John chapter 11. John 11 is the
message this morning. This passage came to my mind. This message was born from seeing
our brother so grievously sick. Look at John 11. Read verses
1 through 3 with me. John 11. Now a certain man was
sick named Lazarus of Bethany. 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. And therefore his sister said
unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. And then verse 5 says, Now Jesus
loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. I remember my pastor
preaching from this years ago. It was a great blessing. And
he told us that he got the message he preached from Charles Spurgeon.
And sure enough, I went back and looked at Spurgeon's message
on this. And they had preached it just
about word for word. But it was a great blessing,
hearing it, and a blessing to read it. Charles Spurgeon was
a man, a preacher, that was greatly used by the Lord. I mean greatly
used by the Lord. He's still, he being dead yet
speaketh, he's still being used. I still use his messages, other
men do. He was sick. Spurgeon was sick
for 38 years. I mean sick. There were times
he could not preach for six months. He was out of his pulpit sometimes
six months at a time. One time he asked the people,
he told the people to find another pastor because he was just not
able. And they said, they loved him so much, they said, we'll
take you one month out of the year more than anybody else for
12. At any rate, he was ill for most
of his life. He died when he was 58 years
old, 58. That's young to me now. He spent a great deal of his
time in the south of France, where the weather was a little
bit better, more sunshine. You know, London, England, where
he was, cold and damp all the time. So he had to go to the
south of France. And while he was there, in some
kind of convalescent home for his health, he preached this
message. to a group of invalid ladies,
ladies who were in that home, and he preached this message.
It's only 20 minutes long. That's all he was able to speak. Such a blessing. And in the message
he's, number one, he talked about the certainty of sickness for
God's people. He talked about the prayer of
God's people for the sick, and then he talked about the Lord's
answer. And from John 11, Lord, the sisters of Lazarus, Mary
and Martha, they called on the Lord and said, Lord, behold. They sent word, behold, as if,
how can this be? Behold, he whom thou lovest,
the one you love. They knew he loved Lazarus. He was in their home all the
time. And they knew that the Lord healed everybody who had
need of healing. But they sent word as if they
were shocked. Lord, Lazarus is sick. I mean, he's really sick. You
need to hurry. So the first point is this. The
fact is, God's people can expect sickness. They should expect
sickness, infirmities, afflictions. All of God's people. It's not
if, it's when. It's not if, it's when. We should
not be surprised at all. if sickness comes. In fact, we
should be surprised if it does not. Brother Mack used to come
visit me and study quite often. He'd stop in, and we had such
a good time. He wanted to talk about the Lord,
talk about the gospel. And this was 15, 20 years ago.
He came in, sat down, and we were talking. And he kind of
sighed. He said, I'm worried. I said,
what's wrong? He said, I just don't have any trials right now.
I said, everything's just going
great. Well, I said, I don't have any trials. Boy, it wasn't long, was it? His dad, what he went through
with his dad, his mother, and then his own health. So it's
not if. It's when. It's when. All of God's people go through
sickness, trouble, trials, afflictions. It's coming. Expect it. It's
a sign that God loves you. False prophets, false religion. I hate it. They're lying on God,
they're lying to people. Self-righteous Pharisees, what
they say is if only you had enough faith, you wouldn't get sick.
That's what they say. Health, wealth, you know. If
you just have enough faith, you won't get sick, ever. That's
a delusion, isn't it? That's just false. Did Elisha
not have enough faith? Elisha? He died from his sickness.
Elisha. It says he had a double portion
of what Elijah did. Elijah was arguably the greatest
prophet to ever live. Elisha had double. And he got
sick and he died from that sickness. What was it? Cancer? What was it? Something. Didn't
he have enough faith? That's blasphemy, isn't it? And
that really discourages God's people. It's not a lack of faith when
we get sick. It's proof of love, God's love.
Behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. He's sick. As said, Elisha was sick. Job. Did the Lord love Job? When
you look at the story of Job, Job and all of his trouble. He had nothing but trouble. He's
lying. He's sitting there in ashes, scraping. He's covered
with boils from the top of his head, from the sole of his feet. He's talking about pain. And
he's scraping, trying to get some kind of relief. He's in
agonizing pain. And his three friends are sitting
there. They don't have a problem in the world. Who does the Lord
love? Who is being blessed by the Lord?
