If you take your Bibles and turn
with me to John chapter 11. John chapter 11. And I told Scott, I don't know
if I've used this title recently. I think I have. Cheryl said at
least part of it, I've used it. But I think it's an appropriate
title. The purpose of God in dark providence. The purpose of God in dark providence
or sorrow. affliction, trouble. We have before us here in verse
1, it says, Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany,
the town of Mary and her sister Martha. And it was that Mary
which had anointed the Lord with the ointment, and wiped his feet
with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sinned
him, saying, Lord, Behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Now, I wanted to see first of
all the purpose of God in these dark providence. Here we have
a dark providence. This man Lazarus, here by name,
was a man loved of Christ. He was loved of the Lord, yet
he was sick. He was sick. And his sisters,
Mary and Martha, who also loved the Lord, who also were believers
in Christ, believing that he was capable, that he was able
to heal their brother, they sent word to him. And they appealed
to his love. Look what they said in verse
3. His sisters sent him, saying,
Lord, behold, him whom thou lovest is sick. They appealed to the
love of Christ to heal their brother. That was a good appeal,
wasn't it? If the Lord did love him, surely
they thought he would heal him. And see here then the truth,
that those who love Christ Those who are saved by His grace, made
partakers of the divine nature, know this. This is what the Scripture
teaches us here. We are not exempt from any common
troubles in this life. Just because you and I are a
believer in Christ, we are not exempt from sickness, sorrow,
affliction, anything that is common to man, we have, God has
not exempted us. And notice the Lord's response
was opposite of what the sisters expected. Look, this is what
He said, and 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. Now Jesus, He says, this sickness
is not unto death. Yet because He loved Lazarus,
they thought He would come immediately. He just sent word, He said, don't
worry, this is not unto death. And so they take this, they thought
He would come, they thought He would heal them immediately,
but He doesn't. He doesn't come immediately.
You know, even the Lord could have spoke the Word, couldn't
He? You remember that centurion that came to him? And he said, I'm not worthy that
you should come into my house. Just speak the word and my servant
should be healed. And the Lord said, I've not seen
so much faith in all Israel. And he said, Go thy way. And
you know that servant was healed simply by the Word of Christ.
So Christ could have come, couldn't He? He could have dropped everything
He was doing. He could have come to Lazarus
and healed him. Secondly, He could have just spoken the Word
and healed him. But you know what He said? He
just said, look, this sickness is not unto death but for the
glory of God. This sickness is not unto death. Now notice what He did in verse
6. In verse 5 it says, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and
Lazarus. Now that's another thing. He
said this wasn't just an assumption of Mary and Martha. This is what
John said. John says he loved them. He loved
them. But notice what he did when he
heard, therefore, that he was sick. He abode two days still
in the same place where he was. And after that, Jesus said, let
us go unto Judea again. And His disciples said to Him,
Master, the Jews have sought to lay to stone Thee, and goest
Thou again thither? And so what did He do? He stayed
two days. He heard He was sick. He said,
Don't worry, it's not unto death. It's for the glory of God. And
so He went and He abode two more days there on purpose. And then
He went to Judah. He went back again to Judah. In verses 11 through 14, Jesus knowing then that the very
time of Lazarus' death, look at this in verses 11. It says,
And these things he said after he saith unto them, Our friend
Lazarus sleepeth. But I go that I may awake him
out of sleep. And the disciples said, Lord,
if he sleepeth, he doeth well. Be it Jesus spake of his death. They thought he was speaking
of getting some rest and sleep, but he said unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes
that I was not there to the intent that you may believe. Nevertheless,
let us go unto him." He knew. In other words, this was not
surprising. Think of what the Lord's doing here. He's on purpose
waiting for Lazarus to die. Lazarus, our friend, he knew
immediately the time that Lazarus died. Now the question then comes to
mind, why did the Lord not heal his friends? Why was this child of God, this
believer in Christ, allowed to suffer sickness and die? And why was Mary and Martha,
whom Christ loved, his friends, why did he allow them to weep
and to sorrow over the death of their brother? They were faithful to Him. They
served Him. They loved Him. And yet Christ,
on purpose, allowed His friend to die. A very dark providence, don't
you think? A very difficult question. Why? Have you and I asked that in
the midst of our dark providence? We who love Christ, We who serve
