Welcome to the Reign of Grace
radio broadcast. My name is Bill Parker. I'm the
pastor of the 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky.
This program is sponsored by the members of Eager Avenue Grace
Church in Albany, Georgia, located at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany,
Georgia. I'll be bringing you a gospel
message of the sovereign grace and glory of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ from God's holy word. And now, the message. Welcome to our program. Now today
I'm going to be preaching from John chapter 11, if you'd like
to follow along in your Bible. John chapter 11. I'm going to
comment on most of this chapter, but the focus of the message
is going to be from verses 25 and 26. The title of the message
is, The Resurrection and the Life. This is where the Lord
Jesus Christ confronted Martha, the brother of Lazarus, who had
died, and he told her, he said, Martha, I am the resurrection
and the life. Now in this passage, We come
to a point in time in the historical walk of our Savior on this earth
to where he was about to perform one of his greatest miracles,
and that is the raising of a man who was his friend named Lazarus,
raising him from the dead. It starts out in verse 1, it
says, a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany, the
town of Mary and her sister Martha. And 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." Apparently
this was a man who was a good friend of Jesus of Nazareth,
and he loved him. And this family was special to
him. And this sickness was going to be unto death, but it says
here in verse 4, when Jesus heard that, He said, this sickness
is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of
God might be glorified thereby. Now, we see from the context
and from what is said in the rest of the chapter that what
Christ meant there was not that Lazarus was not going to die,
but this sickness that came upon him was by the providential government
of God, the decree of God and the work of God, in order that
this miracle would be performed after Lazarus, having died, being
raised from the dead. And he says it's for this reason,
for the glory of God. Now everything in creation, everything
in providence, and especially everything in salvation is aimed
by God towards his glory. His glory is the revelation,
the manifestation, the working of his attributes, identifying
him and distinguishing him as the one true and living God. My friend, if there's any hope
for any of us who are sinners, it must be in God. Salvation
is of the Lord. And here in this performance
of this miracle of raising this man from the dead, this man named
Lazarus, Our Lord is not only going to display the glory of
God in his power and in his goodness, but he's also going to display
the glory and power of God in the salvation of sinners by illustration. Because this issue of being sick
and dead physically is a good illustration of what we are by
nature spiritually. We are, because of sin, spiritually
sick, spiritually dead. And if salvation is to come to
us, we must literally be spiritually raised from the dead, just like
Lazarus. Just like Lazarus was powerless
after he died, Lazarus was powerless to save himself. He could not
bring himself life. The Bible teaches that, that
the new birth, the giving of spiritual life by the Spirit
of God, what the Bible calls regeneration, is not of the power
or the goodness or the will of man. It's of God. It's a sovereign
work of the Spirit of God sent forth from the Father and the
Son to give life to spiritually dead sinners. And neither you
nor I will come to Christ except we be born again, except we be
quickened by the Spirit. Now, this quickening of the Spirit,
this giving of life by the Spirit of God, is the fruit and result
of Christ's work of redemption and justification on the cross
to save His people from their sins. In other words, what I'm
saying is this, and this is what the Scripture teaches over and
over again, all for whom Christ lived and obeyed the law, all
for whom he died on the cross of Calvary as the substitute
for their sins, all for whom he was buried, all for whom he
arose again the third day, they shall all be made alive." They
shall all receive the gift of the Spirit in the new birth.
What Christ did 2,000 years ago on the cross ensured the gift
of spiritual life to every one of his people. Now, he said that
back in John chapter 6 and verse 37. He said, "...all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me
I will in no wise cast out." And that is our responsibility
and mandate to seek after him, to come to him, to seek life
through him. Now, he says this is for the
glory of God. Everything is for the glory of
God. And my friend, if it doesn't glorify God, it's sinful. If it doesn't glorify God, it's
worthless. Now it says in verse 5 of John
11, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister, that's Mary, and
he loved Lazarus. And when he had heard, therefore,
that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place
where he was. In other words, when Christ heard
about the sickness of Lazarus, he did not immediately jump up
and run. to Lazarus' home to heal him. There was a greater purpose involved.
He's going to show his disciples this, you see. There was a greater
miracle to be shown here to show both his deity, the deity of
Christ, God is the only one who can give and sustain life. Man
cannot do that. And to show the greater power
and glory of God in the salvation of sinners. So it says in verse
7, Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into
Judea again. And his disciples say unto him,
Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou
thither again. In other words, why do you want
to go back to Judea? The Jews there want to kill you.
