Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the gospel according to John, chapter 11. John 11. I'm going to begin in verse 25,
but as we prepare to start in verse 25. Let's just kind of remember what
we've seen coming up to this point. Martha had met the Lord as He
approached their house. And she said to Him, she said,
Lord, if Thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now whatsoever
thou would ask of God, God will give it thee." And the Lord told
Martha, He said, Thy brother shall rise again. And she, knowing
something of the resurrection, She said, I know that He shall
rise again in the resurrection at the last day. And then the
Lord reveals something of the grand scope of Himself and this
glorious truth of resurrection. It says, Jesus said unto her,
I am the resurrection and the life. He said, I am actually
the experience of the resurrection, and I am the source of the resurrection,
not man. He that believeth, and remember,
whenever we see that E-T-H, it is that which continues. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. Truly, the Lord Jesus Christ
is the resurrection in the last day. He is the very present. We look at the resurrection as
being something that is going to happen. And you go back and
read in Romans 8, verse 29, and look at these things that Almighty
God done, accomplished. The very last thing that He said
concerning His people is they're glorified already. Now, I'll admit, I can't enter
into the depth of that. I know it's so. Here we are this
morning. We're sitting and we're hearing
the voice. That's what Mike just read about.
The voice of the Lord. Now, here's the voice of the
Lord. It's God's Word blessed by His
Spirit. Now, as we hear these words,
this is Almighty God speaking. Amazing thought that God is not
silent to His people, that Almighty God would speak So he told Martha,
I am the resurrection. I'm the resurrection of the last
day, but I'm the resurrection of my people right now as we
looked at last week in regenerating grace. Almighty God calls His
people out of darkness. And while they're walking on
this earth, born in Adam, dead in trespasses and sins. And when
it pleases God, the Lord, in resurrecting power, speaks and
raises them. I mean while they're right here,
gives them a new heart, gives them a new mind, a new eye, a
new ear, and raises them. And then raises them daily as
they stumble. As they go through this life,
that's what the Lord meant when He washed the disciples' feet. I need, you need, you that know
Him, need your feet, your walk cleansed every day. Lord, pick
me up. Lord, sustain me. Lord, help
me. He sustains us how? By His Word. Blessed by His Holy
Spirit. who is the confidence, the hope
of our life, our joy. And then he set forth his sovereignty
in electing grace and the benefit of it. He said in verse 25, I
am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. That is to say, though a man
has died in the faith as every believer does, yet shall he live. He shall be raised to life eternal. Now, this is a promise that only
Almighty God can make. Now, here's the bottom line.
We're going to die. Now, what guarantee do we have? that the Lord is going to raise
us from the dead. As I've said before, what I know
concerning the resurrection is what Almighty God has said. This
body, this flesh that I see deteriorating, that I see aging, that I see
becoming weaker, frail, The scripture sets forth that this body is
going to be placed in the ground in corruption, and Almighty God
is going to raise it in incorruption. Now, it's going to be changed. That's all I know. Job says,
these eyes, I'm going to see God. Right now, we see Him by
faith, but in that day, We are going to see Him as He is. And that great mystery, God's
people rest in it. God's people believe God. Titus 1 says, Paul, a servant
of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith
of God's elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness. Paul preached and believed according
to the faith that God had given him. The faith, the scriptural
revelation of faith, true faith, is the faith of God's elect,
God's people, and how we thank God. that he would show mercy
to this fallen race of mankind. That the Lord would show mercy
by not allowing mankind to perish. Leave man to himself and he is
going to perish. The Lord told Martha, verse 25,
I am the resurrection and the life, he that believeth on me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live. Though Lazarus And all
like him who have died in the faith, who is physically gone
because of the way he died by the grace of God, that is in
faith. Believe it. He is going to live
again. And whosoever, verse 26, liveth,
right now, you that are alive physically, and alive spiritually,
whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die." Our Lord
spoke to Martha about those who died in the faith and would physically
rise again. Now He speaks of their possessing
life eternal. And this eternal life, that we
possess is the very life of Christ. You say, what is it? It's Christ
in you. The hope of glory. The confidence
of glory. The assurance of glory. When
He says the hope of glory, God's people have a confidence. We walk by faith confidently,
trusting our Lord. Revelation 26, "...as blessed
and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection..."
