Alright, turn with me if you
would back to John 11. John 11, and let's read one verse,
verse 3. Therefore his sisters sent unto
him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. For obvious reasons, this verse
of scripture has been on my mind a lot. It's been on my mind a
lot. So I want to look at this story
of Lazarus tonight, and I want us to see the truth in it. And
I want us to see the gospel in it. And I want us to see something
that I pray will be very comforting to us in this subject of sickness. He whom thou lovest is sick. Now, verse one tells us that
a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town
of Mary and her sister, Martha. Do you think that this man Lazarus
was the only sick man in the town Bethany at that time? You
think that there was just one sick man in Bethany at that moment
in time? No, no, there were many, many
sick people. There have always been sick people. And there will always be sick
people. And the reason is because, here's
the whole reason, all right? It's because all of us, including
me, all of us were infected with
a disease from our father Adam called sin. That's the reason. That's the
whole reason. Sin is a disease that infects
the body and it infects the soul. It goes deep. The stain goes
very deep. In the Garden of Eden, when Adam
and Eve both sinned against God, sin infected their being. When that happened, Sin completely
infected their entire being. It's not just something that
they did. God said, don't do that. And they did it. And it was not
just something that they did. It's something they became. In that moment, they became something. Well, the Lord told them, even
though they had become sin, The Lord told them to have offspring
and to populate the earth. He said, this is what I want
you to do. Have offspring and populate the earth. Everything
that he created, that's what he wanted to happen. And just
like birds produced birds, because that's what they were,
they were birds, all right? That's why birds produced birds. They were birds. They didn't
just do things that birds do. They were birds, okay? Cows produced
cows. And here's the reason why. They
were cows. All right? In that same way,
sinners produced sinners. It's what they were, not just
what they did. It's what they were. Adam and
Eve passed sin along to their children. It was immediately
manifest, Cain and Abel. They passed it along to their
children and they passed it along to their children. Now, here
we are, okay? Here we are carrying the exact
same disease that our father and our earthly father and mother,
Adam and Eve were infected with. All right, you know how disease,
a parent can have a disease and that can be transferred to the
child. All right, well, here we are, we're carrying the same
disease Adam and Eve were infected with, sin. It is the root problem. It is the root sickness for every
other sickness that comes to us, every sickness, every single
sickness, okay? The reason we age, our Lord said
in glory, there's gonna be no more an infant of days or an
old man, there's not gonna be any more aging. The reason that
we age is because of sin. When Adam was created, he was
created a man. who's made a man. Eve was made
a woman. And that would have been it,
but they sinned. The reason that we get wrinkles and spots is
because of sin. People say it's too much sun
exposure. That's not why. It's because of sin. The reason
we get sick is because of sin. And then ultimately the reason
we die is because of sin. Romans 5 says, by one man, sin
entered the world and death by sin. So death has now passed
upon all men because all have sin. Romans 6 says, the wages
of sin is death. All right. But let me tell you
what Revelation 21 says. Our Lord said in Revelation 21
that in heaven, in glory with Christ, there is
going to be no more death. There will be no more sorrow. There will be no more crying.
There will be no more pain. There will be no more sickness.
And the reason is because there will be no more sin. That's the
reason. No more sin. Here on this earth
though, as long as we carry out our days on this earth, sickness
has always infected men and women and it always will. All right,
we should expect it. We need to expect it. You know,
well, I hope I don't get this and I hope I don't get that.
Well, we kind of need to expect it. And the reason is because
we're sinners And that's what comes to sinners. Sickness and
disease and all those kinds of things. We're gonna carry this
infection until the day we leave this earth. Until the day we
lay this body down, we'll carry this disease called sin. But John chapter 11 verse one
says, a certain man was sick. Everything that God does is certain. And I would love for us to really
get ahold of that tonight. Everything that God does is certain. God only deals in certainties. In 2 Samuel 23, David said, these
were his last words. And he was talking about all
of God's dealings with him throughout his life. And he said, they have
all been ordered in all things and sure. He said, he made a
covenant with me. And it was ordered in all things
and sure. Nothing has been left up to chance.
