May it please God to bless us
together as we meditate in his word this morning. Let us turn
to the Gospel of John, chapter 11, and we'll read verses 25
and 26. The Gospel of John, chapter 11,
and reading verses 25 and 26. Jesus said unto 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. Believest thou this? The whole thrust really in these
words is very simple as Jesus was speaking to Martha and the
great question was whether Martha believed the Lord Jesus Christ
or not. And as significant and as important
as it was to Martha on this occasion, it is still as important for
all of us today to recognise and to realise and to know whether
we are amongst those who do believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's perhaps the most difficult
thing. You might think it's relatively
easy, but it's a great blessing if the Lord gives us that faith
and gives us that grace to believe the gospel and to believe in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, if we are not
amongst those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, then there
will be no hope of eternity in glory. We will be amongst those
who are cast out into the blackness of hell forever. So such a statement
is very relevant and very important for all of us. We cannot ignore
the great truths of the Gospel. We cannot think, well, these
things do not matter. You may remember that Jesus said
to Mary, or to Martha really, one thing is needful and Mary
has chosen that good part. And what part was that? Well,
the fact was that Mary came and she sat at Jesus' feet. She wanted to hear what he said. She wanted to believe the great
truths that he spoke. And we today are blessed to be
able still to come, to read the Bible, to gather together for
worship. We enjoy much freedom in our country still. But all
these things are good and wonderful. But the great question is, personally,
whether you and I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ or not? That'll be the great question
when you and I come to die. Have we believed in the Lord
Jesus Christ or have we not? Well, this was a question really
put to Martha by Jesus. You know that this account tells
us the occasion when Lazarus died and was raised from the
dead. in a most wonderful way. We should
always think that the Word of God is complete in all the things
that is set before us in the Bible, and there's nothing in
the Bible which is unnecessary, and therefore this account is
not something which is unnecessary. It's an account which Almighty
God has ordained should be recorded, should be recorded, in what we
know today as the Bible, for the benefit and for the eternal
good of his people. How easy it is today to ignore
the great blessing that the world has of the Word of God. We know there are still, of course,
those tribes and smaller nations who do not yet have the Bible
in their own language, but we're thankful there are still translations
being worked on. We, in our country, have been
blessed with the Bible for so many, many years. And yet, for
the most part, people disdain it. They ignore it. They think
it's not important. They think it's fairy tales. You may know that we have a lady
that comes to the market stall quite regularly and tells us
again and again, you know, the Bible is just a load of fairy
tales. there's no truth in it at all. Well, we pray that her
eyes may be opened, that she may realize the things the Bible
contains are true. And it's wonderful they are true. And we live in a day and age
when so many discoveries are being made to prove again and
again the Bible is true. The discoveries which are made
do not disprove the Bible, they prove the Bible to be true. Surely that is an encouragement
to the Church of God. Those who often make these finds
in these archaeological digs, etc, often of course put a different
view on it. But my friends, the great blessing
is if we look at it and consider it and think what they find and
perhaps some of the writings they find, it's wonderful to
know that those things which are being found only confirm
and validate the great truth of the Word of God. So we should
be mightily encouraged to know that the Word of God is true.
Indeed, the Lord Jesus Christ, in the 17th chapter of this same
epistle, he says, thy word is truth, and it is. And so as it's
true, and everything it is is true, and it tells us then the
story of our life, And it tells us the situation which will occur. We know that there is a heaven.
