Let me see what verse I want
to start at. Let me start at verse 7. What shall we say then? Is the
law sin? God forbid. Nay, but I had not
known sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin taking occasion
by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. Without the law, sin was dead.
For I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment
came, sin revived and I died. And the commandment which was
ordained to life I found to be unto death. For sin taking occasion
by the commandment deceived me and by it slew me. wherefore
the law is holy and the commandment holy, just and good. Was then
that which is good made death to me? God forbid. But sin, that
it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is
good, that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
We know that the law is spiritual, but I'm carnal solely under sin. For that which I do, I allow
not. For that I would do, for that that I do, let me see here. For what I would, that I do not. And for what I hate, that do
I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that
is good. Now then it is no more I that
do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me,
that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is
present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not. With the good that I would, I
do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that
I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in
me. I find then a law that when I would do good, evil's present
with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man,
but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my
mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in
my members. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through
Jesus Christ." That's who. I thank God through Jesus Christ,
our Lord. So then, with the mind, I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. Number 23. A man was sick named
Lazarus of Bethany, a 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 sister sent unto
him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick, When
Jesus heard that, He said, this sickness is not unto death, but
for the glory of God. You know, whatever God sends
our way, that can be attached to it. Whatever God sends our
way is for His glory and our good. That the Son of God might
be glorified thereby. Now, Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus. Let there be no mistake that
the Lord loved that family. When he had heard, therefore,
that he was sick, he abode on purpose, he stayed away on purpose
two days, still in the same place where he was. And after that,
saith he to his disciples, let us go into Judea again. His disciples
said to him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee,
and goest thou there again? Jesus answered, Are there not
twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he
stumbles not, because he seeth the light of this world. But
if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no
light in him. These things said he, after that
he saith unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that
I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord,
if he sleep, he shall do well. Albeit Jesus spake of his death,
but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest and
sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead. That's the title of the message.
Lazarus is dead. Plain speaking, Lazarus is dead. And I'm glad for your sakes that
I was not there to the intent you may believe. Nevertheless,
let us go unto Him. Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed, holy be thy name. Our Father, help us to worship
you in spirit and in truth this morning. Let thy presence be
known here this morning. Send forth the gospel, send forth
thy word and power this morning. Instruct us, teach us, comfort
our hearts, comfort the hearts that need comfort, comfort it.
Break the hearts that need to be broken. Enable us to give
unto thee the glory due unto thy name. We pray for thy people
here who are sick, hurting, in trouble. Lord, we pray that you'd
bless, that you'd bring them out of it, that you bring them
through their troubles, that they would give unto Thee all
honor and praise at the end of it. Forgive us our sins, which
are many, for Christ's sake. Lord, help us to just think upon
Thee for this hour, for this one hour, Father. Help us. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Turn back to John 11. Let me say this before I get into
the message. As I said earlier, no midweek
service. Next Sunday, no Bible class,
but we will have the 11 o'clock service. We'll just have one.
I don't think my mind is up We are going to move, so I don't
think my mind is going to be up to two of them. We're going
to move from Ashland to North Carolina. I guess I'm going to
go from a wildcat to a tar hill. I don't know, you have to explain
to me what a tar hill is. But anyway. And we'll be, Lord willing, we
hope to load up there Thursday, drive down here Friday and unload
10 o'clock Saturday morning. We'll start trying to unload
it and I guess we'll be here. All right. The title of the message,
Lazarus is dead. The Lord had to speak plainly
to them. They had not yet understood the redemptive work of Christ. They
were just babes. They were just babes. When he
said, Lazarus is asleep, well, they automatically thought, well,
he's going to do well if he's asleep. Don't wake him up. You
know that. When somebody's sick at the house
and they're asleep, you say, well, leave them alone. You know,
you got a little kid that's sick and finally gotten some rest
and sleeping. Leave them alone. But he wasn't
talking about that. But then he spoke in language
you and I understand. He said plainly, Lazarus is dead. Now people know what dead means.