Christ, in the midst of our troubles, do we not ask why? Lord, he whom
thou lovest is sick. Come quickly. You have the power. Why don't you come? And he tarries,
and he doesn't come. We know that all he has to do
is say the word. Isn't that right? All of your
troubles could be healed in one word. Isn't that right? Christ could heal your troubles
in one word. You could be totally perfect
by one word of Christ. He could do that. He has all
that power to heal. Why doesn't He? Our Lord Jesus from the beginning
knew exactly what He was going to do. Our Lord did not allow
His people to suffer and die for no reason. Listen, when we
are suffering, when we are dying, His people, it is for a reason. He has a purpose in our suffering,
friend. This is not mindless, blind chance. Lazarus did not die by blind
chance. He died on purpose. allowed and
purposed His death. And so then you think about this,
every trouble, and I want you to pile up every trouble that
you've ever experienced in your whole life, and I want you to
know this, God purposed every one of them. Was God blindsided by any one
of your troubles? Do you not suppose He could have
stopped any one of them things from happening to us? Do you
not suppose He could have killed our enemies immediately, those
who are hurting us, those who are against us? Do you not suppose
He could have stopped us from hurting ourselves? Then the question
is, why? To what end? To what purpose? So what in? Now you pay attention
because this is very important. Jesus gives you the purpose.
Now, it doesn't matter if you don't
like it. This is the reason. This is the purpose. Now if you're
a believer, I'm going to tell you this. You're going to like
the reason. You're going to like the reason.
Watch this. Look in verse 4 again. When Jesus heard that, he said,
this sickness is not unto death, but here's the purpose, for the
glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now, what's the purpose of all
our troubles? Here it is, the glory of God. The glory of God is the purpose
of all our troubles. the glory of God, that the Son
of God might be glorified by it. You ever wonder what God
is doing? This is it. He's getting Himself glory. He's getting Himself glory. Why? Glory belongs to Him. It is His right to get glory. Because He deserves glory. He deserves glory. And how is
He glorified? He is only glorified through
the Son. Through the work of the Son of
God. Are you suffering? Now that's
important. I want you to hear this. If you're suffering, are
you suffering? Are there any grievous people here? Any widows? Hear me. Many people
have lost loved ones who are sick, in trouble, afflicted,
persecuted. Cast down. Anyone? Me? That's me. That's me. And so what is the purpose? It
is the glory of God that the son might be glorified. That's
the purpose. It's that God get the glory. And I want you to know then the
sovereignty of God's providence in getting glory. When God is
doing things in this world, nothing's by accident, everything's by
sovereign purpose. Sovereign purpose. Friends, there's
nothing in this world, no event of time, no act of man, no movement
of creation that is outside the sovereign will and power of God. Nothing. So you go from your
birth all the way to your last breath, and everything God has
determined. Therefore God is neither surprised, nor is He taken back by anything
that happens to us in this world. Was Jesus surprised He died?
No. He purposed it. Your trouble, is Christ surprised
by your trouble? No. He purposed it specifically
for you. That He should receive glory
for it. Go to Isaiah 46. Now look at
this. Isaiah 46. I know you know this
very well. Isaiah 46 and verse 9. Remember
the former things of old, for I am God, and listen to me, there's
none else. I am God and there is none like
me. What's the difference between the real and living God and every
other God? Here it is. Declaring the end
from the beginning. From ancient times the things
that were not yet done saying my counsel shall stand and I
will do what? What will He do? All my pleasures. So what do
you suppose happened in your life? Right now, what is happening
in our life? God is doing His pleasure. And He gives us the example.
Look at that example that He gives us in verse 11. Calling
a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel
from a far country. Who is this? It's Cyrus. It's a man that knows not Christ. It's a man who doesn't know God.
It's a man who never served God in his life. And God says, I'm
going to use that man to do My will. Now, what was His will? It was for the good of His people,
wasn't it? His people were going to be in bondage. And He said,
I'm going to deliver them by a man who doesn't even know Me. And He says this, I have spoken
and I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it, I will also
do it. Now see the purpose. Why is He doing this? Why did
He call that ravenous bird from the east to do His will? Look
at verse 12. He says, Hearken to Me, you stout-hearted. His purpose is to call the stout-hearted.
His purpose is to call those that have no righteousness, you
that are far from righteousness. What is He going to do for them?