See, things are not as they seem to the human eye. They're just
not. Lazarus, the Lord loved Lazarus
and he was sick. Now here's a purpose, deep purposes
and reason for sickness. Psalm 9, David said, Lord put
them in fear that the nations will know themselves to be just
men. And they said, Lord, he whom
thou lovest is sick. They didn't call his name. Whoever
it is, it doesn't matter, he, she, old, young, human beings
are going to get sick. We're human beings, aren't we? We're human beings. Mankind is
subject to all sickness and infirmity of the flesh. That includes God's
people. Where did sickness come from?
Why do we get sick? Sin. That's when it started. I don't doubt that Adam, as soon
as he was cast out of the garden, got some, you know... I know he probably got a thorn
in his hand or got a cold or... What is this? He never had sickness
before. Sin. And we're subject to it. It's going to happen. All manner
of sickness. One degree or another. As a result
of sin. OK? The Lord's love does not
exempt us from sickness. The covenant of grace does not
exempt us from sickness, but it ensures it. God's love? We're going to have to know our
mortality. It is a good thing to know our
mortality. Are you with me? It's a good
thing. The world thinks we're going to find a cure for everything. The world thinks we're going
to find a fountain of youth. Their secret thought, the psalmist
says, is they're going to live forever. The world is waiting
on an alien nation to come down here with the secret of eternal
life. Never mind what Jesus Christ said. And so they're gazing into black
holes to find the secret of life. That's fitting, isn't it? Man's
in a deep, dark hole. Now we're going to get sick,
and we may die from it. God's people know that. They
know we're just men, we're just women, we're just sinners, we're
subject to infirmity, and we must, because of sin, we must
die from something. Lazarus was raised, but he died
from something, didn't he? The Lord wept, and most of us
believe He wept because the Lord might have to bring Him back
to this place. He slept for four days, no problems,
no trouble, no sin. The Lord's got to bring Him back.
Would you bring back your loved one? Would you bring them back
if you could? You miss them, you love them,
you still miss them after all these years, but would you bring
them back to this place? No, but you can go to them. And
that's what we're looking for. Now, as much as we love it, we
can bring it back. So it's mercy to realize our
mortality. It's mercy. It's wisdom to consider
it. Oh, that they were wise and would
consider this. The end. The end. The end. It's
all going to end. Vanity of vanity. It's all vanity. It's all going to end. It's coming
to an end. Look at us. Look in the mirror. That's the same person that 50
years ago you thought, no way I'll get old. That same young fellow with acne
all over his face, now he's got wrinkles all over his face. Just
like asleep. Psalm 90. We need to read Psalm
90 and 91, but 90 every week. It talks about our eternal God
and how man is so finite and how we need to be wise to consider
that. Number our days. We've just got days. It's both sad and joyous. You know that? It's sad for this world. It's
sad. If this is all you've got, well,
I feel sorry for people here. Don't you? Hanging on to dear
life. Oh no, we're hanging on to Christ. Scripture says the day of one's
death is better than birth. I wish I really believed that,
don't you? So, it's mercy to realize our
mortality. It's mercy to know our weakness.
Paul said, I glory in my infirmity. When I'm weak, I'm strong. Meaning, if you don't realize
how weak you are, how subject to infirmities you are, how finite
you are, you won't need God. You won't call on God. It's a
sad fact that we don't really call on God from all the depth
of our heart, with all our being, until we get in trouble, until
we are at our wits end, until we have no place to turn. That's
when you really call on God. That's sad, but it's human. That's it. And we won't trust the Lord.
We won't really trust the Lord. We won't really believe the Lord
until we have no place else to go. No one else to turn to. Until we don't trust anybody
or anything else. We think it's hopeless. It's
all our hopes and dreams. So sickness is certainty for
the saints. It's a certainty for the saints.
