that
is the great That's it. That's our number one enemy. That's the thing that
we know we can't deliver ourselves from. Well, if that is not going
to touch you, believer, then nothing else will. If He's made
you more than conquerors over death, He made you more than
conquerors over everything else. And you are more than conquerors
in Him that loved us. Now, I want you to hear Christ
declare this. Go back to John and look at chapter
10. This is why we must be called. This is why Christ is our life
before we know He's our life. Here's why. Whenever Christ went
to that cross, His people were in Him. We died in Him. When
He arose, we arose in Him. And he accomplished making his
people the righteousness of God. He justified his people before
the law in the same justice that demanded Christ must die in the
room instead of his people. That same justice that he satisfied
now demands that his people must be called to life and faith in
him because he's our righteousness. Now listen to what our Lord declares
in John 10. He was standing there declaring
he's the shepherd of the sheep. And he was speaking to Jews. And he had some elect among the
Jews. He's calling them out from among
the Jews. But he says here that he begins
to speak about his elect that he's going to call out from among
the Gentiles. He's speaking of it as a foe,
the Jewish foe, the Gentile foe. He calls his elect out from among
the Jews and out from among the Gentiles. And listen to how he
put this. Now listen. Verse 16. And other sheep I have what you're
not of this foe. He's talking about Gentile elect
given to him of the Father that he's not called yet. He's talking
about you, Diane. You're a Gentile. I'm a Gentile. He's talking about his Gentile
elect that he hadn't called yet. But what'd he say about them?
They're sheep I have. They're mine. He hadn't called
them yet, but they're his. Look at this, them also I must
bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one
fold and one shepherd. He calls us out of the world,
he calls us out of the nations, he calls us out from among the
races and the tribes and the tongues, and he calls us into
this one fold called the church of the living God, and we have
one shepherd, Christ Jesus our Lord. Now read on, go down and
look at John 10 verse 24. Then came the Jews round about
him, and they said to him, how long dost thou make us to doubt?
If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. Jesus answered them,
I told you, and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's
name, they bear witness of me, but ye believe not, because ye
are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. People will say, well,
they weren't His sheep because they didn't believe. Listen to
the next word Christ speaks. He wasn't calling them. He did
not call them. Because He says in the next word,
those He calls, they hear Him, and they come to Him. Look, verse
27, My sheep hear My voice, because He speaks affectionately. My
sheep hear My voice, and I know them. He makes us know Him by
Him knowing us, giving us life. And they follow me, and I give
unto them eternal life, eternal life. And they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which
gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Here's
my point, I'm trying to, for God's elect, whatever the Lord
is pleased to send us in providence, it's of His hand, He sent it,
and whatever it is, you can say, this sickness, this trouble,
whatever sort it is, this stumbling, I've fallen, I've sinned, whatever
it is, this is what Christ said, this is not unto death. It's
for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified
thereby. If we're His, that's what He's
gonna make us know. That's just so. And that, if
you're His, and you know that, that is comforting to you, is
it not? We've all, past couple years,
we've experienced some sickness, haven't we? And some of us have
been sick, our loved ones have been sick, some of you have experienced
death of loved ones because of sickness, and we've experienced
a bunch of other kinds of trials. And it's this way the whole life
of a believer. But of everything we've suffered,
even of that physical death for our believing loved ones, we
can say this, it's not under death. It's for the glory of
God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Everything. everything. I want to prove this
to you by this second point. The fall in the garden. We died,
we fell in Adam, we died, but it was not unto final death for
God's elect. Even the fall in the garden was
for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified
thereby. Even the fall in the garden Listen to the scripture. It says, As by one man sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon all
men, for in Adam all have sinned. But for God's elect, we sinned
in Adam. When we were in Adam, and what
Adam did, we did. We sinned in Adam. and we broke
God's law and we became guilty and then we were born of Adam's
corrupt seed so that we came forth spiritually dead sinners. But for God's elect, it was not
unto final death, it was not unto eternal separation from
