May God be pleased to bless us
together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let's turn to the
Gospel of John, chapter 11, and we'll read verses 43 and 44.
The Gospel of John, chapter 11, reading verses 43 and 44. And
when he had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth,
bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound
about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, loose
him and let him go. I suppose this is one of the
greatest, if not the greatest, miracle that the Lord Jesus Christ
performed when he was on the earth. There was, of course,
no doubt that Lazarus was dead. In dead four days, no possibility
of any life there. And yet, the Lord Jesus came
and gloriously raised Lazarus from the dead. And there is,
of course, much teaching in the account that we've read together. But the overall thrust, really,
of this wonderful account is that the Church of God might
be brought to that position to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, that really is the great
thrust of the Word of God from beginning to end. And what a
mercy for all of us today if we are numbered amongst those
who do believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus, when
he was speaking to Martha, and it's wonderful to have some of
these conversations listed out before us so we can understand
what was being said. And Martha had been speaking
to Jesus and she'd said, I know that he shall rise again, that's
Lazarus, in the resurrection at the last day. And Jesus answered
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. And then the Lord
asks her this great question, believest thou this? How did
she respond? Yea, Lord, I believe that thou
art the Christ, the Son of God, which had come into the world. Now that was a blessed answer,
but it was a necessary answer. and it is really an answer that
all of us here wants to be able to say from our heart because
with such an answer there is the evidence that salvation has
come to our house has come to our soul as we are able to come
from our heart and respond in such a way that Martha was able
to when she was asked the question, Believest thou this? Now we've
probably read this account of Lazarus many times. I dare say
even the young people have read this account probably many times
and are familiar with it. And of course we're very familiar
with the outcome. But are we familiar with the
great question? and which was put to Martha. And as we read it, has that great
question been put to us? Very simple, isn't it? Believest
thou this? And what has been our response? Perhaps we've never made a response. What a blessing it is when the
Holy Spirit gives us the evidence that we can respond And how did
she respond? Well, she responded very beautifully
and very wonderfully. And by the grace of God, all
of us, without exception, need to be able to respond in the
same way. She said, in answer, believest
thou this? Yea, Lord, I believe that thou
art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. Well, this morning, if the Lord Jesus was to ask
you that question, and may it be so, that through
the Holy Spirit you are asked that question, are you able to
respond in this very right, this very positive way? And as we
think about that, Let us realise that every person that goes to
heaven, every person that has come to heaven, have been able,
by the grace of God, to answer in such a positive way. Able to say, Lord, yea Lord,
I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should
come into the world. And so let us just ponder, pause,
think about that this morning. Have we been there? Are we there? Do we want to come there? To be able to acknowledge the
truth of the words that Martha was able to say. And this wasn't
just a mere phrase, was it? It wasn't just some religious
statement that she was able to make. It was in answer to a very
pertinent question from the Lord Jesus. And my friends, God makes pertinent
questions to us today. And you know, when we come down
to the last two verses that we read together, how relevant they
are because this wonderful miracle had been performed and we are
told and many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the
things which Jesus did believed on him. But some of them went
their way to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus has
done clearly, they were not amongst those who believed. And so we
see again and again through the Word of God the very solemn separation
that the Word of God sets before us. Those who believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation, as their only
hope of eternal life, and those who do not believe. And those
who do not believe, of course, will perish in their sins and
will end up eternally in hell, that place of constant torment,
no ease, nothing but eternal aggravation, darkness, burning
fire. My friends, a terrible thought,
isn't it? And yet, what a wonderful thing
it is that you and I today Stand before God with the blessed gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Word of God that you and I are
able to read and to have spoken to us. And so may we have this
morning the wonderful evidence that we can concur with Martha
and say, I do believe. Oh, how vital it is. Don't turn away from it. Don't
think it's irrelevant. Don't think I can put it off.