That's why he finally said to them, Lazarus is dead. And people know what that means
except when it comes to spiritual matters. Even they didn't grasp
it at that time. I know that people think because
they have physical life, and because they can communicate,
you and I can communicate with each other, that we can just
automatically do that with God. That's not so. That's just not
so. Physical life, fleshly life,
spiritual life are two separate things. Two totally separate
matters. The one is flesh, and that's
all it will ever be. The other is spirit, and that's
all it'll be. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. And neither of the two shall
mix. Now, I want to speak to you this morning on our condition
by nature and the only hope we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want to use the physical
death, the physical death of Lazarus as an allegory. as a
type. I listen from time to time to
TV preachers, and it's evident they don't know what happened
in the garden. They don't know what dead means. They don't know
what spiritual death means. They don't know what it means
to die, that we died in Adam, that in Adam all died. They don't
understand what that means. Well, they would not be calling
on sinners to do something. They'd be calling on God to do
something for the sinner. You see, we then got it backwards.
They want the sinner to do something now. What we need is God to do
something for us. That's what we need. That's what
I need. I know that. It says in Ephesians 2, 1, And
you hath He, hath God quickened, hath God given life to, who were
dead in trespasses and sins. Trespasses and sins defined me. That was me. Dead in trespasses
and sins. They preach on issues like morality,
immorality, when they should preach on mortality and immortality. Let's talk about that. Giving
up certain things will not save anyone. I know this, you cannot outlive
your sins. I don't care if you straighten
up and fly right and try to do the best you can. You cannot
outlive one sin. You cannot outlive one evil thought. You can't outlive it. Because
of who God is. He'll call it. He'll call it
to judgment. Someone was talking to me some
time ago, a few years ago, about a lady and how she needed to
get back in church. that she needs to get back in
church. I said, no. That's the last thing she needs.
She needs Christ. Last thing she needs is to get
back in church. What she needs is the Lord Jesus Christ to save
her. She'll be worse off than she
ever was if she just gets back in church. And I knew the place
where she went. It was Armenian. They did not
preach the gospel and still don't. And my advice was, no, don't
go there. Don't go there. You'd be better
off staying home." Then they go and listen to a lie now. Make
you twofold a child of hell. Is that right? You know, the Lord speaks of
those Jews encompassing sea and land to make one proselyte. And the Lord said, when you've
made him, you've made him twofold a child of hell. Twofold. Now let's look at Lazarus' condition. Lazarus was alive at one time. He had physical life, is what
I'm saying. He had physical life. He had sweet fellowship with
his Lord. The Lord visited that home. I read to you where it
said that the Lord loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. He loved that
family. And he had sweet fellowship with
him, and the Lord visited with him. And they would sit down
together and they would commune together. He sat there and spoke
to the Lord. Well, something happened. Something happened. A virus or something entered
into his body and he died. He died. There was a time when
Adam was alive spiritually. That's the time we were alive
in Adam as our representative. And Adam had sweet communion
with God. He had fellowship with God. When God created Adam, He
created him innocent. He didn't know any sin. God did
not create Adam with sin. He was righteous. But something happened. Something
happened. Sin entered into him and he died. He died. In Romans 12, 12, wherefore,
as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin. That's
why we die. I don't die because I had a heart
attack or I got cancer. I die because of sin. Those are
just second causes. Cancer or a heart attack, that's
second causes. The real cause of dying, physically
dying, the real cause of me growing older is sin. That's what it is. And so death
passed upon all men. Why? Because Adam represented
all, and all have sinned. We sinned just like he did. Willfully. We sin willfully. It says in James 1.15, When lust
hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it's finished
brings forth death. We all have to die. Whereas in Adam all died. Adam
was the federal head of the human race. Even so in Christ shall
all he represented be made alive. All that Adam represented died
and all that Christ represents shall be made alive. But when
we died in Adam, The life of God, now listen,
was gone. Gone. David said in one place,
he said, I'm just a beast before you. David recognized that without
God, that he wasn't any better than an animal. He said, I'm
just a beast before you. The life of God's gone. No taste
for God. Think about that. No taste for
God. No thirst. Our Lord speaks of
hunger and thirst, signs of life. No thirst for God. David said
he thirsted after God like the hard pants after the water broke.