We know there is a hell. We know that time will, one situation,
cease to be time. There will be time no more. The
world will be burnt up and all it contains. And all these things
are set before us very clearly in the word of God. But for the
most part, people ignore them. And do you know why? Potentially
going to spoil their life Potentially going to stop them doing things
that they want to do in their life It's that which sets before
us the gracious wisdom of God and the rules of God which we
have in the Word of God and people just don't want to accept them
and just don't want to Realize that those things which are recorded
are for our good. They think it's to harm them
and to stop them enjoying their life on this earth. Well, the
Lord has given us all things in this world, all those legitimate
things to enjoy. We're not to enjoy, of course,
those things which are against God, but he gives us all the
creation we see around us to enjoy. And we're blessed with
people of God to speak to and to enjoy their fellowship and
conversation. And so there are many things
that we have to enjoy. But we should always realise
that the vast majority of mankind do not want these things. They
want to follow their own pleasure. They want to ignore the things
of God. And what they say really, in
their heart, is very simple this. We will not have this man, that's
the Lord Jesus Christ, to reign over us. We want to please ourselves. We want to enjoy ourselves. And
so often people say, we want to live life to the full. Well,
there's a glorious life in Christ to live to the full, and that's
an eternal life. My friends, the life in this
world will soon finish for all of us, won't it? Even if we live
to a long age of 100 or so, it's a very short time compared with
eternity. So how important for us all it
is to realize the great truth of God, and The Lord Jesus is
speaking to Martha. Martha has come to Jesus and
he's speaking to her. Then when Jesus came, he found
that he had lain in the grave four days already. Now Bethany
was nine to Jerusalem, about 15 furlongs off, some about two
miles. And many of the Jews came to
Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Then
Martha, as soon as she heard, that Jesus had come, went and
met him. But Mary sat still in the house.
Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here,
my brother had not died. But I know that even now whatsoever
thou will ask of God, God will give it thee. Well, we see here,
don't we, that Martha was blessed with faith to believe that Jesus
could indeed raise Lazarus from the dead. She was blessed with
living faith to believe this great truth. And so she came
and she acknowledged it and she spoke of it to Jesus. And it
is good, is it not, when we acknowledge those things that we believe
the Lord Jesus Christ can and will do. And so She came and
she said, I know that even now, whatsoever thou will ask of God,
God will give it thee. And Jesus said unto her, thy
brother shall rise again. And Martha said unto him, I know
he shall rise again in the resurrection of the last day. And it's good
to read here of the faith of Martha because the Lord Jesus
had not risen from the dead. He had not died upon the cross.
And therefore she was believing those things that she had read
in the Old Testament, those things which spoke about the life to
come, and she had faith to believe it. And so she comes and acknowledges
this great truth. And it's good, you know, for
us today to also recognize this great truth that there is a resurrection
at the last day. Well, people mock and people
disbelieve it, but it will be to their great shame and it will
be to their confusion when that last day comes. And the Lord
does come in the clouds with all the holy angels with him. It will be a tremendous day for
the Church of God. It will be a terrible day for
those who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that
day is nearer, of course, than it was yesterday. We don't know
when it's coming, but one thing we know, it will come. And therefore,
how important it is that you and I receive that faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, so that when that day comes, we
shall be those who join the Lord in the air to be forever with
him. Well, the Lord comes and he speaks
these words, And Jesus now says to her, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. This is a great truth. This is
a very important truth because what the words tell us is very
simply that you and I are born spiritually dead. We're dead
in trespasses and in sins, as the Bible tells us. We are alive
physically, but we are dead spiritually. And you may ask, well, can you
just explain that? Why is that? Well, I can explain
it, and the Bible explains it for us. And it really goes back
to Genesis. Often we have to go back to that
chapter in Genesis, the third chapter, when Adam and Eve so
foolishly listened to the lies of the devil. And the devil,
of course, raised those seeds of doubt in Eve's mind when he
said, hath God said? He was questioning whether what
God had said was true. Hath God said? Well, the truth
is that Eve knew what God had said, and she told him. She told the devil that if she
ate of that forbidden fruit, the result would be that she
would die. The devil told her, you won't
die. Never forget, the devil is a liar. He always has been,
he always will be. Never believe the words of the
devil. Always believe the words of God. So what happened? Eve ate of
the fruit, gave to Adam, he ate of the fruit. You might say,
well, what happened? Did they both drop down dead? Remember what the Lord had said,
in the day you eat, you'll die. Didn't say, well, in the future
you will die. They didn't die then physically,
did they? But what happened? They died
spiritually. They died spiritually. And because
of that death, they would need God then to come and to make
them spiritually alive. And so that situation is passed
on. down through the generations, right to the present moment of
time, and it will be right to the end of time. Because of that
which Adam and Eve did, they brought upon death upon all mankind. And therefore, as we're born
into this world, we're born alive physically, but we're born dead
spiritually. And you and I, my friends, desperately
need to receive that spiritual life. And so we have these words
before us, which Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. So all of us need to know that
we possess the great blessing of spiritual life. spiritual
life, that we are not still spiritually dead. And if we are to be spiritually
alive, it will be because we are blessed with that faith to
believe in our hearts. Faith to believe in our hearts. We have the illustration in the
Word of God in Acts of the Apostles, where there were two people.
