Good morning. Let's open this morning's service
with hymn number 21 from your spiral gospel hymns, hymnal number
21. Our very familiar hymn, The Covenant, Ordered and Sure. Let's
all stand together. Number 21. The Father and the Son and the
Spirit be in one. In eternal ages past, made a
covenant sure and fast, God my Father chose His own in the person
of His Son, and ordained that I should be one with Him God the Son agreed to come in
the flesh to bring me home. He would keep God's holy law
and retrieve me from the fall. Christ in love so willingly,
Stood as my great surety. For my price He offered blood,
To appease the wrath of sin. God the Spirit, heavenly dove,
promised to come down in love, bringing life and peace and grace
to the chosen Church's grace. He seeks the lost, heals the
lame, and He brings us to the Lamb. By His mighty sovereign
call, God's elect are gathered all. This poor sinner is secure,
For God's covenant will endure. It is sealed by God's own word,
by His Spirit and His blood. Blessed Holy Covenant God, I
am yours by ties of blood, ties of grace and ties of love. Hold me to my God. Please be seated. I am so thankful to be able to
sing that hymn with a little bit of understanding. What a
glorious, gracious, and great God it is that we serve. Always
faithful to his covenant and always has nothing but good for
his people. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 107. I was thinking as we were singing,
that's probably my favorite hymn. I know it is when we're singing
it, but just so much gospel in that hymn. Trevor was supposed to have the
call to worship this morning, and most of you know that Trevor
and Sarah's house was flooded. And so they thought they would
be able to come this morning, but they weren't able to be here.
So I'm standing in his place. You have your Bibles open to
Psalm 107. Notice the end of verse 27. They reel to and fro,
stagger like drunken men, and are at their wit's end. Did you know that phrase came
from the Bible? To be at your wit's end. It's
a good thing. It's a good thing when God brings
us to our wit's end. We're not able anymore to handle
whatever it is he has sent our way. When the Lord makes you
to be a sinner, you're certainly at your wit's end. Your wit is
not capable to figure it out. God brings us to the end of ourselves
is a good thing. Why? Because of verse 28. When
we come to our wit's end, we cry unto the Lord in our trouble,
and he bringeth them out of their distresses. He maketh the storm
a calm, so that the waves thereof are still. Then they are glad,
because they be quiet. And he bringeth them unto their
desired haven. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness. and for his wonderful works to
the children of men. Let them exalt him also in the
congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of
the elders." We've come this morning to do just that, to praise
our God, knowing that every molecule of water and every Breath of
wind came from his hand. He has nothing but good for his
people. It's good, it's good to be brought
to our wits end, isn't it? It's only then that we cry unto
him. Amos put it like this in Amos chapter three, verse six.
Shall there be evil in the city and the Lord not cause it? I
looked up that word evil, it doesn't always apply to moral perversity. This word evil
can also, although the Lord is sovereign over that too, the
wrath of man shall praise him and the remainder he shall restrain. But this word evil can also be
interpreted hurt, trouble, or afflicted. we felt just a little bit of
the Lord's affliction this week. And we know that he sent it,
he sent it. Show us his power, make us dependent
upon him. And that's to fulfill his purpose
and to get to himself glory through the faith of his people. I was talking to my neighbor,
and he kept using the word lucky. You know, we were just really
lucky. We'd be careful. I know sometimes you and I say
things we don't really believe, but let's be very careful how
we speak. There's no such thing as luck.
