Good evening. Let's open tonight's
service with hymn number 29 in your Spiral Gospel Hymns Hymnbook,
29. Let's all stand together. I was lost and did not know it,
rushing madly to my end. But my God, who's rich in mercy,
would not let me die in sin. ? Alleluia, God has saved me
? ? Saved me by his sovereign grace ? ? Jesus died, the Spirit
called me ? ? I am saved by sovereign grace ? Chosen by my Heavenly
Father and redeemed by Jesus' blood, I am justified, forgiven,
and accepted by my God. ? Hallelujah, God has saved me
? ? Saved me by his sovereign grace ? ? Jesus died, the Spirit
called me ? ? I am saved by sovereign grace ? God the Spirit came in
power, gave me life and set me free. He revealed my blessed Savior
and created faith in me. Hallelujah, God has saved me,
Saved me by His sovereign grace. Jesus died, the Spirit called
me, I am saved by sovereign grace. ? God has saved me and will keep
me ? ? By the power of his grace ? ? He will guide, guard and
protect me ? ? Till I see my Savior's face ? ? Hallelujah,
God has saved me ? Save me by His sovereign grace. Jesus died, the Spirit called
me. I am saved by sovereign grace. Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles to Psalm
39. Psalm 39. I was thinking as we were singing
that hymn, if we are going to be saved, it'll be by grace.
And the only grace there is, is sovereign grace. If it's not
sovereign, it's not grace. I'd love to see Christ in these Psalms and
encouragement that we have in looking to him and the truth
that applies to us as well. So let's read together, trust
the Lord will give us some understanding. I said I will take heed to my
ways that I send not with my tongue, I will keep my mouth
with a bridle while the wicked is before me. James tells us that the tongue
is a fire of iniquity and no man can tame it. God's the only
one that can. The Lord Jesus Christ's tongue
was perfect. I was dumb with silence. I held
my peace, even from good, and my sorrow was stirred. My heart was hot within me. While
I was musing, the fire burned. Then spake I with my tongue,
Lord, make me to know mine end. What is the end of Christ? Fellowship of the saints, the
gathering of his people, the salvation of all of God's elect. Make me to know mine end and
the measure of my days, what it is. that I may know how frail
I am. Behold, thou hast made my days
as a hand breath. Mine age is as nothing before
thee. Verily, every man at his best
state is altogether vanity. Every man at his best state is
altogether vanity. The Lord Jesus Christ as the
God-man. Scripture says in Philippians
chapter three that he emptied himself and made of himself no
reputation. And that's what's being said
here. Christ was the man at his best
state, or man at his best state, and he became emptied. Surely every man walketh in a
vain show, Surely they are disquieted in vain. He heapeth up riches
and knoweth not who shall gather them. And now, Lord, what wait
I for? My hope is in thee. Deliver me
from all my transgressions. Make me not the reproach of the
foolish. I was dumb. I opened not my mouth, because
thou didst it. Remove thy stroke away from me,
I am consumed by the blow of thy hand. When thou with rebukes
dost correct man for iniquity, thou makest his beauty to consume
away like a moth. Surely, every man is vanity. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give
ear unto my cry. Hold not thy peace at my tears,
For I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers
were. Oh, spare me that I may recover
strength before I go hence and be no more. I want us to pray for Robert. He's in the hospital at Sanford
and is very weak. They're running a lot of tests.
They don't have anything conclusive yet. But it seemed like a lot
of his systems are shutting down. So I pray for Robert and Deanna. And also, Zobey's sister, Audi,
they think that she may have cancer and she's with Zobey's
mother in Dominican Republic and Zobey just lost her brother
so Mary just lost one child and now Audi is very sick so pray
for Mary and Audi. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, remind us tonight how how vain
we are. Lord, give us the grace to number
our days and to know how frail we are. Lord, to find our hope and our
strength, our salvation, and all of our reason for glory in
thy dear son, who emptied himself on Calvary's cross that we might
have life. Father, we do pray for Robert
and ask Lord that you would give those that are ministering to
him the knowledge to know how to treat him. Pray for your hand
of strength to be upon him and pray Lord that you would enable
him to be back here and fellowship with us. Pray for Audi and for
Mary and Zoby and the family and ask Lord for your all sufficient
grace to sustain them in this time of need. Father, we thank
you for Hugo and thank you for the message that you've put on
his heart and pray Lord that you would enable him to speak
with clarity and simplicity Lord, that you would give us ears to
hear and that we'd be able to enter into a spirit of worship.
