Good morning. Take your Bibles
and let's go to John chapter 11. John 11 and I want to cover
verses 1 through 16 with you this morning. Here in this chapter we see a
miracle that our Lord does for a man named Lazarus in and raising
him from the dead. And when he did that, it prompted
those Jews that had seen and heard what was done to also be
raised from the dead in their hearts, believing that the Lord,
that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ. But there's details
that lead up to that miracle. In verses one through 16, details
that the Apostle John gives which are typical. That is, they picture
the salvation of all believers. There's something in here for
us to hear and I believe is a comfort to you that believe and is a
good word to hear it in your hearts how
the Lord loves you, his people. And so I've titled this message,
The Family of Christ, The Beloved Family of Christ. And so our
text begins in verse one. It says, now a certain man was
sick. A certain man was sick, named
Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. So we're given this account of
a certain man for whom the Lord did a great miracle in raising
him from the dead. But it's true that there's a
certain man. for whom the Lord does this miracle
of grace, and raising that one from the dead, from spiritual
death, and giving them life. It's true of all men, all sons
and daughters of Adam are dead spiritually, but there's a certain
man, a certain body, of the Lord, for whom he does this work of
grace in raising his people from spiritual death. And he gives
them eternal life in himself. And so this miracle is a great
miracle for his body, for the family. There's a certain man,
a certain people whom he does this work for. Colossians 1 verses
12 through 14 says, Paul says, giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. And so Christ has accomplished
this salvation for certain ones, for his body, for his chosen
people whom he loves, whom he's set his affection upon. So this miracle which Christ
did, He did it for the family. He did it for the whole family.
For Lazarus and for Martha and for Mary. Verse 1 says it speaks
of Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. And then look down at verse 5.
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister, Mary, and Lazarus. So this is a miracle which Christ
does in love for the whole family. the whole family, his whole family
whom he loves. And we see this in every family. There's trials, and there's difficulties,
and there's struggles, and there's things which press us and concern
us. And the Lord in his word, in
his scripture, in his word, he teaches his people that he does
this for our good. The struggles and the difficulties
that we go through, it's for our learning, it's for our instruction,
it's for our good. And it's only by His grace that
that understanding is given to us, and that peace is given to
us, and that comfort that comes from knowing that our God has
all things in His hand, in His control. I don't know of anything
more comforting to the children of God than to know that everything
we see is in the hands of our God who's working all things
for His glory and for your good, for your good, for the people
of God. And we see in this this great
love that the Lord has for these three. We take comfort because
it's the same love that he has for all his family All his family
this love that's spoken of here is the love that Christ has for
you For each of you that hope and believe in his name Turn
over to Romans 8 Romans 8 29 This is after that verse that
speaks of knowing that it's for our good, all things are according
to purpose. And he says in verse 29, for
whom he did foreknow, for whom the Lord knew. for whom the Lord
loved. He also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn
among many brethren. And so that foreknowledge means
that he loved them. He set his affection upon a people,
described as him foreknowing them here in the scriptures.
So that when Peter calls us elect, according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father. He's saying you who are elect,
you who are the chosen of God, it's because he foreknew you,
it's because he set his love, his affection upon you before
the world was ever formed. Before we were created, He set
His love and affection upon His family, and that love is what
resulted in our predestination, which is manifested through the
sanctification of the Spirit who set you apart for himself,
and led you to see, to behold your Lord and Savior giving His
life, laying His life down as a sacrifice to put away your
sins, your sins, to deliver you from the wrath and the punishment
of God and to deliver you into the light of His kingdom, His
family. whereby He pours out upon you
His Spirit and all His spiritual blessings. And so we're brought
unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
We're washed from our sins by the blood, that precious blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ for you. for you." He did that. So back in 829, Romans 829, it
says, for whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be
conformed to the image of his son. There's a manifestation
of the fruit of Christ It worked in us. There's a manifestation
of it. It's wrought in us who are the
offspring of our Lord, of His seed. We're born of His seed.
And it's called predestination. It's describing our walk, how
that we shall be brought to a knowledge of Christ. We shall know Him.