My friends, remember Jesus is the one thing needful and I without
him perish must. There's no alternative but you
see those who are in Christ Jesus are eternally safe. Now Having
just mentioned that really as an introduction, just to come
more personally to the actual verses that we've spoken and
also how the account comes up to this wonderful miracle that
the Lord performed. Now we know that Lazarus was
buried in a cave, in a tomb. and he'd been dead four days
and Jesus came and we're told it was a cave and a stone lay
upon it so it would seem different to the situation with the Lord
Jesus when he died there was a stone which are rolled across
the opening. But here we have a stone laid
upon it, so it would seem it was a cave in the ground. And
therefore, when the Lord came and said, take away the stone, it meant
that those people there, they had to actually physically lift
it up from the opening which was in the ground. And we may
think, well, surely that's not very significant. Well, just
think about it. The Lord Jesus Christ was able
to raise somebody from the dead. The Lord Jesus Christ could so
easily have moved that stone by the Holy Spirit, it could
have been taken out of the way. But the Lord saw fit to ordain
that there should be those involved in such things as that to move
in the stone. And they weren't just to stand
by and just be observers. The Lord gave them this work
to do. And so it is in the Church of
God. The Church of God are given things
to do. And we are not to just be observers,
just stand aside and think, well, I'm not going to do that. Somebody
is to do it. And if the Lord speaks to us
in one way or another with regard to certain things, we are to
follow the words of Jesus. And so we hear these people here
They came and then they took away the stone from the place
where the dead was laid. And then of course we have the
wonderful prayer of the Saviour, the wonderful prayer to His Father,
the wonderful intimacy of that prayer. And perhaps we think,
well, of course that was the Saviour, so it was, and it's
very special, isn't it, when He prayed unto His Father, And
he said, Father, I thank thee, thou hast heard me. And I knew
that thou hearest me always. But because of the people which
stand by us in it, that they may believe that thou hast sent
me. Now, we should believe and realize
today that we come to a God who hears and answers prayer. We have a Father in Heaven who
does hear and answer prayer. And if the Lord has gloriously
and wonderfully redeemed our soul, we have a wonderful access
to the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. So may we be encouraged,
therefore, to come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may
find help in time of need. remembering the door of his mercy
stands open all day to the poor and the needy, that's not by
the way. And yet we should always remember
that we need to pray. So the Lord Jesus sets before
us a wonderful example. And therefore we should not expect
things to just happen. We should remember the word of
God that tells us, I will be inquired of by the house of Israel,
to do these things for them. And prayer is a blessed position
and a blessed thing, a wonderful favour, to be able to come to
God and to pray to him. You know what it is? Prayer.
Prayer is the spiritual breath of a Christian. Prayer. You and
I need breath to live, don't we, naturally. We also need spiritual
breath to live spiritually, and that is in the form of prayer. Do we pray? Do we often pray? Do we pray urgently? Do we come
to our Father in Heaven through the Lord Jesus Christ? The Church
of God do have a Heavenly Father. We do have a Heavenly Father,
and we should bless God for it. And we can come to the Holy Father,
who is holy, holy, righteous, and he sits in glory, and we
can approach to him through the great and glorious intercession
of the Lord Jesus Christ today. And so let us never forget, never
forget to pray. You know, sometimes we're ashamed,
well I'm ashamed sometimes, when we forget to pray. And we have
a problem, and we're getting on with it, and we don't pray.