We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. I asked Hugo to bring the
message tonight. I was going to be out of town
and my schedule changed. So I decided to to sit and enjoy
with you. So you go. Thank you, brother.
And we're going to sing another hymn and then you come, OK? Let's stand together again, we'll
sing hymn number 212 from the hardbacked hymnal. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. All precious is the flow That
makes me white as snow, no other fount I know, nothing but the
blood of Jesus. ? For my pardon this I seek ? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus ? For my cleansing this my plea ? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus ? Oh, precious is the flow That makes
me white as snow, No other fount I know, Nothing but the blood
of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone, nothing
but the blood of Jesus, not of good that I have done, Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know. Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Please be seated. Good evening. We're going to
be looking. Open your Bibles please at John
Chapter 11 John Chapter 11. We're going to start with a word
of prayer. As we need his help, his Holy
Spirit to speak with us. Father God, we come before you
tonight in the name precious name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We come in. One of our greatest need, Father,
it is to hear from you. We are a needy people, Father,
and we need your grace, we need your mercy, we need your Holy
Spirit to teach us of your Son, Jesus Christ. In the flesh, we
can learn nothing, Father, so we are totally depending on you. to teach us about Christ, teach
us more about his glory, Father, and we may be able to understand
a little bit more about him and what he has done for us. In Jesus'
name we pray, amen. Let us go to John chapter 11.
We're gonna be looking at the resurrection of Lazarus. the resurrection of Lazarus in
John chapter 11. This is one of the many miracles
that the Lord Jesus Christ decided to record in the gospel of John.
There's at least seven of these miracles. And this is one of
the most important ones is towards the last one. And it's very significant. It teaches us about the gospel,
teaches us many things about us and about his mercy, about
how he saves us, how he saves sinners. And we go to verse 1
in John chapter 11. And we find that it says, now
a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany, the town
of Mary. and his sister, Monta. Okay,
here, of course, whenever the Bible talks about anyone, in
particular, about a resurrection or someone that God, that Jesus
Christ is gonna save, it's always a certain man, somebody in particular. And that's why he loves us. So
he loves us particularly. He loves his elect. So his name
is Lazarus, which means God is my help. God is my help. If I had to put a title to this
Bible study, it would be God is my help. That is what his
name signifies, God is my help. Lazarus of Bethany, he was related
to two other sisters in Christ of ours, Mary and his sister
Martha, very familiar to us, of course. In verse 2 it identifies
who Lazarus is related to, right? And it says in verse 2 that Mary,
which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with
her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. We see that later in
the gospel of John. Yeah, he mentions it here, obviously,
because John wrote this gospel many years after the event. And
later in the gospel when it talks about this Mary's anointing the
Lord Jesus Christ with this ointment that says that everybody's gonna
know about this act of hers, of mercy everywhere the gospel
is preached. So John is confident that we
are familiar with who Mary and Martha are, and Lazarus is the
brother of Martha and Mary. Lazarus at that time was sick,
okay, Therefore, in verse 3, it says that his sisters sent on
to him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou loveth is sick. Notice how they refer to Lazarus. He who you love. Notice that
it doesn't say the one that loves you, right? It doesn't indicate,
I'm not saying that Lazarus didn't love the Lord Jesus Christ, but
what I'm saying is the emphasis here is that Jesus loved him,
right? And if we were to make comparisons
of Lazarus and his elect, his beloved elect, we begin with
that, don't we? We believe, we begin with the
Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father electing before the foundation
of the earth all the elect and loving us, loving us before anything
else. He elected and he loved the elect. So this story starts with the
love of Christ and the love of Christ on all Mary, Martha, and
particularly here, Lazarus. So the emphasis here in verse
three is not his love for Jesus, okay? Because we never really
look at anybody's love towards God, because our love for God
is weak at best. We do not look at anything that
we do, but we rest on the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ loves
us, and that's how we rest. And this reminds me of 1 John,
If we go to 1 John 4, it talks about God's love towards us.