To one degree or another, you know, some get deathly ill and
die from it, like so many we've known, but others get sick, some
kind of sickness. So very many precious loved saints,
I wrote down needed, needed saints, saints that we think the church
can't do without, get sick and die, so many. Every saint is
needed. I remember last Wednesday I talked
about our little toe. Your little toenail, do you take
care of it? I know you ladies do. You spend
big bucks to ensure your little toenail doesn't fall out. What's
the use? It's needed. It's a vital part
of the body, and so is every one of the saints. But, you know,
there are saints that you think, you know, your husband was this
church's right arm. Your dad was, wasn't it? Invaluable, irreplaceable. It took, the Lord had to send
four or five men after he'd gone. Still didn't replace him. But
needed saint. My sister, 42 years old. What a servant of the church.
She was Irene and Mindy and all these ladies all put together.
Think anybody but her. Lord. Cody Groover. My, my, 58 in his prime. All those churches depended on.
No, they're not depending on you. Nothing, and no one depends
on any of us. We're all replaceable. We're
not indispensable. Needed, we love, and needed by
one another, but really? No. No. It's God that doeth all things.
They're just instruments. But still, Job, there were good
kings. Not many, but there were good
kings. All of them from Judah. None in Israel. All of them Judah. But there were good things like
a sad acid that he got sick disease in his feet and he died. Scripture
says he didn't consult the Lord but consulted only positions
in order. A so the king has a guy got sick
or do you. Elisha, as I said, he got sick
and died. Paul had an infirmity all his
day. Most believe it was his eyes.
He had terrible eyes and could hardly see. What a trial that would be, had really
poor eyesight. Remember our sister Yvonne. Fanny
Crosby, blind from birth. I can't think of anything that
would be worse than that. Can you? Epaphroditus was a preacher at
Philippi, and he was sick nigh unto death. Paul healed, the
Lord used Paul to heal many, but he couldn't heal Epaphroditus. That's the reason that Martha
and Mary thought, Lord, why is our brother sick? Why? You heal
everybody. You know they probably thought
like the centurion, just say the word, he'll be healed right
now. They believed. And so, he's sick. He's dying. Do something. He is. He's the one who sends sickness.
He's the one. I wound, he said, and I healed. I wound. Now, as I said, Spurgeon
was 58. Joe, 62. Mike, 62. Mindy's mother,
54. Mindy was only 23 or 24 years
old when her mother died. On and on it go. On and on it
go. Sickness is certain. for those that God loves. It's
certain. It's coming. It's coming. The purpose is,
number one, the purpose is God's glory. Our Lord said, this sickness
is not unto death, but for the glory of God. This is number one. Primary purpose
is for God to be glorified by that person and by their loved
ones whom he made sick. God is more glorified in the
sickness of His saints than in their health. God is more glorified
in the troubles of His saints than prosperity. It's easy to
say, God bless me, when everything's going fine. That's what all false
religion says. That's what all false religion
says. God's blessed now. I'm blessed. Look at me. I've
got good health. I've got wealth. Look at all these Mercedes Benz.
I'm so blessed it might be a curse. It just might be a curse. Riches. It's easy to say. It's easy to
say. And it's just saying. It's not
doing. It's not believing. It's not
actually living by faith. It's just by sight. Look. As
said, who was the Lord blessing, Job or his friends? Job had nothing. He lost everything, including
his health, all his family. Everybody died in his family
but his wife. The Lord killed them. The Lord killed them all.
Who's the Lord blessing here? Who's going to give God glory
here? Have you ever read such a testimony
by a human being in your life? He lost everything and everyone. It wasn't the Sabeans and the
Chaldeans that he blamed. It wasn't cancer. It wasn't any
of that. He said, God did this. Tears running down his face,
but yet joy in his heart realizing nobody and nothing can do anything
unless my God wills it. He said, the Lord gave. I didn't
deserve any of it. I didn't earn it. I didn't work
for it. I don't get any glory for any
of it. The Lord gave it to me mercifully,
graciously. What a blessed Lord. And He took
it away. It's His prerogative. It's His
will. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Have you ever heard
such testimony as that? Never has God been more glorified
than Job lying there in the ashes, scraping his oil. Now who can do that? Tammy Jo,
but God. That's not humanly possible,
is it? Huh? Most people get mad. There is
no God. This can't happen if there wasn't
God. How can this happen? They get
mad at God and quit their religion and all that. Not Jo. He said
it is God. It is God. That's my only hope.