That is, in regeneration, in electing, predestinating, quickening
grace. "...blessed is he that hath part
in regeneration..." The first resurrection. "...on such the
second death hath no power." You know, when we went through
the book of Revelation, remember, We studied that about the second
death. And that word second right there,
it means of another kind. A different kind. We understand
something about death. But what we understand is that
there's no life there. There's no movement. There's
no motion. There's no emotion. There's no
interaction. You look at a body and it's gone. There's no life there. But this
second death, it's that death that was described and set forth
by that rich man at Lazarus. You remember the rich man that
fared sumptuously every day? And the Scripture says, and he
died. and lifted up his eyes out of
hell and said..." And he spoke to Father Abraham. And the Scripture
set forth that he saw. He saw Lazarus in the bosom of
Abraham. Someone would ask, do you think
those in hell will be able to go through eternity beholding
The mercy of God to God's people? The mercy of God to those that
called upon Christ and trusted Him? Do you think they'll see? This one did. He did. There was a second death. It
was another kind of death. It was a death where the Scripture
sets forth that the worm doesn't die. They go through. That rich man said, I'm tormented
in these flames. But he was dead. Separated from
God, but it was a second death. It was a different kind of death. Believers are alive spiritually
right now. And though they die physically,
they'll never see the second death. They'll never see. They'll never die. When the Lord
says, He that believeth on me shall never die, that's what
He's talking about. Not that they don't die physically,
they do. And then the Lord asks Martha
in the latter part of verse 26, Believest thou this? Do you believe what I've just
said? Now, this is the acid test. Do
you believe Me? Do you have a heart for what
I've said? A believer knows and he sees,
and we admit that we see through a glass dark thing. But we see. I know this. I know that the
trump of God is going to sound. I know that the dead in Christ
are going to rise first. I know that Paul says, we which
are alive and remain on this earth shall meet them in the
air. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. I know at that
moment when Almighty God calls, those alive and dead, as far
as Christ is concerned, are going to rise. And we are going to
stand before God in that great white throne judgment. I know
that by faith. But oh, how little I know. how
little I see. But we do see. And she said in
verse 27, she saith unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou
art the Christ, the Son of God. When you see Christ, remember this. Christ, the Anointed
One. Christ speaks of two natures. divine and human, God Almighty
and perfect, holy human nature. Here again, what we know about
human nature is what we can see, especially in ourselves and in
others, frail, inconsistent. lacking, but a body prepared
Him, the Scripture says. When she says, I believe that
you're the Christ, I believe that you're the Word made flesh,
the Son of God who should come into this world, she believed
Him. She believed that she was looking
at God Himself. in human flesh. A miracle of
all miracles. Greg is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested to flesh. But even as she believed Him
and looked at Him and saw Him and said, I believe that You're
the Christ. That's what Peter said. The Lord asked him, He said,
Who do men say that I am? Peter said, Some say Jeremiah
and some say Elijah and some other prophet. He said, who do
you say I am? He said, you're the Christ. You're God. You're my representative. You're God Almighty that has
made Himself, taken upon Himself flesh. You that love this order
I wasn't going to let this order die. You're the one. You came. He said, Peter, flesh and blood
didn't reveal that to you. My Father, which is in heaven,
taught you that. But even as she told him in verse
27, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God which
hath come into this world. Even then, and I wouldn't know
it, from just looking at that verse right there. But I do know
it from looking at verse 39. We won't make it there today,
but look at verse 39. Jesus said, Take ye away the
stone. And Martha, the sister of him
that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh,
for he hath been dead four days, as she believed him to be the
Christ. How frail is our flesh? How weak is our flesh? When He
said, take away the stone, if this woman possessed perfect
faith, and she didn't, and none of us do, there's only been one
man that's ever had perfect faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. If she
would have believed Him perfectly, she would have never questioned.
Him telling her to take that stone away. We'll deal with that
later. Based upon her answer, she knew
Him to be the Christ. But even in our knowledge, how
little do we know? Verse 28, and when she had so
said, she went her way and called Mary, her sister, secretly. saying, The Master is come and
calleth for thee." She called Mary and said to Mary that which
was only for Mary's ears. I don't doubt for a second that
there were some there that hated the Lord. I know verse 45 and
46 bear that out. There were some that were opposers
to Him. There were some that would be
revealed not to be opposers. But suffice it to say, Martha
came to Mary and she spoke this precious, precious sentence. The Master calls for you. The Master calls for you. Can you imagine? There's Mary
sitting there. As I said last week, I don't
doubt for one second that she heard also when it was announced
that the Lord was coming. Martha ran up and ran to Him.