I will bring near My righteousness, and it shall not be far off,
and My salvation shall not tarry, and I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel. Listen, My glory, My glory. These stout-hearted sinners,
these that are far from righteousness, hear this. You, listen tonight
to hear the Word of God. You stout-hearted. Are you stout-hearted? Are you rebelling against God?
Are you kicking against the pricks? Listen, you far from righteousness. Listen to what God says. I'm
going to bring righteousness near. I'm going to bring it near.
He believed the Gospel of Christ. He's preaching the Gospel here.
So why is he doing this over here? So he can preach the gospel
over here. So he can preach to the wicked. The righteousness of God brought
near is Christ. That's who he's preaching. He's
preaching Christ. The salvation of God did not
tarry, but it came exactly at the appointed time. Isn't that
right? Christ came at the exactly appointed time. He didn't tarry. The salvation
of God now then is placed in Zion. What is that? His church.
This salvation, what am I preaching to you? I'm preaching salvation.
Why? Because that's what God planted
in His church, in the hearts of His people. Salvation. And
what do we declare? Salvations of the Lord. Believe
on Christ and you shall be saved. You, who? You stout-hearted.
You wicked people. That's what God said. You wicked
people, I'm doing this for you. We are ambassadors of God, telling you this, that God was
not willing to impute your sins to you, but rather imputed them
to Christ, made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that
we, who stout-hearted rebels, might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. So see, his salvation is for
Israel. That's what he said, it's for
Israel. For all his elect chosen in Christ
before the world began, and it was these who will hear the gospel
of Christ, which is what? The glory of God. Don't you know
your salvation is the glory of God? You see, I told you God's
going to get glory for everything that's done. So what is everything
working for? your salvation, which is His
glory." You see how your salvation and His glory are tied together?
Who did that? He did. He purposed your salvation
to be His glory. A manifestation of His glory. Since salvation is not of merit,
but it is for the unrighteous, God then being the author and
finisher of our salvation gets what? All the glory. All the
praise. What are you going to do in heaven?
Have you ever thought about what you're going to do? You're going
to praise Him all the time. Never tiring of praising Him. Always to the full measure of
joy and happiness and peace, you will always be praising Him. He is the author of our salvation
before, during, and after. Isn't He? He's all of it. He's
all of it. You saved? Who did that? God. What did He do it for? His
glory. His own self. So now in our text
we see clearly this unfold. It starts to unfold. Christ tells
them this is for the glory of God. The glory of the Son. And so in our text you see clearly
this unfold that the sickness and death of Lazarus was purposed,
ordained, and accomplished according to the sovereign will of God,
for the glory of God. Secondly, the purpose of God
is not only sovereign, the purpose of God is this. In the acting
out of providence, it is the salvation of his elect. All that
God does is sovereign, right? And all that God does is for
the salvation of His people. What gives God glory is the salvation
of His people, that those who Christ died, all those for whom
Christ died, should believe on Him. Look what He said in verse
15. You know what He said? He said,
I'm glad I didn't go. I'm glad I wasn't there. Now
why would he say that? To the intent. Listen. To the intent that you may believe. Now see, what he did, he said
this is for the glory of God, but it's working out for this
purpose that you might believe. That you might believe. Now,
let this sink in if you're suffering right now. I want you to consider
this. Consider that all the dark and evil providences of your
life were intended for this purpose, that you should believe. Now,
imagine that your life was perfect and there were no trouble. You
were born, you had the best parents. You were raised in the best home,
you had all the money you needed, you had all the love and care
you needed from your parents, and then you were raised up and
you were a good person. You were a good moral person,
nothing happened to you, you went through your life, you got
married, you lived your life, you had a happy marriage, you
had good children, and then you died. What good is all that if
you weren't saved? Now consider your life, my life,
that's full of trouble. So all that happened to you before
salvation, you know what it was for? That you believe. If those
things had not happened, would you be the same person you are
now? Don't you see? He intended those things so that
you might have the best. It may have appeared evil, but
God intended it for good. so that you might be saved, eternally
saved, that you might believe. Consider this. Your life may
have been horrible, but you're a believer in Christ. And somebody else's life may
have been great, and they're not. Which would you rather have? Which would you want? You see,
God intends trials and troubles and afflictions for this, that
you might believe. This thing of Lazarus, He did
that for a reason. Why? That you might believe.