1 John 4, verse 10 says, herein is love. Not that we love God,
but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. We see here that it's not about
our love for God. And in reality, it's never about
us. It's about him. It's about his
mercy. It's about his grace. It's about
his glory. It's never about us. We are his
recipients. We are blessed. We are certainly
benefited. But all this is done for his
glory, according to Ephesians, no? It's all about his glory. The chief end of the gospel,
the chief end of everything God does is not us. It's the glory
of God. We are beneficiaries, and because
we are beneficiaries, there's glory to God because we're so
undeserving. So that's why we benefit because
God's greatest work would be to do something like he did for
someone so undeserved for somebody that does not deserve such a
benefit. So here is love that God loved
us, not that we love God, but that God loved us. And he sent
his son as appreciation for our sins. And going back to our text
in John 11, we find in verse four, it says that when he heard
that he said, this is sickness, not into death, but for the glory
of God, that the son of God might be glorified thereby. There we
see again what I mentioned earlier, is about the glory of God. When the Lord Jesus Christ is
magnified, when he's glorified, the father is glorified. And
this sickness was for the glory of God. So the son of God might
be glorified. So that is the end of this sickness. So this sickness, which later
becomes death, It's not something bad, right? Even though we see
sicknesses as being bad most of the time, that's how we view
them, and we naturally see them that way. However, according
to the scriptures, nothing that takes place on the believer's
life is bad for us, correct? He loves us, and he works all
things together for that his will for his glory and for our
benefit as well. So we see here that this illness,
this sickness, and this was not a cold. This was not something
light. This was a sickness unto death,
right? To physical death, at least temporarily. But at the time when this was
taking place, this was a serious sickness, but it was not unto
death. He says, but it's for the glory
of God. the Son of God might be glorified. So this was a good sickness and
sickness unto death a believer is also a good thing even though
at the time we might not think so or at the time we might see
difficulty but the The death of a believer is something wonderful
for the believer especially, not so much maybe for the ones
that are left behind. But there in verse five, we find
that something special again. Now Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus. This again, this is representing
the elect, isn't it? Because the Lord Jesus Christ
loved all the elect. He loves them the same, right? So when we read that he loved
Martha and his sister, Lazarus, he also loves every single one
of his elect. Every single one of the believers
he loves as well. But here, there's a special emphasis
regarding Martha, his sister, and Lazarus. They were very dear
to him at this time. In reality, Lord Jesus Christ,
of course, loved his church. He loves his elect and his love
was everlasting. His love doesn't start at a particular
time. We live in time, right? We were
born and we began living. Well, the love of Jesus towards
us did not begin because it says before the foundation of the
earth. So that's eternity past. So there
was never a time where the Lord Jesus Christ did not love his
church. And he loves every single elect
at the same time and with the same love. So, and another thing
that we need to get about this verse regarding him loving us,
is really when the Lord Jesus Christ loves us, it's all well. It's all well, everything is
well. There's nothing that is gonna
affect that love and all else at the end of our lives, this
is all that matters, isn't it? All that matters is that the
Lord Jesus Christ loves us. If he loves us, there's nothing,
nothing that can hurt us. There's nothing that really is
gonna be bad. This is the blessing. This is
the number one blessing that God has shown his grace and his
mercy towards us and that he loves us. So this is very important
verse here in verse five. In verse six, it says that when
the Lord heard therefore that he was sick, he above two days
still in the same place where he was, he stayed, he didn't
rush. He didn't get up and say, oh,
Lazarus is sick, let me go heal him right away before he dies.
There was no stress on him because his decisions, the Lord Jesus
Christ's decisions and his actions here on earth were always according
to the Father's will, right? And he already knew that this
was for God's glory. It said in verse four, he said
it was to the glory of God and to the glory of the son of God
might be glorified thereby. OK. And again, whenever the son
of God is glorified, God the father is glorified because that's
his will. God's father is always God's. The father's will is always to
for us to glorify the son, because it's through the son that we
have access to God is through the son. that we have salvation,
and it's through the Son that we have fellowship with God.