Nothing. Nothing has been hindered or
altered By an unseen, unseen circumstance. God has never purposed
to do anything and it not come to pass because something hindered
it or altered it. Never. Never. I heard a man say
in one time, God is trying to perform good in your life. If
the devil would just stop messing it up. That's a total lie. God
deals in certain teas. Everything he does is ordered
and sure. Acts 15 says, known unto God
are all his works from the beginning of the world. All of it. Everything he does is certain. It's on purpose. He knows every
certain soul that he will ever deal with. He knows every single
one of them. At this particular moment, he's
dealing with a certain man named Lazarus. And Lazarus here, we're
going to look at this story a little bit. Lazarus is going to represent
all of God's people. all of God's people. And the
reason is because God deals with all of his certain, exact, particular,
chosen people in this exact same way. He deals with all of them
in this very way. If God is going to be merciful
to us, and that's our prayer, God be merciful to me. If God
is going to be merciful to us, and if God is going to be gracious
to us, He is going to deal with us the same way He dealt with
Lazarus. This is how He saves people. This is how He delivers people. John 11 verse 1, it says, Now
a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town
of Mary, and her sister Martha. It was that Mary which anointed
the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose
brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent unto
him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick." A
distinction right here is made. that this certain man was one
who the Lord Jesus Christ loved. All right, that is very clearly
pointed out. Lazarus was sick to the point
of death, but here was the good news for this poor sinner, this
poor, sick sinner. Christ loved him. That was the
glorious news. That's all that mattered. Christ
loved him. The Lord made this statement.
All right, this is a statement directly from the mouth of the
Lord himself. He said, Jacob have I loved, but Esau
have I hated. All right, that's what the Lord
said. Some people hear that and they're
completely shocked by that statement. Just totally shocked, wondering
how could he say he hated Esau? How could God say that? How could
the Lord say that? That shouldn't shock us at all.
Not at all. Esau was a wicked, sinful man,
just like every other man on the face of this earth. He was
a sinner against God. The scripture says, all have
sinned. All have sinned. So the question
is not how could he hate Esau? Here's the question. How could
he love Jacob? How on this earth could he love
Jacob? Jacob was a trickster. If you know the story of what
Jacob did, you think, man, that's sorry, dog. He was a liar. He was a cheat. He was a thief. He was a supplanter. He was no
good. How could God love a sinner at
all? How could God love a sinner at
all? Here's how. God commended his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. That's how. God can love us. God can love a sinner like me. And a center like you, he can
love us because when we were yet without strength in due time,
Christ died for the ungodly. That's how, that's why Ephesians
two says we were centers through and through completely all of
us. So much so that we were dead in trespasses and sins, completely
dead in sins. It says, but God, who is rich
in mercy for his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead in sins, he quickened us together with Christ. By grace,
you are saved. What part did we have in that?
He didn't give one. And if God didn't give one, there's
not one. He quickened us. He quickened
us together with Christ by grace, by free gift, by God's free doing. We are saved. That's how God
can love a sinner. In the person, in the work, in
the sacrifice, in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Whoever
Christ completely poured his blood all over, whoever when
God looks at them, they're just completely red head to toe. God can love that sinner. Because
Christ paid all his debt, covered all his sins. All of the love
of God is found in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. God does not love a sinner because
that sinner has done some good work. That's not where the love
of God is. God loves his son. He said, this
is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. This is what he
said about everybody else. All flesh is grass and the grass
withers and the grass fades and the grass is gonna get cut down.
But that's my beloved son, hear him, bow to him, believe him. All of the love of God is in
the person, in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is what
the Apostle John said. He said, herein is love, not
that we loved God. I had a man ask me one time,
he said, you know, was asking me, what do I believe? And, and I started telling him
what the word actually says. And he'd never heard that before.
And he realized we're not going to come together. So he just
finally said, do you love Jesus? And I said, well, I do. But that's not what's important
to me. What I want to know is, does he love me? All right. John said here in his love, not
that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to
be the propitiation for our sins. That's all that matters. Did
God send His Son to completely cover us in blood? So in that,
in what Christ did for His people, because of that, Mary and Martha
could say to Him, He whom thou lovest is sick. Because of what Christ did, They
could say, we know you love him. But in verse three, they said
a word before that, and it makes it sound as if they were surprised
by his sickness. They said, behold, they said,
Lord, behold. Behold means look at this. As if they're saying, we don't
understand this. Lord, one who you love. and enter into their point of
view. Put yourself in their shoes. One who you love is sick. Think about that. Lord, one who
is trusting you, Lazarus is trusting you. One who is completely trusting
you and casting his all for his well-being on you is sick. One of your chosen people, you
selected him, is sick. One who you could heal with just
a word. If you would just say the word.