To this intent, that you might believe. Oh, how this should cause us
then to see the evils that happened to us, the painful events of
our life, were for our salvation. And without them, we would have
been lost. God shaped our life to bring
us to Christ, didn't He? Do you think there was a better
way to bring you to Christ? Listen, if there was a better
way, He would have done it. This was the only way you and I would
have come to Christ, to the intent that you might believe. And even
before Jesus was about to raise Lazarus from the dead, look what
He said. He prayed this prayer aloud.
Look at verse 41. He said, He comes then to Lazarus' tomb,
and He said, Then take away the stone from the place where the
dead is laid. And Jesus lifted up His eyes
to the Father and said, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me,
and I knew that Thou hearest me always. Well, then why is
He speaking out loud? He said, But because of the people
which stand by, listen, that they might believe Thou hast
sent Me. He had thus spoken, and cried
with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And when he that was dead,
what happened? He came forth. Therefore let
us by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, according to
the word of God, see the purpose of God in all things, in time
and eternity, is that the elect should believe and be saved. The elect should believe and
be saved. Our Lord in that high priestly
prayer, he says, all power is given to me. He said, Father,
the hour has come, glorify thy son, that thy son may glorify
thee. How does he glorify you? As thou has given him power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
has given him. That's how Christ glorifies God.
He has power to move all providence and he does. And what is he moving
all providence for? That every one of the elect should
believe. Every one of the elect should
believe. So now you know what he's doing, right? You know why
things happen that happen. So that you might believe. Should that not put light on
all that happened before us? Shouldn't that put some light
on it? Shouldn't that give us cause to be thankful for all
the things that happened to us? Thirdly, The sovereign purpose
in this is to increase the faith of those that already believe.
See, this sorrow has a dual purpose. This dark providence has a dual
purpose. It has a purpose in the intent
that those that Christ died for should believe and be saved.
It also has another intent that it should teach us who already
believe. It should increase our faith.
That's what dark providences do. They increase our faith. Now, answer this. Have you ever asked for more
faith? Anybody ask for more faith? Lord, I believe. Help thou my
unbelief. You know what He's going to do?
You know what you're asking for? You're asking for dark providence. In dark providence, can you see
anything? And if you can't see anything,
what do you need to see? You need faith. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for, the evidence of what? Things not seen. Listen, I know
this in my dark providence. God will deliver me. I know that. He promises that. I just can't
see how or when. Faith clings to His promises
without seeing. We cling to those things. He
increases our faith. He works all things for the salvation
of sinners. But notice this event of Lazarus'
sickness and death was also to strengthen the faith of Mary
and Martha, who were already believers. Look at verse 19.
Look at verse 19. And many of the Jews came to
Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. And
Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went out
to him. But Mary sat still in the house. Then said Martha to
Jesus, Lord, if Thou had been here, My brother had not died. That sounds sharp, doesn't it? That sounds almost like an accusation. Like he did something wrong.
But notice verse 22. She calms real fast. But I know
that even now whatsoever thou will ask of God, God will give
it unto thee. And then Mary, she comes in verse
32. And then Mary was come where
Jesus was, and saw him, and fell down at his feet, saying unto
him, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died.
They must have been talking, don't you suppose? They probably
rehearsing what they were going to say when he got there. They
said the same thing. When Jesus therefore saw her
weeping, and the Jews also came unto her, groaned in the Spirit,
and was troubled and said, where have you laid him? And Jesus
wept. You see the faith of these women,
yet they were struggling. Our Lord intended to use this
event, this pain, this grief and sorrow to teach them. To
teach them. Martha knew His power. They both
understood His power to heal their brother. Lord, if you'd
been here, Yet His power is so much greater than healing physical
sickness. His power does more than just
raise the physical dead. He was going to show them by
the physical resurrection what He does to those He saves. He was going to give a picture
of what happens to us who believe. He's going to preach the gospel. Look what Jesus says in verse
25. Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection
and the life. She said, I know they'll raise
Him up the last day at the resurrection. Jesus said, I'm going to raise
your brother again. She said, I know, when that last day comes, that's
when you're going to raise Him. I know that. I know that. Jesus
said, no, you don't really understand. 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. Now then, I know you believe
in the resurrection, but do you believe that? Do you believe
what I just said? Martha knew that there was a
resurrection coming. She understood that. And I'll
tell you this, Jesus is going to raise the dead one day. He
is coming back in His glory as King, as Judge, and He will raise
the dead, all of them. John said, I saw the dead, both
small and great, stand before the judgment seat, before Christ. They stood before Him and those
books were opened. The books of all their works,
of all their sins were open. I like he doesn't say, just quit
there. He said, and another book was
open. Another book was open. And they
were judged out of those books and everybody that wasn't in
that other book, the book of life, the book of the elect,
those who are united in the covenant of grace with Christ before the
foundation of the world. If you weren't in that book,
You were judged according to your own works. But how do we know if we're there?