God the Son is our God. He's human and he's also our
God. So he says there that he stayed
here about two days. There was no rush because he
was in control, basically is what it was. Jesus Christ was
always in control of his whole entire life and of all the ministry. So God is in control here. In
the next verse, verse seven, says then after that said, he
to the disciples, let us go into Judea again, okay? So this was
after the two days has passed. Now, Judea was not far from where
he was, it was a few miles away. It wouldn't take him an entire
day, no, hours, basically hours. But he delayed on purpose because
he had a mission, it was only his timing, he knows exactly
when to go and when he needed to go. It was, he's not on our
timetable, right? He was never on our timetable.
Sometimes his family or Mary would, I remember that when Mary
was talking to Jesus regarding the miracle about turning the
water into wine, he said, it's not my time. He said, woman,
it's not my time. And also, the disciples constantly
will tell him, don't go here, don't go over there. They're
going to kill you. And forgetting that God is in control. We're
going to see that over here in this passage as well, regarding
his disciples, what they thought. But in verse 8, that's one of
the verses that we see that he says, his disciples say unto
him, master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee. They wanted
to kill you. They are again, okay? So these
disciples are surprised. These disciples are thinking
they're correcting Jesus. They wanna let him know what's
going on. They thought they knew better
than the master, right? And he said, they were surprised
and they're concerned, right? But that concern is a earthly
concern, isn't it? It's not a whole trust and faith
in the master. So he said they want to kill
you want to go there again and that if you read the chapter
10 you you'll see that regarding that they wanted to kill him
every time his ministry was getting bigger and his signs and his
wonders his His miracles were getting more and more popular, or people were knowing
more about it. The Jewish did not like that.
They hated it. So here we find that his disciples
did not want to go. But Jesus answered to them that
Jesus says in verse 9, Jesus answered, are there not 12 hours
in the day? If any man walk in the day he
stumbles not because he sees the light of the world. But if
a man walk in the night he stumbles because he's not the light is
not with him. OK. So he's he's in God's will. He's doing God's will, and he's
not gonna stumble. God is in control. This walking
in the night reminds me of a passage in John earlier, in John 9, I
mean, John 3, verses 19 through 21, where it says that, and here,
that is the condemnation, that light has come into the world.
That light is the Lord Jesus Christ. And men love darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Jesus had no
evil deed at all, so there was no reason for him to fear. That was his point over there
at that passage. For everyone that doth evil hath
the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should
be reproved. So here we find that the Lord
Jesus Christ had nothing to fear. He was in control. He's doing
God's will. And even though that may seem
to the disciples as dangerous, he's walking in the light. He's
walking, doing God's will. And his time was not yet. Right? So there was no, it was impossible
for anybody to kill him because he came here to die on the cross,
to die for the believers. So going on in verse 11, we find
that these things he said, after he said unto them, our friend
Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may awake him out of his sleep.
He refers to sleep because he's going to wake up later, right,
to his illness. He had already died. And he had
no doubt that he was going to be able to resurrect him. And
this is what he told the disciples. The disciples did not understand
this in verse 12. uh says that his disciples uh told him lord
if he sleeps he shall do well okay if he's sleeping he's he's
gonna be okay he's gonna recover right and uh his disciples thought
that that that they were that he was sick and he was gonna
get better right and uh obviously this this reminds me of the of
the grave mistakes that people make when they think that we
are born sick, that we're just sick, that we're not dead, right? So a religion will teach you
that. They will teach you that you were born, that you have
a tendency to sin, right? You want to make, you want to
do sin, but in reality, you're not really dead, right? You are
infected, but you're not dead. But the scriptures say that we
are dead in our sins, and we cannot do anything to help ourselves
if not for the grace of God, if not for him to regenerate
us first. So in verse 13 says, how will
he speak? However, Jesus was speaking of
his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking them
in rest for sleep. Then verse 14 says, and Jesus
said unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. He's telling them, Lazarus
is not just sleeping, he is dead. This reminds me again of our
condition. or when we're not saved before
God saves us, we are dead. Every man is born dead, dead
as Lazarus was dead. Ephesians 2 talks about that,
about our condition before God was gracious to us and he saved
us, he regenerated us. And Ephesians 2, it says, and
you, he hath quickened If he quickens you, it means you're
dead, right? It quickens you, meaning that
he gave you life. You who were dead in trespasses
and sins, that was our condition before Christ saved us. Where in time past, you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh on the
children of disobedience. So we find here that we were
dead, dead, and we needed to be quickened. But it says here
that he did the quickening, among whom also we all had our conversation
in times past in the loss of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, And we're by nature, by nature,