And Mary sat still in the house. But then when Martha came to
her and told her, The Master calls for you. Can you imagine
the joy the Master calls for you? Out of all the people that
were there, the Master calls you. He summons you. What a blessing to know that
the Master has called. Scripture says, My sheep hear
My voice. And His voice through that sister,
Martha, related to her, I want an audience with you. The Master calls, and nothing
took a priority over that. There are many things that might
tempt us away, but His gracious summons enlivens us and speaks
to us. And she left. Everyone else that
was there for Him. Verse 30 and 31, Now Jesus was
not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha
met Him. And 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. Now, an amazing thing
just took place. And it is the easiest thing in
the world for us to miss. Now, this is what just took place. Mary heard the Lord call for
her. She got up and left. And then
there were some that was there And when they saw her get up,
now the reason they were there is because they had come to comfort
her. Her brother had died. And as
soon as they saw her get up, the Scripture says that they
say, well, she's going to the grave to weep. And so therefore, they went with
her. They did what they wanted to
do. They were doing exactly what they wanted to do. This is how
much they knew. Mary is going to the grave, and
we're here to comfort her, so we're going to go with her. But I want you to notice in verse
45, the Scripture says, Then many of the Jews which came to
Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on
Him. Now there was the end result
of what happened in verse 31. What they saw was their friend
Mary getting up and going, they thought, to the grave. She was
going to the Lord. And the Lord was calling them
to. Provenient grace. Grace before
grace to draw some of the Jews that were there. Now, verse 46
says, But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told
them what things Jesus had done. I'm going to go cattle Let me
tell you all what He did. But some of them, the Scripture
says, that had come to Mary to comfort her. The Lord in His
power, He who rules and reigns in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth, He did summon Mary. But He summoned
some of them too. Because they were going to hear
His Word. And He called them by power. He called them by grace. They thought that they were going
after Mary. But the Scripture reveals that
the Lord had summoned them. How did you get here? This has
always amazed me. Amazing grace, amazing, powerful
grace that Almighty God would summon His people to get them
under the sound of the gospel. That they might hear, well, I
came here because I've got a friend here. I'm dating somebody. I
came here, you know, some excuse. How'd you get here? I'll tell
you exactly how you got here. Almighty God purposed that His
people were not going to perish. And He moves and rules, and all
power is given unto the Son. Why? That He should give eternal
life to as many as the Father has given Him. That's John 17.
All power! And when he speaks, it is. He
speaks to the unregenerate before he calls him out of darkness.
And he moves him and puts him exactly where he's going to speak
to him. That's what he did to Zacchaeus. By the grace of God, God Almighty
moved Zacchaeus. What? Zacchaeus said in his mind,
after the Lord said to Zacchaeus in his mind, I want you to climb
up that sycamore tree right there. You're not going to be able to
see me, you think, unless you climb up in a tree. So Zacchaeus
says to himself after the Spirit of God moved on him, I think
I'll climb up this sycamore tree. And the Scripture says the Lord
walked, stopped, and looked up and said, Zacchaeus, come down. I must abide at your house today.
I must. Some that came to see Mary were
drawn by the Lord to hear Him, to see Him, because God Almighty
was going to show mercy to them. Verse 32, and we'll stop with
this. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw Him,
she fell down at His feet, saying unto Him, Lord, if Thou hadst
been here, my brother had not died." Oh, the struggle that we have
with this flesh. This woman that the Scripture
says the Lord loved. was thinking about what might
have been. Lord, if. If you'd been here,
have you ever been in a situation where you reflect back on something
and you said, you know what, if I'd have been there two seconds
sooner, You know what? If it had just
been just a second later, that's our thoughts. Lord, if
how often we forget that He works all things after the counsel
of His own will. Nothing has ever happened in
this world that was not absolutely according to the purpose, the
purpose of Him who works all things according to His will,
pleasure. Nothing happens that He did not
order, the life. But there is something very revealing.
as we close in the language of these two sisters. In verse 21,
when Martha came to the Lord, this is what Martha said. Lord,
if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. Lord, if thou hadst been here,
my brother had not died. And then in verse 32, this is
what Mary said, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had
not died. You say, well, they said the
same thing. No, they didn't. The wording or the translation,
let me tell you, say this, there's something lost. It's perfectly
translated. Let me say that. It's exactly
translated. It's exactly the right words. But there's a word that is translated
just like it is right here. But there's a word in the Greek
that's translated and its original Greek means a little something
different. This is what Martha said. And
all I did was just, I went back and I read the literal of what
she said. She said, Lord, if You were here,
my brother would not be dead. That's the literal of what Martha
said. Lord, if You were here, my brother
would not be dead. And here's what Mary said. Here's
the literal. Lord, if You were here, My brother
would not have died. You say, well, what's the difference? What was utmost, in Martha's
words, was the death of her brother. That's what was the utmost of
Martha's words. What was utmost and discerned
by Mary was that nobody ever died in the presence of the Lord.
One of them, and you remember that Martha
and Mary were both loved of the Lord. These were women that knew
God, that believed God, that trusted God. And here's the manifestation
of two. And both of these women beloved
of the Lord. The Lord said that. The Lord
loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus. But here's the struggle that's
within every one of us manifested in what these two women said.
One of them was grieving over the death of her brother. And
I understand that. We lose a loved one and our heart
breaks. That's just the way it is. Concerned. Grieving. spoke in a way that magnified
his deity, his glory. Martha said, Lord, if you'd have
been here, my brother wouldn't have died. And Mary said, Lord,
if you'd have been here, my brother couldn't have died. You're life. You're the prince of life. You're
the way, the truth, the life. If you'd have been here, he could
not have died, Martha and Mary, two women that expressed their
heart, set forth the struggles that all of us have. And I'm
thankful that the Lord, by His Spirit, would put that in this
book, this book of life, and remind us this is what we are
by nature. Two women that the Lord loved
that were sinners saved by the grace of God. Lord, bless these
words to our heart for Christ's sake. Amen.