Perhaps suddenly, in the Lord's mercy, we find that prod and
we realise, well, we've forgotten to pray. Oh, what bad Christians
we are. What wretched sinners we are. What a mercy when the Lord comes
and therefore reminds us to pray. Don't forget the Apostle Paul
speaks to the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing. The Lord
Jesus Christ came here and he prayed to his father. He prayed
with that humble confidence. And that is how you and I are
to pray today. We are not to pray with an unbelieving
heart. We are not to pray doubting. We are to pray believing. We are to pray, of course, in
accordance with God's will. We are to pray, of course, that
the Lord will direct us as to what to pray for and that he
will be honoured and glorified by that which we pray for. But
we are to come and we are to pray to our God in heaven through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And again, this is another reason
why the Lord Jesus Christ will be to us precious and a living
reality because Lord says without me ye can do nothing and you
and I can't pray without the intercession of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let us bless God for that and
let us remember therefore to pray and so the Lord having spoken
this way to his father and also that the people might hear and
they might believe. Oh what a wonderful thing it
is if in our lives we're able to do those things which are
for the honour and glory of God so that people might believe,
believe through our example, our example in the life we lead,
the life we live, the things that we say. We live in a dark
world, then let's not forget the Church of God are the light,
the light in this world. And we are therefore to show
forth the praise of our God and to not hide it. And you might
think, well, I've got nothing to say. Well, pray that you might
have something to say. Pray that the Lord will bless
you abundantly. The Lord is able to do for us far more exceeding
abundantly than we could ask or even think. The Word of God,
don't doubt it. My friends, pray for grace to
lay hold of it. Pray for grace to go in the strength
of it. And pray for grace to rejoice
in it. We have a glorious gospel. We
have a glorious God. We have a wonderful testimony
of the favor of God. Or may we find it in our own
hearts and may it be that which moves us so that we're not silent
in the things of God. But they were able to declare
what He has done. Declare how glorious He is. Declare how precious He is. Declare
what He means to us. So the Saviour then came, and
when He had thus spoken, and then He cried with a loud voice,
Lazarus, come forth. This wasn't a whisper. No, the
Lord had a message. The Lord cried with a loud voice. No doubt what he was saying,
wasn't it? Wonderful thing it is when we
hear such a voice in our hearts, the voice of Jesus speaking to
us. And also that we are able to declare the truth of God in
a loud voice. And so the Lord came here and
spoke to Lazarus. There he was, dead in the grave.
Dead in the grave. Naturally, impossible that that
man could come out of that grave. We can imagine, can't we, the
people gathered round All expectant, wondering what would happen,
and perhaps earnestly listening to what Jesus was saying. Would
He be raised from the dead? Would the word spoken have an
effect? Well, probably the crowd was silent, waiting, listening
to observe what would occur. It's a good thing, isn't it,
when we are also expecting to observe some great blessing from
God. If we've prayed earnestly, if
we've prayed in faith, then surely there should be a humble expectancy. We should not be turning away.
We should be waiting and looking for an answer to our prayer.
Well, here was Jesus then, speaking, Lazarus, come forth. Well, what was the result? Well,
we know the result, don't we? And we're told, and he that was
dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and
his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto him,
loose him and let him go. And so we see here in this verse
two situations. We see first of all the blessed
work of the Holy Spirit in giving life to this man. And then secondly, we see the
Lord giving him liberty in the truth of God. And so what occurred? He came forth. He came forth. And obviously he was able to
climb out of the grave or to walk out, whatever it was. And
although he was bound hand and foot with grave clothes, it doesn't
say that the grave clothes were such that were bound his legs
so that he couldn't walk, or his hands and arms so he couldn't
move them. But nonetheless, they were covered
and also His head, his head was covered and his face was bound
about with a napkin. So quite clearly there was that
life within, that spiritual life within. He was no longer physically
dead. There was now that life within
and what a wonderful favour it is when you and I are blessed
with that situation. when the Lord moves us, so that
there is life. But yet we may be bound up still,
bound up, not able to move very well, with all these grave clothes
round us, not able to see because our face is bound around, and
quite clearly we therefore need a wonderful deliverance. Well, what did the Lord say?
The Lord said, loose him and let him go. What was that? What was it? It was a glorious
freedom in Christ. A wonderful occasion when this
man who was bound up was freed from those grave clothes and
from that napkin around his face. They were taken away. Yes, loose
him and let him go. The Word of God encourages us
with a number of evidences of the blessed work of the Holy
Spirit. And in an earlier chapter, in
the 8th chapter of John, The Lord Jesus came and said, verily,
verily, verse 34 in the 8th chapter, verily, verily, I say unto you,
Whosoever committeth sin is a servant of sin. And the servant abideth
not in the house forever, but the son abideth forever. So we are all, therefore, naturally
the servants of sin. But we come to the 36th verse.
And then we're told, If the Son therefore shall make you free,
ye shall be free indeed. What's the difference? The difference
is this, we then desire to serve the Lord. We then desire to honour
our blessed Saviour. And there's no one else that
can make us free It is that blessed personal work of Almighty God.