that means we were born that way, children of wrath, even
as others. This was our condition, our physical
condition was this, and we were dead as Lazarus was dead, as
Lazarus typifies everyone that is born of a woman. Physical
death, I have a comparison here, Lazarus, could not respond to
food. If you try to feed him, he couldn't
eat anything. He was dead. His temperature
was cold. There's no hot temperature in
him. And he could feel no pain whatsoever. That reminds me of
our spiritual death. When we are dead spiritually,
we have no interest in God. Not the God of the Bible. We
might have interest in the God of our imagination. And there's
many gods of man's imagination. They're all different. Every
religion has one, right? But of the God of the Bible,
there's no interest whatsoever. There's actually a hatred. In our nature, we hate God. We
hate the God of the scriptures. We also have no interest in the
Word of God. When we're spiritually there, we have no interest in
the Word of God. We have no interest in our brethren, right? There's
no interest in brothers and sisters, and we have no communion with
God, right? Those are signs of our spiritual
death. Of course, the origin of our
spiritual death is found in Genesis 2, when we fell, when God created
Adam and Eve, and they had no sin in them, and God just gave
them one law not to follow. one tree not to eat of they could
eat of any tree and there were many trees there and uh the one
tree that God told me not to eat the knowledge of good and
evil they went and ate of it and when I say they I'm not saying
that I wouldn't or I'm not saying they did it alone they did it
with us we sin in them as well because we were in their loins
and we sin in them. If you don't see yourself in
Adam, identified in Adam, you cannot see yourself identified
with Christ, right? So we, by the Holy Spirit, the
believer knows that you're depraved, that this flesh is depraved,
and that we did sin in Adam, and we were as guilty as he is. And this was the first death. I want to mention a little bit
about the second death. The second death is found in
Revelation chapter 20. Let's go there for a moment. Revelation chapter 20 is the
second death. The first death, we all participated
in the first death, all of us, both believers and unbelievers.
Regenerate the lost sheep and the ones that are not sheep,
the goats. We all participated in the first
death. But the second death, let's go
to Revelation 20, 13 to 15. It says there, and the sea gave
up the dead which were in it. The death and hell delivered
up the dead, which were therein. And they were judged every man
according to their works. And death and hell were cast
into the lake of fire. Even hell was cast in the lake
of fire. Amazing here. And whosoever was
not found written in the book of life was cast in the lake
of fire that clarifies right because when we read the 13 and
14 and it says according to the words you might think oh maybe
I'll be cast also But lest we forget that if you've written
a book of life, the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins and
our transgressions. And this is the reason why these
people are being cast into hell, due to their sin and their transgression. And those who believe in Christ,
their sins and transgressions have been paid for. And those
are the ones that are written in the book of life. Though anybody
that's not written in this book of life is cast into the lake
of fire. Now, of course, no one here is
given a pen or pencil for you to write yourself into this book.
This happens before the foundation of the earth by grace and mercy
that he has upon us. And he chooses us before the
foundation of the world. This love that Jesus had for
Lazarus and Martha and Mary has to be in place, right? For us
to be written in that book. And nothing can change that.
But let's go to verse 15, where it says, this is the Lord Jesus
Christ speaking. Right after he says that Lazarus
was dead. And I'm glad for your sakes that
I was not there to the intent that ye may believe. Nevertheless,
let us go on to him." Notice what the reason is here. The
purpose is that we believe. By God's grace, Jesus Christ
did this miracle, so we may believe on him. may we believe in Christ. This repeats itself all through
the book of John, and John in chapter 20, I believe, maybe
verse 30 and 31, he talks about the purpose of this gospel, and
the purpose of the gospel, the purpose that he wrote, all these
signs that Jesus Christ did, and they were chosen to be written
here. He did many more miracles, but
these were the ones that he chose, that God felt that we needed
to know, And they were all pointing to Christ. They were all God
glorifying. They were all Jesus Christ glorifying. And they were meant that we may
believe. They were meant for our benefit. God did them to give us faith
or to be an instrument that God uses so we may believe. And that's
super, super important there. And so now Jesus could have prevented
Lazarus from dying, right? Like I said before, he was there
hours, hours away. He could have gotten there and
he could have healed him, but he chose not to. He chose not
to. And this reminds me also of how
God the Father could also have prevented Adam from falling,
right? He could have prevented Adam
from falling. He could have prevented us from sinning, but he chose
not to. for his glory, for Jesus' glory,
for God's glory, so we may know what the angels do not experience,
which is the grace of God, the mercy of God, right? So he may
be able to do this work, do this, his works, the greatest of his
works, the Father's work is to save us. And that was all for
his glory. So he could have prevented us
from falling just like he could prevent Lasser from dying as
well. So in verse 15, 16, said Thomas,
which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, let us
go also with him. And so may we die with him, right?
