That's a good hymn. God bless him. Thank you, Robin.
Go back to John 11. John 11. This scripture came
to mind when I called to check on a brother who was sick. He was not here on Sunday. I called Monday morning and his
wife answered. And she said, and he's usually
up very early, and she said, he's asleep. It was about 8 o'clock
or so. She said, he's asleep. And I
immediately thought of verse 12 here, where disciples said,
Lord, if he's asleep, he shall do well. And I'm happy to report, he is. And whoever falls asleep in our
Lord is doing right well. Right well. This is a story,
though, of sickness. It will always be with us. Much sorrow. Those whom you love
are sick. There's great sorrow. This story
is full of sorrow. Weeping. Death. That finality, which is death,
or seems to be death. But it ends gloriously. It ends gloriously. It's a blessed,
wonderful picture. It's a real story, but it's also
a picture of our salvation. It's a picture of the two resurrections
that every believer goes through. One, being called from being
dead and trespassing sin unto life, called to Christ by life.
And then the next resurrection is when we're called to be with
Him in glory. Hmm. How we look forward to that
day. It says in verse 1, a certain
man was sick, named Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and
her sister Martha. This is the Mary that anointed
the Lord with anointment. wiped his feet. She's a sinner.
Lazarus is a sinner. Martha is a sinner. These are
sinners, but you know what? These are sinners saved by grace.
These are sinners whom the Lord chose, a certain man and his
certain sisters who the Lord had chose, foreknew, predestinated,
called, justified, glorified, who loved them and loved them
to the end and loves them now and they are with him right now.
A certain family. The Lord saves certain people. But they get sick. They get sick. Now in verse 5, Jesus loved Martha
and her sister. He loved them. And they loved
Him, didn't they? I hate these signs everywhere
that says, Jesus loves you. I hate them. I despise them. It's blasphemy. He does not love
everyone. That cheapens the love of Christ.
It's throwing the blood of Christ and the love of Christ on the
ground for everybody to trot underfoot. He loves his own. Those whom Jesus Christ loves,
he saves. And he loves them always. He will never quit loving them. Whoever he loves, he raises from
the dead. He saves. He came to save those
that he loves. He did love, it makes it plainer,
He loved them. They loved Him. Why did they
love Him? Because He first loved them.
How do you know He loved them? They believed Him. How do you
know He loved them? They trusted Him. They looked
to Him. They came to Him. How do you know Christ loved
them? He visited with them always. He was always in their home.
He loved to be with them. Do you not love to be with those
you love? So did he. You would find him often in his
house. He often loved to be where these two or three were gathering
in his name. He visits with his own still.
He loves those that believe him and trust him. And we love him
because he first loved them. Lazarus was sick. They said in
verse 3, his sister sent word unto him, and this was long before,
you know, quick mass communication. They sent word by foot. Somebody
had to go. Now, he became sick, and perhaps
it wasn't serious enough as soon as he became sick for them to
send word to our Lord. But it didn't, it, as you said,
it took a bad turn quickly. And then it became urgent. And
they sent word, go tell our Lord. And they said, he whom thou lovest is sick. They didn't plead their love.
Lord, you know how we love you. Our love is so weak compared
to His. We don't plead our love or our
works, do we? We plead His love. We plead his
work. Now, Lord, he whom thou lovest.
They knew that Christ loved Lazarus and they said, the one you love,
whom you love more than we love, he's sick. He had a deadly disease
of some kind. He died in a couple of days. But he said, our Lord said this
in verse 4, now listen to the words of our blessed Lord. When he heard that, he said,
this sickness is not unto death. But he did that. Listen now. This sickness is not unto death,
but for the glory of God. That's why every believer gets
sick. That the Son of God may be glorified,
might be glorified thereby. What was his illness? Does not
tell it that. That's not important. We don't
die from something. That's not important. And that's
not what we should be afraid of. Where did he get this sickness? Who set the sickness? The Lord
did. He said, I wound and I heal. I kill. The sickest didn't kill
Lazarus. The Lord did. Right? Is that what the scripture said? Why did he get sick? Our Lord
said, for the glory of God. To show forth his glory. He whom
Thou lovest the sick. Whoever the Lord loves, they
go through trials, tribulations, suffering, pain, sorrow, sickness. Did God love His Son? Did He
go through trials, troubles, sickness, pain? Isaiah 53 says,
He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. He was a man of
sorrows and acquainted with the grief all the days of His life. He bore our sickness. Became
sin. For the glory of God. And love.
