I'm going to get my subject out
of verse 4. This sickness is not unto death,
but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified
thereby. God's Son sent Him into this
world to bring glory to Himself and God's going to glorify His
Son. When we dealt with this last
week, we talked about, you know, the only thing that
puts a town on the map is God's elect. The only reason anybody
knows anything about Bethany, and it's even mentioned in the
Bible, because God had some people there that were His elect. Had
some people there that He loved and went after, and fellowshiped
with them, communed with them, sat at their table with them.
Talked about Mary, how she loved to set at the Master's feet.
And every single time you see her in the Scriptures, she's
at the Savior's feet. Every single time. Every single
time. And oh, remember how they said
this in verse 3. His sister sinned unto Him. Lord, oh, they addressed Him
as Lord. What a wonderful way to address our Master. Lord,
O LORD, behold, he whom thou lovest, whom thou lovest, is sick, is
sick. God's purposed to glorify His
Son, and the Son is purposed to glorify His Father. Now you
keep John 11, look over John 17.4 with me. John 17.4, keep
John 11 there in your left hand. You know, our Lord, and that's
God's motive, you know, He said, I will not give my glory to another. And He fixed it so that no flesh
should glory in His presence. If any man's glory, let him glory
in the Lord. Why do we glory in the Lord?
Because He did it all. All to Him we owe. And here He
says in John chapter 17 and verse 4, I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before
the world was. And the glory means the shining
out, the honor, the exaltation. That he gets, he's above all
things and beyond all things. And because of that, he's above
everything and that ever has been and ever will be. And he
had glory before the world began. He had glory when he come into
this world and he'll have glory when he leaves this world and
we'll give him glory throughout eternity. And we want to give
him glory now. And God's ways of doing what
He does in this world to the natural mind, they can't get
it. It says here is a man whom Jesus
loved, whom Jesus loved. How did they know that the Lord
Jesus loved Lazarus? How did they know? The same way
we know. He let them know that He loved
them. He expressed His love to them. He told them He loved them. And the things that He did for
them showed that He loved them. But here's a man whom Jesus loved. And instead of going and healing
him, they said, He whom thou lovest is sick. Instead of going
and healing him, He purposed for this man to die. He willed
for this man to die. He said, this man is going to
die. The man that I love is going to die. But there's a reason
he's going to die. There's a reason he's going to
die. What's the reason? That the Son
of God might be glorified thereby. And that God might be glorified.
Now our Lord Jesus could have sent His Word and healed him.
And our Lord Jesus could have went immediately and healed him.
But he's going to wait for this man to die and be dead four days
before he even gets over that. Before he gets over it. Why in
the world would he do that? What's the reason letting a man
die? Well, he could have just said his word and healed him.
He did that. He did that. And oh my, I said, oh Lord, he
whom thou lovest is sick. But how did our Lord react to
this message? He whom thou lovest is sin. Look
what he said here in verse 4. When Jesus heard that. When Jesus heard this message. Somebody, they sent somebody
over there to tell the Master. They sent somebody to where the
Lord Jesus Christ was. They sent him to them. And when
Jesus heard that. You know what this tells us?
That our Lord Jesus Christ hears us. They sent a messenger. Our Lord hears our words. He
heard Mary and Martha's words. He paid attention to Mary and
Martha's words. He was moved by Mary and Martha's
words. And He hears our words. In fact,
He not only hears our words, but He knows our thoughts. He
knows our thoughts are far off. And He takes our prayers to Himself. And when Jesus heard that, He
heard what they said. He understood what they said.
He knew what they said. And He knew the condition of
their hearts and their minds and their worries. He knew that. But all this, and He told His
disciples while He was standing there, this sickness, This sickness,
it is a sickness. It's not under death. It's under
death, but he said it's not an abiding death. He's going to
die, but he's not going to stay dead. It's not an abiding death.
And that's the way it is with us. We're all going back to the
dust. But we have already got eternal life. We've already had
the life of Christ in us. So this dust is going back to
dust. But that blessed spirit is going
back to the Father that gave it. But this sickness is not
unto death. Not abiding death. Not the final
end of this sickness. Why didn't our Lord go and tell
them this? Why didn't He tell them this message? Go tell them
that He's going to die. Go back over there and tell them
that He's going to die. We hear that message all the
time. We go to a doctor. The doctor tells you, you've
got so much time. And it gets everybody all shook
up. And everybody gets scared. And everybody gets to praying
for one another. But God told us the day when we was born that
we was going to die. God tells us that we're going
to do it. And God said, why did he say, go tell Lazarus? And
go tell Mary and Martha that Lazarus is going to die. God just tells us that all the
time. And we'll say, oh, bless their hearts, I'm so sorry for
them. God told us this is gonna happen. He said, listen, why
don't he go back over there and say, he's gonna die. And then I'm gonna come over
there in a few days and I'm gonna raise him back up. Why don't
he go tell them that? That's not God's ways. God's
ways are not our ways. God's ways are not our ways.
