In verse 36, say ye of him whom
the Father hath sanctified, and whom the Father hath sent into
the world, thou blasphemest? Because I said, I am the Son
of God. If I do not the works of my Father,
believe me not. But if I do, though you believe
not me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that
the Father is in me and I in him. Therefore they sought again
to take him, but he escaped out of their hands. and went away
again beyond Jordan into the place where John had first baptized. And there he abode, and we know
that he abode there about three months. And, verse 41 says, and
many resorted unto him. And they said, John did no miracle. But all things that John spake
of this man were true, and many believed on him there." Now,
into chapter 11. Now, a certain man was sick named
Lazarus. Lazarus is a New Testament name
for the Old Testament, Eleazar. Eleazar, which means one whom
God helps. And I'll tell you, if there was
ever a man whose name was fitting, it is Lazarus, one whom God helps. Because God has already helped
him spiritually, and He's going to help him physically as well. So there was a certain man sick
named Lazarus of Bethany. That was 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, they sent
unto him, saying, Lord, Lord, He whom thou lovest is
sick. And I'll stop reading there with
the third verse. Let's bow our heads before the
Lord. Our great God and Father, Thou who art the creator, the
sustainer, the provider of all of your creation. Lord, Thou
who art holy in all your works and ways. Thou who art the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, Thou who art our
Father by the grace of adopting us into your family. It is our
delight to come before you this evening through the merits of
our beloved Savior, One who is equal to thyself, even your only
begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is such a privilege
Our Father, to speak with you and to be assured from the scriptures
that when we speak to you through Christ, you receive us and you
receive our petitions and our prayers. Our hearts are filled
with thanksgiving for your many mercies that you've given to
us. everlasting mercies. Covenant mercies. Mercies that stretch beyond our feeble understanding. Mercies that are everlasting. Lord, we thank you. We've come
to bless you as a congregation and I know that our worship tonight
will be polluted by our own sinfulness. I know that our worship
is not deserving nor worthy to be received by you in and of
itself. But our worship, Father, we present
to you and we render it to you through the bloody sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus, our Savior. And we believe that our worship
as well as ourselves will be received by you through Christ
Jesus. We're mindful of those who are
physically sick of our congregation. And we lift them up to you, Father,
and we're thankful that these who are your people, you know
them with an everlasting knowledge, and you always know what's best
for your children. And so we pray for all of these.
Some who've been mentioned, others who haven't been mentioned, but
there is much sickness, Lord, within our congregation and we
ask that you would grant to those who are sick healing mercies.
We're so thankful that all things are under your dominion. All
things are governed by our God. The issues of sickness and health
belong to you and the issues of life and death as well. all things belong to you and
all things are under your dominion and your authority. And our Father,
we worship you as the sovereign God. We worship you as the God
who has his way and does his will among the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth. And we know that whatever
it is that you're pleased to do in heaven on earth and under
the earth. That's what will be done. We
rejoice in your authority. We rejoice in your might. We
worship you as the mighty God. The God with whom nothing is
impossible. And that is evident in the fact
that you have saved us by your grace. When we were doomed it
would appear to us, and dead in our trespasses and sins, when
there was no hope to be found in any earthly ability or power. Lord, You saved us, and You raised
us. For You redeemed us 2,000 years
ago by the blood of Your Son. And You brought in for us a perfect
righteousness, that you demanded and therefore you provided it.
And you have imputed it to your people. And we stand in the beauties
and in the very humbleness of Christ Jesus, our Savior. And
so we come to you tonight in the middle of the week to render,
Lord, under your great name, that glory which you so deserve
Forgive us of our sins. Our iniquities are great. But thank God the grace of God
super abounds over all of our sins. And the blood of Christ
Jesus has washed them all away. As we look into the Word of God
tonight, we ask, O Father, that you would illuminate our minds.