He whom thou lovest is sick. Whom the Lord loves, He sends
His trials. To show them His presence. To show them His love. To show
them His glory. And to try their faith. To try
their faith. All of us now were born, you
know this, we were all born with this fatal sickness called sin.
In the garden, the Lord, this Lord, the same Lord, said to
the first man and woman, dying you shall die. Didn't he? He
told them. As soon as they'd sent dying,
you shall die. Or before they sent, he warned
them. And the scripture says in Adam all died. That's just
a fact. All die because of this fatal
sickness we have called sin. It's always fatal in everybody. But in Adam, I mean Christ, the
second Adam, they're made alive. Only in Christ. There's no death. And God sent Christ like He came
to this family to for his glory, for God's glory, for the glory
of his Son to raise us from the dead. That's why Christ came,
to raise us from the dead. You hath he quickened who were
dead. Now verse 6 says when he heard
this, he was sick. Did he just get the news from
someone? No, no. No, none unto God are all his
works from the beginning of the world. The Lord, this Lord, worked
all things according to the counsel of his will. The Lord speaks
in a way that we can understand so that we can understand the
time, the place, and so forth. He abode two days still in the
same place where he was. He waited two days for Lazarus
to die. He waited two days on purpose
for him to die. That's important. Because if
both sisters are gone, why weren't you here? He waited for a reason. He waited. In verse 7, then he
said unto his disciples, let us go into Judea again. Let us
go. Now, our Lord came to this earth with the work from the Father
to do, with the weight of the world, a world of people on his
shoulders, to take away sin by his own blood on Calvary's tree. We don't know the weight of what
he was doing. We just don't know. We can't
enter into that. And how many people he was doing it for, and
what he had to do to keep the law, and to fulfill every jot
and tittle, and that his soul was going to be made an offering
for sin. We don't know what he was going through. And all of
this on his shoulders. And you know, we get sick, and
we have our loved ones sick and all that, and we think, Lord,
stop what you're doing. He's got a lot of people to tend
to. But those that we love, you know
they were anxious. You know they thought, why hasn't
he come yet? That's what they said when he
got there. They thought, why hasn't he come
yet? They sent word for him, he didn't come. Was he aware
of it? He did it. And he waited. Why was he waiting? He was waiting
to be gracious. Scripture said, you know the
trial of our faith worketh what? Patience and patience experience. How many times have we gone through
sickness and sorrow and even death? And like David wrote in
Psalm 130, my soul waited for thee more than they that watch
for the morning. How many nights have you stayed awake all night
like David and watered your bed with your tears waiting on the
calling on the Lord? How many? And there's going to
be a lot more. Well, where is the Lord? waiting to be gracious. And we're
going to have to wait. We're going to have to wait.
We're going to have to wait and see. That's what David said. He said, I would
have fainted if I had not believed to see the goodness of the Lord
in this land of the living. So he says, wait. David says,
my counsel is wait. You'll see. Wait, I say, on the
Lord. But one time David said this.