I heard Scott Richardson say one time, if we had God's power,
we would do things a lot different in this world. But if we had
God's wisdom, we'd do it just exactly the way it is. Ain't
that right? And oh my, God's ways, do you
know what God's way is? It's to try our faith. is to
put us in the crucible, to put us in the fire. He's got to always,
you know, we have to experience patience. We have to experience
patience in us. And God orders things in a way
to bring us down to our knees. He pre-orders things in our lives
that keeps us cleaving to Him, believing Him, trusting Him,
and bringing us down to where we ain't got no place else to
go but to Him. And that's the first thing they
did when He got sick. They said, Lord hear whom Thou
lovest is sick. And that's what we say when we
find out somebody is sick, and find out that they're gonna have
a rough time, that they're gonna die, they're gonna be sick for
a long time. We automatically say, Lord, he
whom thou lovest is sick. Oh, God orders things and ways
in our lives to bring us to our knees, to put us in the dust. to lay, make us lay before our
faces and before God. And if that's what, if he has
to just keep the pressure on. Listen, I'm telling you, I know
it's tough to go through things. I know it is. But I do know this,
that whatever God does is right. If he brings us, it's to bring
us down and keep us down. And then he says, oh listen,
but this sickness is not unto death, not unto abiding death.
He's got to try us. But here's another, here's the
reason why it's not unto death and abiding death. For the glory
of God. You reckon it ever entered their
minds? You reckon they ever thought
that this sickness of Lazarus was going to glorify God? Do
you think it ever entered their mind that this is for the glory
of God? That this man is sick over here
for the glory of God? That this man is going to die
for the glory of God? Huh? Your brother's sickness
is for God's glory. What does Romans 8.28 say? This is how Henry Mahan learned
the gospel. Let me tell you, all of you have
probably heard it. Henry has probably told it around
many times. But this is how he learned the gospel. He was a
young man. Rothbarners hold a meeting. And he looked at Henry and he
pointed at him and he said, What's Romans 8.28 says? Henry stood
up and said, All things work together for good to them that
love God. And he sat back down. He said,
Is that all it says? Is that all it says? All things
work together for good to them that love God and are they called
according to His purpose. God purposed this man. God purposed. Thank God. Listen, they're going
to learn, Mary and Martha, and you and I are going to learn
that every detail in their lives and Lazarus' life was ordered
in all things insure. And we're going to learn that
every detail, every hair of our head, every breath we take, everything
we do, every detail in our life is ordered by God Himself. And it's ordered in all things
and it's sure. It's sure. And here's another
reason that for the glory of God, you reckon they thought,
well, Lazarus, my brother, oh, I'm so sorry you're sick. I am
sorry you're sick. But this is God's glory. This
is God's will. This is for God's glory. And then he says that the Son
of God might be glorified thereby. You know, the glory of the Father
and the Son are one. Look, you keep this in John 5.23,
keep John 11, and look over here in John 5.23. You know, Look what our Master said here. That all men should honor the
Son even as they honor the Father. He that honors not the Son honors
not the Father. They are both one and the same.
If you honor the Son, you honor the Father. If you honor the
Father, you honor the Son. If you glorify the Father, you've
got to glorify the Son. Because they do the things together.
Now look what it says here in verse 4. Oh my, what a wonderful
thing it says here. What a blessed thing it says
here. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister. You noticed he said Martha first,
that's the one that was covered about so many things. But he
says now Jesus loved Martha, that one that worked so hard,
that one so interested in doing things, and her sister. Here's three people, all three
of them is different. They were different in their
temperaments. Mary sat at Christ's feet. Martha worked. And Lazarus,
men and beans. They were different in types.
They were different in their attitudes. They were different
in their actions. But here's the thing. Like all
of us here, we're so much different in so many different ways and
all the same in some other ways. But here's the thing. They were
all loved with the same eternal unchanging love. God didn't start loving them
when he met them. Christ didn't start loving them
when he met them. He met them because he loved them. He'd come
to where they was because He loved them. And that's the way
it is with us. He came to us and called us and
saved us because He loved us. And oh, they were all loved.
Martha, when she said, Lord, don't you care that she served
me? And our Lord said, don't you know, Martha, you're covered
about many things. First thing He said here, Jesus
loved Martha. Oh my! You know that's what they
said about John the disciple. Every time John's mentioned that
disciple whom Jesus loved. Some love Christ more. Some love
Christ less. But bless His name, He loves
every one of His children exactly the same. Exactly the same. His love for us doesn't depend
upon our love for Him. Oh, if His love depended upon
our love for Him, He wouldn't love us that long. But His love
is eternal. His love is unchanging. His love
is immutable. And ours is like the weather
here. Yesterday, about 80 degrees. Today, oh, it's cold as a whiz. And I tell you what, if one day
it's running 100, the next day it's down to freezing. You know,
His love is exactly the same every single time. And we wonder,
how can it be, how can it be, that Thou, my God, shouldst die
for me? Could He possibly love me and
do something for me? To be loved by God? Sometimes, you know, one of the
things of the covenant is that we loathe ourselves. We loathe
ourselves, but He loves us. Oh my, then look what He says
you now. Thank God for Christ's love.