Let us once again see the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us glory in
Him. Let our hearts and our souls
make their boast in this great Savior. May our hearts be filled
with gratitude and worship and optimism knowing that He who
loved us with an everlasting love and that One who redeemed
us by His blood He is providing for us and guiding us and directing
all things in each of our lives according to His will and in
a manner that will make everything work together for our spiritual
good. How wonderful it is to be numbered
among your children. No wonder you told the seventy
70 disciples, when they came back rejoicing that they could
cast out demons, he said, yea, rather rejoice in this, that
your names are written down in heaven. And Lord, we do rejoice
in your free and sovereign grace to us that precedes creation. And when this world, and when
time as we know it shall cease to be, still your people will
live forever with Christ Jesus in glory. So be with us tonight
as we seek to worship. For Jesus' sake, Father, we ask
these things. Amen. Our Lord Jesus had been sent
a message by Mary and Martha that their brother Lazarus was
sick. We're instructed to go to the
Lord in times of sickness. In fact, we read in James that
a prayer of faith shall save the sick. That is, if it's God's
will. If it's God's will. You'll notice
that the message to the Master was brief and to the point. In verse 3 of John 11, Lord behold, Lord behold, he whom thou lovest
is sick. They both called Him Lord. This much we know in addressing
Jesus of Nazareth as Lord, they were absolutely right. He's the
Lord of glory. He's the Lord of all. He's the
Lord of all angels, good and bad. He's the Lord of all men,
righteous and wicked. He's the Lord of all kings and
all authorities and dignities in this world. He is the Lord
because He is God. He is God. He's the Creator of
all things. He's the Provider of all things. He's the One who has authority
over all things. He's the Lord. He's Lord of His
church. He's Lord of His creation. He's
Lord of all of the universe. He's Lord because He has always
been God and He's Lord because He earned the right to Lordship
by His substitutionary death upon the cross of Calvary. When
our Savior came into this world in a wonderful and magnificent great show of love and grace,
He veiled His deity with flesh and bones, such as we have. He was every bit a man, just
like you and me, without sin, without sin. And that man obeyed
every jot and every tittle of the law of God. Every law, he
was made under it. Family, parental law, civil law,
governmental law, God's law. He was made under the law. in
order to redeem them that were under the law. Galatians chapter
4 says that. But His obedience, His outward
obedience, His conformity to all of the laws and the statutes
of God, that couldn't put our sins away. There was a penalty
that had to be paid. Because the wages of sin is death. And our Lord Jesus Christ having
shown He is absolutely qualified. He's fit. He's worthy to be the
sacrifice. You see, in His life, He was
indicating, He was manifesting the fact He's worthy to die. He's worthy to be the Lamb. He's
worthy to be the Lamb that was to be slaughtered. It's like
in the Old Testament, in preparation of the Passover, The Lord told
Moses to tell the elders of Israel, take a lamb, put the lamb up,
inspect that lamb. It must have no infirmities,
no spots, no diseases, nothing like that. Inspect the lamb.
Make certain it has nothing that would indicate any weakness whatsoever. And then, after you do and you
check that lamb over, that male of the first year, after you
look him over good, and you're satisfied that he's fit to be
your lamb, to die for your firstborn, then the lamb can die. And think of this, during our
Lord's life, He's showing He's qualified. All of His obedience,
His obedience, it didn't put any of our guilt away. It didn't
satisfy the justice of God. Here's what it did. It all showed
that He's worthy, He is worthy to die. He's fit to be God's
sacrifice for sin. Had He failed on any point, Had
he broken any law, be it parental law, civil law, government law,
or God's law, if he'd broken any law, then no, he can't die. He's not worthy to die. He's
not worthy. He's not a perfect, innocent
lamb. But after he was, as the Scripture
says, tested in all points, as we are, and found Him to be without
sin, then He dies. He dies. And by His death, He
removed all of our sinfulness. He paid our indebtedness in full. We rejoice in that. There's our
salvation. There's our redemption. There's
our reconciliation. There's everything God demands. There's everything that we need
and require. And by that death, that man,
that man, Christ Jesus, earned the right to lordship. to lordship. That's the reason
in Acts, the second chapter, Peter says, after he begins his
great message there, on the day of Pentecost, he says, this same
Jesus that you crucified, God has raised Him up and He's made
Him be Lord and Christ. He's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the reason when our Lord
commissioned His 12 apostles, He said unto them, or the 11
apostles, when He said to them, just before His resurrection,
Go ye in all the world and preach the gospel." And before he said
that, he said this, all power is given unto me. I'm the Lord. You're looking into the face
of the Lord of glory. And since I have all power, over
all flesh to give everlasting life to everybody that the Father
gave me, you go out and preach the gospel. I'll make it effectual
to the ones that I want to make it effectual to. He's the Lord.