Christ, it was for the glory of God that the Son of God might
be glorified thereby. Adam was the figure of Christ
that was to come. The reason God made Adam the
head, and all of Adam's children that would be born of Adam, they
were all in Adam, and he's their head, and whatever Adam does,
that's what they did. And God set it up that way because
Adam was a picture of the last Adam, a picture of Christ. God
had chosen his people in Christ, and what Christ did That's what
his people did. We're either going to be found
in Adam or we're going to be found in Christ. We're either
going to have to answer for our own sin and be standing in our
guilt and our nakedness before God, or we're going to be found
rogue, perfect, and faultless in the Lord Jesus Christ. But
we're going to stand in one of those two heads. graciously chose his people in
Christ, and when Christ came forth, this is the thing, when
Adam sinned in the garden, the one reason God didn't destroy
the whole world right then is because he had chosen the people
in Christ. And this was not unto death,
it was for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be
glorified thereby. You mean God was even so sovereign, He's ruling
over the fall? That's exactly right. There's
nothing that's ever been out of God's control, He was ruling
the fall. He was ruling the fall. And because
we were in Christ, He's the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. He entered covenant with God so that whenever Whenever
he entered covenant to be surety for his people, God looked to
his son. He wasn't looking to us. He's
always looked to his son. Always looked to his son. This
is why he came to Adam and said, Adam, where art thou? And then
what did he do? He slew an animal, a substitute,
in the room and place of Adam and Eve. And not only that, he
clothed them. He stripped them of their fig
leaves and he clothed them. And he's showing right there
in the garden that what he was going to do in his son. Christ
is the last Adam. And even the cross, when he went
to that cross, it wasn't until final death. He went there and
told his disciples before he went there, he was going to be
rejected, he was going to be hung on that cross, he was going
to die, but he was going to rise again. And that's what he did. And we're saved by the faith
of Christ. When he died, his people died
in him. When he arose, his people arose
in him. When he sat down, we sat down in him. This is before
we ever knew him. You remember this? Remember when Abraham, when he met Melchizedek
and he paid tithes The Hebrew writer said, Levi, his great,
great, great grandson, paid tithes in Abraham because he was in
Abraham's loins. That's federal headship. We were
in Christ. We were in Adam. We did what
he did. But his people were in Christ, and we did what he did.
Now, you know the purpose of salvation. You know the purpose
for which Christ came forth. It was for the glory of God.
It was to declare, it was so that the Son of God might be
glorified. And when our Lord Jesus came forth and he went
to that cross, when he died under the justice of God, what he is
manifesting by that is God is perfectly righteous. God will
not clear a guilty sinner. The soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. And Christ goes to that cross
and he is the one person the holy and just judge of the whole
earth was looking to in the Roman state of his people. And when
He bore the sin of His people and His body on the tree, as
we read in Romans 8, God spared not His only Son. That's how strict God is in justice.
He spared not His only Son. He delivered Him up to justice
for all His people. And He's manifesting His righteousness. He's manifesting that if He's
going to save a sinner, that sinner's got to die. He's got
it now. Justice has got to be satisfied.
The law's got to be honored. And in Christ, on the cross,
God satisfied His own law. God justified His people Himself. And this is His glory. This is
what it was all about. This is why we're preaching the
gospel. Christ is the righteousness of His people in whom God is
just. He's honored His law, and He's
the justifier. And God says from heaven, this
is my Son in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye Him. He did it all that
God might be glorified and the Son of God be glorified. And
brethren, by the same token, every trial we face in this world,
it's God speaking to you who believe, saying to you, this
is my Son, hear ye Him. Look to Him, trust Him, believe
Him. That's the perfect scripture
to read. That is exactly what God taught
Job. At the end, Job said, I've heard
about you. I've heard about you. We hear
the gospel preached and then God sends you through some trouble
so that you experience that He is life. He's really upholding
you, and He's really sustaining you, and He is really your righteousness
and your all. And He makes you behold it like
it's the first time you ever beheld Him. And at the end of
every... I'm talking about a real trial
He brings you. At the end, this is where He brings you. Lord,
I've heard about you with the hearing of the ear, but now my
eye sees you. And it always has this effect.