How do we know if we, on that day, we will receive the resurrection
unto life? How do we know? Our name is in
that book. How can we know that we are sinners
can be made righteous? It's revealed in the doctrine
of Jesus Christ in verse 25. I am the resurrection of life.
Listen, this is who's named in that book. He that believeth
in me. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, this is their experience, though they were dead, yet shall
they what? Live. And listen, whoever liveth
and believeth in me, what he promises, they'll never die.
They'll never die. I am the resurrection. I have
the authority and power, not only over the physical life,
but spiritual life, is what He's telling us. Which is the greater
power? The greater power is spiritual
resurrection, of which our Lord is going to
use Lazarus as a supreme picture of how He saves sinners, how
these elect are brought to spiritual life in Christ. Now, we know
this. According to this doctrine, it
says, though he were dead. Our Lord is pronouncing a doctrine
here, that his elect, as all men by nature, are born dead. Lazarus in the tomb is a picture
of all of us. By nature, we were born dead
in sins. When our father Adam sinned,
he died spiritually, and that death as a representative was
passed to you and me. I was talking to some men, we
had movers the other day, and these movers, they're very respectful
to me. They found out I was a pastor,
and boy, they kind of got quiet. They didn't want to cuss, they
didn't want to do anything. They were very respectful young
men. I enjoyed their company. But then they started asking
me questions. And when I began to explain the gospel of them,
I said, what can you... Did anybody ever teach you to
sin? Or did you figure that out by yourself? And they said, well,
you know, nobody taught us sin. You know why? Because you were
born in sin. You were born a sinner. You were
born dead in sin. And the only hope for you is
if God gives you life. Who's the only one that can give
you life? I am the resurrection and the life, Jesus said. I'm
the only one that can do that. You were born dead. And what happened to Adam when
he died? He ran from God. He hid from
God. And that's what we do. We try
to cover our nakedness with the works of our flesh, carnal things
in religion. We try to hide ourselves from
God. You ever thought, why didn't
Adam run to God? Why didn't he plead for mercy? He was dead. He didn't know. He couldn't. He was born dead. David said, I was shaped in iniquity
and sin did my mother conceive me. David in Psalm 58 and verse
3 says, The wicked are estranged from the womb and go astray as
soon as they're born, speaking lies. John Gill says of our spiritual
death that we are impotent to do all that is good. incapable
of doing any good. Paul says the carnal mind is
enmity against God. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. The natural man receiveth not
the things that are of God, the Spirit of God. They're foolishness
to him. Is this gospel foolishness to you? You know why? You're
dead. You're spiritually discerned.
Because of this spiritual death, what does man need? He needs
someone to raise Him from the dead. He needs someone, and who
is that? I Am. The resurrection and the
life. Listen. He that believeth on
Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. See, all a man could do is paint
up the outside. But God can do something greater
than paint up the outside. He can actually give you life. Remember those dry bones? Ezekiel
brought out there to see those dry bones. I like this scripture
when it says, and he said, He caused me to pass by a roundabout,
and behold, there were many, and they were very dry. What
does that mean? No life at all. Have you seen this to be your
condition? Do you know that you were dead? What could a dead man do? Tell me what a dead man can do. False religions got this concept
that they don't believe man's dead. That he still has some
power left in him. Some ability to choose life. Some spark of life left in him. That's not true. Not according
to the Scriptures. The Scripture says, as many as
received him, them gave he the right to become the sons of God,
which were born. Now, how are they born? How are
you born? Were you born by blood? No. Were you born by the will of
your flesh? No. Were you born by the will
of man? No. John says you were born by
the will of God. And what's the evidence of that
birth? It is that you've received Him.