So my soul thirsts just after Thee, O God. There's a real hunger and a real
thirst to know God. If it's not there, God's not
there. Something's wrong. No hunger for communion with
God. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? God created
us. God made us. God Almighty has
a never ever worship Him, to never ever hunger to know who
our creator is. As Solomon says in Ecclesiastes
12, remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth, before
the evil days come out. The evil days of old age. But
remember, now that I created you, consider and think upon
the One that made you. Don't walk through life blind
and deaf and dumb. Seek after the Lord. Seek to
know the One that made you. You know, another Scripture says
that day unto day utter speech and night unto night show of
knowledge. What is that speech? What is that knowledge? That
God is. and you'd think we'd go after him and find out who
he is. You'd think we'd have that hunger
and thirst, but you know what? We don't have any of it by nature. You don't have it until God gives
it to you, until God gives you life. You don't have it. Nope. You and I have the hunger
and thirst for this flesh to satisfy it, to gratify it, to
please it, and that's it. Until God gives life. Man has no spiritual senses now
for God. Just as Lazarus' body laying
in that tomb has no physical sense. He can't see no more.
He can't hear no more. He can't taste no more. And that's
exactly the way we are by nature. Dead. Dead. We see Lazarus now as a dead
man. He calls not for help because
he's dead. He's dead. All physical senses
are gone. Men who are spiritually dead
will not call upon the Lord for help. You know why? They don't
know they need it. They're dead. I've done a lot of funerals and
I've never had one person rise up in that casket and ask for
help. And I've done a lot of funerals. They don't know their need for
help because they're dead. Only the living know that they
need help. You know, only the living know
they're sick. That's all it was. Not until God gives a man life
does he know that he was dead in trespasses and sins. Not until
you have life do you even know that. And not only could he not call
for help, but he would not seek help. Because when he died, his
will died with him. He doesn't even have the will
to get out of that casket. I was at a funeral. It was bad. But the woman lost
her only son. She was screaming. Passing out,
the cat was screaming for her son to get up out of that casket.
She was screaming out His name, get up, get up, get up, get up. Didn't make a move. He's dead. He's dead. Man does not have the will to
come to Christ for salvation. He's dead to Him. Listen to this
scripture in John 5, 39, 40. Search the scriptures, for in
them you think you have eternal life. And they are they which
testify of me. And verse 40 says this, and you
will not. We talk about free will, here
it is. You will not. Come to me that you might have
life. You don't have the will to come. You don't want to come
because you don't have the will to come to me. That you might
have what? Life. Life. And Isaiah said, but Isaiah is
very bold in Romans 10, 20, but Isaiah is very bold and said,
I was found of them that sought me not. Isn't that amazing? That's
grace. That's grace. I found him. I
wasn't even looking for him. No, he's the shepherd looking
for the lost sheep. The lost sheep's not looking for the shepherd.
He don't even know he's lost. He's probably just out there munching
on grass. He don't even realize. You're lost, buddy. You're lost. I was made manifest, I was revealed
unto them that wasn't even asking for me. Lazarus could not do anything
by way of giving himself life because life begets life. Dead things don't beget life.
Life begets life. Life must come from life. If
we are to have spiritual life, it must be given to us by the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is life. He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. John 5, 26. For as the Father
hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life
in Himself, and He giveth. He giveth it to whomsoever He
will. But life comes from life. John 17, 2, as thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. Life comes from life. We cannot
give ourselves life by decision. By doing something, He gives
it. He commands it. Just like He did that baby laying
in the field. He said, I said, live. I said, live. And it lived. And that's what
God said to you if you believe the gospel. If you're alive,
God said that to you and the person sitting close to you may
be dead as a hammer. And they can't hear. And you're
thinking, man, I wish you could hear that. Oh, I wish you could
hear that. Rejoice over the gospel and somebody else is like, where
are we going to lunch? That's the difference. That's
the difference. Lazarus lost all physical discernment. Man has lost all spiritual discernment.
He doesn't have any. It says in 1 Corinthians 2.14,
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God, for they are foolishness unto him. What I'm doing right
now, what I'm saying right now to the natural man is foolishness.
It's absurd. And the smarter he is, the more
intelligent he is in the things of this world, in this life,
the more foolish this sounds to him. It sounds even more foolish. Neither can he know them, listen,
because they are spiritually discerned. Spirit, you have to
be born in the spirit to discern. We shouldn't get so frustrated
with people, with lost people, they don't have anything to work
with. They don't have anything to work with. Lazarus couldn't hear the words
of his sisters. He couldn't hear the crowd weeping.
He's dead. He's dead. A fallen man cannot hear the words
of God. He's dead. Listen to our Lord in John 8.43.