They want to stone you. And he answered in verse 9, Are
there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day,
he stumbleth 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, and after
that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but
I go that I may awake him out of sleep." Now that's the sleep
of death, that's how he described death. And it says in verse 12,
Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleepeth, he shall do well.
Now they didn't understand exactly what he was talking about, but
look here in verse 13. It says, How did Jesus spake
of his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking
a rest and sleep. So Jesus was talking about how
Lazarus had died. He said it in verse 14, then
said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And people would
say, well, why did he let him die? Why didn't he go forth and
heal him immediately? His sister Martha asked about
that when he first came to her. She knew that he had the power
to raise him from the dead. But you see, go back to what
it was said there in verse 4. This was for the glory of God.
There was going to be an awesome display of God's power and glory
in this great miracle. And then Thomas, verse 16, he
says, first of all, the Lord said in verse 15, and I am glad
for your sakes that I was not there to the intent that you
may believe. Nevertheless, let's go unto him. So he said, I'm glad that I wasn't
there to heal him because I want you to see this glory of God.
I want you to see this great miracle. This will confirm you
in the faith. This will show you the awesome
majesty and glory and power of Christ who gives life and who
sustains life. And this is an awesome thing.
Thomas in verse 16 said, which Thomas, which is called Didymus,
unto his fellow disciples, he said, let us also go that we
may die with him. Thomas understood something here. He knew that the Jews wanted
to kill the Lord. And he said, well, if we go there,
we're going to die. And it says in verse 17, Then
when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four
days already. Lazarus had been in the grave
four days. Now, Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem,
about fifteen furlongs off, and many of the Jews came to Martha
and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. And then Martha,
now listen to these words, Then Martha, as soon as she heard
that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary sat still in
the house. And then said Martha unto Jesus,
Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died." Now
what she's assuming in her own mind, that because he loved Lazarus,
if he had been there, he would have healed him from the sickness
and Lazarus would not have died. But look on what Martha says.
She says in verse 22, but I know that even now whatsoever thou
wilt ask of God, God will give it to thee. You see, Christ is
the Son of God incarnate. And He's already made the statement.
He said, I always do the will of my Father. Whatsoever He asked
of the Father, it was done, because His will and the Father's will,
though He was subservient to the Father in His humanity for
the purpose of redemption, whatever He asked of the Father, He got. And the reason is because He
and His Father are one. one in mind, one in purpose,
one in will, one in goal. And Jesus said unto her in verse
23, Thy brother shall rise again. Well, now listen to Martha's
response here. Martha saith unto him, I know
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
Martha understood the gospel of God's grace, which speaks
of not only the death of Christ and the burial of Christ, but
also the resurrection of Christ. And Christ, not as a private
person, but as a representative. And we're going to see that in
just a moment. But he says in verse 25, Jesus
said unto her, I am the resurrection, I am the life. Christ is the
resurrection and the life. And he says, 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? And she saith unto him, verse
27, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ." Now, you're
the Messiah. You are the Savior of God's elect. You're the Redeemer of the Church.
I believe that you're the one who was sent of God to save us
from our sins and give us eternal, everlasting life. So she says,
I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, who is God and
man and one person, which should come into the world. And when
she had said so, she went her way and called Mary, her sister,
secretly, saying, The Master is come and calleth for thee.
Well, Christ had settled the issue now. Lazarus was dead physically. He laid in that tomb. It was
in a tomb and there was a stone there. And he laid in that tomb
for four days and his body began to corrupt. And this is what
he deals with here. He goes on, you know, when he
sees the unbelief, when he sees the doubts and the misgivings
of the crowd, it says over in verse 35, he wept. Now that shows
the Lord's humanness. It doesn't show his sinfulness.
He was not sinful. He remained sinlessly perfect
within himself all through his life, even unto his death. He
is the Lamb without spot and without blemish, but he was human,
all human without sin. He suffered the pains and the
sorrows and the weaknesses of flesh, human flesh, a human body
and soul, yet without sin. And he wept. And it says in verse
36, then said the Jews, behold how he loved him. They understood
how the Lord loved this man Lazarus. Some of them said in verse 37,
it's recorded, could not this man which opened the eyes of
the blind have caused that even this man should not have died?
