Alright brethren, let's go to
John 11. John chapter 11. This is such a good passage and
we'll probably be here for a while. I want to just read the first four
verses this time. It says, 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, he said, This
sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the
Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now Lazarus was sick,
we saw last time. So Mary and Martha sent someone
to the Lord. This was like us praying to Christ. They sent somebody to Him to
petition Him, to make their request known to Him. And so they come
to our Lord Jesus and they said, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest
is sick. Now, always take every petition
to the Lord. Always go to the Lord. And the
Lord's people do. The Lord's people are a praying
people. You remember when they first
called Saul of Tarsus and quickened him and gave him faith, that's
the first thing the Lord said about him. He prayed. Behold,
he prayeth. For the first time, he really
prayed. And the Lord's people pray. We pray. It's sad that
the Scripture has to tell us to pray, but we do pray. The Lord's people pray. It's
a constant, continual calling on the Lord and looking to the
Lord for needs, thanking Him for good things, and thanking
Him for things that bring us sorrow, things that appear bad.
because He's ruling everything. And they're always for our good,
no matter what it is. So we can come to Him, make our
requests known like they did. Now there's no doubt these sisters
loved their brother Lazarus. And no doubt they loved Lazarus. But they didn't come and say,
Lord, him whom we love is sick. They came and said, Lord, he
whom Thou lovest is sick. That's a far better petition. That's actually the most powerful
petition that you could make, is to pray to the Lord based
on His love for His people. We don't brag about our love. It's His love that we're thankful
for. He loved us. When we didn't love
Him, He loved His people. So our subject tonight, I want
to talk about a profitable petition. And this one little petition
here, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. There is so much
instruction in this petition and in this passage. And it shows
us why believers always take our petitions to the Lord. Now,
the first thing we see here, we come to the Lord in prayer
because Christ loves His people. The Lord Jesus loves his people
and the proof that we are his, that he loves us, is if we believe
on him. If we trust him, that's the evidence
that we're one whom he loves. God loves a particular people. That's what the scripture said.
He loves a particular people. They're called his elect. It
would have been no use to make this distinction Otherwise, they
sent word to the Lord and said, Lord, he whom thou lovest is
sick. This was a particular person
and they made a distinction. He whom you love is sick, Lord.
It's someone you love. The love of God. The love of
God is the cause of God choosing to save whom
He would. It's His love. It's His love. That means the cause was not
in us. The reason was not in us. It was in the Lord. The cause
was in the Lord. Back in Deuteronomy 7.7, it says, The Lord did not set His love
upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than
any people, for you were the fewest of all people." He's speaking
to that one nation Israel. And just like the Lord didn't
call other nations except that one nation. And then we come
to find out in Romans 9, He didn't even call everybody in that nation. There was some in that nation
that were His spiritual Israel, His chosen people. And here He's
telling us why He chose His people. He did not set His love on you
nor choose you because you were more in number than any people. For you were the fewest of all
people. Here's the reason. But because the Lord loved you. That's the reason. Because the
Lord loved you. Because He would keep the oath
which He had sworn unto your fathers that the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand, redeemed you out of the house of bondmen.