He said, make no tarrying, Lord. Hurry up. He said this several
times, make haste to help me. Lord, I need your help. I need
it now. But he knows. He knows better. He often makes
us wait for his purpose. He has other things. We're in
it, but so are other people. Well, verse 8, it says, his disciples
said unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee,
and you're going to go into Judea again? They're worried about
his life. Love worries about those you
love, it does, and they were worried, but Lord, don't go there,
they'll kill you. They just don't understand, do
they? Nor do we. They just don't understand. No man can take his life from
Him. He's not going to die until God says so, until His work is
over. And neither are we. And then when it's our time,
nothing can stop it. That's the light. Our Lord said,
walk in. If you walk in this light of
who God is, of who Christ is, the light of the truth, the light
of His purpose, the light of His glory, He's working all things
out for His glory, for our good. In the light of that, you won't stumble, you won't
fear, you won't be full of doubts and fears and faithless. At Luke 13, if we ever get back
to it, they said, Herod is after you. He said, you tell that fox.
I'm coming to see him. He's going to fear me. This is
the Lord, and we're His people. He loved Lazarus. And nothing and no one harms
them can harm those that the Lord loves. They're His hands. The Lord is our shepherd. We said, if a man walk in the
night, what's that? That's the light of this world.
It's in darkness. If you look to the world and
the people in it, there'll be dimness and darkness and anguish
of spirit, Isaiah 8. But the people that have walked
in darkness have seen a great light. We walk in light, the
light of our God and our Savior and our Redeemer and the light
of the gospel. Walk by faith, not sight. We don't walk by sight,
we walk by faith. Looking under Jesus. There's
a whole cloud of witnesses looking under Him. One man named Enoch
walked right on into glory. One day. So full of faith, he
just walked right on into glory. I'm going to work, honey. Bye. And he said, let's go. Now, verse
11, these things saith he, and after that he saith unto them,
his disciples, our friend, Lazarus, sleepeth. Our friend. He's a friend of sinners, isn't
he? Oh, and we have a friend that's
sticking closer than a brother. A brother that was born for adversity
and a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. If the Lord's
your friend, He will not let you down. Our friend, I want to be a friend
like that, don't you? Our friend Lazarus sleepeth,
but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. Then he said his
disciples unto him, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. That's
true. They didn't know. You know, out
of the mouth of babes. And suckling the Lord is ordained
strength. It's strength to understand that
if we rest in Christ, we'll do well. We'll do well. We shall
do well. And if we fall asleep in Him,
oh, it shall be well. It is well right now with our
soul. But the day we fall asleep, oh, well. Well, well, well, it shall
be well with us. Those who have gone on before
us, Mark, and these others, oh, my. Don't envy people on this
earth. Envy them. Let's go. Let's go to them. Well, that's
what old Thomas said. Thomas, the Lord spoke of death,
though, verse 13. They thought that he'd spoken
of taking a rest and sleep. And our Lord made it very plain.
He said, Lazarus is dead. Lazarus is dead. And we need
to plainly understand that there's a day that we're going to die. This body. The secret thought
of most people is that they're going to live forever. This is
why people are resorting to all sorts of things. This and that
and the other. They're going to live a little longer. Maybe
they'll find the fountain of youth and we'll never die again.
No, it's all a lie. It's a soap bubble. It's a pipe
dream. No, our Lord said, you're going
to die. It's pointed at the man who wants to die. Our Lord said
Lazarus is dead. Now that's final, isn't it? That's final, isn't it? Death.
This life is over. Everything in it. Everything
in it. Every relationship, unless you're
those in Christ. Everything we've ever done, everything
we've ever had, it's gone. It's over. Death. This is why
the scripture says, oh, that they were wise and would consider
their latter end. Teach us to number our days that
we may apply our hearts to wisdom." What's that? To the end, that
we're going to die. David said, teach me to number
my days that let me know how frail I am. You know, we've seen this so
many times. The Lord takes somebody, it's
a shock. No matter how sick someone is,
if the Lord takes them, still, they're gone. They ain't coming back. Dead. He's dead. I wish we could. My pastor, you want to hear a
good message. I think I've recommended it to you. You'll not hear a
better one or a more needful. The message is called, let's
talk about dying. Let's talk about dying. Because that's where
we're headed. Lazarus is dead. Now they know. Now they understand. Well, listen to Thomas. I love
him. Thomas, called Didymus, now he was faithless before,
but now he said to his brothers, let's also go that we may die
with him. His troubles are over. He's out
of this place. The Lord loved him. Now he's
gone. No more sin, no more sorrow, no more sickness. He's gone.