No such thing as chance or, you know, those sort of things. Our
God controls the winds. And he does. Somebody told me
before this thing came, well, I sure hope it steers away from
you. And I said to them, I said, I'm confident that this storm
is going to do exactly what it is supposed to do. And it has
done exactly what it was supposed to do. I hope that one of its
purposes, one of the Lord's purposes is to cause you and I to come
before Him and worship Him and be glad and thankful. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, we come before Thy throne of
grace in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Savior, our
Lord, our sin bearer, our substitute. Lord, we pray that in this hour
you would give us the wind of your spirit that we might find
ourselves resting in and looking to and believing on thy dear
son and all the precious promises that you've given us in your
word. Lord, forgive us for our vanity. Forgive us for our unbelief. Thank you for the shed blood
of thy dear son that hides all the sins of your people from
your holy eyes. Lord, might we find reason this
morning by your grace to rejoice, to be glad, to be thankful. We ask it in Christ's name. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin. Precious is the name of Jesus,
Who can half its worth unfold, Far beyond angelic praises, Sweetly
sung to harps of gold. Precious when to Calvary throning,
He endured the cursed tree. Precious when His death atoning,
Made an end of sin for me. Precious in His death victorious,
He the host of hell or throes, In His resurrection glorious,
Victor crowned all His foes. Precious Lord, beyond expressing
are Thy beauties all divine. Glory, honor, power, and blessings
be henceforth forever Thine. Please be seated. Psalm 145 verse 15 says, the
eyes of all wait upon thee, and thou givest them their meat in
due season. Proverbs 15.23 says, a word spoken
in due season, how good is it? I hope the Lord will give us
a word in due season this morning. In his perfect timing and providence,
we've been looking at the miracles that are recorded in the book
of John on Wednesday nights. And not being able to meet last
Wednesday night, I'd been thinking about the last of the seven miracles,
which is the raising of Lazarus from the dead. And I thought,
what a word in due season this story is for us, to remind us
of the brevity of our life and where our real hope stands. We're going to begin looking
at a verse in Isaiah chapter 43. We've experienced this week just
a small taste of how temporal the things of this world are.
And I trust that the Lord has reminded all of us of the importance
of those things which are not seen. The scripture says that
we look not on the things which are seen, for the things which
are seen are temporal. But the things which are not
seen, those are the eternal matters. Those are the matters that are
most important. All the things that we work so
hard to acquire and work so hard to maintain will one day be meaningless
to us. We brought nothing into this
world and surely we should take nothing out of it. Oh, I pray. You know, we, we, Solomon said
that vanity of vanities, all is vanity. The real vanity is
us. That's the real vanity. You know,
that we would put so much stock and we would hang so much of
our comfort and our happiness on material things. We're the ones that are so vain.
And I think a word in due season for us this morning is just to
remind us of that and for the Lord to show us. You know, I
was thinking about men's last words, I think it was P.T. Barnum that said in his dying
breath, what was the take at Madison Square Gardens today? Queen Elizabeth I, not the one
who just died, but the one who died back in the early 1600s,
is supposed to have said in her dying breath, all my possessions
for another moment of time. That's the world's view, isn't
it? That's the world's view. Oh, we got lucky. Oh, this, we
dodged a bullet. You know, you can't dodge a bullet.
You cannot dodge a bullet. Take it from one who was not
able to dodge. You don't know that bullet's
coming until it, I mean, you know the bullet's there before
you ever hear the gun go off. You can't dodge a bullet. We
didn't dodge a bullet. We didn't. You know, and if God
gets ready to shoot you, you're not going to dodge that, are
you? No, those are the way the world
looks at this thing. Our God is so merciful, and He's
so powerful, and He's so sovereign, and He's good. You know, we don't
like things to be hard. We don't. We like easy. I like
easy. Don't you like easy? And yet, oftentimes, the Lord's
providence is hard. It's difficult. But more times
than not, hard is good and easy is bad. So, you know, count it
all joy, my brother, when you fall into diverse temptation,
knowing that the trine of your faith worketh patience. And patience,
when it is complete, makes you perfect and the entire lacking
in nothing. The Lord in his good providence.
You know, another word that we use oftentimes is we'll say something's
good or something's bad. That's not true for the child
of God. Not true for the child of God. It's all good. And we're
the only ones that can say with absolute certainty, it is all
good. God works all things together
for good, for them that love him, those that are called according
to his purpose. That doesn't mean it's always easy. Sometimes
it's hard, but it's always good. Always good. Oh, might we? And we ought never to complain.
And that that's all we do, isn't it? We ought not. We, this hour,
this hour, I pray the Lord would, would bless our hearts with his
grace and with his mercy to cause us to rejoice in him. Truly, truly life is a vapor. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
43. If you haven't got your Bibles
open there yet. Isaiah 43 verse one, and now thus saith the Lord. That's all the believer needs
to know. What does God say? What does God say? I'm gonna
hang all the hopes of my immortal soul on what God says. Doesn't matter what man says,
doesn't matter what I think, what does God say? How oftentimes
we read, thus saith the Lord. There's our comfort, isn't it?