This man who's opened the eyes of the blind, who's made the
lame to walk, who's made the deaf to hear, who's done all
these great miracles, this man who's calmed the storm, Couldn't
he have kept Lazarus from dying? You see, they didn't understand
the ultimate power of Christ to give life at this time. And it says in verse 38, Jesus
therefore again groaning in himself, that is, his sorrow and his humanness,
he cometh to the grave. It was a cave and a stone lay
upon it. There's the barrier. When I think
about that stone laying upon the grave or at the entrance
of the tomb of Lazarus, I think about the great legal barrier
that bars the salvation of sinners from a holy God. And you see,
that great barrier is sin. You see, the matter of sin must
be dealt with in order for God to save sinners. And that matter
of sin was dealt with on the cross of Calvary. when God, by
a legal act of imputation, legally accounted or charged the sins
of his sheep, his elect, his church, to Christ. And Christ
went to the cross and suffered and bled and died on that cross
to make a payment, the full payment, of all the sins of all of his
people. He drank damnation dry, he paid
the debt in full, he made an end of sin, and he settled the
matter. The barrier was rolled away,
you might say. That's what he says here in verse
39. Jesus said, take ye away the
stone, move that stone. And you see, that stone was there
as a barrier between Christ and the sinner, Lazarus in the tomb.
Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord,
by this time he stinketh. He had been dead four days. His
body had begun to corrupt. That's the result of sin, you
see, this corruption. You see, my friend, this is the
problem. Sin is the disease. And it's
a heart disease. It's not just a disease of the
outer man. And what we do and what we see
and what we say, it's a disease of the heart. It reaches to the
very core of our being. We fell in Adam. We became legally
condemned and dead in sin. And we're so sinful throughout,
it's like leprosy. It's like a germ that grows within. The Bible calls it leaven many
times. It calls leaven, you just put
a little leaven in a lump of dough and it spreads all throughout
the dough. And that's the way sin is. And it corrupts everything. It corrupts our thoughts. It
corrupts our actions. It corrupts our motives. It corrupts
what we say, what we think, how we feel. You see, what a problem. And we have no cure for it. We
have no answer for it. Religion will not put away sin.
Religion will not cure you from your sins. Doing good will not
do it because your sins even corrupt your goodness. Whatever
goodness you think you might have, it's not good. That's why
the Bible says there's none good, no not one. Sin, listen, religious
ceremony, getting baptized. There's a denomination that says
you can get baptized and that washes away your sins. Oh no.
You can get baptized every day of your life and it will not
cleanse you from even one sin. Repentance will not cleanse you,
you see, because repentance has to do with faith in Christ. Nothing
will cleanse you from sin or cure the sin problem or put away
sin except one thing, and that's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is the only one who can put away sins. The Bible says without
the shedding of blood there is no doing away with sin. And our
suffering won't do it. I heard a person at a funeral
one time talking about a lady who had died, and he made this
statement. He said, I know she's in heaven
because she suffered here on earth. Now let me tell you something.
I hate to hear about people's suffering, and I hate to suffer
myself. It's sad. It's sorrowful. And
I feel sorry for them. But the reality of sin and the
problem we have in sin is this. There's not enough suffering
that any human being can do in this life to put away sin. That's why it took the suffering
of the Son of God. That's why he said to Martha,
I am the resurrection and the life. You're not the resurrection
and the life. Your church denomination is not
the resurrection and the life. Your preacher, your denomination,
your doing, Christ is the resurrection and the life. He's the one who
died. He's the one who suffered and
died to put away sin. But here's Lazarus laying in
that tomb, four days dead, corrupting. That's a great picture, illustration
of our spiritual state before salvation. Just like dead men
laying in a tomb stinking, and sin is the barrier. And it takes
the work of the Son of God incarnate on the cross to remove that barrier.
But salvation doesn't stop there. Now listen on. Now Martha had
said, now he's stinketh. He's been in that thing four
days. Christ already said, roll away the stone. In verse 40,
Jesus saith unto her, said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest
believe thou shouldest see the glory of God? What he's saying,
Martha, remember what I told you. I am the resurrection and
the life. You're about to see the glory
of God. Don't look at the stone. Don't
look at Lazarus' condition. You see, that's the problem with
men in religion. They're not looking to Christ.
They're not looking to the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ
and what he accomplished on the cross of Calvary in his obedience
unto death, in his establishment of righteousness, you see. They're
looking at the stone. They're looking at all the barriers.
They're looking at the corruption. They're looking at the dead body.
But that won't do you any good. And he's saying, Martha, you're
about to see the glory of God. Verse 41 says, Then they took
away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And
Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that
thou hast heard me. Remember, Martha said that whatever
you ask of the Father, He'll give it to you. And Christ prayed
to the Father here, and it says in verse 42, He said, And I knew
that thou hearest me always, but because of the people which
stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent
me. He's speaking for the benefit of the people, speaking out loud. And it says in verse 43, And
when He thus had spoken, He cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come
forth." And that's all he had to say. Lazarus, come forth.