He's the Lord. And we read in 1 Corinthians
chapter 12 and verse number 3, no man, no man can really say
that Jesus is born except by the Spirit of God. Now, I know
a lot of people, like in the last day, false professors, they'll
say, Lord, Lord, haven't we done this and that and other things
in Thy name? A lot of people can falsely say
that He's the Lord, but nobody, nobody can really say He's the
Lord, address Him as the Lord, worship Him as the Lord, submit
to Him as the Lord, except by the Spirit of God. And I knew
that the Spirit of Grace has done a work within the hearts
of Mary and Martha because they called Him Lord. They loved His
authority. They loved His sovereignty. They
loved the fact He's the Governor and He's the Master. Just like Brother Thomas did. He said, My Lord and My God. That's who He is. And they say, Lord, behold, He
whom thou lovest is sick. And I suppose, I can't get into
the minds of Mary and Martha, but I think that they thought
the Master would just drop everything. He would drop everything that
He was doing and immediately begin the two-day journey to
Bethany and heal Lazarus. But, for reasons which He would
later divulge, he delays coming to Bethany and he doesn't get
there until Lazarus has been dead four days. Notice what he
says in verse number 15 of John 11, verse 15, he says to his
disciples, after telling them that Lazarus is dead, he says,
and I'm glad for your sakes that I wasn't there. to the intent
or for this reason that you may believe." Well, didn't they believe
on Him already? They did, but there would be
a greater faith, a more significant faith. He said then, nevertheless,
nevertheless, let us go unto Him. And then the disciples hearing
him say, nevertheless let us go unto him. Then they had a
spokesman, Thomas, who is called Didymus. He said unto his fellow
disciples, let us also go that we may die with him, that we
may die with him. Our Lord Jesus did not immediately
heal Lazarus. He didn't have to go to Bethany
to heal Lazarus. He could have said the word or
could have just thought the thought. He could have just willed that
Lazarus immediately be healed. He didn't do that though. He
didn't do that though because If He had done that, it would
have been wonderful and people would have rejoiced. And then
they said, oh, there's another wonderful miracle performed by
Jesus of Nazareth. And the disciples would have
said, Lord, you've healed another one. He didn't go immediately because
after Lazarus died, there would be a greater manifestation of
the glory of Christ Jesus in raising Lazarus from the dead,
a man who had been dead then four days. It's wonderful to
be able to heal somebody, and the Lord Jesus, He healed all
kinds of diseases, all manner of infirmities throughout His
public ministry. But that which is greater than
healing the sick is raising the dead. Raising the dead. And now this is going to be a
greater glory will be manifested, and His disciples will be witnesses
to it. Now the sisters were seeking
the Lord's will, praying that their brother would be healed,
and I think they had confidence in the Lord Jesus that He could
heal Lazarus, but their prayer wasn't answered in the way that
they wished it to be answered. The Lord always answers the prayers
of His people. But the answers aren't always
the answers that we seek. But we rest assured of this,
whatever the answer is, that's the best answer there is. Ever
how he resolves a situation, that's the best resolution. And
there's poor Lazarus, Mary and Martha sitting by his bed. And
they just watch him slip away. And all the grief that filled
their souls, filled their hearts, they were broken hearted. These
three, these three, they were always together. They lived together. They had grown up together. They
have no record of their mom and dad. Apparently, they have left
the scene. They passed on. And here are
the three of them and all they have is one another. But they
love the Lord Jesus. He often would go to Bethany
and spend quality time with them and they would be glad to host
Him and take care of Him and His disciples and feed them and
provide shelter for them. And they just knew, they just
knew, Mary and Martha did, the Lord will heal Him. The Lord
will heal Him. But it's not always God's will
to heal His people. I don't think there was a lack
of faith here. Well, I know there wasn't. That's
not the reason Lazarus wasn't healed. It wasn't because Mary
and Martha lacked faith. It was because it wasn't the
Lord's will for him to be healed. And there are lots of times we've
just now sought God's face, prayed for those who are sick, and many
times it is His will to heal the sick and we give thanks for
that. We rejoice in that. But there
are lots of times He's not pleased to heal the sick. What He's pleased
to do is take His people home to glory. Just like He said in
John 17, Father, I will that those whom Thou hast given Me
be with Me where I am, that they may behold My glory. And our
dear loved ones, upon their deathbed, we're praying, oh Lord, oh Lord,
please, if it be your will, I don't want to lose him, I don't want
to lose her, she's so precious, we love him so much, he's the
glue that holds our family together, and Lord, oh please, Lord, oh,
we beg of you, we beseech you. But we may be praying exactly
the opposite of what the Lord Jesus is praying. That's the
reason we always have to say, and you can't hide your feelings
from the Lord, and we do. Lord, I don't want them to die,
but if it's Your will, take them. If it's Your will. Because whatever
His will is, number one, that's what's going to be done, and
number two, that's what's best. And it wasn't His will to heal
Lazarus. And Mary and Martha then have
to come to grips with the reality of death, the finality of it,
at least as it appeared then. And I'll tell you, when death
strikes our family, death enters among our loved ones and snatches
one away, it's a wake-up call to each of us. We're not always
going to stay here. See, God doesn't heal all of
His people. If He healed all of His people
when we saw His face that He would heal them, then nobody
would ever die. But He takes His people home
to glory at His will and according to His timing. I believe they had confidence
that the Lord would heal them, but their prayer wasn't answered.