And I abhor myself. I repent in dust and ashes, I
said things, I thought things, maybe I didn't say it to anybody,
nobody ever knew it, but Lord you knew it. And that's always
the effect. Man can't have the glory. and
God have the glory. We can't have the glory, and
Christ have the glory. And when you hear somebody preaching
a message where they're trying to give God some glory, but they're
trying to also give man some glory, God's not getting the
glory in that message. Because man and God can't both
share this glory, and God said He won't share it. When you behold
Christ, you give Him all the glory. And that's what every
one of these trials and troubles are about, is bringing us again
to see Him and bow to Him and give Him the glory. Well, let me give you this last
thing. I know in the fall and the cross
is for His glory. We know everything else He does
is for His glory. How so? How so? Well, it's to make us behold
His glory and how He loves His people. How He loves us. It says there in John 11 verse
5, Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus, and when
he heard, therefore, that he was sick, he abode two days still
in the same place where he was. He abode two days in the same
place where he was. That's just not what you would
expect to hear, is it? He loved Martha and her sister
and Lazarus, and when he heard, therefore, that he was sick,
straight there right away so he could help them. No, he waited. He waited two days. The Lord sent this trial. He
sent the sickness to Lazarus and he waited until Lazarus died
because he loved him. Because he loved him. He loved
him so he waited so he could show them his glory. You remember
when Israel, the Lord told Israel to look to Him and wait on Him,
and they wouldn't. They went down to Egypt, tried
to make a pact with Egypt, and the Lord said, since you wouldn't
wait, therefore will I wait, that I might be gracious, that I might be merciful to you,
that I might be exalted. That's what He said. for my people
shall dwell in Zion, he said. And he said, and I'll be merciful
to you when I hear you cry. Our Lord is so, he's so gracious
to us. We don't understand it. We, we,
we suffer and we go through things and they're hard things and heartbreaking
things. And, and sometimes the Lord just waits,
but it's always, He works it all out so that you always behold
it was because He loved you. That's why. He loved you. He's
going to bring us to behold His glory and being able to make
us willing to submit to Him and cast it all in His hand. You
know, the disciples heard Him say here that were going to Bethany. Bethany is close to Jerusalem.
And they had, in John 10, it ends with the Jews had picked
up stones and wanted to kill him. And they're going to Bethany,
which is near Jerusalem. And when the disciples heard
him say that's where they were going, the disciples said, Lord,
they just tried to stone you there. They didn't think it was
a good idea to go back there. And they didn't want to go back
there and suffer, and they didn't want to see the Lord suffer. But the Lord said to them, John
11 verse 9, He said, If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth
not, because he sees the light of this world. Our Lord was submitting
to the Father. That's what He was doing. Knowing
this is going to be the last straw that Jesus is going to
want to crucify, He's submitting to the will of the Father. He's
obeying the will of His Father. He's walking in the light. He's
not worried about the Jews, because he's doing what the Father sent
him to do. And that's what he's saying. If a man's walking in
the light, he don't have to worry about stumbling. It's only when
you're walking in the dark at night that you got to worry about
stumbling. Our Lord was the only one who could say, I always do
that which pleases my Father. And so what he's very faithful
to do for you and me is to send us trouble. send us some sort
of trouble that shuts up the way and hedges up the way to
where the only thing we can do is submit to His providential
hand, what He's working, cast it all upon Him, and wait on
Him. That's what He did here. Thomas,
verse 16, Thomas said to his fellow disciples, well, let us
also go that we may die with Him. I don't know what spirit
he said that in. It kind of sounds like he might
have been sarcastic, but I'm hoping he said it honestly and
faithfully. Let's just go with it and that
we might die with it. But that's where he brings you.
He brings you to the point where you realize he said, not my will,
Father, but Thy will be done. And he's going to bring his child
to see his ability and his power and his goodness in bringing
us to say, Lord, not my will, but yours be done. And she was
casted into his hand. Turn to 1 Peter 5.5. 1 Peter 5.5. Peter knew something
about this. We all know Peter's story and
how he said, I won't ever forsake you Lord, I won't. The Lord put
him in a in a trial to where Peter, he went out and wept bitterly. And the Lord had to come to him
and restore him. And that was pride. It was him
saying, these other disciples might forsake you, but I won't
forsake you, Lord. But now after Peter had been
taught this, shut up to where he had to be restored by Christ. Listen to what he said here.