It's a fact. It's the truth. But that's my
only hope. And it gives me peace in spite
of my pain. It gives me joy in spite of my
sorrow. God did this. Where else you going to find
any joy? You can't. You can't. God's glory. Eli. I haven't lost a child and I
don't want to. I don't want to lose a child. I don't want that
to happen. It might. It might. And I can't imagine a harder
time. They came to Eli and said, the
Lord's going to take both your sons. He's going to kill both
of your sons. And what did Eli say? He just said, Lord, let him do
what seemeth good. My, my. That's something. To
attribute all to God, now that's faith. To trust the Lord in trouble
is faith, not sight. And that honors God. It honors
God. It's glorifying to God. And it's
not only glorifying to God, and I had several scriptures. Let
me turn real quick and I'll read it for you. Where does the time
go? There's just not enough time.
But 2 Corinthians 12, listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians
12. The whole chapter is about infirmities. And, I mean, he said, God, he had an
infirmity that he asked the Lord to remove. Remember, he had it
for a long time. Lord, please. Three times he begged the Lord.
He was suffering so bad, he begged the Lord. Three times. That doesn't
just mean three. Three periods he just pleaded
with the Lord. And God said, no. And here's
what he said. My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in
your weakness. So Paul said, Most gladly, therefore,
will I glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessity, in persecution, in
distresses for Christ's sake. But when I am weak, then am I
strong. Strong in himself? No. Strong
in faith. If you've got nobody else to
believe but God, that's faith. You understand? No place else to turn but Him,
that's faith. Then He's going to show Himself.
Then He's going to show Himself like never before. You've never
needed it like this before. Only when you really need His
grace is He going to show you, my grace really is sufficient. You know, we can sit in the chair
and say, God's grace is sufficient. Oh, man, we're sitting scraping
our boils. We're going to find out. We're
going to find out. When you're sitting on a farm
pond, you know, oh, it's a good boat. No wind blowing, no waves. Boy, when you're in a ship going
down, who are you looking to? And if you come out of it, what
a good ship. What a good captain. And you
had nothing to do with it. Nothing to do with it. Here's
glory. Now this is all for the glory
of God. Number one, it's for the glory of God. It proves His
grace. It proves His promises. It proves
that God is like nothing else. This is the greatest cry of faith
in the Bible, other than our Lord. Job said, though He slay
me, I will trust Him. So, the purpose of God's glory,
and our good, the purpose is our good. Psalm 119, David said
this, it's good for me that I've been afflicted. Why David? That
I might learn your statutes. We really don't know and believe
God's Word. Turn to Romans 5, Romans chapter
5. We really don't believe God's Word until we experience it. Until we go through it. Until
we live it. It really meets our need right then and there. We
can say we do, but we really don't learn anything until we
experience it. You know that? They say experience
is the best teacher. It's the only teacher. You may
know something in your head, but you don't know it. You don't
really understand it until you go through it. God's Word, it
won't really mean anything to you until you go through something
where the Word of God is the only thing that meets your need. This is His voice. This is how
God speaks. This is the only way that God
speaks to men. But when you need Him, you know, we read God's
Word out of duty. We read it because it's the thing
to do. We get nothing. How many times do we do that?
I'm guilty. I'm supposed to read it. I know I need to read it,
but I don't read it out of need all the time. Do you? No. And
we read it and we get nothing. It's like we never read it. But
if you need it, if you need for God to speak to you, and then
you read it, you know what's going to happen? He's going to
speak to you. It's going to be His voice. Not
going to be words on paper. It's going to be the Master's
voice. It's going to be the Shepherd's voice. Is that so? It's good
for me that I've been afflicted. That I might learn. Romans 5. Look at there. Verse 3 through
5. Paul says, We glory in tribulation,
knowing that tribulation worketh patience. We've got to wait.
Waiting is hard. Patience, experience. We have
to go through something. Because only experience will
give us hope. See that? You go through it.