He brought us out from the hand of our enemies just like He brought
the children of Israel out of Egyptian bondage. But this is
why the Lord, it's because He loved His people. Look over at
Romans 9. Now this, I'm going to tell you
why this is so comforting. Why it's so comforting is because
since there was no cause in us, since it was His loving us Himself,
that made Him choose to save His people, that means it's by
grace. That means it cannot be undone. That means the Lord shall save
His people. It's grace that chose us. Nothing's
going to change that love. He told His people, I've loved
you with an everlasting love. Now, look here in Romans 9. It says, He's declaring here
that, verse 6, he's talking about some people in Israel that didn't
believe. And he said, but it's not as
though the Word of God had taken none effect. It's not like the
Word of God ever returns void. He says, for they are not all
Israel, which are of Israel. And he tells us just what that
means. Neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they
all children. That is, neither because they're
just the children of Abraham means they're the children of
God. In Isaac shall thy seed be called. That's the word of
God to Abraham. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God. But the children
of the promise are counted for the seed. Alright, what's this
word of promise mean? What does that mean? This is
the word of promise. God said at this time will I
come and Sarah shall have a son. God produced Isaac. He was a
son of promise. God produced him. That's so of
everybody God saves. God produced us. He's going to
give us another example. Not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac. Now what? These are twins in the same womb. Conceived in the same womb by
the same father. Listen to this. the children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God Here's God's purpose according to election that it
might stand. It's not of works. It's not of
our works. It's not of one being better
than another, but of God that calleth. That's the purpose of
God. It was said to her, the elder
shall serve the younger, as it is written. This is what God
said to Rebecca. Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Is God unfair? God forbid. If you know anything at all about
Jacob, in fact, Esau was probably a better person to be around
than Jacob was. Jacob was a cheating scoundrel. He just was. And yet God saved
him. God loved, why? Because he loved
him. Because he loved him. That's
not unright. If God had not loved any of the
human race, if he had not set his love on anybody, we would
have all perished in sin. But here's the truth, God does
love some people in this earth and He shall save us from our
sins. That's good news, brethren. It's
by grace. Read on. What shall we say then?
Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For He said
to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So here
then is the conclusion. It's not of the sinner that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that shows mercy. It's of God's mercy. And why
did He set His love upon His people? He said it wasn't because
you were more in number. It wasn't because there was anything
appealing in you. You were the fewest of all people.
It's because the Lord loved you. the Lord loved you." Now listen,
God changes not. He does not change. That means
whoever He loved, He loves. And that's why He says to us,
the reason we're not consumed, the reason we're not consumed,
He said, because I've loved you with an everlasting love. Now as long as we're somebody
who's saying, that's unfair, that's unrighteous, I hate that,
that's evidence that as of yet, It doesn't mean we're not one
He loved because we all were that way in our sin. We thought
that was unfair. But how you know that you're
one that He loved is you stop counting yourself as not being
one He loved, and as hating that message. And He brings you to
realize you are one He loved. And you're thankful because then
you see, if He hadn't loved me, I'd have perished. If He hadn't
loved me, I would have perished. Long before the world was made,
long before God created the angels, before there was the universe,
the sun, the stars, anything that was made, God loved His
people and in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus. He loved His
people. The love of God in Christ for
His people is why God entered covenant to save His people. God does everything on purpose.
He does it according to purpose. He purposed what He would do
from eternity. The Lord Jesus Christ knew Adam
would sin. God knew Adam would sin. That
was not a surprise. He knew He would make all His
children guilty and that our nature would be ruined. That
was according to God's purpose. What was the purpose in it? Well,
the Lord said here in John 11 verse 4, He said, This sickness
is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of
God might be glorified thereby. Christ could say the same thing
about our fallen Adam. It was on purpose. It was not
unto eternal death for His people, casting out His people. It was
so that the glory of God could be manifest and the Son of God
be glorified in saving us from our sins. That was the purpose
of it. So before God's people fell in
Adam, before we became ruined, Christ loved us and God the Father
and God the Son entered covenant to save us from our sins. He saw that there was no man
and wondered that there was no intercessor, therefore his own
arm brought salvation unto him and his righteousness, it sustained
him. You remember how Jacob, He made
a promise to Laban and he became accountable for the whole flock
of sheep that Laban committed to his charge. Remember that
in the Old Testament? He was responsible for all those
sheep. Well, the great shepherd of the
sheep, Christ Jesus, in eternity became responsible for all the
sheep that God entrusted to him and gave to him. and he shall
not fail. From eternity Christ's delights
have been with the sons of men. From eternity he was set up as
the head over all things to the church whom he loved." That's
the truth. Christ's love for his people
is why he left heaven and took our nature, came down. It's why
he was standing there where he was in our text, because he came
down because of his great love for his people. We've never seen
heaven. We read about it, we hear about
it in Revelation and different parts of scripture. But if we
really knew more about heaven, then we could appreciate more
the great condescension and love of Christ in coming down from
glory to this earth. He set aside his royalty and
his honor and his glory as the son of God and came down to this
place because he loved his people. Because he loved his people.
