The Lord Jesus Christ said, because
I live, you also shall live. The Lord Jesus is not only the
resurrection, but he is the life. He who is life itself is the
life and because of his resurrection, not only is he as he was with
Moses, with his people, now he comes in the most remarkable
way and dwells in his people. He dwells in his people. It's
Christ Living in you. Salvation is nothing less than
the life of God in a child of God. The very life of God. He says, at the beginning of
John's Gospel, He is the life. In Him was life. In Him was life. And the life was the light of
men. So his life is a life that's associated with his light. And
the light is the light of who he is when he says he's the light
of the world. He's the light of how he can
save a wretched sinner like that woman caught in adultery. And
say to her, I don't condemn you. And that's what he says to every
one of his children who have life in him. He speaks words of spirit and
life. He speaks life from the dead. His words are creative words,
isn't it? It's amazing, isn't it? This
universe came into existence because the Lord Jesus Christ
said, Light be, and light was. Sheneen went out to have a look
at the stars last night. The Lord Jesus Christ made every single
one of them. And not only knows them all and made them all, but
he names them all. We can't even figure out how
many are out there. Billions upon billions, our God
is glorious in his infinite majesty, but then he's glorious, particularly
in the lives of his people, in his intimacy. in you the life. Life, salvation
and light is all a resurrection from the dead and it's pictured
so beautifully in Lazarus, isn't it? Lazarus in John chapter 11. Lazarus was in a tomb. Lazarus
was in a tomb. Lazarus was dead. Lazarus was
a rotting corpse. Ezekiel was asked, wasn't he,
was taken to a valley of dry bones and he was said, can these
dry bones live? Can these dry bones live? Ezekiel's
answer is the best answer of all. He says, Lord, you know,
you know, these dry bones in your hands, you are life, you
create life. He is life. Lazarus is a picture
of salvation. He's a picture of this life,
this resurrected life. So the Lord Jesus Christ declares
the truth of who he is. I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. It's speaking of the new birth,
isn't it? It's speaking salvation is nothing
other than life coming to someone who is spiritually dead. Lazarus
is a picture, isn't it? The Lord gives the teaching and
then he gives us this glorious picture of it. It's pictured
in Lazarus. Lazarus was dead. Lazarus was rotting. Lazarus
was bound. Lazarus was in darkness. Did
Lazarus have a free will? I wish I had a dollar for every
time someone told me God gave men free will. Where on earth
do you find that in the Bible? You have a will and your will
is tied to your nature and your nature is spiritually dead and
so your will is spiritually dead and it's captive to that nature.
Did Lazarus have any works? Could Lazarus do some things
to commend himself to God to get life? Did Lazarus have any
will? Did Lazarus have any works? Did Lazarus have any works? You
see, life from the dead. is the life that God alone brings
to the hearts of his people. And you here who have been born
again, you here who have the Lord Jesus Christ, God Almighty
taking up residence in you, know so much of what it is to be able
to do as Lazarus did. Lazarus was told, wasn't he,
by a command of God, you come out of there. You come out. You
come out by a command of God. They come out of darkness by
a command of God. They come out of their being
bound. They come out of darkness. They
come out of corruption. Thy dead men shall live. So spiritually
dead people can't see the glory of God. They can't feel anything
of their sinfulness. They can't taste the goodness
of God in any way at all. They can't touch him. All of the faculties of life
are gone from dead people. They cannot love. Dead people
cannot repent. Dead people cannot believe. Dead people cannot worship. Dead
people can't walk. Nothing less than the resurrection
power of the Lord Jesus Christ brings people to salvation. Salvation is a resurrection from
the dead. It's life from the dead. Though
he were dead, yet shall he live, is the great word of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I am the resurrection and I am the life. I am the life
of God, the life of God that reveals who God is in all of
his glory, in his omnipotence. What a glorious God. He just
speaks, doesn't he? I love what happened at that
tomb. Lazarus was bound, a rotting
corpse bound, and Lazarus came out of that tomb and he was still
bound. How did he get out? Is anything
impossible without God? We have friends and people that
we love who are spiritually dead. They cannot see the glory of
God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Spiritually dead people
can be extraordinarily religious people. Spiritually dead people
can be extraordinarily knowledgeable people. The people the Lord Jesus
Christ was speaking to, those Jews there, knew their Old Testaments
off by heart. Nicodemus and those people, they
were incredibly intelligent people and they'd lived long lives and
they'd thought that all of their devotion had brought them closer
to God and all of their religion had done is make it darker and
darker. If you go on and read the rest
of John chapter 11, you'll see how dark the darkness is of those
religious leaders. What's the response of religion
to a resurrected Lord Jesus Christ in all of his glory? Let's kill
him again. Let's kill him. Let's kill Lazarus
as well. He's just been raised from the
dead. Man, a dead man, is unbelievably
blind and unbelievably stupid. and all of their pretended puffed
up pride and achievements, rather than bringing people closer to
God to take them away. We need a resurrection. We need
a resurrection to see the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. You need life
from the dead to see your need of a Saviour. You need life from
the dead to see His holiness, His excellency, His glory. You need life from the dead to
see him as a saviour, as a successful saviour. Men are very happy,
aren't they? Men are very happy to construct
a Jesus and to construct a God who can be moved and manipulated
according to their will and their purposes, a God who will serve
them. Our God is to be worshipped for
who he is, as glorious, as holy, as one who is alone able to create
life. Mankind can create a Jesus who
tries and fails, but the God of the Bible never tries. He
cannot try. As He thinks, so it is. He knows the end. He declares
the end from the beginning. All of His works are finished
from the foundation of the world. Our God is absolutely sovereign. Our God is perfectly suited to
dead sinners. Perfectly suited to dead sinners. I'm a sinner. I need a saviour. And he's the most glorious saviour,
isn't he? I'm in darkness. He is light. I have no righteousness of my
own and I cannot work any righteousness and I cannot achieve any righteousness.