He's saying, let us go. I think we're gonna die with
him. This is funny because eventually they do die with him, isn't he?
The Lord Jesus Christ goes there to resurrect Lazarus, which is
like a picture of him saving us. And the disciples accompany
the Lord Jesus Christ, and later they get sent to do the Great
Commission. And eventually, most of them,
except for John, they do die. They do die for spreading the
gospel. They die for that. That's another reason why we
can't see these things happening that are bad, right? We see sickness
as bad in the believer, but these disciples became his apostles. They were very dear to the Lord
Jesus Christ. They were probably the humans
closest to him, and yet they died horrible deaths, right?
They were martyrs, horrible death. But I say they're horrible, that
we're horrible as a human being, as the flesh, but not not as
God sees it. Right. They felt in the New Testament,
in the early church, the early fathers, they felt a privilege
to die for the gospel. They did not run. They did not
avoid it. They felt it a privilege, a blessing
to die for Christ and die for his gospels. Sometimes we don't
see it that way. And it's hard for us to see it
that way. But that's the way they saw it.
It does, of course, through the grace of God. If we had to die
that way, I am sure God will give you the grace to die that
way. He provides it at the right time.
So in verse 17, we see that when Jesus came, he found that He
was laying there in the grave for four days already. So there
was not going to be any question whether Lazarus was truly dead,
right? He was dead for four entire days,
for four days. The Jewish people, in their custom,
in their teaching, I'm not talking about the scriptures, but what
they believed was that This is their belief was that the spirit
was kind of lingering over the body when somebody died for two
or three days. But definitely for four days,
there was no hope whatsoever of a resurrection. This is what
they believe, what the Jewish people believe. So being that
it was four days, there was no question about it, even in their
teachings, that there was no hope, absolutely no hope for
Lazarus to be resurrected. if you go and try to find out
what happens to the body in four days after death. It is already
decayed. And we might not think that way
because we now do certain things to the body. They have certain
chemicals they use. And when we go to the funeral,
if it's an open casket, we see the body and it looks like a
person sleeping, right? And it could be four or five
days after they die. But not so back then. Back then
when somebody died, they buried them immediately. because there
was no such a process available. So it says that in verse 17, he was there four
days. There was no questioning about
that he was dead. I mentioned that because they
were, the Lord Jesus Christ had done two other resurrections. One was a little girl. and one
was a young man, and they both have died recently, but not with
Lazarus, not with Lazarus, four days already. And in verse 18,
it says, now Bethany was nigh into Jerusalem, and about 15
furlongs off, and many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary
to comfort them concerning their brother. We see here that Martha,
Mary, and Lazarus were loved in the community. They were very
well known. And this was the custom to come
and be with them. And of course, this is our comfort
with family that somebody that died, our comfort is limited,
isn't it? because the true comfort comes
from God. Only God can comfort the heart
of someone who has lost a loved one. So they were there, they
were doing what they can, but it's very limited of what we
can with somebody dies. We can't put really ourselves
in their place. We don't feel what they feel
and we cannot give comfort. We can say words, proper words,
but we need to point them to Christ. We need to point them
to God, who is the one that can comfort them. And he is the one
that can comfort them. So it's like preaching, of course.