We shall believe Him. There shall be faith wrought
in our hearts looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we
see that love, which results in our predestination, our being
brought to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's actually pictured
here in verse two, back in our text. John 11, verse two. It describes Mary. It says that
this Lazarus, who was sick, or rather it was Lazarus and Mary
and Martha and it says it was that Mary which anointed the
Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair whose
brother Lazarus was sick. Mary was so well known At the
time when John wrote this, she's so well known, because John hadn't
even written about Mary up to this point. That's coming in
the future. That's coming in the next chapter,
chapter 12. But those who knew the gospel,
who believed on our Lord, They had heard of what Mary had done.
But the picture here in the allegorical sense, what's being pictured
here is that predestination. It hadn't even happened yet chronologically,
and yet John's speaking of those works which she should do. And
that picture's our salvation, whom the Lord loved, he's predestinated
you to be conformed to the image of his son. Because He loves
you, He saves you, and He is going to bring forth works in
you, brought by the Spirit of God, loving your Lord, serving
your Lord, doing those works because you love the Lord, not
to save you, but because you are His children, those works
which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them.
Ephesians 2.10. Next we read in verse 3, that
because Lazarus was ill, therefore, His sister sent unto Jesus, saying,
Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. They didn't tell the
Lord to come. They didn't say, Lord, you need
to come. And they didn't tell the Lord that he needed to heal
their brother, though certainly they desired that he would heal
him. And they made no claim upon the
Lord to do anything. They simply said, Lord, he whom
thou lovest is sick. That one whom you love is sick. Lord, do what you seem, what
you think is best. We leave it in your hands, Lord.
And the Lord teaches his people that same hope. But the truth
is, the Lord has a people whom he knew, whom he four ordained,
whom he predestinated, who are sick, who died spiritually in
Adam, who need that deliverance and that life from the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now it says in verse four, when
Jesus heard that, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but
for the glory of God, that the son of God might be glorified
thereby. And so there's that spiritual
picture of salvation for the Lord's people. That death which
has come upon us being born of Adam's corrupt seed. That corruption that's in us
whereby we cannot save ourselves. We can't keep the law of God
perfectly. We are sinners. We are separated
from our God. We are ignorant of the things
of God spiritually and have no knowledge of him. except he first
be gracious to us and deliver us out of that darkness and wash
us clean of our sins by the blood of Christ and give us of his
spirit, as his spirit of knowledge and wisdom and love in our hearts
to know him who loved us and gave himself for us. And so we
were sick, but our God purposed it that this sickness is not
unto death, not unto their eternal death. I'm going to save them. I'm going to be merciful to them
so that if we were left to ourselves, we would die in our sins and
be eternally separated from him. But he's purposed to be gracious
to us. He's purposed to be gracious
and merciful to us so that there is a cure. And it's in the hands
of the great physician. It's His blood by whom we are
washed clean, by whom we are raised again from the dead to
know our gracious and faithful, loving God. And so He heals us
of our deadly wound and He makes us whole again. And Christ is
saying, they shall not die eternally. They shall not eternally be separated
from me. And so the picture of salvation
here we see is worked out in his love, works that salvation
out for us. Back in verse five again, John
11, five, it says, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and
Lazarus. And I bring it up again to you
to say there's different people. in the family of God. There's
different people. When we compare ourselves to
one another, oftentimes we think, oh, they're so, they're wonderful. I wish I was more like them.
And they're saying the same thing. I wish I was more like sister
so-and-so. I wish I was more like them.
But there's different people in the family of God. You take
Martha, and Martha seems far too assertive and kind of judgy. of her sister, right? She was
focused on what her sister wasn't doing and what she should be
doing instead. And Mary, she seems more spiritual than Martha,
but she's also kind of negligent of what she should be doing,
right? The other things that she should
be doing. And then there's Lazarus, and we don't really know much
about Lazarus, except that he became sick and died and was
raised again from the dead. But Jesus loved them. He loved the whole family. with
all their differences, all their strengths, and all their weaknesses,
he loved each of them, each one of his people, each one of his
children. And so each of you are different, one from the other.