God has spoken. Might he give us ears to hear
what he has said? Not just an audible ear, but
a spiritual ear. to believe what he has said. Thus saith the Lord that created
thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear not, for
I have redeemed thee. Notice the tense. It's not I
will redeem thee, I have redeemed thee. He was offered up for our
offenses and raised again because of our justification, being therefore
justified. By faith, we have peace with
God through the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, when He
shed His precious blood on Calvary's cross, didn't make an offering
of that blood to us. He made that offering of that
blood to His Father. And that blood was sufficient
to cover all the sins of all of Jacob, of all of Israel. I have redeemed thee. There's going to come a moment
in time. I pray that we taste it now when the things that we
worry so much about are going to be insignificant. The Lord
has redeemed us. That's what's important. That's
the spiritual. I have called thee by thy name
and thou art mine. You belong to me. When thou passeth
through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers
they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the fire kindle
upon thee, for I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Saba for thee. In another place we read where
the Lord says the nations, the nations of the world are a drop
in the bucket. They are a speck on the scale. They are of no significance.
Everything that God is doing, He is doing it for Israel, for
Jacob. God sent this storm for us, for
you and me, to see just a little bit of His glory and of His power. that we might bow to him. Look at verse four. Since thou
wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable and I have
loved thee, therefore will I give men for thee and people for thy
life. Fear not, fear not, for I am
with thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather them from the west. I will say to the North, give
up. And to the South, give not back. Bring my sons from far,
my daughter from the end of the earth. Oh, I have formed thee. I'm the potter, you're the clay.
That's what he goes on to tell us. Habakkuk is one of those small
books in the end of your Old Testament, right before Zephaniah,
after Nahum. If you'd like to open your Bibles
with me to Habakkuk, there's a wonderful passage of scripture
here. I pray the Lord will make this
our experience. Habakkuk chapter three. Verse
17, although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit
be in the vines. The labor of the olive tree shall
fail and the fields shall yield no meat. The flock shall be cut
off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls. Lost everything. And some people
have. Some people lost everything.
Yet, yet, I will rejoice in the Lord. I will joy in the God of
my salvation. Child of God, Christ has redeemed
you and you have him. You have everything. You have
everything. Christ is all. And he knows the
needs of his children. He's able to save our souls. He's certainly able to provide
for our material needs, isn't he? We trust him to that end. All right, that's the introduction
to this message. If you'll open your Bibles with
me to John chapter 11, John chapter 11. The entire chapter is given
to this miracle, at least 46 verses. And for the sake of time,
we're not going to try to read them all. Most of you are familiar
with what happened in John chapter 11, but I want to read some selected
verses to set the picture for us that we might benefit from
this miracle. now in this time, this day, that
this might be a fit word for us. John chapter 11 will begin
in verse 1. Now a certain man was sick named
Lazarus of Bethany in 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 sister sent unto
him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said,
This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that
the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that
he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where
he was. Now in the previous chapter,
the Lord tells us he was on the other side of Jordan where John
had been baptizing. And when the Lord gets word that
Lazarus is sick, he remains there for two days before heading back
to Bethany. Verse 15, I was glad for your sakes that
I was not there to the intent that ye may believe. Nevertheless, let us go into
him. The Lord says, okay, after two days, he says to the disciples,
we're going to go to Jerusalem. And the disciples, They object
to going back to Jerusalem in fear that the Lord will be killed
by the Jews. And the Lord said, no, we're
going. And so he tells us that the reason
why he stayed would be that when he got there, that Lazarus would
be dead and in the grave for four days. Look at verse 20. Then Martha, as soon as she heard
that Jesus was coming, went and met him. But Mary sat still in
the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus,
Lord, if thou had been here, my brother had not died. But
I know that even now, whatsoever thou will ask of God, God will
give it to thee. Jesus said unto her, thy brother
shall rise again. Now that's what this whole miracle
is about. It's about the resurrection.