Verse 5, second part, he says, yea, all of you be subject one
to another and be clothed with humility. For God resisted the
proud and giveth grace to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore
under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due
time, in his time, casting all your care upon him for he careth
for you. He careth for you. And the next
word there, Peter is telling us, the only way to resist the
devil is submitting to Christ and casting it all on Him. It's
by faith. But look what he says here. Peter
knew this by experience. But verse 10, But the God of
all grace, who hath called us to His eternal glory by Christ
Jesus, after that you've suffered a while, will make you perfect,
establish you, He'll strengthen you, He'll settle you, and He'll
get all the glory as He's got all the dominion forever and
ever. This is why He does these things, brethren. It's not unto
death. It's for the glory of God that
the Son of God might be glorified in our heart, that we might see
Him. Let me give you one or two more
things. Go back with me one more time
to John 11. Oh, we see ourselves in Mary
and Martha And listen to me, I'm speaking needy sinner to needy
sinner tonight. And I'm telling you, I see myself in Mary and Martha. He makes you see his glory and
how he's touched with the feeling of our infirmity. and how that
He deals so mercifully and tenderly with us in spite of us. Now look what He did here. Martha
went out to Him. She heard He was coming, verse
21. And then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if Thou had been
here, my brother had not died. Now, what you see right here,
they believed the Lord. They knew the Lord. They believed
the Lord. But what we see here, Even when he came there, they
continued weeping, and they were wavering between faith and unbelief. Is this not us? Is this not us,
brethren, especially when the trial is difficult? This is us. But she said this,
and this is an example of unbelief. He's always present. Nothing's
happening out of his control. If it's happening, it's His will.
Of course, if He was there, He could have stopped him from dying. But He died, so it was His will. But then look right here, but
look at the faith right here. But I know that even now, this
is faith, even now, whatsoever thou last of God, God will give
it thee. And Jesus said to her, thy brother
shall rise again. And Martha said, I know that
he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. She just said,
even now you can raise him. And he turned around and said,
I know it will be in the resurrection at the last day. Do you see this
wavering back and forth between faith and unbelief? This is me. If you want to put Clay there,
you put my name there. This is me. Jesus said to her,
I'm the resurrection and the life. He that believeth though
he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Faith, right
here. She said unto him, yes, Lord.
I believe thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which cometh
to the world. Mary went out. She did the same
thing, said the same things. The Lord told her, He said, if
you believe me, you will see the glory of God. And she said, I believe, Lord.
And then when he told him to move that stone away, but Lord,
don't take that stone away. This is us. I believe you, Lord,
I believe you. But Lord, why is it happening
this way? Isn't that us? Why is it coming
about this way? I want to go, I want to follow
you, Lord, I don't want to go that way. We're back and forth when these
trials come and these troubles come, but here's what I want
you to get. Our Lord, it says here in verse 33, when Jesus
saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with
her, He groaned in the Spirit and was troubled. It says He
troubled Himself. This Lord, He bore this. He bore their burden. There was a lot of sin in all
this. He just bore it. And grown within Him. This is
all sin He's going to pay for. He's going to die. And He sees
a lot of this unbelief and He sees their weeping. And He was
touched with the feeling of their infirmities. It says here, the
Lord wept, but he dealt so tenderly and so graciously and so kindly
with them. He knows what we are. He knows
where it does. He's walked where we walk. He
knows the feeling and is touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
Everything, every infirmity our sin causes in us, He's been touched
with the feeling of it. Not just sentimentally touched
with it. I mean really touched with the
feeling of it, yet without sin. And He never sinned. And He knows
what you suffer. And He deals graciously and kindly
with us. And then this same one who deals
with us this way, who is a man in our nature, who's been there,
who walked us there. The same one turned right around
then and walked to that tomb. and said, Lazarus, come forth. And Lazarus came and they prayed.