And it says here, and he that was dead came forth, bound hand
and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound about
with a napkin. That's the napkin, the cloth
that they would put over their face. And it says, Jesus saith
unto him, Loose him, and let him go. Here comes Lazarus out
of that grave. He rose up. You know what happened
when Christ said, Lazarus, come forth? Life went into that dead
body. That's amazing, isn't it? He
raised him from the dead. Physical life went into that
dead body. And it says, it says, he that
was dead came forth. There was no begging. Nobody
had to go to the entrance of the tomb and say, oh, Lazarus,
won't you come down and do this or accept this or accept that?
No, sir. Nobody had to pray him through.
All the Lord had to do was look unto the Father and say, Lazarus
comes forth, and there he came. Nobody had to go drag him or
persuade him. The Lord of Glory spoke with
power, and life went into the body, and here he comes. Lazarus
came forth. Now he was still bound with grave
clothes, and he had a napkin on his face. Then Christ said,
Loose him and let him go. He had to be freed in his mind,
you see. And then many of the Jews which
came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did believed
on him. They saw the glory of God in
the power of Christ the Savior. And it says, but some of them
went their ways to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus
had done. Now, think about this. What a
great, perfect illustration of how God saved sinners. How God brings a dead sinner
to spiritual life. Christ said, roll away the stone. What a great illustration of
his perfect work on Calvary to establish a righteousness that
demands the spiritual life of his people. How God can be just
and justify the ungodly. What a great illustration of
that. You see, sin demands death. Whatever Lazarus went through
is the result of sin. But righteousness demands life,
and we don't have one. We don't have any righteousness.
But Christ, the Lord of glory, who died for the sins of His
people, also brought forth righteousness to bring them to life. And then
by His sovereign glory and power and decree, He sends His Spirit
to dead sinners now. And he, by power in the preaching
of the gospel, he says, Sinner, come forth, all for whom he died,
all whom the Father given him shall come to him. That's what
he said. Sinner, come forth. And by the power of the Spirit
in the new birth, the Spirit imparts spiritual life and knowledge
and implants it upon their heart, their minds, their affections
and their will, and you know what? You don't have to persuade
them, you don't have to drag them, you don't have to pray
them through, they just come forth, they come to Christ. They
come out of that spiritually dead grave and they come in spiritual
life to Christ. They believe on Him. And they
repent of their dead works. That's the grave clothes, I believe.
That's what's represented there in that symbol. You see, when
we first come to Christ, we still have a lot of grave clothes on,
but Christ says, loose him and set him free. And they're liberated,
and they come to Christ and they rest in him. They plead nothing
but his blood for the payment of all their sins, nothing but
his righteousness alone for their justification before God. They
see Christ is their all and all. He is the resurrection and the
life. And though they may die physically,
again, they're going to come out of that grave and be glorified
with him. That's the resurrection of which
he spoke of. You see, Lazarus was raised from
the dead, but he eventually died again. But in the last day, when
the last trump sounds and when Christ comes back again, all
for whom he died, all whom he sent his Spirit to give life,
they're going to be resurrected unto glory and live eternally. Why? Because of what Christ accomplished
on Calvary and what he does in his power and glory. You see,
he is the resurrection and the life. Nothing else is. No one
else is. Don't look to anything or anyone
else but Christ, who is the resurrection and the life. That's what he
sealed in Martha's mind. That's what he illustrated in
raising Lazarus from the dead. He is the resurrection and the
life. He said over in John 14, verse 6, he said, I am the way,
I am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me." And in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 it is said that because
Christ himself was raised from the dead, that is the assurance
that all whom he represented will be raised from the dead.
You see, when Christ died, he didn't die for himself, he died
for his people. When he was buried, and when
he arose again, for his people. I hope that's been helpful to
your understanding of the Scriptures, and if you'd like to get a copy
of this message, listen to the announcer, he'll give you the
details. The title of the message is, The Resurrection and the
Life. And I hope you'll join us next
week for another message from God's Word. We're glad you could join us
for today's message. If you would like to receive
a copy of this message, or if you would like more information
about Eager Avenue Grace Church, remember we are located at 1102
Eager Drive in Albany, Georgia. You can call us at 229-432-6969. or visit our Reign of Grace website
at www.rofgrace.com. Thank you, and may the Lord be
with you.