The Lord brings you through it. You find out, God is. He is with me. He promised to
never leave me. He was! Went through this deep,
dark trial. Went down in the depths. All
His waves and billows over me. And He rose. At the depths, I
thought I'll never smile again. Here I am laughing. Who could do that? God was with you. The Lord was
with you. Hope. Give you hope for the next
trial. It's right around. The next wave
is coming. Where's your hope? Same one who
brought you through the previous one. Romans 5. Romans 8, Paul
said, we're saved by hope. Saved by hope. Hope in His Word,
hope in His promises, in spite of whatever, sicknesses. And
we'll be saved, what we're saved from is saved from despair, not
just saved from sin, but saved from despair, saved from distress,
saved from being overcome by sorrow and grief. So God's Word is our great comfort,
and it is not just His Word, but Christ is the Word personified. It's person. We look to a person.
We don't look to a book for help. We look to our Lord for help. We want Him to speak to us. He
said, Say unto my soul. I love this verse in the psalm. You see, these are words of the
Lord to His people. David said, Say unto my soul,
I am thy salvation. Lord, tell me that. I remember
feeling particularly real sinful years ago. Still do. But I remember
as a young believer, I thought, there's no way I could be a believer.
And I read that verse, Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation. You know what he did, John? He
did. He did. It's His voice. It's how He speaks. It's not only for God's glory,
these sicknesses and trials, not only for God's glory. I'm
going to take all the time I need. It's not only for God's glory
and our good, but it's for the good of others. It's for the
good of others. Spurgeon said this, strong men
and women are apt to be harsh and unsympathetic with the weak
and the sickly. It's just so. Strong men and women are apt
to be harsh and unsympathetic with weak and sickly. So, we
need affliction to soften us. We need affliction to give us
some compassion with us. We need to go through a furnace
to soften up this hard heart of ours. And the song says, all
go through the fire, all through the water, all through the fire,
all through the blood. Which brings me to this. for
God's glory, for our good, for the good of others. And these
sicknesses, these trials, these troubles we go through, it enables
us to enter in, empathize, not just sympathize, but empathize,
actually enter into the feeling of our brothers and sisters who
are all going through the same thing at one point. Otherwise, we wouldn't really
know how they feel. We could tell them, we're sorry,
Until we go through it, we just don't know. But when we do, I've laid in the hospital for
15 some odd days over my lifetime. You know how it is to lay flat
on your back in a hospital bed for a day, two days, three days,
four. And some people spend months
in hospital. I can't see that. But God's grace is sufficient. I've laid there and thought,
I've got to get out of here. After a few days, some people... Some people, John Halcyon, John
Haslam, a man in church at Ashland, the Lord gave him MS, multiple
sclerosis. He was a colonel and a major
in the Air Force, had a wife and a young daughter, just a
very young daughter, maybe six months or so. He's moving up
the rank and had everything. The Lord gave him MS. Now he
didn't know the Lord. The Lord gave him an S. His wife
left him, took their daughter and left. He didn't see her,
he didn't see his daughter for 20 years. Okay, he's sitting in an apartment
in Canton, Ohio. He turns on the TV set and Henry
Mahan is preaching the gospel. And he heard that. And he believed
that. And he picked up everything he
had on and put it in a truck and moved to Ashland, Kentucky.
He's in a wheelchair. And his health is completely
deteriorated until he couldn't talk right. He couldn't walk. He couldn't do anything. But
he sat right there in that wheelchair, didn't he, for how many years,
Tammy, you saw? How many years? What a testimony. Huh? He said, He said, thank
the Lord for multiple sclerosis. If the Lord hadn't sent it, I'd
have never heard the gospel. Lost his wife, lost his daughter,
lost his health. He said, thank the Lord. Boy,
does that glorify God or what? You know what? The Lord took
him. He's walking now. He speaks well now. Do abuse. Was it all worth it, John? John,
was it worth it? Would you go through it again?
In a minute. God's glorified. Well, we pray for the sick, don't
we? Martha and Mary, you know how
they sound. There have been people we love
so dearly, we just beg Him. Many saints beg the Lord, please,
please heal him. Don't we? Lord, please. And He didn't. And He didn't. Or did He? See, His way is not our way.