Why do you not understand my speech? Why do you not understand
the Gospel? Even because you cannot hear my word, you can't
hear me. No more than a dead body laying
in a casket. They can't hear it no more than that boy laying
in that casket. He couldn't hear his mother crying,
get up, get up. Dead. And it says Lazarus was dead
for four days when the Lord came and He let him stay and do this
on purpose. He was dead for four days and
it says he stinketh. You know what that means? He
was really dead. That means he was really dead. In four days
he didn't get any better. He was really dead. Time didn't
help him a bit. When our Lord came to this earth
in the flesh, when he became incarnate, man had been dead
4,000 years. And with the Lord, it says 1,000
years is what? One day. He'd been dead four
days. And you know what that verdict
is? He stinketh. Time didn't make us any better.
Education doesn't make us any better. It just makes us able
to do smarter. Maybe hide it a little bit smarter.
But it doesn't make us any better by nature. We just learn how
to let things go undercover. And we're still just as bad as
everybody. We just learn how to hide it.
Hide it. We still stink by nature. Just turn the news on. If you
could smell what comes off the news, you'd throw that thing
out of the house. It stinks so bad. It would. You would. Then Lazarus lost all that he
had, all the earthly possessions. He lost it all. Have you ever
seen a U-Haul follow a hearse? I'm not. You'll not see a U-Haul
following a hearse. Because it ain't going with you.
Not going with you. He lost all the earthly possessions
he had. He took nothing with him. In
Adam, we lost the weight of God. We lost the life of God. And
we lost the truth of God. But in Jesus Christ, we have
all of that plus more. Christ is the way. He's just
not part of the way. He's just not a way. He is the
way, the truth, and the life. Lazarus used to live in a comfortable
home, but now his body lies among the dead. We used to live in
God's Eden. Can you imagine what that Garden
of Eden must have looked like? Can you even try to conceive what
the Garden of Eden must have been like? No thorns, no poisonous
snakes, no nothing, nothing that offends. Peace and it never rained,
never a cloud in the sky. Mist come up from the ground
and watered the earth. It was perfect. It was perfect. But now look,
now look, storms come, rages. This old earth groans. Creation
groans, it says over in 2 Corinthians 5. It groans under the burden
of sin. Every time I hear of an earthquake
or a volcano, I think of the earth groaning under the weight
of sin. That's what it is. That's what it is. Now Lazarus' body is lying in
a cold, dark, dead tomb. Lazarus used to live in Bethany.
You know what Bethany means? House of obedience. House of
obedience. But now he's gotta take him out
of the city. He stinketh. He can't leave that
in the house. He's gotta cast him out. Cast his body out of
here. We used to have a place in God's
presence, in God's Eden. But because of sin, we had to
be cast out. Christ said this in John 14 to
His disciples, I go and prepare a place for you. We lost our place in Adam. We
lost it. Christ had to go prepare a place
for me. He said, now if I go prepare
a place for you, I'll come again and receive you myself. But we
lost our place in Adam. We lost it. And then Lazarus was allowed
to die on purpose, the Lord on purpose. Oh, you just love the calmness
of our Lord. You know, when the storm was
raging and they just sleep in the boat. Can you imagine that?
They're over there bailing out water, scared to death they're
going to die. And He's asleep on the boat. He said, why are you so fearful? Lazarus was allowed to die on
purpose, and this is the reason that God, He said that God may
be glorified. God allowed Adam to die on purpose. That was not an accident. And
He did it in order to reveal Himself in His full glory to
us. There is no way and no other
way we could know God in the fullness of His very being like
we're going to know, except this way. There's no other way to
know. There's no other way to know the depth of mercy until
you've been into the depth of sin. There's no way to know the
depth of grace. There's no way for you to know
what it is to be justified, that you know what it is to be guilty.
You don't know what it is to be alive until you know what
it is to be dead. And that's why God allowed Adam
to die on purpose, that we might see the fullness of God, His
glory. Now, last of all, let's look
at Lazarus' hope and our hope. What's his hope of coming out
of that grave? His sisters were weeping. They were weeping. And they were heartbroken, I
understand. They were heartbroken. They were heartbroken that he
died. They were heartbroken that the Lord didn't show up and keep
him from dying. They said, Lord, if he'd been
here, Lazarus wouldn't have died. It's evident they didn't understand
who he is, did they? They didn't understand he's God. They didn't understand the resurrection.