It's about life after death. It's about eternal life in Christ. And Martha said unto him, I know
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
And Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? And she
said unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the
Son of God, which should come into the world. I'll go down
to verse 31. The Jews then, which were with
her in the house and comforted her, when they saw Mary that
she rose up hastily and went out, followed her saying, she
goeth unto the grave to weep there. Look at verse 42. And I knew, I'm sorry, the Lord
Jesus is praying to the Father in verse 42. And I knew that
thou hearest me always. But because of the people which
stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent
me. And when he thus had spoken,
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead
came forth, bound a hand and foot with grave clothes, and
his face was bound about with a napkin. And Jesus said unto
them, Loose him, and let him go. Then many of the Jews which
came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed
on him. And some of them went their ways
to the Pharisees. and told them what things Jesus
had done. Now very quickly with the time
that we have left, I want us to consider four things in this
miracle. The people of the miracle. The purpose of the miracle. the promises of the miracle and
the proclamation of the miracle. And I hope that those, that alliteration
is not just some clever way of, I hope that they will be hooks
to hang your thoughts on, that these will be the message that
God has for us today. The first thing we see is the
people of the miracle. And the first ones that stand
out are Lazarus and Martha and Mary. And the scripture says
that he loved them. He loved them. You know, it is
the love of God that is the first cause of our salvation. The Lord
tells us that he has loved his people with an everlasting love. There's never been a time when
God did not see his elect in Christ and did not love them. Romans chapter eight says, they
whom he did foreknow. And the word foreknow there means
that he loved. He did predestinate to be conformed
to the image of His Son. And them which He predestinated,
He called. And them which He called, He
justified. And them which He justified,
He glorified. It all begins with the foreknowledge
of God, with the love of God. Oh, what great hope we have. That there's a people, there
is a people that God loves. That he loves them according
to his own purpose. What made them to differ? God
made them to differ. God chose a people in the covenant
of grace before the world ever began. And God placed his love
on them. That love is very particular.
Jacob I have loved, Esau I have hated. This idea that there's
a God in heaven that loves everybody and wants everybody to be saved
and he's doing his best, but you know, men overpower his love
by not allowing him to love them. That's just not, that's not the
God that is. That's not the God that is. The
God who is, his love is irresistible. It's effectual. You say, well,
how do I know I love him? Because how do I know he loves
me? We love him because he loved
us. We love the way in which he saves. We love a gospel that
is completely dependent upon him for the hope of our salvation. We have no interest in a salvation
that adds to or takes away from the accomplished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We love sovereign grace. We love
a God who is omnipotent in salvation. That's who we love. And so this
love of God, which is eternal, which is particular, is also
effectual. It's effectual. And it's a sovereign
love. I've loved them according to
my purpose, according to my will. The second group of people that
we see here, which the Lord also loved, is the disciples. And
we didn't read all the verses that relate to these disciples,
but they didn't know what the Lord meant when the Lord said,
is sick." And they responded by saying, well, Lord, if he's
sick, then he'll recover. And the Lord finally spoke plainly
to them and said, Lazarus is dead. Lazarus is dead. And I'm reminded of what the
disciples said when they said, Lord, why do you speak to them
in parables? And the Lord said, because it's
for you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. For them,
it's not to be known. The ignorance of the disciples
is demonstrated in them not understanding what the Lord was saying about
Lazarus, but the The salvation of the disciples is illustrated
in their willingness to express their ignorance. Lord, I don't
know what you, we don't know what you're talking about. You're
going to have to be, you're going to have to be clear to us. You're
going to have to teach us. You know, we've, thus saith the
Lord, and yet we have no way. The hearing ear, the seeing eye,
those are of God. Lord, here's the evidence that
you're a disciple of God. Lord, teach me. Lord, show me. Lord, speak to me. Lord, I can't. I can't understand what you're
saying unless you show me. How can I, Lord? Here's the natural
man. Lord, if you lead me to myself,
I'm just gonna be a natural man. And the natural man cannot receive
the things of the Spirit, for they are spiritually discerned. Lord, I must have your Holy Spirit. We have Lazarus and his sisters,
Mary and Martha, whom the Lord loved. We have these ignorant
disciples. And I use that word ignorant
in its proper sense. They did not know. They did not
understand. I'm not sliding the disciples.