Everything I touch is nothing but sin. I need a righteousness
that's from God. I need a resurrected righteousness
from God. Here's my righteousness before
God. This world offers me no rest. No matter how much you collect,
no matter how much you have, no matter how much you're esteemed
by men, there is no rest in this world. I find there is no rest. I rejoice that there's a rest.
There's a rest for the people of God. This place, this world
affords no peace to the child of God, but our great God brings
us peace. He says, and I love this verse,
is that, now the God of peace, what a great description of our
God. In this troubled, restless world, tossed up and down all
over the place like waves beating on a rock, isn't it? The God
of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the
great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant, Listen to what our God does. Make you perfect. We are complete in Him, brothers
and sisters. You can't add to perfection.
You can't add to holiness. You either are completely holy
or you're completely not holy, unholy. Now the God of peace
make you perfect in every good work to do his will working in you that which is
well-pleasing in his sight. If you're a frail, fickle sinner,
you'll love those words, won't you? Make you perfect, this God
of peace. The Great Shepherd of the Sheik,
through the blood of the everlasting covenant, will be brought again
from the dead, working in you that is well-pleasing in his
sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and
ever. Salvation is an eternal salvation. God's children were saved from
before the foundation of the world. God's children were saved
in the Lord Jesus Christ when he walked on this earth. They
were saved when he went to Calvary's tree and bore their sins in his
own body, so they have no sin before God. And if they have
no sin before God, The Lord Jesus Christ took it away all so perfectly,
completely, that the holy God of this universe can dwell in
us. It's Christ in you. It's the
life of God in you. Lazarus was dead. We must be
born again, and this is his glorious life, isn't it? I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth, I love how
the Lord Jesus Christ places so much emphasis on faith. He
doesn't place any emphasis on our works. He says just believe.
I've said it. Believe it. And he gives the
power to believe. We believe through his power,
don't we? He that believeth in me. It means he that believeth into
me. We find those words extraordinary,
but if you read John chapter 17, that's exactly what the Lord
Jesus prayed, isn't it? That he would be in his people,
and they would be in him, as he is in God, and God is in him. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. God's children do not die according
to God. Their bodies are put in the dust
of this earth for a short time and then there will be a glorious
resurrection and then those bodies will be united. Those bodies
will be made to be like the Lord Jesus Christ's body. This is
the power and the glory of our resurrected saviour. Listen to
what he says, isn't it? Behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed on us. I love that. He bestows it on
us. We don't earn his love. He bestows it. Why does he love
his people? Because he loves them. That's
his answer. He loves them because he loves
them. Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us,
that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world
knoweth us not. That's a really true therefore,
isn't it? All the wherefores in the scriptures
are really true. But the world doesn't know the
children of God. It can't understand them. It
can't understand their actions and their thoughts. It can't
understand the things they love, and it can't understand the things
they do, and it can't understand the things they don't do. And
it can't understand the glory of the one that we live in a
relationship with. And it didn't know Him, and that's
the reason why, isn't it? Beloved, Now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. But we know
that when he shall appear in this resurrection glory, we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is. That's life, isn't it? That's
resurrection life, is to be in the presence of God Almighty,
in all of the glory of His attributes, and to be like Him, and to see
Him. This is the life. from the dead. This is a resurrected life that
the Lord Jesus Christ brings. He says in 1 Thessalonians 4,
he says, I don't want you to be ignorant, brethren. Brethren,
they're people born of the same womb. They're born from above. They're born from the Mother
of Jerusalem above. I wouldn't have you to be ignorant,
brethren, concerning them which are asleep, those that have died,
that ye sorrow not, even of others which have no hope. We don't
sorrow like other people sorrow when our loved ones are taken
from us. We sorrow, but we have a sorrow
that has a hope, that binds it together to him in glorious ways. For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, even so, them also which sleep, listen
to the sleep of God's children that have died, they sleep in
Jesus. phrase, they sleep in Jesus. God will bring with him, for
this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are
alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent,
not go before them which are asleep. For the Lord himself
shall descend from heaven with a shout, and the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ
shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain."