This one who's touched with the feeling of our infirmities as
a man is also God, sovereign God, who's able to comfort you
in any trouble you're in. When nobody else can, He can. He can. All of this, brethren,
is just making us see Him. Everything He's doing, He's making
us see His love, He's making us see how He can bring us to
submit to Him, how He can grow us in faith and grow us in patience,
sustain us and keep us and preserve us and keep us looking to Him.
And this is how He makes you see His glory. He makes you see
He is The glory of God. He is your righteousness. He
is your wisdom. He is your holiness. He is your
redemption. He is all to you. And He keeps
you knowing this. He keeps you knowing this. And
when He works this in our hearts, brethren, it's as real and as
powerful and as effective as when He stood there and said,
Lazarus, come forth. And Lazarus walked out of that
grave. It's no less of a resurrection and a renewing when He renews
us inwardly when we're cast down in unbelief and not looking to
Him. It's no less of a resurrection
for Him to speak and renew you in your heart to look to Him
again as it was when He spoke and told Lazarus to come out
of that grave. It takes the same power. Read Ephesians, the last
few verses of Ephesians. The same power it took to raise
Christ from the dead it takes to give me a new spiritual life.
He's that power. He's that light. So, why does
he do all this? Why does he do it this way? Paul said, we're afflicted. He talked to the brethren and
he said, we're afflicted for your sake. So that as Christ
consoles us, we might console you with the same consolation. In other words, so that we can
come Tell one another about Christ and what He's done for us. And
when you got a brother that's going through trouble and they're
in trial, you remember how the Lord bore with your sin and was
patient with you and long-suffering with you and gracious and kind
and tender. And when they're doing whatever,
He just bare it. He just bare it like He bore
our sin at Calvary. He just bare it. And what did
He do for you? He turned you back to Him and
He consoled you by showing you He's everything. What's He do
that for? So you can speak to a brother
or sister and tell them, He's everything. Speak to them about
what He's accomplished, what He's done. Isn't that the word
He used to call you in the first hour was this message of Christ
being crucified? What do we think He's going to
use to help somebody who's sorrowing and cast down or is stumbling
or whatever. What do you think He's going
to bless to help them? The same message. Christ and
Him crucified. Tell them what He's done for
us. And brethren, now when we have this happen for us, we see
His glory and we see it so dimly. We get just a little glimpse
of His glory. But we see it. I mean, you know,
you see His glory, and it's just so powerful, even now when we
see it so dimly. Just imagine, try to imagine
what our brethren are beholding who are standing with Him and
before Him right now. Just think about it. My grandmother,
I love her so dearly, and the Lord took her home last December,
just right at the end of the year. I just think about what
they're beholding. If this is real to us, and this
is comforting, and this just makes you rejoice when He does
it for us, and we see through a glass dimly, imagine what it
is for them. Imagine what it is for them. But I tell you this, one of these
days, brethren, one of these days, We're going to behold Him. I pray He'll help us. I pray
He'll help me. You remind me, I'll remind you.
Every time we come into trouble, every time we come into some
kind of sorrow, or you know, when a brother stumbles and we
want to start talking, everything we ought to talk except what
we ought to talk. What we ought to talk is to Him about the comforts
and trials of our Redeemer That's the only thing that will turn
you. That's the only thing that will make you constrain in your
heart to want to honor Him. But every time we come to that
place and it just starts, the trouble just begins and we just
begin to be sorrowful, I pray we can remember this. Our Lord
said, this is not unto death. In other words, It's not for
your harm, there's nothing about this that's going to harm you.
It's for the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified.
And ask Him, go to Him just like they did, for one another. Lord,
He whom Thou lovest is sick. Isn't that a good petition? He whom Thou lovest is sick.
Pray for one another. Lord, will You help us see and
remember whatever it is you bring in the past, it's not harming
us in any way. It's for your glory that the
Son of God might be glorified. I want to remember that. I want
to be able to remind you of that, and I want you to be able to
remind me of that, because that's so. In everything we face, everything
we face in this life, Well, brethren, I thank you so much for having
me down. I look forward to coming another
time preaching and seeing you and visiting with you another
time. And I pray the Lord keep you and bless you. And anytime
you want to talk, want to be reminded, call me. I might call
you sometime, get you to remind me of this. I love you and I'm
thankful for you. And thank you.