Preaching is pointing to Christ. And so it's comforting. And that's
the only comfort that is available, the true comfort, is in Christ
Jesus. So we see here that In verse
18-19, many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort
them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard
that Jesus was coming, she went and met him. But Mary stayed,
she sat in the house. They had different personalities,
we noticed Martha and Mary. Then Martha went to meet with
him. Then Martha said to Jesus, Lord,
if thou had been here, my brother had not died. Okay, she made
a confession of faith there, right? It's a good confession
because it's true. The Lord Jesus Christ could have
prevented him from dying, right? But there was a limited view
of Christ, isn't it? And it's kind of like our faith
grows in time and it grows in time on Christ. Our perception of Christ grows.
And that's the believer's growth, is their estimation of Christ,
their estimation of God. And she had some faith there,
and it was a limited faith. It only believed that Jesus could
have prevented it. It did not believe at the time
that he could resurrect them, right? And also, it was somewhat
less than, remember when the centurion came to Jesus, right?
And Jesus was gonna heal the servant of the centurion and
the centurion said, no, no, no, you don't have to come to my
house. You could heal him from here. I'm a man of the authority. I know what is to be authority.
In other words, you don't have to come. I'm not worthy for you
to come to my house. You could heal him from right
here, right? So that was greater faith. And Jesus was surprised,
it said. But my point is that this is
not, huge faith here this was a faith but it could have been
better because Jesus did not have to be there to prevent him
from dying either right he did not have to be present but I
even know and then she confesses but I know that even now whatsoever
that will ask of God God will give it to thee this also sounds
good And it is good, and it is recommendable. But notice that
her trust is only on God, the Father, right? She believed that
Jesus' relationship with God was sufficient that God will
do whatever Jesus asks, right? And this is good, but she did
not understand who Jesus was yet. She didn't have a more understanding
And again, like I said, that's natural and that's the way our
faith grows also. All our estimations of Christ
right now are short. They are short of what Christ
really is, right? And also, any preaching, any
teaching about Christ, He's short. He's short. He's more. He's more
than we can express. He's more than we can preach.
And even when we're preaching the gospel and we're teaching
right doctrine, he's much more because we don't see him as he
really is. We see glimpse of Christ, but
he's more than that. So it's limited. But it's what
we have and the truth statements. and we rejoice in Christ. But,
and then says, he was in verse, let's see, 22, but I know that
even now, whatsoever thy ask of God, God will give it to thee. Jesus said unto her, thy brother
shall not, shall rise again. Okay, so he's telling him that
he's gonna be raised again. And of course he meant soon,
he did not mean later. Martha said unto him, I know,
that he shall rise again at the resurrection in the last days.
She had it right, right? She had the right understanding
of future events. She had right understanding of
eschatology or what's gonna happen. She had the right doctrine. But that's not our goal either. Because we could have right doctrine,
we could understand what Jesus is gonna do without really knowing
who Jesus is, understanding. And she didn't understand who
was standing in front of her. Verse 25, Jesus said unto her,
I am the resurrection and the life. Meaning, okay, it's good,
there is a future resurrection, but I need you to know that I
am the resurrection. I am the resurrection, okay? Resurrection is not a doctrine
that you learn in scripture. I mean, it is, but you're looking
at the resurrection. It's like kind of the Word of
God, right? We have the Word of God here, but Jesus was the
Word of God himself, okay? So himself The Lord Jesus Christ
is the resurrection. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
life. That very life that we receive,
that very life, eternal life that we receive from God is not
apart from Christ. It's not apart, it's Christ himself.
Christ himself is the life. And he that believeth in me,
though he were dead, he shall live. Whosoever liveth and believeth,
in me shall never die, believe it thou this?" And she says,
yeah, Lord, I believe that thou art Christ, the son of God, which
shall come into the world. This is kind of like the same
statement that Peter said, right? And this is a good statement,
and this is a right statement. And she believed the right things.