He's dead to this world. He's alive under God. Let's go
die with him. Is that what you think? That's what we ought to think. Now Lazarus had some sickness
that killed him 24 or 36 hours. What was it? Something bad. But Thomas said, let's go. Didn't he? He's not afraid. Let's go die. To be absent from the body, to
be present with the Lord. The day of one's death is better
than his birth. Thomas said, let's go die with
him. Let's go get what he's got. That's what he said. No, Thomas, that's not. I've
got my own purpose for you. All of you. Well, they came,
and the Lord found he'd laid in the grave four days already.
Well, he knew that. But that's for our sake, to tell
us that Lazarus had been dead for four days. And Mary, Martha,
said, oh, don't roll away that stone. He's been dead a long
time now. Well, the Lord let him lie there
dead for four days. And the Lord allows some people
to lie dead in sin for 40 years, so that it's apparent that with
man it's impossible. He stinketh. There's no hope
for him. My brother-in-law, he's approaching
70. My brother turned 70 in May. My second brother, my other one,
72 or 73, was, would have been. He's eternal now. There's no human... It's impossible. I can't say anything to him.
I can't get through to him. He's dead. And he stinketh. Why is there no hope? There is hope, but in one person. There's only one person that
can do this. And He's going to give them hope,
and this could give us hope, for those that stinketh, that
have laid dead a long time. Now, Bethany was two miles away,
and the Jews came, verse 19, to comfort Martha and Mary concerning
their brother. And they loved them, and they
had friends and family, and they were big families back then.
They came to comfort them. We try to do that, don't we?
We want to. We try our best. But, you know, do you not feel
helpless trying to comfort your brothers and sisters? We are.
But there's one help. We can help them. We can comfort
them one way. Right here, this word. This is
why we need to immerse ourselves, so we can find a word in season,
a word of comfort from God's Word, because it's the only thing.
He's the only one that can comfort that. Only one. Only one. Martha, as soon as she heard
verse 20 that Jesus was coming, she heard He was coming to this
place, what did she do? She went and met Him. Did you
hear that He was coming here tonight? That's what He said. Didn't He? With two or three? Do you think she walked? She ran. Why? She needed a word from her Lord. She's sorry. She's troubled. She needs to hear from Christ. Nobody else can help her but
Jesus Christ. Mary sat still in the house and
said, Martha, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not
died. Do you remember this passage?
Psalm 62, I sent it to you on Monday morning. It says, Trust
in Him at all times, ye people. Pour out your heart before Him.
God is a refuge for us. Lord, she was pouring, do you
think she was weeping? Sobbing. Was so glad. She had sorrow mixed with hope,
didn't she? Sorrow mixed with joy that her
Lord, her elder brother was there with her. And now she's, Lord,
Lord, Lord. Groaning. If thou hadst been
here, my brother had not died. Mary said the same thing. You
know, this is the Lord, this is Jehovah Shammah. You know
that? Ezekiel 48, 35. The Lord is there. The omnipresent, ever-present
Jehovah, Lord. He's always with us. He said,
I'll never leave thee. When he was leaving the last
thing, he was leaving earth, the last thing he said to his
disciples, Lo, I'm with you always, even to the end of the earth.
He sang that song every moment. He's with us always. The child
of God is never truly alone, though we may feel it. Certainly, the child of God certainly
doesn't die alone. We die, we... I hate these idols
like that picture, or that saying, Jesus loves you, and that picture
of the body, supposedly, of Jesus in Mary's arms, you know? You've
seen that. Michelangelo made that sculpture. It's got this grown... It's supposed
to be the body of Jesus and Mary's holding him. That didn't happen.