So then I ask you tonight, have you received Him? Have you believed
on Him? He that believeth on Me, believeth
on Me, though He were dead, yet shall He live. And you that live, how did you
come to live? You see, God sent a man to preach
to you. Isn't that what he did, those
dry bones sinners? Ezekiel out there said, you go preach to them.
You know who I'm preaching to? Dry bones, dead sinners. Oh man, that's got to be the
most useless thing in the world. Yes, if I'm without God, it's
useless. My preaching is useless without
God. But I know this, Lord, You know
if You're going to give them life or not. What do You want
me to do? Preach to them. You know what happened? Those
bones lived. You know why? God said this. Now, get this, Ezekiel wouldn't
have stepped foot out there and said a word had God not said
this. I will give them life. That's what he told Ezekiel.
He said, I'm going to lay sinew on them, I'm going to put flesh
on them, and I'm going to give them breath. And Ezekiel goes,
okay, well, I'm going to go out and preach to them then. That's
what we do. We go out and preach to them. And you know what? God
says, at the appointed time, I'm going to give them life.
At the appointed time, I'll give them life. And that's exactly
what He does here in our text, doesn't He? At the appointed
time, He comes to Lazarus, who is dead, incapable of giving
himself life. And He says to Lazarus, listen,
Lazarus, come forth, come forth. He gives him life. How is that possible? Listen,
because Jesus Christ has satisfied the justice of God. Now why is
there death? Why is there death? There's death
because of sin. So in order to give life, what
must Christ do? He must first remove sin. And once he removes sin, how
did he do that? By his death, by his satisfaction
of the wrath of God for our sin. Can you count how many sins you
have? Is it possible for you to sit and think of every sin
you've ever committed? Is it possible? It's not possible. Yet He took
every one of those. You talk about shame. He bore
our shame, our reproach. Listen, the reproach of them
that reproached thee has fallen on me. He bore that. He bore our sin in His own body
on the tree. Why? That He, being the resurrection
and the life, should give you life. He had to remove sin. He had to remove sin. He satisfied
the justice of God. Listen, 70 weeks are determined
upon my people and upon my holy city to finish the transgression,
make an end of sin, make reconciliation for iniquity. to bring in everlasting
righteousness. You see what he did? He did that
so that you might live. So that you might be raised from
the dead. Scripture says, but this man,
after he'd offered one sacrifice for sin, what'd he do? He sat
down. Why does anyone who's doing work
sit down? They're finished. By His one offering He has perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Do you need life? Anyone need
life? I'm going to show you a man that
gives life. Jesus Christ gives life. He gives
life. Do you need life? He gives life. Go to Him. Pray to Him. Beg Him to give you life. You know, Jesus Christ is the
only one that can give life to the dead on the resurrection
life, spiritual life. And Jesus, what's the means of
this? You know what He told those men
before He gave Lazarus life? He said, I want these men, you
guys go roll away the stone. You go roll away the stone. Now,
could Christ have rolled the stone away Himself? Could He
have commanded the stone to be moved? Yes. But instead, He used
men. Now, why would He do that? That's
a picture of preachers. All we are is stone movers. That's
it. We remove every objection of
men. That's our purpose, is to remove
all objections. Why do you not come to Christ?
Give me a reason why you will not come to Christ. If you won't
come to Christ, that's your fault. If you ever come to Christ, you'll
give all the glory to Christ. I like what he says in Isaiah
to pastors, he said, cast up, cast up, prepare the way, take
the stumbling stones out of the way of the people. That's what
we do. I remove all doubt that Christ
is the resurrection and life. If you need life, Christ said,
I'm the resurrection and life. Now, why would you not come?
Why would you not believe? He gives life to everyone that
believes. Believe. And notice this, when Christ
called Lazarus, He called him by name, didn't He? That's exactly what He does to
every sinner. In sovereign providence, He moves
all things to bring them unto the sound of the gospel. He brings
them to see their death, their need of Him. And at the appointed
time, having accomplished all their salvation already, He then
commands them to have life. He said, Lazarus, Lazarus, come
forth. Jesus Christ only calls His people. He said, I give unto my sheep
eternal life and they shall never perish. I know one day I heard my name.
