Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to John 11. John chapter 11. The scripture sets forth that
our Lord, verse 39, had troubled himself. entering in to his brethren's
feeling. I said 39, actually it was 33. When he saw Mary weeping and
the Jews, he groaned in the Spirit and troubled himself. He actually
entered in. If something is grieving you, even if I've experienced basically
what you have experienced, I can't completely enter into the depth
of it because I'm not you. I don't know all the circumstances,
but He has did. and does, even right now, ever
living to make intercession, that He knows the heart of His
people. He gave it to them. He is their life. That new man is the life of Christ. He is
our life. Therefore, He knows. It's Him. Now, the scripture sets forth
that Martha questions the Lord when He told him in verse 39,
he said, take ye away the stone. As we looked last time, they were going to actually have
to physically smell the stench of death when that stone was
going to be moved. Lazarus had been dead four days.
And they were going to have to experience the smell of death. Martha even entered in and said,
Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days.
Now, does it not amaze us when we see him doubted? But let me ask you this, do we
not do the same thing? Do we not doubt Him who holds
the keys to life and death? The Lord who called Lazarus from
this life Didn't Martha realize that he
knew the state of the one that he loved? The Lord knew where
he was. The Lord removed his life from
him. But oh, the mercy of God toward
his own, for his name's sake. Lord, by now he stinketh. The Lord said to Martha in verse
40, "...said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe,
thou shouldest see the glory of God?" That one question that
Martha asked him, Lord, remove the stone? By now, whether or not you know
it or not, He's already begun to decay. That one question, but for the
grace of God, would have been enough to have cast Martha into
hell. But he loved Martha. That's what
Scripture says. He loved Martha, Mary, Lazarus. And he eternally purposed that
she would be forever. with Him and every other object
of His mercy, He would soon go to the cross and pay the penalty,
the guilt of her doubt. And the Father had seen that
blood slain from before the foundation of the world. That's the only
reason that God didn't justly put her in hell. And every other
person has ever been born in this world. There's not a deserving
one. There's none good. No, not one. The Scripture says, when she
questioned Him... Now, I want you to look what
happened just so we can get the impact. Verse 40, Jesus saith,
Oh, I'm sorry, verse 39. Jesus said, take ye away the
stone. Now, Martha, the sister of him
that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh,
for he hath been dead four days. Now let me ask you this, who
spoke first? The Lord. The Lord. Take ye away the stone." Martha
then said, Lord, by now, he's beginning to stink. The Lord said to her, said I
not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe thou shouldest see the
glory of God? And verse 41 says, they took away the stone from
the place where the dead was laid. Or what impact that word
then has. Take ye away the stone. Lord,
by now, he's beginning to stink. The Lord said, didn't I say to
you, that you would see the glory of God. Then, after the Lord
graciously put her in her place, after they hesitated, for but
a moment, when Martha spoke, oh, the fear of man brings a
snare. Why would they stop? Fear. Well, this is his sister. Well, she's got a good point
there. Maybe you know what? Maybe. But
whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe. And Peter said in Acts 5.29,
we ought to obey God rather than man. What did the Lord tell them
to do? Move the stone. Martha reacted
with an objection. The Lord spoke. And then after
Martha didn't say anything, then they took away the stone from
the place where the dead was laid. Sadly, how slow is man
to obey the Word of God. How thankful we ought to be that
He does not impute sin to His people. Just a hesitation, a
moment's hesitation is enough. We don't realize who we're dealing
with. Verse 41, the Scripture says,
Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead
was laid. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and He said, Father,
I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me. Here is the Son of Man. Now here is the obedient servant,
the Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty, in human flesh. Flesh that was
prepared to Him. Flesh that knew no sin. Flesh
that was meek. He humbled himself. And here
is our federal head. Here is the one doing exactly
what we must do in the establishment of righteousness. But we can't. And he does. Here is the Lord
Jesus Christ lifting up His eyes and said, Father, I thank You. I thank You that You've heard
me. Listen to this. I spoke on this
scripture a few weeks ago. Proverbs 3, 5 and 6. Trust in
the Lord with all thine heart. And lean not unto thine own understanding,
in all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy path."
Here is the Lord Jesus Christ doing exactly as His Father dictated. Here
is God in human flesh saying, God, God Almighty, saying, The
words that I speak, they're not mine. But they're the Father's. What
humility! What meekness to bow! Made himself of no reputation! God Almighty! Father, I thank
You! that thou hast heard me, he who is lowly in heart, lifting
up his eyes, thankfully acknowledging the Father's hearing at that
moment. A lot of them had said that he
heals by the power of Beelzebub. And here he is rebuking him with
his word, Father, I thank you that you've heard me. Verse 42,
the Scripture said, 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. What encouragement to hear the
confidence spoken by Him who is our Mediator. Everything that
He did, He did for His people. Everything that He did establishing
righteousness as a man. The righteousness of God. The
righteousness of God Almighty. Now I tell you what, and this
goes for everyone that knows Him in regenerating grace, I
know we look at ourselves, I look at me, and I don't see one that
stands before God Almighty perfectly. But I'll tell you this, in Him,
you're looking at a man that is absolutely as holy as God. as holy as God, robed in His
righteousness. Now, in myself, there is no good
thing. In myself, old wretched man that
I am, but in Him, I stand accepted in the Beloved. What mercy! What grace! What a hope! And I'm the first to admit I
have no confidence in my flesh. None. But by the grace of God,
He's going to separate me from the body of this death. And that
which is alive is going to be with Him forever. I'm lost in
the wonder of that thought. who has ever lived, ever stood
for his people. Prayed at the tomb of Lazarus.
Prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. And is praying for his people
right now. Interceding for them. And being
heard of the Father. For his sake. For his sake. What an example of faithfulness. Oh, Lord, help us. to behold
you by faith, acknowledging you. Elijah said on Mount Carmel,
Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this
day that Thou art God in Israel, and that I am Thy servant, and
that I have done all these things at Thy word. Hear me, O Lord,
hear me, that this people may know that Thou art the Lord God. Oh, what joy God's people have
when they consider what the Lord has said, who they are in Him. Verse 43, "...and when He had
thus spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth." Boy, I tell you what, that's
the voice that's going to personally summon His people. That loud,
powerful, mighty voice that the sheep are going to hear. And what we see here is what's
going to take place in that last day. This right here, this is
a picture of regeneration. This is regeneration. God's people are dead in trespasses
and sin. The Spirit of God calls them
powerfully and they come forth. But in the last day, the trump
of God is going to sound and they're going to come forth.
The dead... In Christ shall hear His voice and rise. The dead, the dead are going
to hear His voice. My mother just told me a moment
ago, I've got a cousin a few years younger than me,
Just died yesterday. Dead. Sure, her body appears as though
that it's not showing any signs, outward signs of decay, deterioration,
stuff like that. But she's just as dead as those
that died right after God made man on this earth. Those that
God made and have died just right after God put men and women on
this earth, their bodies have long since decayed. It's just
nothing but just dust. Dirt. But they're still there. Every atom that was ever there
is still there. And I'm telling you, they're
going to hear the voice. The dead are going to hear the
voice of God when He calls. And not only the dead in Christ,
but all that are in the graves shall hear His voice. Those that
spiritually were dead when they physically died and those that
were spiritually alive, all of them are going to hear. He spoke. Lazarus, come forth. Verse 44 says, And he that was
dead, he that was dead, what came first? His voice? His power? His will? His voice, what came
first? His voice. His power. His will. His purpose. Lazarus, come forth,
and he that was dead, He came forth, bound hand and foot with
grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin. And
Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go." Death, at His word, bowed. The grave claimed no victory. Captivity. Sin, death, Satan
was led captive. The Lord holds captive that which
held His people captive. I have no ability to stop death. But He does. He led captivity,
that which held me captive. He led that captive. The keys
of death and hell. He's got those. Here is the One
who has all power. I don't have all power. He does.
This is the One that the Father first trusted Him. The Lord Jesus
Christ. This is the One that calls dead
sinners to life. And when He calls, they come. his life himself. Lazarus died
because of sin, and sin abounded. But where sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. Our Lord and God called that
dead man to life, and Lazarus came forth. Back from paradise,
I know he was there. Absent from the body, present
with the Lord. And here he is. God called him
back. And you know I noticed that not
one person asked him what he saw when he was gone. I saw a
man once and I said, well, what did you see? Was there a bright
light? It wasn't about Lazarus. God gave him life. Paul the Apostle had been there. Paul the Apostle entered into
the third heaven, into paradise itself. That's what he said,
paradise. And he said, I saw things that
are unspeakable. I can't even tell you what I
saw. I don't know if it meant he couldn't say them or that
we couldn't accept them or receive them. I don't know. But I know
this. It doesn't matter. Men, they'll
say, well, they died and they saw this. That's not so. The Scriptures bear out that
there was one that was there. And he didn't have anything to
say about it. Lazarus came forth. Come forth. And the Scripture
says, he that was dead, verse 44, came forth bound hand and
foot with grave clothes. Now, he was wrapped up. He was
wrapped tight. He was wrapped up completely. His feet were wrapped tight. He was bound hand and foot with
grave clothes and his face was bound about with a napkin. Based upon what I'm reading,
he was just, everything was just tight. And he came forth. I got to wondering about it.
How did he walk? You know, I thought, you know,
that's a silly question on my part. God Almighty that spoke
life to him can cause him to come forth too. He couldn't even
come forth of himself. He couldn't even move of himself. The Lord had to cause him to
come. We walk led by the Spirit of
God. I don't even know how to walk.
He was bound. And the Lord said, Loose him
and let him go. Oh, how this glorious resurrection,
a picture of our first resurrection and regeneration proves our need
to be loosed from the grave clothes of the old man. Lazarus was alive
and he was still bound up with grave clothes and needed loosing. Here's the struggle with the
old man. Grave clothes. We all got them.
All these bindings. Paul says, this law that's in
my members warring against the law of my mind. But in closing,
how beautiful to receive the tenderness of believers that
they ought to have for one another. Our Lord could have spoken those
grave clothes right off of Lazarus. I know He could have. He gave
him life. He could have just evaporated
the grave clothes. But do you know, we're going
to go through this life with grave clothes on. From that old
nature. Doubts and fears. But whenever
you see someone, another believer especially, And they've got some
grave clothes on. Be mindful that our Lord told those that
stood by, loose him and let him go. Galatians 6.1, I'll close
with this. Brethren, if a man be overtaken
in a fault, Ye which are spiritual, restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted." Brethren, we all have grave clothes. Lazarus was alive, and the Lord
told those that were there, you take them off. The Lord is going
to bless His Word to His people. But I'm telling you, be tender,
be kind, be compassionate with one another for Christ's sake. Amen.