Without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God
was manifest in the flesh. The son of the highest became
the babe of Bethlehem. That's an amazing thing. He took
not on Him the nature of angels, He took on Him the seed of Abraham. That is, those children of promise
He came to save. He took our nature. But where
do we see the love of God the most? We see it at the cross. Go to the cross of Calvary and
there you'll see that God loves a people and Christ laid down
his life. He said back there in John 10,
I laid down my life for the sheep, for the sheep. And here's how
we see it. When our Lord went to the cross,
the scripture says, he, his own self, bear our sins in his own
body on the tree. Now listen to this, brethren.
All diseases and all sicknesses and all suffering in this world
are the effects of sin. The reason Lazarus got sick and
the reason Lazarus died is Lazarus was a sinner. He was a sinner. And there's only one reason that
Christ could save His people, or only one way He could save
His people from our sin and from death. There was only one way
that Christ would be able to go to Lazarus' tomb and say,
Lazarus, come forth and raise him from the dead. Only one way
He could do that. One way. He had to bear the sin
of his people that causes all sicknesses and death. He had
to bear that sin in order for God to justly pour out judgment
on him in the place of those he loved. And that's what our
Lord Jesus did. The whole purpose of Christ coming
to lay down his life was to manifest that God judges justly. He only
does what's right. He judges justly. And here's
Christ innocent. He knew no sin. He never sinned. He's conceived in the womb of
a virgin. a virgin in his body so that
he would not be like of the Holy Ghost, so that he would not be
like any other person born of Adam. He's the last Adam. He's
the representative of his people, holy, spotless, knew no sin. And he went to that cross and
the Lord, Scripture says, laid on him the iniquity of us all. Scripture says, he hath made
him sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. He was made sin for his people
so that God would justly pour out the wrath we deserved on
Christ our substitute and Christ pay every bit of the debt we
owe to God's justice because we broke his law. We offended
God and God's holy. He will save, he will have mercy
on those he loves, but he will not do it at the expense of his
justice. He will honor his law, he will
magnify his holy name, and he will satisfy his justice. That means every sin from our
conception all the way to the last breath we draw, the sins
of thought, the sins of word, the sins of deed, the sin that
we are, the very nature we are, the soul that sinneth, it shall
surely die. Every sin's got to be accounted
for, every sin's got to be punished, every sin's got to have the wrath
of God poured out upon it. We would have suffered this in
eternity in hell and never paid it if God had left us to ourselves.
But the Lord Jesus Christ paid for every sin of his people. He answered justice for every
sin of his people. He paid it in full. This is why
the Apostle Paul issues that huge charge issues and says,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justified them. It's Christ that died, yea rather
that's risen again. Their sins have been paid for.
They've been justified. They have no sin, past, present,
or future, and that's so of all God's people. They cannot be
charged with sin. Oh brethren, that's where you
see the love of God. He conquered death for his people,
he shall see to it that each one of us is regenerated and
given eternal life. He justified his people, he will
bring the gospel to us and he will cause us to hear that gospel
and through faith he will declare in the court of our conscience
we are justified before a holy God, never again to be charged. Our Lord Jesus Christ consecrated
a new way into the holiest of holies for His people, and He
shall see to it that we're brought in that way Himself through faith
in Him, through the blood of our high priest, that we enter
in with welcome access, knowing God will hear us, God will receive
us, we can come and make our petitions to Him, and He'll keep
us praying to Him, coming to Him through Christ our high priest. Because he consecrated the way.
You have welcomed, listen brethren, they came to the Lord Jesus.
They didn't feel like they were afraid to come to him. They sent
somebody to him and said, he whom thou lovest is sick. Because
they believed he would welcome them to come and tell him that.