I'm saying that you and I are ignorant. We don't know. We can't
understand unless the Lord teach us. And so we come to him. And we say to him, Lord, teach
us. Lord, show us what you mean. These disciples also, like you
and me, have an overestimation of themselves. Thomas, in this
passage, when the Lord, they tried to keep the Lord from going
back to Jerusalem. They said, Lord, don't, why would
you go back? The Jews have already threatened
to kill you. When you go back into the city, they're going
to, which they ultimately did. And the Lord said, no, we're
going. And Thomas said, we're gonna, Thomas did the same thing
here that Peter did at the Last Supper. And Thomas, the only
difference is that Thomas looked at the other disciples and said,
okay, men, let's go, we're gonna die with him. We're gonna die
with him. And it's just a few days when
he was arrested. They not only didn't die with
him, they scattered. They ran for their lives and
they hid out. They had an overestimation of
themselves. Peter at the last supper, Lord,
they may forsake you, but not me, I'm gonna die with you. And
that very night he denied the Lord three times, didn't he?
With cursing. Can you see yourself in these
disciples? Having too high a view of yourself? What a blessed thing it is. when
the Lord exposes our sin and shows us how weak. When you were yet without strength,
Christ died for the ungodly. His strength is made perfect
in my weakness, I will not share my glory with
another. The Lord is going to humble his
people and cause them to see how dependent they are on their
strength. Here's another group of people
in this story. The third group of individuals
we have in the story, we read about in verse 31. Go back with me to that verse.
The Jews then which were with her in the house and comforted
her, when they saw Mary that she rose up hastily and went
out, followed her saying, she goeth into the grave to weep
there. Let's go with her. Now, from what I understand in
this culture, that there were professional mourners, paid mourners. These were people that would
come to your house, and they would weep real tears, and they
would cry. You know, we've seen funeral
processions in the Middle East even today, where people flail
their emotions loudly. And it was to be some sort of
cathartic experience that would help them to mourn. And that's
what these professional mourners were for. Who does this group remind you
of? I'll tell you who it reminds
me of. You know, the word here is hypocrite. Hypocrite. And our English word hypocrite
is almost an exact translation of the Greek word hypocrite.
And in the original language, it didn't mean, it wasn't a word
that was used to to to spurn someone's character it was just
to simply say that's an actor the greek actors were called
hypocrites actors actors that's all they're doing now i understand
that there's a degree of hypocrisy in every single one of us and
we act to be something that we're not but you know what i see here
i see religious people who don't know god who are pretending to
pray, they're pretending to worship. Oh, they're raising their hands
and they're crying out and they're, and they're weeping alligator
tears and they're acting as if they're being spiritual and it's
all feigned. Cause when you talk to them,
they don't believe the God they're worshiping is sovereign. They
don't believe he's holy. How could you express worship
toward a God who's not holy, a God who's not sovereign? I hope that you're thinking what
I'm thinking right now. Lord, don't let me be a hypocrite
when it comes to worship. Don't let me act spiritual just
for the sake of impressing another man or somehow soothing my own
conscience. Lord, make it real to my heart. Give me your, the Lord told that
woman at the well, they that worship God must worship him
in spirit and in truth. And then he said, if you being
evil know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much
more your heavenly father will give the Holy Spirit to them
that ask him, here's what these hypocrites do for me. They caused
me to say, Lord, give me your Holy Spirit. Enable me to worship
you, not in a feigned acting way like religious people do,
but in spirit and in truth. Lord, give me the truth. Let me know Christ. Let me know
what it is. Let me understand. Well, you
see, we're back to the disciples, aren't we? Lord, if you don't
teach us, I'll be ignorant and I will have a way too high estimation
of myself. The fourth group of people that
I see in this story are found in verse 46. Now imagine with
me that you're there in Bethany, that the Lord Jesus shows up, You've been there mourning with
Martha and Mary. Maybe you're one of the professional
mourners. Maybe you're just there because Bethany is just right
on the other side of Mount of Olives from the city of Jerusalem,
and so it's just walking distance from the city. And Mary and Martha and Lazarus
were obviously some people of means and notoriety in that area. And so you're there and the Lord
shows up with the disciples. And he prays audibly to the Father. And you listen to that prayer.