She just had a failure understanding who was it that was in front
of her. The very eternal life, the very resurrection that we
will receive is all in Christ. It is Christ himself. So she
said unto him, yes, I understand that you are the Messiah, right,
is what he's saying. And when she said, She so said
to him, she went her way and called Mary, her sister, secretly
saying, master has come and call her for thee. And soon she heard
that she arose, as soon as she heard that she arose quickly
and came onto him. This is Mary now. And now Jesus
was not there yet, right? He was not yet coming to the
town, but was at the place where Martha met him. The Jews then,
which were with her in the house, that were comforting her, when
they saw Mary and rose up hastily, and they went out, followed her,
saying, as she goeth to the grave, to weep there. They did not understand,
and this is common among the Jewish people. This is common
about any man that God does not reveal himself to. We misunderstand. Without God really revealing
what's going on, we don't understand anything. Without Christ, we
are as lost as these Jewish people here. Then when Mary had come
where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying
unto him, Lord, if thou have been here, my brother had not
died. Same thing that Martha said,
right? Again. believing that was her stage
of faith, believing that Christ could have prevented Lazarus
from dying, they were sure. And maybe it was a little, you
know, maybe they were sad because he wasn't there. Maybe they knew
where he was. But the point is, is that they
did not realize that he was the resurrection and the life. All they needed, really, is to
be loved by Christ. And they were, weren't they?
They were loved by Christ. Christ loved them. When Jesus,
therefore, saw her weeping, and the Jews were weeping, which
came with her, he groaned in the spirit and was troubled.
He was troubled. He was emotional. Not necessarily
all these Jews were weeping that were friends. Sometimes they
were just weeping because it was the custom to. Jesus certainly
grown in spirit and was troubled. He said, where have you laid
him? And they said unto him, Lord, come and see. And Jesus
wept. He did cry. And the Jews. Behold how he loved them." Now
the Jews knew, noticed that the Lord Jesus Christ loved Lazarus.
And some of them said, couldn't that this man which opened the
eyes of the blind have caused that even this man should not
have died again? The same. The same statement
that Martha and Mary made is a limited view of who Christ
was, right? Or who Christ is. Jesus, therefore,
again, groaning in himself, comes to the grave. It was a cave and
a stone laid up on it. And Jesus said, take away the
stone. Martha, the sister of him, said to him that Lord by this
time he stinketh for he has been dead for four days for four entire
days meaning there's no hope he's why are you taking over
the stone obviously she did not know what was about to happen
and and his condition is that he stinketh right which is man's
condition as well men stink towards god the father they are on the
God's wrath. They're dead in our sins, right?
So this is our condition before Christ as well. We stinketh without
Christ. And Jesus said unto him, he said,
I not unto thee that if would have believed thou should have
see the glory of God. Meaning, didn't I tell you in
the words that if thou believe thou will see the glory of God.
And then they took away the stone from the place where the dead
was laid, and Jesus lifted up his eyes. The Father, I thank
thee, for thou heard of me, thou hearest me. And I knew that thou
hearest me always. God the Father always heard the
Lord Jesus Christ. But because of the people which
stand by, I said it, that they might believe that has sent me,
again, this is the purpose, isn't it, of this miracle, is that
they may believe. They may have faith in Christ
Jesus, right? And that's why he's praying out
loud. That's why he's about to do this. This is so we may believe. And he that hath spoken, he cried
out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead
came forth bound hand and foot with grays clothes and his face
was bound about with a napkin and he said to loose him and
let him go. And here, he resurrects Lazarus. This resurrection was a temporary
resurrection. It's not the same resurrection
as we will receive with a glorified body. However, it is a picture
of our resurrection, of our first resurrection, which is our new
birth, right? It's a picture of that. Because
our new birth is also incomplete because we don't have the body
yet. resurrects him as he resurrects
every believer using his word his authority his timing right
whenever he he said and used by his word he resurrected him
just as he resurrected us by the gospel by the word of god
by the word of jesus christ and that sort of came forth that's
uh And this is another similarity, or this is a picture of the believers.
When the Lord calls, when the Lord does that irresistible call,
we come forth. We come forth. We cannot resist. We come forth, and he tells them,
lose them and let them go. And they start taking all the,
Or the clothes, the grave clothes that he had, which is also a
picture of our sin as we go in crisis as we come to Christ and
the Lord starts taking that away. But definitely this is a picture
of how God saves us. The Lord Jesus Christ. chooses
to save us, he gives us life. First of all, of course, he loves
us as he loved Lazarus. He came where we were, right?
They didn't bring Lazarus to him, he came to us. And he called
us by his word and saved us that way. And it's all for his glory
and honor, for the Lord Jesus Christ's glory and honor. Let's stand together, we'll sing
hymn number 225.