And that he would hear them and he would help them. Brethren,
just as confidently, Scripture says, with boldness, with liberty,
with welcome access, you and I can go to the throne of God
and the holiest of holies. Before, in the old covenant,
only the high priests could go in, and only those that were
made priests could enter into the tabernacle. Now brethren,
by His blood, He's made you priests unto God, and He is our High
Priest, and He says, Come, you're welcome at My throne of grace.
Oh, what a... He did that for His people. And
in the end, He shall raise us resurrected. His love never lessens. It never wavers whatsoever. His love, when we fell in at
Him, His love didn't change. whenever we were conceived in
sin and came forth from our mother's womb, speaking lies, and he knew
every thought, he knew everything we ever thought and did in the
darkness when we was hiding away from mom and daddy, he saw every
bit of it. And his love didn't change one
bit towards his people. Aren't you grateful for that?
Aren't you? Our love grows warm and hot and
cold. Our love for one another and
our love for Him. But His love never changes. His
love never changes. We've tried His love by our wandering
since we've known Him and His love has never changed toward
His people. Nothing can quench the love of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Absolutely nothing. One day he's
going to stand before God and that great shepherd's going to
stand there and he's going to say, behold, those that thou
gavest me, I've kept them and not one of them is lost. And
he's going to present us to the Father without fault, without
blame, unblameable by his righteousness alone. So it's love. It's his love for his particular
people that keeps us coming to him and making our petitions
to him. Let's see if we can get a little further. We'll go into
this second point, but I don't know how much further we'll get. But let's see. We come to Christ. Here's why we come and make our
petition to Him. Because He graciously gives us
a need. Now hear me. We don't come for
any other reason. And we won't come any other way.
But the Lord Himself gives us a need to come to Him. They said,
he whom thou lovest is sick. Now those that Christ loves,
those he calls, those he saves are not immune to sickness. We're
not immune to suffering. We're not immune to afflictions
and sorrows of many different kinds. Now there are self-righteous
religionists in this world that tell sinners, If they had more
faith, they wouldn't get sick. If they had more faith, they'd
be wealthy. If they had more faith, they
wouldn't suffer afflictions. And usually, the way they prove
they have more faith is, send us your money. That is a self-righteous thought,
that if you only believed more, you wouldn't suffer, you wouldn't
be chastened, you wouldn't have affliction. That's what Job's
friends were saying to Job, exactly. It's a paradox to unregenerate
sinners how one can suffer and yet be chosen and called and
loved by Christ. Now, sadly, it can be a paradox
to you and me who believe as well. Martha and Mary made the
same statement. They both each made the same
statement. And it was true, the statement was true, but there
was a note of complaint in it and there was a note of perplexity
in it. Here's what they said down in verse 21. They said,
Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. Lord,
if you'd have been here, my brother, you could have prevented this
from happening, Lord, if you'd have been here. Now listen, brethren,
his name is Jehovah Shema. The Lord is there. He's always
present. He's always present. He's always
here. Look down at verse 37. Look at
verse 37. Some of them said, their friends,
neighbors, they said, could not this man which opened the eyes
of the blind have caused that even this man should not have
died? Of course, if Christ had willed it, Lazarus would not
have died. If it had been His will, Lazarus
would have never even got sick. None of this weeping would have
ever happened if it had been His will. If He willed it, Christ
could destroy every enemy of His people within and without,
and we wouldn't suffer anything in this world. If it was Christ's
will, He could prevent all trouble for His people, including sickness
and death. He could take us to glory like
He took Enoch and like He took Elijah, if it was His will. But
when we suffer and we come into trouble, it's not our place to
question the Lord's sovereign hand. It's just not. Romans 9.20
said, Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God?
Shall the thing formed say to he that formed it, Why hast thou
made me thus? Had not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and
another to dishonor? He can do with his own what he
will. The Lord teaches us to submit
to his hand of providence. It's sovereign. And not attempt
to take his throne. The Lord teaches us to bow to
him rather than judge his providential dealings. And in the end, he's
going to bring each of his people right to where he brought Job.