One was a man called Simon, and he made his living by sorcery,
and that's magic, etc. And he believed, but he only
believed in his mind. He only believed in his head.
And he thought he could buy the gift of the Holy Ghost with money.
And Peter came and told him very straight, you can't buy these
things and you are wrong in your heart, you do not believe in
your heart. He was just believing in his
head. We come in that same chapter, the time when Philip came down
and was commanded to go and there was that Ethiopian who
came and was reading, he was returning from Jerusalem, he
was reading Isaiah in his chariot and he couldn't understand it
and he asked Philip to come alongside him and give him the interpretation
and Philip did and he explained what the 53rd of Isaiah described
and of course that describes very beautifully the death of
the Lord Jesus Christ and Well, the Ethiopian said, who's he
speaking of, himself or somebody else? He didn't really understand.
But Philip was able to describe these things to him. And they
journeyed on, and they came to some water. And the Ethiopian,
he said to Philip, what does hinder me to be baptized? Clearly, Philip had described
to him the words of the Lord Jesus and the actions of the
Lord Jesus, how he'd been baptized and how true followers are to
be baptized and to be a follower of him. And the apostle said
to this Ethiopian these words, if thou believest, and this is
the important thing, with all thy heart thou mayest. And he said, I believe. And of
course then Philip baptised him. But he believed in his heart.
And that is the great and essential truth of believing. We are to
believe in our heart, not just in our minds. Because if we believe
in our hearts, there will be a result. There will be an effect. There will be a change in our
life. There will be a change in our lifestyle. We won't just
go on fulfilling the temptations of Satan. We may be tempted sometimes,
but our desire will be to walk our religion out in the sight
of Almighty God, to do that which is right and well-pleasing in
his sight, to be a true follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
therefore we will be blessed with that wonderful privilege
and wonderful knowledge of believing. And the Apostle Paul, when he wrote
to the Romans, he described this situation, you know, the importance
of believing with our heart, believing the great truth. And
the Apostle says in this 10th chapter, he says, What saith
it? The word is nigh thee, even in
thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith, which
we preached, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him
from the dead, thou shalt be saved. And the clear inference
is, therefore, that if you and I do not believe in our heart,
and also it says here, if we do not confess with our mouth,
then we shall not be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. It's very clear, isn't it? these
great truths that the Bible gives to us. And he goes on and says,
for the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. For there is no difference between
the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto
all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. That means that those
who believe will call upon the name of God. That means they
will pray. They will pray to God. And the wonderful thing is that
the Holy Spirit gives to us that wonderful faith to believe in
God in order that we pray aright. Now, we may not always appreciate
that we are believing when we first pray to God. But it's a
wonderful favour when the Lord gives us that power and desire
to truly pray to God. And I believe if you and I are
directed to pray to God, and I'm speaking here of a spiritual
situation, I'm not speaking of praying for natural things, which
is right and good, but I'm talking about a spiritual situation.
And if you and I are going to pray to God for our spiritual
situation, then our prayer will be, initially, that God would
have mercy upon us, that God would be gracious to us, that
God would take away our sins, because we will realise that
we have sinned, we have offended Almighty God. And we will need
the Lord to come and to forgive us of our sins. And that will be, therefore,
the prayer from our heart. The natural mind isn't really
concerned. about the soul. They'll pray.
Many people pray because they want this and they want that.