The ways of God are mysterious, aren't they? While we're told to make our
petitions known unto the Lord, that doesn't mean that He will
answer every request in the manner which we desire. Had the Lord immediately gone
to Bethany and healed Lazarus, it would have been wonderful.
Everybody would have been very happy. It would have been a celebration
time. But think of the blessing. that
would have been missed. We're such negative thinking
people. And I wish that God would kind
of change that negative attitude into a very positive attitude
that whatever he does is what's best. That's what's best. That which we long for is His
will. I can't see into the future.
You can't see into the future. We don't know what the next few
moments hold. But He does. And we leave it
with Him. That's what we do. Lord, we leave
this with You. Lord, I pray for so-and-so. He's
so sick. She's so sick. Lord, You know how I feel. I
can't hide my feelings from You. But Lord, what I do want is for
You to do what will bring You the glory. Well, when the Lord Jesus said
to His disciples, nevertheless let us go unto Him, that must
have shocked them. After all, Bethany, we go to
Bethany, that's just a couple of miles from Jerusalem. Lord,
don't you remember how just about three months ago they tried to
stone you? And then there was another exchange
of words and they were ready to arrest you. Lord, you don't
want to go to Bethany. You don't want to go to Bethany.
But they heard him say, nevertheless, let us go. Let us go. And I'm sure that surprised them. And I think it surprised them
for two reasons. Number one, because when they
got word that Lazarus was sick, they were in the middle of a
revival. Right there at the end of chapter 10, this is a great
awakening. Our Lord had left Jerusalem.
Oh, there were the opposition to the Gospel. There were those
who wanted Him to die. There were those who despised
the grace of God. And He just leaves them behind. There's a real finality to that. He left them in their error.
He left them in their rejection. He left them in their unbelief.
And he walks away. And he goes to Bethabara. He
goes to where John had been baptizing almost somewhere between two
and a half and three years before this. And he goes there, look
at verse 40 of chapter number 10 now. And when again, beyond
Jordan, when again, it's back to where he's baptized. Where
John at first baptized, and there he stayed. There he stayed. Now he's gone to Bethabara. Not just for his own safety. Of course, it wasn't his time
to die when the Jews were ready to take him. The scripture says,
I read to you, he escaped out of their hand because it wasn't
the hour for his death. He will die on God's schedule,
not man's schedule. He'll die according to God's
eternal purpose. He who is the Lamb who was slain
before the foundation of the world, He will not die until
the time He wills to die, until the time He purposes to die. Then He will put Himself into
the hands of men and say, here I am, take me. Take me. But this isn't just about His
own security. He's got some lost sheep out
there in He got some of his elect out there. They had listened
to the preaching of John the Baptist and they didn't rebel
against that preaching. They were ready to receive another
preacher. The one who spake of the Lord
Jesus. John was the one who had preached
to them. And so it says, He abode there,
and look at verse 41, and many resorted unto him, and said,
John did no miracle, but all things that..." And here's the
title of the message. John spake of this man. I was
re-reading this yesterday. Going back, dipping back into
chapter number 10, and then going on into chapter 11. And this
statement just kind of jumped off the page at me. John spake
of this man. John spake of this man. He didn't
do any miracles. He didn't do anything astounding. He didn't raise the dead. He
didn't heal the sick. Well, what in the world did John
do? John spake of this man. That's
what he did. He preached Jesus Christ and
him crucified. And then the Lord Jesus, this
is a time of love. This is a time for him to pass
their way. He goes to Bethabara and he starts
preaching and they said, you're the one, you're the one John
preached about. We remember his messages. John spake of this man. That's what they said among themselves. John spake of this man. And that's
what preachers are to do. And you know what? That's what
preachers of the gospel, that is what we do. That is what we
do. We speak of this man. John didn't
speak of himself. Do you remember back in John
chapter 1 when a delegation was sent by the Pharisees made up
of a few of the priests and Levites? They sent them to John. They
said, who are you? Who are you? Well, if that had been one of
us, we'd have said, well, I've got a long list of credentials.
I'd be glad to share it with you. I tell you, I was miraculously
conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost. Because my mama and
my daddy's too old to have any children. That's who, you wanna
know who I am? I was the subject of Old Testament
prophecy. You wanna know who I am? The angel of the Lord told
my daddy what my name would be and my mama what my name would
be, for I was ever conceived in my mother's womb. You want
to know who I am? I'm the cousin of the Messiah.