If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. Well, what a mercy if you and
I know the freedom of the Son, the freedom of the Christ. Because
that freedom means that our grave clothes or perhaps our chains
have been broken off and we've been set free we may have been
walking along and yet so much to drag us down so much to detain
us so many burdens and yet you see there was that life we weren't
dead we weren't spiritually dead there was that life but there
was no freedom there was no liberty There was no glorious union,
communion, with the Lord Jesus Christ. Then you see, the Lord
comes, the Lord speaks, the Lord makes us free. The Lord spoke,
you see. He had to speak to this man,
Lazarus. There he was, with all those
grave clothes around him. The Lord said, loose him and
let him go. The truth is, of course, there
was that napkin around his face he couldn't see. He couldn't
see. He may have been able to have
just some little view, perhaps, of outlines through that napkin,
whatever it was. But there wasn't any clarity.
And I believe that's the same in a spiritual life. When the
Lord comes and reveals Christ to our souls, And that is when
a crucified Saviour is revealed to us. Then it is that we are
loosed from our grave clothes. Then it is that we are set free. Then it is that with our spiritual
eyes we view the Saviour. And what a glorious sight it
is. A sight which we do not forget. It's a sight of forgiveness. It's a sight of mercy. It's a
sight of love. It's really when the blessed
light of the glorious Gospel has shone into our hearts. The Apostle, when he wrote to
the Galatians, and the fifth chapter, we haven't got that
far yet in our meditation on Friday, but the fifth chapter,
he tells us in the first verse, he says, stand fast. Therefore, in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with a
yoke of bondage." There is a freedom in Christ. Perhaps there's not
very much freedom in Christ in the day in which we live. Perhaps
as often entangled with a yoke of bondage, entangled with the
poor things of time, The devil wants us to be entangled. He
doesn't want us to be set free. He wants us to be bound up so
that we can't move, and so that we can't see, so that we give
no and bring no glory to God. Well, the apostle here, he knew
what freedom was. And remember in the apostle's
life, when that gracious occasion on that Damascus road came, and
the apostle was struck down, you know, he didn't see, did
he, very well. He was blind. He had to be led about. Until
that time when those scales fell from his eyes. Then he saw. Then he saw clearly. Oh, my friends,
strive for a clear view of the Saviour. Stand fast, therefore,
in the liberty which it is. wherewith Christ has made us
free. You see it's a gracious exhortation
to us and we need to read these things because the devil will
endeavour to entangle us in the vanities of life. He'll bring
things into our lives sometimes which we may think are lawful.
Don't forget what the Apostle Paul said, You know, all things
are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient, and that's
the problem. That's the problem. We engage
ourselves in things which are not expedient. They may be lawful,
they don't produce a blessing, and they leave us cold and hard.
Oh, bless God then, when he gives us grace. stand fast. Stand fast therefore in the liberty. And it's blessed when you and
I are blessed with gospel liberty. That means freedom in Christ.
That means union with Christ. That means Christ is precious.
That means Christ is glorious. And let us therefore not be entangled
again with the yoke of bondage. Let us remember such a word as
this. The Word of God is given to us
for our gracious encouragement and our instruction that we may
not listen to the cunning devices, the lies of our adversary the
devil. Always turn to the Word of God.
If you're tempted, turn to the Word of God. If you wonder whether
you can do something or not, turn to the Word of God. You'll
find there the instruction. You'll find there the direction.
You may not want it. It may go against what you want
to do. But nevertheless, bless God, we have a glorious Bible
to direct us in the right way. And remember then what Israel
proved. He led them forth by the right
way. they might go to a city of habitation. And what a blessed
situation it is to come into that right way and not find it
is a wrong way. Loose him and let him go. It was a command of God. And that's a glorious thing when
you and I receive a command from Almighty God, a command from
Him, which indeed sets us free and we can be thankful for it.
I hope we are thankful for the glorious gospel and hopefully
we truly bless God and praise him for it. You know, speaking about this
liveliness and this bringing out into union with Christ, the
Lord Jesus spoke and he said, for the Father loveth the Son,
this is in the fifth chapter of John verse 20, For the Father
loveth the Son, and showeth him all things that himself doeth. And he will show him greater
works than these that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth
up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom
he will. It's the prerogative of Almighty
God, and we are thankful it is in his hand, and not in our hand.