Yes, there's a big long wantness, isn't there? But they're not
really concerned about their spiritual condition. They're
not really concerned about the eternal life which is before
them. They're only concerned about natural life. But bless
God if he's given us that concern and that desire to seek after
him that you and I might be blessed in our souls the Lord would have
mercy upon us and that he would give us that grace to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You may remember that this 10th
chapter gives us a very important picture of those who will believe. And the Apostle lays it before
us in this way, he says, how then shall they call on him whom
they have not believed? He's really saying, well, if
you don't believe, there's no point in praying, and there's
not, is there? How then shall they call on him in whom they
have not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they have not heard? We can't believe in something
we haven't heard about, can we? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? So we have this wonderful line
of direction here, that there are those who hear and those
who hear indeed through the preaching of the Gospel. How shall they
preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. And of course, the glad tidings
of good things is the glorious gospel of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. And if we therefore are blessed
with faith to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we shall long
to hear of him. And the apostle goes on, but
they have not all obeyed the gospel. How few people obey the gospel,
how few people believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we're
told, who hath believed our report? Who hath believed our report?
And he says, but I say, have they not heard? Yes, very, their
sound went into all the earth and their words into the ends
of the world. But I say, did not Israel know?
First Moses said, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that
are no people and by foolish nation, I will anger you. But Elias or Isaiah is very bold
and says, I was found of them that sought me not. I was made
manifest unto them that asked not for me." He may perhaps want
that explained. Well, the truth is that if we
are, as we are, dead, spiritually dead, we cannot in actual fact
do anything until the blessed Spirit of God comes upon us,
unknown to us, we don't realise it, The Lord has given us that
spirit to pray unto Him. And therefore, what we're told
here is so true. I was found of them that sought
me not. I was made manifest unto them
that asked not for me. The Lord comes, you see, in His
glorious, sovereign way and causes us to call upon His name Believing
that he is the saviour of sinners. We come believing that he can
save our soul. He can deliver us from the wrath
to come. And so here Jesus says to Martha,
I am the resurrection and the life. He gives spiritual life. He raises our soul from the dead. And of course, there will be
that great glorious time of the resurrection. when all his people
will be raised from the dead, raised up to die no more, raised
up to spend eternity in glory with the Lord Jesus Christ, there
to praise and honor him, there to be found with all the redeemed
Church of God. What a wonderful consideration
it is for all of us here this morning to think the Lord has
prepared this great and wonderful scene and situation for the whole
Church of God. I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believeth on me, though
he were dead, yet shall live. This is the glorious gospel,
isn't it? The Lord gives us grace to believe. And when that grace is received
and we believe, then we possess the wonder of this spiritual
life, this life within. And this life within, you see,
will never be taken away. once in Him, in Him forever. Yes, we shall never lose our
salvation. Whom the Lord loves, those He
loves, He died for. Those He died for, He gives life. Those He died for, He raises
again from the dead. Whosoever believeth I am the
resurrection and the life. He that believeth on me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. Well, my friends, the great question
this morning is, are we, are you and I spiritually alive? If you and I are spiritually
dead, we shall never enter into heaven. We need to possess this
spiritual life. How important it is. Many things
are important, aren't they? You know, we're all keen, aren't
we, to progress in this world. And all you children and young
people, I'm sure, are very keen to do well in your exams and
to pass. And then when you get to university,
to do well there and to then get a good job. And all these
things are right and important to pray for. And I thank God
when he helps us in examinations and gives us good jobs in the
world. But the great question really
is, concerning our soul. And the reason is very, very
clear, isn't it? Very, very clear. Our life, your
life and my life, is a short time. Eternity is forever. There is no time in eternity. And therefore, the difference
is vast, isn't it? It's enormous, how needful it
is that all of us then have the evidence that we possess the
life of God in our souls, so that we are no longer dead, but
we are spiritually alive. And if that is so, may we indeed
truly bless God for it. And there will be, I believe
then, that acknowledging it, that testifying of what God has
done for us. The evidence of life within is
the confession with our mouth. Many people, you see, they ignore
the Word of God. Their Bible becomes a bit small,
and they don't seem to be able to accept the whole Word of God. And yet, what a wonderful truth
it is, we have the whole Word of God. And when the Lord gives
us that true desire to believe, then I believe He gives us a
true desire to acknowledge the whole Word of God is true. It
means changing our lifestyle. And if it means doing those things
which are difficult for us, I believe the fact is that you and I will
be made willing and endowed with power. Because when the God,
Almighty God, brings life into our souls, it is power. It is resurrection power. It's resurrection power that
makes us rise from the dead on that great last day, when our
body is raised from the dead, it's also resurrection power
that produces life in our souls to bring us from that dead condition
in which we were born. And so have we not much reason
to praise God and to praise God indeed for the great way in which
that salvation was brought about. It didn't just occur. It didn't
just occur. That salvation was brought about
through the glorious life and death of our Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Isn't it amazing to think that
Jesus, here speaking of these great truths, was so willing
to live that difficult life on this earth. It was a difficult
life. He didn't possess any houses.