And then he commands that the stone be moved. And Martha objects
and says, but Lord, he's been dead for four days. His body
stinks. It'll be so shameful to let that
out. The Lord said, move the stone.
And then with a loud voice, the Lord Jesus Christ cries out,
Lazarus, come forth. And here comes this man, wrapped
from head to toe like a mummy. taking baby steps out of that
tomb. And the Lord says, loose him
and let him go. And you watch the whole thing.
You observe the entire thing. And instead of believing on Christ
and bowing to him and rejoicing in him and what he's just done,
you run back to Jerusalem to tell the Pharisees what just
happened. And in the next few verses, the
Pharisees get together and they say, what are we going to do?
If we let this man continue, everybody's going to follow him.
You, you become part of the plot. to put him to death, lest you,
the Pharisees who gathered together later, they said, lest we lose
our place and our power, unless we lose our position, unless
we be humbled by this one who is declaring himself to be God,
we've got to put him to death. It reminds me of the, The rich
man and Lazarus. Remember the rich man goes to
hell and Lazarus is in the bosom of Abraham. And the rich man
cries out to Abraham and says, Father Abraham, send Lazarus
with his finger, a drop of water on my tongue to cool my tongue
in this torment of this fire. And Abraham responds to Lazarus,
who's in hell, and says to him, a great gulf is fixed between
us. Lazarus can't come to you. Your
end is fixed. And you remember what the rich
man just said? Let me say one other thing. We often hear people
say when someone dies, they're looking down at us from heaven. That's never happened. Heaven
would not be heaven if someone was in heaven able to look at
you and or anything else in this world. When you draw your last
breath and you go to be with the Lord in glory, no memory
of this life will go with you and no sight of this world will
be with you. That just does not happen. However,
The people in hell. You know, I hear people say of
someone who I know didn't believe the gospel where they're looking
at us from heaven. Well, they may be looking at
you, but it's not from heaven. How do you know that preacher? Because
Lazarus said, I have five brothers. At least send Lazarus back to
the earth to warn them of this place of torment. And what did
Abraham say? to Lazarus when he was in hell. Abraham said, they have Moses
and the prophets. If they believe not them, neither
will they believe, yet one be raised from the dead. Here's
an, these people just watched Lazarus raised from the dead
and they didn't believe. We have Moses and the prophets. What God has said, we've got
the word of God. If you don't believe the word of God, if you
do not believe the word of God, you are not going to believe
any manifestation of supernatural power that God would ever show
you if you don't believe. Peter speaks of this when he
talks about, he said, we handled the word of God. We did not bring
to you fables. We did not bring to you stories
that we made up. And he's talking about the Mount
of Transfiguration when he says, we saw the veil of his humanity
fall away and we saw the radiance of his deity shine forth like
the noonday sun. And we fell on our face and we
heard the audible voice of God from heaven saying, this is my
beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. What greater mountaintop
experience would a person need in order to believe the gospel?
And the next verse says, yet we have a more sure word of prophecy. We have something that's more
certain to convince us and to give us faith than that experience. What am I saying to you? Don't
wait for an experience. Don't wait for a feeling. Don't
wait for something to happen that's going to convince you
that these things are true. Believe God. Believe God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. And faith comes by hearing and
hearing comes by the word of God. Of his own will begat he
us with the word of truth. There's the means by which the
Lord is pleased to save. These men ran back to Jerusalem. And they reported what had happened,
not believing what they had just seen. Which was the purpose of the
miracle? The purpose of the miracle. Look
at verse 15. I am glad for your sakes that
I was not there to the intent that you may believe." God is being very clear as to
what he's doing here. When the report first came, Lazarus
was sick. The Lord knows he's dead at the
travel time. By the time he got back, it's
four days he'd been dead. So actually, when they reported
that he was sick, he was already dead. He's already dead. It's a one-day travel time. They
didn't know it. They came saying he was sick.