He really will. He brings us to say, I've heard
of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeeth
thee, whereof I abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes.
That's where he brings us if we're complaining and perplexed
and couldn't you have stopped this? He brings us to see. He's sovereign. He's sovereign.
But we should expect affliction and trouble and sickness and
sorrow in this world. One, because we need to be afflicted. We need to suffer that. Why do
we need it? So we can learn the Lord's statutes. So we can learn what the Lord
means, we hear this gospel but we have to be taught it by experience.
And namely what we're learning by the afflictions he gives us
and the things we suffer is we are sinners in need of our Lord
to save us constantly. And He brings you to just submit
to Him, believe Him, bow to Him, and follow Him and trust Him
in whatever He's teaching you and how He applies it to you,
that He gets it done. And we realize, I've been a fool. I must follow Him. I must go
this way, not that way. And the second reason we should
expect it is because affliction is the is the proof that Christ
loves us. He only afflicts those He loves.
Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom
He receiveth. I tell you what, we should be
far more fearful if the Lord's not afflicting us than if He
is. We really should. Because if
the Lord's not afflicting us, that's terrible. If you go through
life and you say, I've got plenty, I've got everything saved up,
I've got everything provided for, I can take my ease now and
just relax and enjoy life. The Lord's not going to let His
people go through life like that. He's just not. He's just not. Find me one that He ever did
in the Scripture. Job, and David, and Hezekiah,
and Lazarus, and Mary, and Martha, and every child God loved in
these Scriptures suffered afflictions at the very hand of our Lord.
And so do all those He loves, brethren. So do all those He
loves. Now we saw four things the Lord
worked in this for their good. We saw this Son. He makes His
child deny ourselves and submit to Him. Secondly, He grows us
in faith to trust Him. Three, He reveals to us His glory. He shows us more and more He
really is the Lord, our salvation. And He benefits all His people
and not just one who's in the obvious need. But here's the
chief reason. Here's the chief reason that
the Lord gives us a need. And here it is. This affliction
drew them to Christ. This affliction drew them to
Christ. It drew those that came and made the petition. It made
Mary and Martha send the petition to the Lord. And when the Lord
came to that place, before He ever even got to the place where
they were, Martha went out to meet Him. And then when she told
Mary, Mary went out to meet Him. It draws His people to the Lord
Jesus. And you know what did that? You
know why they did that? They knew they had no ability
whatsoever to do one thing for their dead brother. None. That's
the kind of need we're talking about here. The need where He
makes you see you have no ability to save yourself. And He brings
you to that place to shut you up to Christ and make you come
to Christ. And that's when we really come
to Christ and that's when we really pray to Him, when we have
a need. I'll give you a case in point. Last time I preached
out of this chapter, you remember what was going on, Ravi? That
sweet little baby of yours was laying up there in that hospital
sick with cancer. last time I preached from this
passage. That gave us all a need so dire that we went straight
to the Lord, because we couldn't do anything about it, could we?
And that's the kind of need He gives us, brethren, to bring
us to Christ so that we cast it all into His hand. And He
does it because He loves us. He does it to make us constantly
see that we need Christ. And so we thank Him and we glorify
Him for doing it. You think about this. The Lord
could have taken Israel straight out of Egypt, I mean a straight
shot right into the land of Canaan. And they could have been there
in just a few days. And He took them out and He carried
them around, not even straight out, He carried them out, they
came out with a high hand, oh they were thankful, they were
conquerors, they were proud. And they hadn't done a thing,
He had delivered them. And you know what our Lord did?
He took them and hemmed them in between those two rocks in
the Red Sea and took the hedge off of Pharaoh, and Pharaoh took
off after him with all his men. And they couldn't do a thing
about it. And Moses was trembling. And he told Moses, stand still
and see the salvation of the Lord and tell the people to stand
still. And that's what Moses did. And because the Lord did
it that way, when He brought them through the Red Sea, you
know what they did on the other side? They sang the first song we got
record of in the Scriptures. And they gave God all the praise
and all the glory. That's why He does it this way.