That did not happen. She did not hold his body in
her arm. Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus took that body
down. And they wrapped it up. Mary did not hold him in her
arm. But I tell you what. When Mary came to die, I tell
you who held her. In his arms. The Lord Jesus himself
came down for her and had her in his arms. And took her to go with him.
Yes sir. That's the way it really is.
If you'd been here, my brother had not died. He was there. He
did this. There were some people cruelly,
people that hate the gospel of God's sovereign grace, and hate
those that preach it, and hated my dad, they said cruelly to
my father when my brother was killed in Vietnam, they said,
where was your son when, where was God when your son died? Do
you believe people can be that cruel? Where was God when your
son died? You know what he said? Same place
he was when his son died. on that throne. And God did it. God killed his own son, and God
killed mine. Blessed be the name of the Lord. Who did this? If you'd been here,
my brother hadn't died. He took your brother for his
glory. For his glory. No man takes our life from us.
Nothing takes our life from us. The Lord does. Our breath is
in His hand, our heart. Verse 22, she hoped, I know even
now if you ask, God will give it unto thee. Our Lord said,
thy brother shall rise again. Martha said unto him, I know
he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. I know there's
a day coming he shall rise again. I know there's a time when we'll
all rise again. I know that Martha, listen to
this, I love this. Martha, 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? Do you believe
this? Christ is the resurrection. You
know what? If Christ has called you by His gospel, He's already
raised you. You've already experienced the
first resurrection. And you'll never die. Do you
believe this? Do you believe this? On whose
word? His word. You can't lie. Well, Mary said,
Martha said, I believe. Yea, Lord. Yea! Yea! I believe that thou art the Christ,
the Son of God, which should come into the world. That's why
I believe. I know who He is. I know why He came. I know what
He did. I know He finished it. I know
where He is now. I know He did, and I believe
He did it for me. That's good hope, isn't it? That's salvation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Lord, who He is, Jesus, Savior, Christ, Messiah. Who He is, what
He did, who He did, where He is now, and thou shalt be saved.
He that believeth, in fact, he that believeth on the Son hath
life, already hath life. It can't be taken away. Isn't
that wonderful? Can't take it away. Well, when she so said, she went
to Mary and said secretly, the Master has come and called her
for thee. Oh my, may the Master call for
someone that we love. Let's tell them secretly. The
Master has come. Have you heard his voice? Verse
29, as soon as she heard, she arose quickly. Where'd she go?
She came to him. They came to him. Now Jesus was
not yet coming to town, was in that place where Martha met him.
That's significant. He was outside the camp. Doesn't
Hebrews 13 say, let us go therefore unto him outside the camp. Christ
is not found in mainstream religion. He wasn't in Jerusalem this day.
He was out in a little village where a few people were met in
his name. That's where he was. So that's where she had to go
see him. And that's where we went. Where Martha was. And the Jews,
the Jews said this, verse 31, look at this. The Jews which
were with her in the house comforted her when they saw Mary, that
she rose up hastily and went out. They followed her saying,
well, she's going under the grave to weep there. No. No. She's going to get comfort from
her Lord. Right there sits Mary. Didn't
come here to weep. Can I have a testimony? She didn't. She didn't come here to weep.
You didn't come here to weep, did you? Come here to get comfort
from your Lord. Come here to find it. We sorrow,
but not as those who have no hope. We do sorrow. Oh my. Only those who have been
through what she has been through know that sorrow, the widow.
We don't sorrow as those who have no hope. We have a good
hope. She came running to Christ because
she has hope in Christ. She has hope for the dead that
they might live. He's already said, Lazarus is
not dead. He's sleeping. I'm probably going to preach this
again Friday. I've got one message. The message of hope is in one
person, Jesus Christ. He's the way, the truth, and
what? The life. He that liveth and believeth
in Him, all their hope is in Christ shall never die. It's
not death. Oh, He giveth His beloved sleep. Eternal rest. Down in verse, look at this,
verse 33, I love this. Verse 32, she said, If thou hadst
not been here, she poured out her heart like Martha. My brother
had not died. I didn't fully understand what
the Lord was going to do, neither do we. When Jesus therefore saw
her weeping, and the Jews' weeping which came with her, he groaned
in spirit. He was troubled. The margin says,
did you read the margin? It says he troubled himself. He was not groaning because he
felt helpless. Oh no, no, no, no. He was not
troubled in spirit because I wish I'd have been here. No, no, no,
no, no, no. He put himself through trouble.