No, he's not sick, he's dead. And so the Lord waits until he's
decomposing in the grave for four days. This miracle is for
the glory of God that you might believe. Look at verse 26. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Believest
thou this? I'm so thankful that salvation
is by faith, through faith, by grace, through faith. For by
grace are you saved through faith. And that faith is not of yourself,
it's a gift of God. Lord, I wanna have faith. I wanna
believe. You know how you know you believe?
You can't not believe. You just can't not believe. You're
resting and rejoicing all the hope of your immortal soul on
the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you've got
no place else to go. You got no place else to go. Lord, I do believe. I do believe. Look at verse 42 in this same
chapter. And I knew, here's our Lord praying
to his father. And I knew that thou hearest
me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said
it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. Rich young ruler. Lord, what
work can I work in order to work the works of
God? And our Lord said, this is the work of God. This is the
work of God. This isn't your work for God.
This is God's work for you, that you believe on him whom he has
sent. Just believe. Believe on Christ. Rest all the hope of your life
now And your eternal soul on the promises of God and the person
of Christ, and just believe on Him. Believe on Him. If thou believest, will all thine
heart thou mayest. You know what Philip told the
Ethiopian eunuch? I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Look at our text. Look at what
Martha says in verse 27. She said unto him, yea, Lord,
yes, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Messiah. The anointed one, the one sent
of God in the power of the Spirit of God to accomplish the salvation
of all of Israel. I believe that's who you are. The Son of God. The sovereign, eternal, infinite
I am. The second person of the triune
Godhead. That's who I believe you are. If you believe he's God, then
you believe he's absolutely sovereign and omnipotent. A God stripped
of sovereignty is not God. That's an idol that men make
in the darkened imagination of their own hearts. And we're just preaching Christ
as God. That's what we're doing, aren't
we? We're saying that Jesus Christ is God. He's God. And any suggestion that he would
not be able to save someone because they wouldn't allow him, strips
him of his deity. Any suggestion that he died for
people who end up in hell, strips him of his deity. It denies him
to be God. Any suggestion whatsoever that
limits His power in any way, we bow in faith to the glorious
person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We worship Him. John tells us at the end of the
Gospel of John in chapter 20 and verse 30, he said, many other
signs did Jesus in the company of his disciples
that are not recorded in this book, but these have been written. in order that you might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and that
believing you might have life through his name. Here's the
reason for the miracle. Here's the reason that the Lord
Jesus Christ allowed Lazarus to rot in the tomb for four days
and to come and miraculously raise him from the dead. That you and I might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And that believing,
we might have life through his name. Otherwise, all we've got is what
this world has. All we've got. Here's the glorious truth, child
of God. This world is the best. that the unbeliever is ever gonna
have. And it's the worst that the believer
is ever gonna have. Oh, the trials of this life cannot
be compared to the glory that shall be revealed in us. Our
Lord, has power over death. The wages of sin is death. God made him sin for us that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. The Lord Jesus
Christ bore the sins of God's people in his body upon Calvary's
tree and suffered the full wrath of God. That sin might be put
away and therefore death destroyed. Death is destroyed. The Lord sends these little trials. show us how vain
and how temporal the things of this world really are, that we
might set our hopes on his son as the Christ, the Son of God,
for the forgiveness of our sins. The promise We're just having one service
this morning, so I'll go over a couple minutes. The promise
of this miracle, seeing something of the people involved in this
miracle, Mary, Martha, Lazarus, the disciples, the feigned mourners,
and the Jews that ran back to Jerusalem that didn't believe
in spite of what they saw. we see clearly what the purpose
of this miracle is that you and me might believe. And that believing,
we have life, life through his name. The promise of this miracle is
found in verse 25. Look, Jesus said unto her, when
she said, Lord, I know that my brother will rise again in the
resurrection, hanging her hopes on the fact that there would
be a resurrection from life and that that event was going to
be her brother's hope. And the Lord Jesus Christ said,
oh Martha, I am the resurrection. and the life. He that believeth on me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
on me shall never die." Never die. The Lord's told us this
glory. He is the promise. He is the
promise. We're not just hanging the hopes
of our immortal soul on some words. We're hanging them on
the living word of God. John begins with that. In the
beginning was the word, Christ Jesus. The scripture says that
he is the yea and the amen. That means the yes and the surety
of all the promises of God. All the promises of God. hang
on the accomplished work and the glorious person of the Lord
Jesus Christ. He has given unto us great and
precious promises that we might be made partakers of the divine
nature, Christ in you, the hope of glory, the hope of glory,
many hopes, have been dashed this week among worldly people
having lost things. Where's our hope? Where's our
hope? I am the resurrection. I am the
life. There's no life in this world. In closing, I want you to see
the proclamation that the Lord Jesus Christ makes at the end
of this miracle. The first one is when he cried
with a loud voice and said, Lazarus, come forth. The call of God. Did Lazarus have any decision
to make? Did he have any experience there? Did he have any say-so over it?