So we're brought to praise Him and glory in Him and thank Him
for the things He's done for us. Let me see if I can get this
last thing. I'll be real quick. We come to
Christ with our petitions because the Lord knows all and He alone
is able. He knew their need before they
ever came. It says there in verse 4, when
Jesus heard, He said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the
glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
He already knew the need. He already knew what it was about.
He said in verse 11, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that
I may awake him out of sleep. And they didn't understand what
He meant. And He said in verse 14, Lazarus is dead. He knew it. He already knew before
he ever went there what the problem was. He said in the last chapter,
I know my sheep. And he knows his sheep. He knows
our need before we open our mouth. He sent it. He sent it. The Lord
said when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do.
They think they'll be heard for their much speaking. 50 Hail
Marys and just praying and repeating things and wobbling back and
forth and all the things they do. He said, be ye, be not ye
therefore like unto them for your father knoweth what things
you have need of before you ask him. He already knows. He predestinated
our first birth and our new birth and he sovereignly brought both
of them to pass. He can do it. Everything is coming
to pass in your life and in my life is coming to pass by His
sovereign hand just like He's ruling everything in this world.
He knows what you have need of before you ask Him because He
gave you the need. So why pray then? What's the
purpose of praying then? Because it's for our good. And
it's for his glory. After the Lord told Israel what
he would do for them, he gave them a long list of things to
tell what he was going to do for Israel. And when he got finished,
he said, thus saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired
of by the house of Israel to do it for them. I will increase
them with men like a flock, and they shall know that I am the
Lord. And that's the purpose. Prayer
is not us turning God to our will. and just having Him do
what we ask Him to do. That's not what prayer is. The
purpose of prayer is to make His child submit to God's will
and to cast all our care into His hand and leave it there.
That's the purpose of prayer. That we might know and remember
that He is the Lord. It's to remind us that the Lord
knows best how to provide for His people. He knows what our
need is. He's wisdom. He waited till Lazarus
died because it was the best. He said in verse 15, I'm glad
for your sakes I was not there to the intent you may believe.
He called on the Father before all of them. It wasn't to benefit
Him. It wasn't for His sake. He did
that to benefit us. He said in verse 41, Jesus lifted
up His eyes and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard
me, 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 all these years later, because
Christ did this in wisdom, knowing the need and what was best to
meet it, we're still being profited by this all these many years
later from what He did in this passage. So everything the Lord
does, He does it for the profit of His people. That's why we
go to Him in prayer, to be reminded He already knows. And He's wise
to do what is best. And we go there because in prayer
we're being reminded that only Christ has the power. He is the
power. He alone is able to meet the
need. We're prone to say what they
said. If the Lord opened the eyes of
one born blind, then could he not have made it so that this
man had not died? We're prone to think like that.
Well, the Lord's sovereign. He could do so many things. I'm
talking about when you're really in trouble. The Lord is sovereign.
He could do all these things. Couldn't he have made it so that
this is not happening to my brother or this is not happening to me?
Here's what we ought to reason. Here's how we ought to think.
We should say, if the Lord opened the eyes of the blind, if He
raised Lazarus from the dead, if He redeemed me by His precious
blood, if He calmed me by His grace, if He preserved me this
far, He can meet this need right now, whatever it is. Isn't that
a better way to reason? Is anything too hard for the
Lord? Being confident of this very thing, that He which has
begun a good work in you shall perform it till the day of Jesus
Christ. You remember why Paul said he had that awful trial
at Asia? He said, we was pressed down
above measure, we despaired even of life. Why did the Lord give
him that trial? He said that we should not trust
in ourselves, but in God, who raiseth the dead, who delivered
us from death, from so great a death, and does deliver, and
we believe he shall deliver us. Brethren, if he saved us, at
the cross, and if He called us by His grace and gave us faith
to believe Him, and He's preserved you in faith this far, there
ought to be nothing else that you ever come up against in this
life that once He settled us back down, after we get all in
a puff, once He settles us back down, You remember, there's nothing
too hard for the Lord. I see what He's done for me.