Did you hear your name? What was your name? Sinner. Rebel. When He called us, we heard Him,
and we came forth. We came forth. That's exactly,
look at verse 43 of your text. He said, Lazarus come forth,
and surprise! Look at this. Look at this surprise.
And he that was dead, what? Came forth. Why? When Christ commands salvation,
salvation is done. Salvation is not a... It's not... He's not begging you to come.
Lazarus, would you mind please getting up? Is that what he said?
It's not an invitation, friends. It's a command. When God commanded
us to come forth, what did we do? We came forth. We came forth,
we believed. For God who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts and given
us the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
He did this on purpose. Now, I preach to all men, but
I know this, only those that God commands to live, live. They
live. Do you have spiritual life? Has
He called you from the dead? And you hath He quickened who
were dead. Dead. Now, what is the evidence
then of life? I'll get this in a minute, but
what's the evidence of life? The evidence of life is simply
this, do you believe? Faith does not give you life.
Faith is the evidence of life given. Now you can't have life
without faith, but faith is not the cause. Faith is the result
of God giving you life. Do you believe? Do you believe? Well, by grace you are saved
through faith, and that faith is not of yourself. It is a gift
of God, not of works. Has Jesus called you? Now look
at this. How did the dead come to Christ?
Look at verse 44. And the dead came forth. Lazarus
came forth. He came bound hand and foot with
grave clothes, and his face bound with a napkin. Now listen. He came as He was. He came bound. Now I can't imagine
this. I don't know how He walked. It's
like a mummy. You ever seen a mummy? They're
wrapped. They're totally wrapped all the
way around. And yet He came forth. What a miracle that was. Did
He float? I don't know. I imagine He had
to float because He couldn't even move His feet. He was bound.
He came as He was. Listen to me, if you're a sinner,
I'm telling you this, come as you are. If you hear His voice,
come as you are. Bound, hand and foot. Come in your grave clothes. Come
in your sin. Come in your guilt. Come in your
shame. You know what He's going to do?
He'll command us to take it off. Take it off. Isn't this what
happens when you come to faith in Christ? We begin to remove
these grave clothes. We begin to remove these grave
clothes, these things. How many things have you, when
you were first a believer, that you look back and you think,
how foolish was I to think that, to feel that? That was just grave
clothes. It had to be taken off. I mean,
Scott, we've talked about this before. I mean, you know, you
were bound under some religious things. You were bound under
the law. And yet, you know, preaching the gospel, what did it do? Remove
those glaive clothes, didn't it? It set you free. That's what
he does. He commands preachers, loose
him and let him go. You see, preachers are not to
bind men back under the law. We're to loose you and let you
go. Well, man, aren't they going to do what they want to do? Yes,
they're going to do what they want to do. You know what they
want to do? They want to do exactly what Lazarus did. You know where
Lazarus is found next? Chapter 12, I believe it's... Chapter 12, verse 2. They made
a supper, Martha served, but Lazarus was one of them that
sat at the table. Now, what is he going to do when
he's let go? He's going to be at the feet
of Christ eating with Him. He's going to be serving Christ.
He's going to be honoring Christ. He's going to be with Christ.
That's what His people do. When we're let loose, we don't
go back to sin. We go to Christ. We want to be
free from sin. We don't want it anymore. Those
are grave clothes. Grave clothes. Loose Him and
let Him go. And I'll tell you this, Look
at what happened because of this. In verse 45 it says, Many of
the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus
did. Now what did they do? Tell me
what they did. They believed. Now what was his
purpose at the beginning? What was his purpose for all
this dark providence? The purpose of his friend being
sick and dying, he said it was for the glory of God. Now was
God glorified in this? Yes. How was he glorified? The
scripture says, they believed on him. And I'll tell you this,
Mary and Martha, their faith was increased. They saw more
of Christ because of this dark providence. So now you're asking
yourself, why dark providence? Why? For the glory of God and
the salvation of His elect. How does He save them? The same
way He did Lazarus. He calls them from the dead.
The same way He did you. He called you from the dead to
life. So what do we do? We glorify Him. For what? For salvation? And listen. Thank God for dark pride. I know they're painful friends,
but they have a purpose. God's people must be called.
They must believe. And we who believe must grow. And that's how he does it. I pray God will help us see that.
And then give Him praise for it.