You know the story of that man Jairus. His servant was sick
and he came and told the Lord. And the Lord said, I'll come
to your house and heal him. He said, Lord, I'm not worthy
that you should come under my roof. Just say the word. If you
would just say, be healed. Lord, this is such an easy remedy
for you. So easy. How can this be? He whom thou lovest is sick. When sickness brings us down,
I believe this is a good question. When sickness brings us down,
why doesn't our Lord immediately raise us back up? He loves us, doesn't He? He sent His Son and gave His
Son and killed His Son for us, didn't He? He's able to do it, isn't He? Real soon, He's gonna make it
so that it's an impossibility for us to ever get sick again. So when sickness brings us down,
why doesn't our Lord just immediately raise us back up? I believe there are many reasons
for that amongst all of God's people, especially for those
who are called into the ministry of the word. Think about the
men in the scripture who were greatly used in the ministry
of the gospel. Think about Job. Think about that man, everything
he went through. David, David, he, the Lord said,
this is a man after my own heart. I'm coming from his line. He
said, I'm going to sit on his throne. David spent his life
running in fear for his life. He was the King living in caves
and, and such on and so forth. Think about the apostle Paul.
Think about everything he endured. And then on up toward our lifetime,
you have men like Charles Spurgeon. Do you know that Charles Spurgeon
was so sick? From the age of 30 to the age
of 58, for 28 years, he was so sick, sometimes he had to leave
his pulpit for as many as six months at a time. He had, I don't
know exactly what he had, but he had to go down to the coast
in France to warmer weather, because it helped his body and
he could function. That's where he did a lot of
his writing. But on many occasions, I believe three occasions, he
asked them to replace him as pastor. And they said, absolutely
not. That man was sick. He died at
58 years old of his sickness. If men don't experience the trial
of affliction, they cannot preach with confidence and with conviction
God's sufficient grace through it. They just can't. You cannot preach what you haven't
experienced. I'm talking about a man standing
in a pulpit, but take it on into the pew. You cannot preach, we
say practice what you preach, you cannot preach what you haven't
experienced. We have this little saying, and
it's a good one, it's true, that gospel preaching, true gospel
preaching is just one beggar telling another beggar where
he found bread. Well, you can't preach as one
beggar to another beggar unless you've been a beggar. You can't
do it. You cannot with confidence preach
the ability of the great physician unless you've been to him personally. and you can't preach salvation
from sin by the grace of the blood of Christ unless you know
beyond any shadow of a doubt that you are a sinner that has
been saved by the free gift of the blood of Christ. You just
can't do it. In the same way that Christ can
sympathize with us because he was touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. In that same way, God is going
to cause us to be able to sympathize with the infirmities of each
other. That's one reason. Another reason is because never,
and I mean ever, do we have a need to go running
to him. Never are we more fervently crying
out to Him, I mean falling on Him, not just lip service, I
mean begging, pleading, casting our all on Him than when we are
in our affliction. Never, never. Lazarus was sick unto death,
and that drove Mary and Martha straight to Christ. And that's
another reason. Oftentimes, and this is so important
to know, oftentimes our sickness is not even for us. Quite often, our sickness is
not even for us, it's for somebody else. Look at verse 14. Then said Jesus unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes that
I was not there to the intent. He he's saying this was the intention
of it all. You may believe. The Lord allowed Lazarus to die
and he told his disciples, I allowed that to happen to increase your
faith. I did that to him to increase
your faith. So in our moments of affliction,
let's take some comfort in knowing that our Lord is not just dealing
with us in the affliction. He's dealing with everyone around
us. And he's going to use whatever he's doing for the good of all
of his people. All of his people will benefit
from it. He's going to make all of his people come running to
him for comfort and for help and for peace. Oh, what peace
we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear
all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Now, all of
those are valid reasons, all right, for our affliction. They're
all valid, but if we wanna get to the heart of the true reason
for all the sickness, all the affliction that God's people
endure, our Lord told us what it is in verse four. Verse four says, 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. This spiritual sickness that
we have called sin, there's only one man that can cure it. There's
only one man. And I pray people might learn
this, and here's the reason why. The average mind of the average
man or average woman thinks I'm that man. I can cure this. Okay. I'm the one who got myself into
this. I'm the one who needs to get myself out. That's not so
there is literally only one man who can cure any man or woman
from sin. For God's people, that sickness
did not come for the purpose of bringing death. That sickness
came for the purpose of bringing glory to God, that the Son of
God might be glorified thereby. Do you think that God knew Adam
and Eve would fall in the garden? Most certainly He did. That's
why He had the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
He knew they would sin. Why did He allow that? He's God,
isn't He? Why didn't He just stop it? Here's
why. For the glory of God, that the
Son of God might be glorified thereby. That's the whole reason. Look at verse 21, it says, Then
said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother
had not died, but I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt
ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, thy
brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
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? He said,
if the Spirit of God reveals my substitution, And if the Holy
Spirit of God reveals what I accomplished in my death, and accomplished
in my burial, and accomplished in my resurrection, I put all
of the sin of all of my people away. And if the Spirit of God
causes a sinner to believe in me, stop looking to self, stop
casting their all on self, and start casting their all on Him.