Otherwise, we would end up in a very sad state. Can we not
say, blessed be God for what he does? And then, perhaps we
can think of a similar occasion going back into the Old Testament. And in Ezekiel's day, there was
that wonderful occasion when there was that parable of the
dry bones. Ezekiel was directed by the Spirit
of God to go into this valley, this open valley, and to view
the bones, and he tells us, and they were very dry. Very dry. And of course sometimes we might
feel to be very dry. A true child of God will never
rest there. You won't rest there. The devil
may try to rest you there. You won't find any rest there.
You're fine. Your conscience will move you.
Well, here was the Lord God speaking to Ezekiel, and the question
was, can these bones live? These dry bones. And Ezekiel
said, O Lord God, thou knowest. Thou knowest. And what was he
told to do? to prophesy, to preach unto these
bones and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the
Lord. What a blessing that is, isn't
it? If the Holy Spirit enables us to hear the word of the Lord. That means the word of the Lord
comes into our hearts. So it does have an effect and
perhaps Wondrous it would be if we hear the blessed word of
the Holy Spirit speaking to us. Come forth! Come forth. And here was this
statement then. And the Lord said, Thus saith
the Lord God unto these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to
enter into them and ye shall live. and I will lay sinews upon
you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with
skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall
know that I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded,
and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a shaking,
and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I
beheld, though the sinews and the flesh came up upon them,
and the skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them.
then said he unto me prophesy unto the wind prophesy son of
man and say to the wind thus saith the lord god come now come
from the four winds oh breathe and breathe upon these slain
that they may live so i prophesied as he commanded and the breath
came into them and they lived And they stood up upon their
feet, an exceeding great army. And he said unto me, Son of man,
these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say our
bones are dried, our hope is lost. We are cut off from our
parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto
them, thus saith the Lord. Behold, O my people, I will open
your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves. and
bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the
Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought
you out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you, and ye
shall live. Well, what a wonderful blessing
it is for us today if we have the evidence of the wonderful
Spirit within us. If we've heard those words, loose
him and let him go. And we therefore have entered
in to that liberty which is in Christ Jesus. What a mercy it
is that the Lord still works. What a mercy it is that the Lord
still does great things for his people. And what a blessing it
is if you and I know the wonderful favour of these blessings. If
the Holy Spirit has come and spoken to us, loose him and let
him go. Our eyes have been opened. the
veil's been taken away, our ears have been unstopped, we see the
glorious truth of the Gospel, we have a spiritual understanding
of it, our ears have been opened to hear the good news, and we
rejoice therefore in the wondrous work of God. And without any
doubt, it will direct us to the one who has done that work, That
One who has saved our souls. That One who has redeemed us
from all iniquity. That One who has given us that
wonderful sight of the Lord Jesus Christ. To see the Saviour, by
faith, crucified upon Calvary's cross, suffering all incarnate
God could bear, with strength enough and none to spare. And
He went to the end of the law, for righteousness sake, in order
to redeem our souls. Now if the saviour looses us
and gives us a view of the saviour, he'll be precious and we'll desire
to honour him, we'll desire to exalt his name, we'll desire
to join with the saints of God with that and say let us exalt
his name together. Yes he's so worthy of all our
praise He's loosed my bonds, he's set me free. Oh, the gospel
is good news, I rejoice in it, and I look forward to that great
and glorious day when the Lord will come and receive me unto
himself. Look where he is. I will be also
gathered together with the saints of God in glory to praise him,
that God from whom all blessings flow. Well, this is a very simple
account, isn't it? The Word of God gives us so many
simple accounts. It's a glorious account. But
my friends, may we rejoice in it and may we know the blessed
application that it has in our spiritual lives. So that as we
were dead, and indeed we were naturally stinking, we were an
abomination, before God then that time came, when the Lord
spoke such glorious words as this, with a loud voice, Lazarus,
come forth. And he that was dead came forth,
bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound
about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto him, loose him,
and let him go. Eternal freedom. Amen.