Oh, he could have listed a bunch of things. But they said, who
are you? And John 1, he said, I'm a voice. And you know what? That's exactly
what the Holy Ghost said in Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 3 of John
the Baptist. A voice. That's all he is, a
voice. a voice. John spake of this man. John spake of this man. Several
years ago, Scott Richardson was holding a meeting for me in Rocky
Mound, and he told me this. He said somebody had left his
church. They got mad at And they said,
you know, the only thing he does, this is what they told somebody.
They said, why'd you leave? Why'd you leave Katie Baptist
Church? Said, because the only thing Scott Richardson does is
preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And so word got back to Scott
about that, and Scott told me, he said, here's what I told him,
Jim. Put that on my tombstone. Put that on my tombstone. John
Spank of this man. Brother Henry, speak of this
man! Any preacher who's worth his
salt. That's what he does. He speaks
of this man. This man, Christ Jesus. Oh, John
didn't do any miracles. But he had the message. And here's
our Lord in Bethabara. And look at verse number 42. Many believed on Him there. And
I think that's one of the things that would have shocked and surprised
the disciples, that He would leave. What do you want to leave
here for? Here comes a messenger that says,
Lazarus is sick. The message from Mary and Martha,
Lord, is, Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick. But you're not
going to leave, are you? You're not going to leave, are
you? I mean, all these people being converted, they're believing
the gospel. But he will leave. But not until
he had done the work in Bethabara that he needed to do, which was
to reveal himself unto these people. And they believed. You
see, that's what the Lord Jesus does. He visits with us. He visits with His sheep. He
visits with His lost sheep. And that which He does, as His
name is magnified, as Jim speaks of Him, here's what the Lord
Jesus does. He reveals Himself to His sheep. And that's what He did. That's
what He did here in Bethapara. And I think the disciples, when
they heard Him say, let us go unto Him, I think they were surprised. Because He would leave where
something's going on. Where so many people are. And
you know, the Lord, He didn't baptize anybody, but His disciples
baptized. And it's baptizing in the same
river that John baptized Him in. And they're just having wonderful
services. And I tell you, when you're having
wonderful services, when the Lord is blessing, the Lord is
speaking, Christ is being exalted, you're hearing about the blood,
the blood of the Savior, you're hearing about salvation by grace,
nobody wants to leave. Not God's people. God's people
say, let's keep going. Let's keep going. And I'm sure
that's the way the disciples were. Lord, let's don't quit
here. Just keep going. But he said, we're leaving. He said, let us go unto him. That's one of the reasons. I'm
sure it shocked them, the fact that they were having a revival.
But another reason I'm sure shocked them was this. Here's what Thomas
said, well, let us also go that we may die with him. Because
here's what Thomas and the rest of the disciples thought, this
is a suicide mission. You want to leave all this? Look
at all these people. And go to Bethany and risk your
life for one man? But here's what they had missed.
They missed all those times when he said the Son of Man must be
lifted up. They missed that. That just didn't
grab them. It just didn't get a hold of
them. He must be rejected. He must suffer many things of
the chief priests. He must die. He must be raised
again. He must! He must because so it
is written in the covenant of grace. He must because that's
the only way God can be just and justify the ungodly. He must
suffer many things and die because that's the only way we'll be
saved. And Thomas said, well, let us
go too, that we may die with Him. You know, the disciples, they
were well acquainted with all of the Old Testament. These are
Jewish men. They knew about the morning sacrifices
and the evening sacrifices, the Passover sacrifice. They knew
about these things. The Day of Atonement? Man, we
couldn't teach them anything about that. They would have known
all about it. And yet, there was this element
of kind of spiritual fogginess about them. That they didn't
get it. That He must die. He must die. And so he goes to Bethany. And Thomas, he was partially
right when he said, let us go that we may die with him. They
wouldn't die, but he would. He would. He would lay down his
life and then take it again. But before that, he will manifest
his greatest glory up to this point. in raising Lazarus from
the dead. And we'll continue with this,
the Lord willing, next Wednesday evening. Let's sing a closing
song. My Savior's Love 452. Number
452, My Savior's Love. Stand together. 452. Okay. I stand amazed in the presence
of Jesus the Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me, a sinner
condemned unfree. How marvelous, how wonderful,
and my song shall ever be. How marvelous, how wonderful
is my Savior's love for me. For if I was in the garden, He'd
break not my will, he had no How wonderful and my song shall
ever be! How marvelous, how wonderful
is my sound!