Somehow or another, we've got to say this, not my will, but
thy will be done. Not my will. Whether the Lord
heal, and we call on the Lord, and we should, in everything
by prayer and supplication, let your request be made known unto
God, in everything, no matter how small it may be. Brother
Bruce, I told you about this. Somebody was going to get a dog,
and they called him and said, should we pray about this? And
Bruce said, no. He thought, about a dog? Pray
about a dog? He thought, no. But later on
he thought, no, you know what? We should, because he said, might
be a biting dog. You don't want to get a biting
dog in his language. And everything but your request
be known unto God. Everything. Prayer and supplication. Pour out your heart unto God,
you say. Pour out your heart unto God.
He knows it, but it's good for you. You know that? People can't carry our burdens. We're to carry
one another's burdens, as much as we can. But we really can't
bear it, can we? We really can't help them. There's
only one who can. Pour out your heart unto God. God is a very present help. And
we're told to pray for the sick. The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much. The prayer of faith saveth the
sick. And I'm not I still, I've been preaching a long time now,
and I still am not sure what that means. But it's what it
said. And I do know this, God has healed
some miraculously over the years. He has, miraculously. And we
don't attribute it means we're used. Our brother Ron sits over
there. They cut his head open and operate on his brain. Now, who did that? Aren't you
thankful for the skill of a surgeon? No, thank God. He's sitting there
because God said. This is not time yet. Brain swell. There sits Teresa
back there. Cut her. Open heart surgery. Well, that's pretty common. That's
pretty common surgery. Common surgery? Your heart? Your brain? We don't give glory to man, we
give glory to God. We may use the means, we may
not. Some have been healed without them, some with them, but it's
not the means, it's God. You understand? This is a test. The world says, well see, it's
cobalt. It's the cobalt treatments that
took away the cancer. See? He fought cancer and beat
it. Don't you hate that, sister?
I hate that. He fought it and he beat it.
So my brother fought and he lost? He's weaker? I hate that. Man's going to glorify
everybody but God. God's people glorify no one but
God. sickness or health. He sent the
sickness, he sent the health. He healed, he didn't heal. Blessed
be his name. It's the Lord. It's the Lord,
whether he heals or not. But we ask him, we seek him,
we call upon him. And the Lord's answer, the Lord's
answer is often not what we want, isn't it? No doubt that Martha and Mary
thought the Lord would heal him, but he actually waited two more
days, four days. He waited until Lazarus died. He waited for him to die. And
they both, when the Lord came to Lazarus' grave, they both
said, where were you? Didn't they? Where were you? If you'd have been here. They
both said it. If you'd have been here, our
brother wouldn't have died. You know, people are cruel, so
cruel. And when my brother was killed
in Vietnam, when the Lord took my brother's life in Vietnam,
someone said to my father, people that hate God's sovereignty,
people that don't believe God does everything, people that
don't believe God kills, God makes a life. Someone said to
my father, where was your God when your son died? Now listen to this answer that
horrifies God. You know my dad, that's his firstborn
son. He said he was in the same place
he was when his son died, on the throne. Who killed God's son? Men? God
did. And that's what gave our Lord
Jesus Christ His comfort and His peace. Not my will, but thy
will. Here I am. Take me. Did Lazarus die? Did he leave the land of the
living and go to the land of the dead? No, it's the other
way around. We got it all wrong here. We're
living in the land of the dead. We're going to the land of the dead. Listen. Spurgeon's
last words here in this message. Listen. He said, If the Lord
loves you and you're sick, let all the world see how you glorify
God in your sickness. Let your friends, let the nurses
in the hospital see how you're cheered by your Lord. He said,
let your resignation astonish them. He said, set them to admire
your Lord by the faith that He gives you. That's what we want
them to see. Cause them to know that the Lord
is so gracious to you that He makes you happy in pain and joyful
at the gates of the grave. He said, if your religion is
worth anything, If your religion is worth anything, it ought to
support you in the worst time. It ought to compel you. It will
compel unbelievers. It will compel unbelievers to
see that he whom the Lord loveth is better sick than the ungodly
in health. I rest my case. To God be the
glory.