So he came down here to deliver us who all our lifetime are subject
to this fear He came down here to deliver us from the sin that
causes us to die. And someday we'll know, as we've
been known, and someday we'll rejoice like we should rejoice.
And right now, we don't rejoice like we should rejoice. And right
now, we don't believe like we should believe. Right now, we
just don't trust Him like we should. And in that sense, He
was troubled. And He said to His disciples
constantly, why don't you believe me? Why is it you have no faith?
He didn't say it in that way. But he troubled at the unbelief
and even the sorrows though. He was acquainted with grief
and sorrows and he troubled himself, put himself, he groaned. We groan. We all groan, don't we? 1 Corinthians
says that we're all grown in spirit, waiting for the redemption
of our bodies. The whole creation grown. Our
Lord was touched with the feet of our infirmities and came down
and He groaned in spirit, like we groan. And they said this in verse 34,
where have you laid him? They said, Lord, come and see. Boy, if you want a stark reality,
go to the nursing home and you'll see where sin has laid mankind.
God created Adam, upright, glorious creature, clear eyes, strong,
sinless, glorious creature in the image of God. Go to the nursing
home. And you'll see what sin does
to mankind. They make you groan. And he wept. Jesus wept. Have you ever thought of this
scripture in light of this? I haven't, but I did now. Psalm
126 says, He that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seed,
shall likely come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves
with him." I had never thought of that verse
in relation to he wept. He didn't weep in sorrow, so
rejoicing, joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth,
bearing precious seed, he is the seed, shall likely come again,
he did, with rejoicing, bringing his
sheaves with him. He's going to bring Lazarus out.
He's going to bring us to it. Some of them said, could not
this man open the eyes of the blind and cause that even this
man should not have died? Yes. He sent the blindness. He sent the deafness. He sent
the palsy. He sent the lameness. He sent
it. He sent this sickness. He sent
this death. He sent it. Yes, he could have.
It's all for His glory, His purpose in our good. He again groaned
in Himself. Again, because they just don't
understand. They doubt Him. And He came to
the cave, a grave. It was a cave and a stone lay
over it. Lazarus was in the cleft of the
rock, shut in. Maybe he was weeping for that
reason. I got to bring him back. And I do not believe that Lazarus
was in heaven. I do not believe the Lord brought
him back from glory. He could have lived the rest
of his life on this earth, having gone to glory. Paul did, went
there and he, and that's for a reason. I do not believe, and
I don't know, don't ask me, because nobody knows, but I don't believe.
But he did, I believe he did sorrow and weep that I've got,
I've got to bring him back. to show my power and my glory
over death. And so we will hear this message. But he was in a cave with a stone
rolling over the door. He was in the cleft of the rock, safe and secure from all the
lasers. They had to bring him back out into this world and
go through more sorrow. A little while later, somebody
else is going to be in a cave with a stone rolled over the
door. You know that? Our Lord is. And somebody is
going to roll that stone away. Well, look at that. The Lord
said in verse 39, take away the stone. Oh, you want to hear another
message? Listen to my pastor on that.
Take away the stone. All the impediments. barriers
in the way. Take it away. And Martha, the
sister of him that was dead, said unto him, Lord, by this
time he stinketh. He's been dead four days. There's no hope for him. He'd
already told her. Martha, I am. I am. She still didn't believe. When the Lord says do something,
do it. You can trust Him. You can believe Him. He knows
what He's doing. Take away the stone. "...said
I not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst
see the glory of God..." Do you know what the glory of God is?