then that soul will never die, never die, will be healed of
their life-threatening disease forever. And he said, Martha,
do you believe that? Has God's Holy Spirit caused
you to truly believe that? Verse 27, she saith unto him,
yea Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God,
which should come into the world. I believe you're the one who
came and accomplished everything that had to be done. Every single
thing. I believe you are the only one
who must be glorified in this. Now, I'm gonna wrap this up. We're about to see that Lazarus
didn't do anything. Lazarus was just dead. That's
all he was. Christ came to Lazarus. Christ removed the stone from
Lazarus. Christ called Lazarus. Christ quickened Lazarus. Christ
drew Lazarus, and you know what Lazarus did? He came forth. Christ said, come, and he came. And when Christ spiritually heals
one of his children, from the sickness of their sin, it is
always a sovereign healing. Christ never begs anybody to
let him save them. He always gives the command in
absolute authority, which says, you are mine, I paid for you. You're bought with a price, come
here to me. and every soul he says that to
comes running. Aren't we so glad? Christ heals all of his children
from their sickness with a sovereign healing. It is always a sovereign
healing, one that happens to us, not by us, not with us. Christ heals And we are healed. That's how it works. Fully healed,
just completely healed. He never starts the work of this
spiritual healing without finishing it. He never performs a spiritual
operation only to then send his patient off to rehabilitate himself
until he's finally better. He doesn't do that. He is the
operating physician. He is the rehabilitator, He's
the Savior. He is the successful Savior of
His people, all of His people. All right, and we see that right
here in what He did for Lazarus. Look at verse 34. He said, where
have you laid Him? They said unto Him, Lord, come
and see. Jesus wept, then said the Jews, behold how He loved
Him. And some of them said, could
not this man which opened the eyes of the blind have caused
that even this man should not have died? Jesus therefore again,
groaning in himself, cometh to a grave. It was a cave and a
stone lay upon it. Jesus said, take ye away the
stone. Martha, the sister of him that
was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for
he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, said I
not unto thee that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the
glory of God. Then they took away the stone
from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up
his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
And I knew that thou hearest me always, but because of the
people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that
thou hast sent me. And when he thus had 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. By the power of God manifest
in the flesh. And that's what Martha was saying
when she said, I believe you are the Christ. I believe you are God standing
on earth. That's what I believe by the
power of God manifest in the flesh. Lazarus was made alive. Healed from his sickness. delivered
from his bondage and affliction, and set free. And I can only
imagine, I was picturing all of those disciples, all those
friends and family members who were at the funeral, there with
Mary and Martha, grieving with them, following them, this huge
crowd of people seeing this happen. Don't you know they rejoiced?
Don't you know they were amazed? So would you look at what he's
done? That's how it is every time God
quickens a dead sinner to himself, a spiritually dead sinner. I
mean, just before that, lifeless, just lifeless. He sleepeth. But then God, by His Word, through
His Spirit, speaks directly to that person and says, come. And
all of a sudden, there's life in the eyes. The ears work. The legs work. They come. And they're freed from all their
bondage, that bondage of religion, that horrible bondage that religion
has put them under. Lied to them. and they're totally
set free. For the first time, they're a
free soul. If Christ who is the truth ever
makes a sinner free, that sinner is free indeed. I mean free indeed. Now, I'll close with one question
for all of us. Here's the question. Are we sick? Are we sick? Are you sick? And am I sick? I'm not talking
about physical sickness. I'm talking about spiritual sickness,
soul sickness. If anyone here is sick with the
sickness of sin, in your heart, don't get out of the pew, but
in your heart, go run into him. Go running to him. His gospel
message cries to the soul of the one he loves who is bound
and dead in sin. His spirit cries, come forth. If your heart hears the cry. then in your heart go running
to him. He said, all that the father giveth me shall come to
me and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. No
man can come to him except the father which hath sent him draw
him. But if the father draws him, Christ said, I will raise
him up at the last day. We all have a sickness on this
earth. And we will all continue because
of that to have sickness. And this is what's going to happen.
We're going to go to doctors. All right. We will get sick and
we will go to doctors and we may be healed of our physical
sickness or we may not. One of the two. Either way, all
of us have an eternal sickness of sin, and there's only one
man, there's only one physician who can do anything for us, and
his name is Jesus Christ. I pray all of us will cry out
for mercy. I really do, I pray all of us will cry out for help.
Lord, help me. I pray all of us will end up standing at his
throne, crying unto him that loved us. That's what Lazarus
is saying. Unto him that loved us and washed
us from our sins in his own blood. To him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen. All right, let's all stand
together for Eddie, you come and lead us in a closing here.