We all have our struggles, we have our trials, We have our
difficulties and the things that really press us and worry us
and are hard for us. And the worries that we have,
we each have our strengths. And we're all different. We have things that we're good
at and things not so much. We have the things that humble
us. that bring us low in ourselves
and make us to know our need of the Lord. And they manifest
in different ways, one from another. And yet, none of us is greater
than the other, and none of us is less than the other. The whole
family is loved of the Lord. The whole family, He loves them.
And so he loves you, in spite of all your faults, in spite
of all your differences, in spite of all your failings, he set
his love on you and gave his life for you. Trust Him. He that has begun that good work
in you shall complete it, shall complete it. And that's our hope
and why we rejoice in Him. So let it be a comfort to your
hearts and rejoice in your Lord. Trust Him. He knows exactly what
He's doing. He knows exactly what He's doing.
Then we see these difficulties of the providences that we go
through. Look at verses six and seven. When he had heard, therefore,
that he was sick, when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick,
he abode, he stayed two days still in the same place where
he was. Then after that, saith he to
his disciples, let us go into Judea again. And so when Christ
heard the news, he didn't immediately go to Lazarus. Nor did he immediately
give his word to heal Lazarus, even though we see other miracles
where he did just speak a word. And that one was the servant
was healed. And I think it was also a child
as well that was healed from afar. from afar without him even
being there. But it says here that he abode
still two days. And then on the third day, he
set out. And on the third day is when
he set out. And it must have taken some time because Lazarus
had been dead four days in the grave by the time they got there. But I noticed that timing. I
was reminded. And this is what struck me. And so I share it with you. I
was reminded in that three days when the Lord came to Moses and
told Moses to prepare the people for two days. And then on the
third day, he'd come to them. And this is when the Lord was
establishing the people in the covenant of works, that covenant
which they could not bear or keep or do for the weakness of
their flesh. And in Exodus 19, verses 10 through
12, it says, The Lord said unto Moses, Go unto the people, and
sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes,
and be ready against the third day. For the third day the Lord
will come down in the sight of all the people upon Mount Sinai.
And he gave Moses a strict warning to give to the people. It says,
and thou shalt set bounds unto the people round about saying,
take heed to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount or
touch the border of it. Whosoever toucheth the mount
shall be surely put to death. And we oftentimes, we go through
difficult providences and we feel, we judge them as though
we're under the law. We feel like we hear the thunderous
boom of the law striking against us and coming down on us for
our foolishness or for our sin. And while it is true that the
Lord, it says that whom he loveth, he chasteneth and scourgeth every
son whom he receiveth, but brethren, We've not been brought under
the covenant of works. We've been established in the
covenant of grace by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in Hebrews 12, why don't
you turn there because it's a bit lengthy. Go to Hebrews 12 and
we'll pick up in verse 18. Hebrews 12, 18. Here he reminds us, he says,
for you are not come unto the mount that might be touched and
that burned with fire, nor unto the blackness and darkness and
tempest and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words which
voice that they that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken
to them anymore. For they could not endure that
which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart.
And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly
fear and quake. That's not what you've been brought
on to. But ye are come unto Mount Zion and unto the city of the
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. to an innumerable company of
angels, hold on, to the general assembly and church
of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God, the judge
of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to
Jesus, the mediator and the covenant, the mediator of the new covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of Abel. And so there's things that we
don't understand in the providence of our God. But we judge it wrong
all the time. We think, oh, this is it. God's
going to finally get me. But we've not been brought unto
Mount Sinai, where the giving of the law was. We've been brought
unto Zion by the blood of our Savior, And our God speaks peaceably
to us, and comfortably to us, encouraging us in the love and
the hope that he's given us in the Lord Jesus Christ. William Cowper wrote a hymn called,
God Moves in a Mysterious Way. And a couple of the verses are,
ye fearful saints, fresh courage take, the clouds ye so much dread. are big with mercy and shall
break in blessings on your head. Judge not the Lord by feeble
sense, but trust him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence,
he hides a smiling face. And so your God has provided
everything in goodness, in love to comfort you. to keep you,
to assure you that you are His, and He is keeping you, and He's
leading you, and guiding you, and instructing you in His Word
through these things, where you see the hand of your God worked
out faithfully for you. providing for you, doing everything
for you, for your good, for your comfort, for your peace, and
your assurance that you are the Lord's and He'll never lose you. He'll never lose you, you'll
never leave Him. He won't allow it, you're His forever. And though
we fear that, we see in the next verses back in our text that
no foe, no foe can come between us and our Savior. Verse eight. verses 8 through 11, but I'm
going to read verse 8. It says, His disciples say unto him, Master,
because Christ said, let's go to Judea. He said, Master, the
Jews of late sought to stone thee. Goest thou thither again? There were a couple times where
they were about to stone Christ, but he slipped away. And what
Christ said there in that little word where he speaks about there's
12 hours in a day, what he's saying is, I have a work to do
which I've been given of my Father to redeem my people, and nothing
is going to come between that. Nothing's going to prevent that.