It's seen in the face of Jesus Christ. "...how that Christ came
down here to raise dead sinners to newness of life." Right there
sits Lazarus. I met him when he was dead. I knew him when
he was dead. There was a stone over the door.
Weren't, wasn't it John? Me too. She knew me when I was
dead. You probably knew me when I was
dead, didn't you? It was a stone impediment. There's
nothing getting through to Him. Roll that stone away. I'm going
to call Him. If you just believe, you see
the glory of God. The glory of God is in the salvation of sinners.
Raising dead sinners to life. How does He do it? The voice
of the Son of God. Where the voice of the Son of
God is, life-giving, soul-saving power. And they took away the stone
from the place where the dead was laid, and Jesus lifted up
His eyes, the only one who can. Later on, before He went to the
cross, He lifted up His eyes, Father, glorify Thy Son that
Thy Son may also glorify Thee. And He lifted up His eyes and
said, in verse Verse 41, I thank Thee, Father, I thank Thee that
Thou hast heard me. I knew that Thou hearest me always,
but because of the people which stand by, I said this. Things
that are written are written for our learning, that we through
patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope. So he said, I said this for the
people. I knew that thou hearest me always. He knew what he was going to
do when he made him sick. He knew. 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. With a voice to wake the dead.
The voice, the sound of many waters, the voice that makes
the hinds to cap, the cedars to break, the hard heart to break,
the stony heart to break, the dead to come forth, Lazarus come
forth. I dare not try to imitate that
voice. And he that was dead came forth. And he's still called a dead
sinner. The power is in His Word. He's still calling. I know. And
He will call. He's going to call some more.
I'm confident of it. Why are you so confident, preacher? The
door is still open. The door of the ark is still
open. He's bound hand and foot with grave clothes. Oh, the grave
clothes that we wear. One of them is unbelief. The napkin that we see through
a glass darkness. He had this napkin over his head
where he couldn't see. And our Lord said, look at what
he said. He said unto them, loose him and let him go. Free him. He's bound. He's been in darkness. He's now
in light. He's been dead. Now he's alive.
He couldn't see, make him see clearly. And when they did that,
who's the first person that Lazarus saw? He saw the blessed Son of
God. He that loved him and gave himself
for him. Listen to this in closing. It's this verse, Psalm 102, verse
19. You can turn if you want to.
Yeah, turn there with me. Psalm 102. Look at this. In closing,
let me close with this. This will be a blessing. Our
Lord said, Loose him. Let him go. And remember Exodus
where the Lord said, He heard the sighing of the prisoners
and He came down to bring them out, to take them up. It says in verse 19 of Psalm
102, verse 19, He hath looked down from the height of His sanctuary.
From heaven did the Lord behold the earth to hear the groaning
of the prisoner, to loose those that are appointed to death,
to declare the name of the Lord in Zion, His praise in Jerusalem
when the people are gathered together, the kingdoms to serve
the Lord. Loose Him. Let Him go. Our brothers
and sisters who've gone on, they're loose. They're free from sin. Free from sorrow. Free from blindness. Free from
everything. Free, free, free. Don't you long to be free? Well,
let's go die with Him, shall we? All right. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Oh, how we thank you. Your word is a living word, living
waters. It's new. If you speak, it's new. If you speak,
your voice, a living God. We believe you have. You've spoken
to some. We know you have. You have certain
people that you love and you speak to. You speak peace to
their hearts and comfort and give them hope and joy in thee,
even in sorrow. In the deepest sorrow, tears
are rolling. We can still rejoice in Christ
our Lord and that great redemption that he accomplished on Calvary's
tree and him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his
own blood. And we can rejoice, even though sorrowful. and the
loss of those we love, knowing that you love them more, and
they are with you in glory. Oh, Lord, give comfort, give
peace to your people in this troubled world. In Christ's name, amen. You're
dismissed.