He didn't possess a lot of goods. He didn't possess a tremendous
number of clothes. He just possessed the clothes
he stood up in. That's all he had. He didn't
have anything else. And yet, dear friends, he came
from that glory, that glory in heaven, and he came with this
one purpose. to redeem his people, to give
his people spiritual life. And in order to give his people
spiritual life, he had to take away that which caused their
death, sin. There's no sin that can enter
into heaven. All of us need that cleansing. We need to be made white. We
need to be washed all our sins to be taken away. And how was
it done? How was it accomplished? It was
accomplished through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. It
was the ordained way of Almighty God, set forth throughout the
Scriptures, right from Genesis, right through, right up to Revelation.
We see the wonderful picture of that forgiveness of sin, atonement
for sin, was only produced by the shedding of blood. And of
course, in Old Testament times, it was signified by all those
animals that were slain and sacrificed. And without shedding of blood,
there was no forgiveness. And today, there is no forgiveness
without shedding of blood. Our blood is tainted. Our blood
is sinful. But we can bless God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, He gave his life, he shed his blood in order to
atone for the sins of all his church. Without shedding of blood,
there's no forgiveness, there's no remission, but can we praise
God today that Lord Jesus Christ did indeed shed his blood. He died that sin atoning death. on the cross at Calvary. Now, if the Lord Jesus Christ
gives us faith to believe, we will believe in that great and
glorious truth. And you and I will be found looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we recognize those wonderful
words of prophecy in Isaiah 45, where it says, look unto me and
be saved or the ends of the earth. For I am God, and there's none
else, and my friends, there's nowhere else. You and I, if we're
indeed amongst those who truly believe, will be found looking
to the Lord Jesus Christ as our great and glorious Saviour. Well, do we look there? Have
we looked there? Can we bless God that we have?
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life, He
that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. And then we have this great gospel
truth. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Whosoever. What a great gospel
truth that is. Whosoever liveth and believeth. You see, if God gives us grace
and faith to believe, then we live. The wonder of it is we
shall live eternally with the Saviour in glory. Yes, what a
wonderful blessing, what a thing it is to consider. See how wonderful
the Bible sets forth this great plan of salvation and how the
Lord speaks these words which are so sure and certain and positive. We live in a transient world,
we live in a passing world. where nothing is of any real
substance. All the things in this world
pass away, don't they? They become old, they rot, they
perish, they disappear. But the gift of eternal life
will never disappear. That's why the Saviour tells
us this great truth. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die, because if you and I possess this spiritual
life. It is an eternal life. It is
the gift of God. The gift of God is eternal life. What a wonderful, wonderful truth
it is to know that you and I are recipients of this blessed gift
of eternal life. The Apostle Paul knew the great
truth of it. He tells us in the sixth chapter
of Romans, And this great truth for the wages of sin is death. That means the payment, your
sin and my sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. In a few words, a few simple
words is a great and glorious truth of the gospel. The gift
of God, remember that. You and I cannot earn it. We
don't merit it. Why? Because we're spiritually
dead. But God comes and gives this
great gift. But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. This same Jesus. This same Jesus who has risen
from the dead. and he is alive forevermore.
And the great blessing is he sits in glory with his father
on the throne. And there he sits to intercede
to his father. That means as you and I pray
to him, pray to our father, the Lord takes our prayers and presents
them to his father. And what is true, our prayers
are accepted in the beloved, in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so therefore, the Lord then comes with this Great question. Believest
thou this? Believest thou this? Now all
of you this morning was answered before God. Answered before God. Do you believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ? Do you believe the great truths
of the gospel? Have you received this blessed
faith to believe? And if so, if so all the wonderful
truth is we are safe. We are eternally blessed. In
answer to that question, is it well with our soul? We can say,
in true humbleness before God, it is well. Believest thou this? Amen.