There'll be people alive on this earth when the Lord Jesus Christ
comes to wrap this whole thing up. shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall
we ever be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another
with these words." They need to be words of comfort, don't
they? All of our departed brothers and sisters in the Lord, we're
going to see them again. We're going to live with them
in resurrected, glorious, living bodies forever and ever. in a glorious new creation. And
all of the glory of that new creation is the glory of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Every thought will be glorifying
Him. There will be no sin. No sin
ever. Nothing. Nothing between my Saviour
and me. Life from above. Life from above. He that liveth, liveth this life
from above here, and believeth in me shall never die. Do you
believe this? Our God creates life out of nothing. Our God raises the dead. without any assistance from them
whatsoever. Salvation is entirely of the
Lord and it's in purely of grace. To go back to John Chapter 11,
I just want to close taking us back to this lovely meeting between
the Lord and Mary. So what's the evidence and how
does this life begin? The Lord Jesus Christ comes to
you and he comes to people in the preaching of the gospel.
When his gospel is preached, when he is declared to be the
sovereign successful saviour, the electing God who came for
his particular people and saved every single one of them, when
the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ is declared,
he's there with them. But where he is, He comes to
his people, doesn't he? And where he is, he calls his
people to himself. Let's go back to that story of
Mary that we began. So Martha has just made this
wonderful declaration of salvation. I believe that thou art the Christ,
the Son of God, which should come into the world. And when
she said that, she went her way and called Mary her sister. And she called her secretly. There is a call between God and
his children, and it's a secret call, and it's a powerful call,
and it's always an effectual call. You can read about it in
Romans 8. Secretly she called Mary, the
Master is come. The Master is come and he calleth
for thee. Oh Lord, call me. Lord, call
me again and again. Lord, save me. Lord, call me
to yourself. Call me out of this world. Call
me out of all the distractions. Just call me into your presence. Now listen, verse 29, she heard. She heard. Isn't that lovely
to be able to hear the words of God calling you to himself?
She heard. As soon as she heard, she arose
quickly. In a sense, she stood up and
resurrection means to stand up. It means to stand up again. She
came, and she came to him. She arose quickly. Salvation
is always a matter of great urgency, isn't it? If you can wait and
debate with God, you haven't hurt Him calling you. Everyone
that he calls just comes. They come at a time that he calls
the time of love. But listen to where she came.
She came to him. Salvation's always coming to
a him, isn't it? It's not coming to a church.
It's not coming to a doctrine. It's not coming to a set of works.
It's not coming to do this and live. It's coming to him. Salvation is coming to a risen,
resurrected, resurrecting Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 31 in the
Jews. which were there in the house,
they saw Mary. See, the Jews are the religious
leaders. The Jews who are the enemies
of God, they see the Lord's people rising hastily and going out. They go out from this world's
religion, don't they? They go out from all of the man-made
ways that man thinks it can be right in the presence of God. She rose up hastily and went
out. They were wrong about where she was going. She was going
to him. And then when Mary was come to where
Jesus was, So she was called and she heard
his call. She heard the master is come. She'd heard that the master calls
for thee. She arises quickly and she just
comes to him. Salvation is coming to the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's why Peter says we never
stop coming. To whom coming? We come to a person. We come
to him. We come to God Almighty. And
that's where she saw him. She came to where Jesus was and
she saw him and she fell down at his feet. She fell down at
his feet and she called him Lord. That
is the safest and best place He is God, and I'll take my place
at his footstool. He is God, and he reigns and
rules over all. He is God, and he gives life,
and he calls whom he will, and he calls them to himself, and
they always come. They always come. But they come and they see him. They come to him, and they say,
Lord, As you read on in John's Gospel,
you'll see that this same Mary anointed the Lord Jesus Christ.
She's the only person recorded in all of the New Testament who
really understood that what he'd said about being crucified and
dying and rising again was really true. And she anointed anointed
him and she wiped her feet with her hair and the house was filled
with the odour of the ointment. And the ointment was there. He
said to her, she's done it for my burying. She's done it in
recognition of the fact that I've come to live and I've come
to die. And I've come to be buried and
I've come to rise gloriously in resurrection glory for such
a one as Mary. I wonder what it would have been
like for her to meet him in resurrection glory. Every one of God's children
will Our God is both the resurrection
and the life. He is life from God. He is life
with God. He's life in the presence of
God Almighty, a glorious Saviour. What manner of love, what manner
of love the Lord Jesus Christ showed to his bride. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we Pray
that we would be people who again hear you call us to yourself,
Heavenly Father, and call us into your presence, and call
us into a place where we can see you in your glory through
the eyes of faith that you give, Heavenly Father, and through
the life that you give, that resurrected life. Our Heavenly
Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, at the meeting of these two women
has caused, in the midst of darkness, in the midst of sorrow, in the
midst of so much questioning of who you are, his cause to
utter these glorious words and perform this glorious miracle
which pictured the resurrection from the dead of all of your
people in this world to newness of life in him. O our Father
we pray that his life would be in us to see how precious he
is, how precious his blood is, how precious that death was.
Heavenly Father, we pray. We pray that you would cause
us to come and to see, to hear, and to live in his presence. Heavenly Father, we pray that
these elements would just remind us yet again of who your dear
and precious Son is, and how perfectly secure the salvation
of all of your people are, Heavenly Father. May we drink in faith
and go away rejoicing with a house full of the ointment of his glorious
death and resurrection.