Nothing is too hard. He can meet the need. He can
meet the need. So always come to the Lord with
your petition. Always pray to Him. Always come
to Him and pour out your heart. Make requests to Him. Specific
requests. Thank Him for the good. Thank
Him for the tough and the sorrowful and the hard stuff. And thank
Him for all of it. And come to Him. But know this,
brethren. As you thank Him, as you submit
to Him, know this. to make our petition based on
his love for us and his love for his people. That's the best
petition. That's the best petition. Not
based on our love for him or what we've done for him, his
love and what he's done for us. And number two, come knowing
he gave the affliction because he loves us. That's why he gave
it. That's the only way we'll truly
thank Him for it, is we know He did it because He loves His
people. And three, come knowing He gave
it to remind us that He knows all. He knows what we need, and
He's the only one able to meet the need, just like He did at
Calvary's Cross. Come to the Lord that way. Bow
down, knowing. He loves me. I based my petition
on his love. He gave me this affliction because
he loves me. and He knows everything I need
and He's able to meet the need. He has, He is, and He shall.
Brethren, you can really pray to the Lord. You can enter into
prayer with a true spirit and pray to the Lord. And this is
a profitable petition. Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest
is sick. Let's go to him in prayer. Our great God and our Father,
how we do thank You, Lord, that You're holy. How we thank You that You freely
set Your love on Your people. Lord, we have brethren who are
sick. We have brethren who are troubled,
afflicted. And Lord, we trust they are brethren
whom You love. And we ask you, based on your
love for your people, Lord, will you help us? Solely based on your love for
your people, Lord, we ask you, help us. Lord, we thank you for every
trial. We thank you for every affliction. We thank You, Lord, that You
manifest Your love to us to correct us, to chasten us, because You
do love us. And Lord, we are thankful that
You are a faithful Father to us, to correct us, to chasten
us. We ask you this because we know
you know our need. We know that you know that you're
wise to meet that need, that you are all powerful and able
to meet every need of your people. Lord, you know the needs of brethren
that we don't even know. We pray for our brethren who
are sick physically. We pray for brethren who are
sick spiritually. Lord, we ask you, by your power
and according to your wisdom, we ask you, Lord, to help us. We simply want your will to be
done. And Lord, give us grace to submit
to your will. Give us grace to know that if
it's come in the past, You're in control of it and it's coming
to pass because this is your will. Teach us, Lord, to submit. Teach us, Lord, to not question
your sovereign hand, not question your providence, but to rest
in what you're doing and know you do all things well. Lord,
use these different troubles your people go through to remind
us what you've already accomplished for your people at the cross.
Remind us again, Lord, how that Nothing shall be able to separate
one of your people from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And make us, Lord, by your grace
would you make us to cast our burden on you. You've commanded
us to cast all our care on you. Lord, help us to even do that
and help us to leave it there. Lord, Renew us in heart to know everything
you're working is for the good of your people. It's for your
glory that the Son of God might be glorified. And Lord, keep
us right there. Keep us right there at your feet,
trusting you, submitted to you. Thank you, Lord, for the troubles. Thank you for the heartache.
Thank you for the good that you've given and the joyful things you've
given. But Lord, we thank you too for
the trouble and the heartache. It keeps us dependent on you.
And Lord, we need to be kept dependent on you. We need you
to make us depend on you. So we thank you. We pray, Lord,
you bring glory to your name. I pray you exalt yourself in
the heart of each of your people and before all our enemies in
this world, and keep your people loving each other. Keep us pointing
each other to Christ. Lord, this is our petition. He whom thou lovest is sick. We need help from you, Lord.
We ask it in the name of our great King and Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, our great, precious high priest. We ask you hear
him on our behalf, Lord. It's in his name we pray. Amen.