I shall not be taken before my time. I'm not worried. He says,
I'm going there for the good of my people. And he said, again,
he said in verse 11, our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that
I may wake him out of sleep. And so, again, they seized on
that to try and dissuade him from going, saying, well, if
he's sleeping, that's good. That's a good thing that he sleeps.
Let's let him lie. Let him sleep and he'll get better
on his own. But Christ was going there to
work a miracle and raising him from the dead. And again, according
to redemption, that was a work which many others had seen. and
believed on the Lord as a result of that miracle which he did.
They knew this is the Christ. And it was another testament
to the Jews as well that this is indeed the Christ. Hear him,
hear the one whom God has sent. And he says then in verse 15
and 16, he said, I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there.
To the intent ye may believe. Nevertheless, let us go unto
him And then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow
disciples, let us also go that we may die with him. And so our Lord, shortly after
doing this miracle, would go to Jerusalem. Because Bethany
was about, I think, a couple miles from Jerusalem. It wasn't
very far. And so he would be there in Jerusalem. And the Jews, by wicked hands,
would take him and crucify him. They would crucify him according
to the will, the determinate counsel of God the Father. And that's because that was the
very purpose. It was the very purpose why Christ
came. And so there's nothing that's
going to separate you from your God. Nothing separated, nothing
prevented him from coming and doing that work of salvation
for his people. And nothing's gonna stop his
hand now from saving you, from keeping you, from teaching you
and leading you and providing all things for you. Nothing can
separate us from the love of God and the Lord Jesus Christ. We're told in Isaiah 53 10 that
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. For he hath put him to grief
when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. Nothing's
gonna fail in Christ's salvation for you. Nothing can prevent
it, nothing can separate you, nothing can take you out of Christ's
hand, nothing can take you out of his father's hand. because
Christ and his father are one. And his disciples, they expected
the worst, right? And we expect the worst when
we go through difficult times and we think this is it, everything's
over, the worst possible outcome is what's gonna happen, I just
know it, right? And that's where we go to so
often, but we see that Christ was taken and Christ was smitten
and the sheep went free. The sheep were delivered. He
protected them. He provided for them perfectly. And so Christ
bear the wrath of God for us. And we were in him, it says.
We were. This old man was crucified with
Christ. We were crucified with him, but
he bore the wrath. He bore the judgment. We didn't
bear it in ourselves. He bore it for us, and we in
him. And so our Lord shows us all
these things. He loves us. He provided everything
in salvation for us. He's called us out of that darkness
and shown us all these things. And he's not going to fail to
bring it to completion, to bring it to an end. You're the beloved
family of God. And so he shows us these miracles
of his grace. And it says in John 20, verse
31, John tells us these are in. that ye might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have
life through his name. And so that's what our Lord does
for us in his Son, Jesus Christ. So I pray that's a comfort to
you who are the beloved family of Christ. Amen. Let's close
in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace, for your love, for your wisdom, and providing
your providence, your care in all things, Lord. Whether we
see them or not, whether we understand or we don't, Lord, you're working
all things together for our good, and you're revealing your son
in us, and teaching us and keeping us in all things. And Lord, we
thank you for your grace and mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks. Amen.