Could he say, no, Lord, I'm comfortable right here. I think I'll just
stay right here. No, when God, my sheep hear my voice and they
follow me. Aren't you glad? Aren't you glad? The call of God is irresistible.
It's effectual. You can't say no. Not if he calls you. Some believed and some believed
not. If you believed, you were passive
in your believing. And if you believed not, you
were actively a participant in not believing. Let me give you
a very simple illustration. Two people standing outside and
it begins to rain. One person stands still and gets
wet. They are passive. The other person
pulls out an umbrella and puts it over their head and then runs
for shelter. They are active. When the showers of God's grace
come down from heaven to save his people, they stand still
and they are passive and getting wet with the grace of God. And those who throw up their
umbrella and run for shelter and say no to God are actively
participating in their unbelief. I'm so thankful that I don't
have to do anything to believe. Just stand still. Just stand
still. Be a passive recipient. in the
mercies and grace of God. How do I know if I've been effectually
called? I'll tell you how you know. Right
now, you're coming to Christ. You're not looking back to an
experience that you had 10 years ago or two days ago when you
prayed a prayer and made a decision. Right now, you are coming to
Christ. Right now, you are hanging all
the hopes of your mortal soul on His glorious person and His
accomplished work of redemption right now. That's the only way
you're gonna know. You look back to an experience, you're not
gonna know, but right now. Second proclamation that the
Lord makes, and I hope this will be a great comfort to my brethren
in Christ, loosing and letting free. You know, our whole walk
of faith is being loosed from the grave clothes of our old
man. Now I've heard people say, Let
me make this absolutely clear. I've heard people say when someone
expresses a works gospel, well, that's just their grave clothes.
No, that's not grave clothes. That's not grave clothes. To
hold on to some false gospel or some false hope of salvation
or some bad doctrine, that's not grave clothes. Grave clothes
is what every believer experiences every day dealing with their
old man. That's our grave clothes. Lord,
I believe, help thou my unbelief. Lord, I've got this dead man
strapped to my back all the time. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? That's grave clothes. And when you're hearing the gospel
and you're hearing about the glorious person and the accomplished
work of the Son of God, the Christ, you're being loosed and set free. thank you for there is now therefore
no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk
not after the flesh but after the spirit they're looking right
now you're looking spiritually to the accomplished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ to make you free and if the son makes you
free you shall be free indeed every time we come together child
of God we are unwrapping the grave clothes and setting God's
people free, free in Christ, free in deed,
free to love God, free to worship, free to come into the presence
of God boldly with confidence to find help in our time of need. Free and knowing that, yes, those
grave clothes are already, they've already, what do you suppose
they did with those grave clothes after they took them off of Lazarus?
I'm sure, I mean, you know, mummified rags, I'm sure they burned them.
Oh, they've all been burned. All those grave clothes have
already been burned by the fire of God's wrath that fell on Calvary's
cross. There's our hope. Yes, we carry
an old man. One day that old man's gonna
be put in the grave. We're gonna see Him as He is
and be made like Him. In the meantime, oh, this world is just so, so temporal, isn't it? It really
is. Our Heavenly Father, Thank you
for your word. Thank you for your spirit. Thank
you, Lord, for the comfort and the encouragement that you give
to your children. Thank you for the light of the
gospel that shines in our hearts in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Thank you for the gift of faith. Thank you for loosing
us from our grave clothes. Lord, You continue to keep us and loose
us and make us free in Christ. For it's in His name we pray.
Amen. Number 37. Number 37. Let's stand
together.