The Lord's going to teach them a very important lesson. Quit
looking at the resurrection as an event and look at the resurrection
as a person. I'm not looking for something
to happen. I'm looking for someone to show up. The Lord Jesus Christ. I am the
resurrection and the life. I'm the life of Lazarus. I'm
your life. What's His hope and our hope?
One name. Jesus Christ. That's it. Our
hope is a person. There was no hope for Lazarus
leaving again through the ordinances, through the ceremony. They can
have all the ceremonies. They can burn all the candles, do all the mumbo-jumbo
they want to, and that man's gonna stay dead. He's gonna stay
in that grave. He's not coming out. It was in the man, Christ Jesus,
that his only hope rested, and that's ours, is in Christ. His hope was found in the one,
listen, who loved him, who loved him. It says that Jesus loved
Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. Our hope of life and forgiveness
is in Christ the Lord. That's my hope of forgiveness.
I'm telling you that my hope of acceptance, forgiveness, everything
I need to stand before God is in one person, Jesus Christ. And that's it. It's not what
I'm doing today or tomorrow or what I did do or didn't do in
the past. It has nothing to do with that.
Nothing. Zilch. It has everything to do with
that man taking my place. and God giving me life in Him. Our hope of life and forgiveness
is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. The God man, the God man. He has the power and the right
to, nobody else has that power to save. No one else has the
power or no one else has the right to forgive me of sin. No one has that. That was totally
vested in Jesus Christ. I assure you. That all the Pharisees and all
the scribes and all the priests and let all of them gather around
the grave of Lazarus, let them all call His name, and you know
what? Nothing's going to happen. Nothing. But you let this man, this God
man, walk up to that grave. He didn't have to walk up to
the grave, but he walked up to that grave and he commanded,
he said, move away, move that stone. Move that stone. That's what I'm doing right now.
I'm moving the stone. And he commanded him to come
out of that grave. And he came out. Do you realize what those people
saw? You realize that the day of the marriage, she said, he
stinks by now, he stinks. Four days, it didn't take long,
did it? Four days went by, and that healthy man is so stinking,
you can't even bear the smell of him. And when he walked out of that
grave, the Lord said, Lucy, let him go. That's what the job of
the responsibility of the preachers is to remove some of those, help
remove the grave clothes. There He stood, in the flesh,
healthy as the day He was born. Healthiest today. Because God commanded life. God commanded it. No one else
can do that. Because God can forgive sin.
No one else can do that. Because He has the power to do
it and the right to do it. Then Christ is our hope and I'm
gonna close. He is our hope in what He did for us. He took my
death. He took my death. Look on verse
25. And Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the
life. He that believes in Me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in Me shall never die, But do you believe this? He said, do
you believe what I'm telling you? Do you believe a style of
this? I am the resurrection of life
and you're not going to die. He that believes this, he that
believes me. He is my hope, He is our hope,
He's the hope of everyone whom He died for, He's the hope of
everyone who believes God, He's our hope, and that He lived for
me, and He died for me, and He rose for me, He ascended on high
for me, He is seated at God's right hand for me, making intercession
for this, this transgressor. Every day we transgress, don't
we? Man, a day goes by that we don't transgress. We don't do
something stupid, sinful, rotten. You know better. You know better. And he's right there pleading. I don't know how that exactly
goes. I think his presence there is enough. I think his presence
there is enough intercession. No doubt. He tread the winepress of God's
wrath alone for every one of His people, which
is a multitude of sinners, don't make a number. He has set the
captive free. I'm not under a curse no more.
You believe the gospel? You're not under a curse no more.
And that's the only curse that's real. There is no other curse. That's the only curse that's
real. Set us free from the power of
Satan, power of sin, and the power of the grave. Power of the grave. And then Christ is our hope,
where He is. Where is He? I'll tell you why. He's seated at God's right hand,
but where is He? Wherever He is, that's where I am. I, right
now, and you, right now, Even though we can't experience the
real joy of it, are seated right now at the throne of God. We
are seated in the heavenlies with Jesus Christ. We are seated
there just like we are here. It's that real. It's that real.
Plain speaking, Lazarus is dead. He died. He really died. He stinketh. The only hope that man had and
the only hope we have is Jesus Christ, commanding life, giving
us life, someday taking us home. All right.