Never changes, never changes. When He heard therefore that
he was sick, you know what He did? He stayed
right where He was for two whole days. He stayed right where He
was for two days. You know, we hear folks that
when they're dying or they're real sick or something, they'll
call in the family, call in the kids, call everybody in. If you won't see them alive again,
if you won't say goodbye to them, come, come on, come on. But our Lord says, Lass is sick,
Lass is going to die. He just stayed right where he
was for two more days. That's what the world's going
on here. If He loved them, why wait two
days? Why not go immediately? Why not
get up and go immediately? I tell you, He is always, always
in perfect submission to His Father's will. But I tell you
why He didn't go. Because it wasn't time for Him
to go. Things weren't ready for Him to go. God's got, you know,
God doesn't, God puts things in order. And God does things
in order. And I'll tell you what, and then
I'm gonna tell you something. Listen to what I'm telling you.
His love for them made Him wait. His love for them made Him wait.
If our Lord come to our rescue and come to us every time we
got in trouble, and saved us from our trouble just like that,
Just like that. If He'd come and saved us from
our heartaches and our sorrows and our burdens, just like that.
We'd never learn nothing. We'd never learn nothing. That's
like parents with their kids. Their kids say, I want this.
Okay. I want this. Okay. Parents don't know how
to say no. They don't know how to say, listen,
sit down here and shut up. You've got enough. Well, God
knows how to treat his children, you know. If your kid wanted
cookies all the time, would you give him cookies all the time? And God ain't going to give us
cookies all the time. He's not going to do that. No,
that's not the way He does it. No, no. His love for them made
Him wait. It was better for them to taste
the bitterness of death. To taste how bitter it really
is. How grievous it is. The tears
that go with it. The worry that goes with it.
The burden that goes with it. The tears that go with it. The
hurt that goes with it. The loss that goes with it. They've
got to experience all of this thing about death. Huh? And so when our Lord Jesus Christ
comes and gives life, the blessings of life would be more precious,
more glorious, more blessed, more God-honoring, more God-glorifying. Look here, and keep John 11.
Look over here in Isaiah 30, in verse 18 with me. Look in Isaiah 30, 18. Listen to what God says here. Oh my, His love for them made
Him wait. And I tell you what, life, we
all promise ourselves this when we lose somebody we love that's
real close to us and real precious, we all promise ourselves, we
all promise ourselves that we're going to cherish life that much
more. We're going to cherish life more. We're going to live life fuller. We're going to be more kind and
more gracious and more forgiving, more tender. We all promise ourselves
that. But when we understand that this
is God's doing, that this is God's glory, this is for the
Son of God, that He be glorified. And look what He said here in
Isaiah 30 in verse 18. Now listen to this, and therefore
will the Lord wait. The Lord's going to wait. Come on, Lord. Don't you know
what a shape I'm in? Don't you know what I'm going
through? Don't you know what's going on in my life? And therefore
will the Lord wait. What for? That He may be gracious
unto you. and therefore will he be exalted
he's gonna wait to be gracious unto you and he'll be exalted
and this is how he exalts himself that he may have mercy upon you
for the Lord is a God of judgment and blessed are all they that
wait for him wait for him And oh, that's going to make them
more thankful when the Lord gets there, more humble, more trusting. And I tell you, I think I mentioned
this last week, but God help us to never determine the love
of God for us by our circumstances. Don't ever do that. Don't measure
God's love for you by the circumstances that you're in. You know there's out there in
that boat and that ship was a-rockin' and the wind was a-blowin', the
wind was, the waves was goin' over that ship and Simon picked
our Lord layin' there asleep. Tired in his body. Like he was
tired and sat on that well when he went to see the woman at the
well. He was tired and he sat down on that well. He had a body
like a horse and that body got tired. And our Lord Jesus Christ,
they woke him up and said, Master! Don't you care that we're perishing
here? We're going to perish and you're
sleeping? Our Lord God said, Oh ye of little
faith. Am I going to have to put up
with you all the time like this? And he stood out there and rebuked
the wind and the seas and they obeyed him. But that's the way
we are. We get in these situations and
Lord don't you understand what we're going through here? Sometimes he sends sorrow. He sends deep sorrow. Hard heavy sorrow. Sometimes He comes down with
His rod. And that rod hits us hard. That
rod comes down on us. That rod comes down with toughness
and to instruct us and to admonish us and to teach us. Don't do
that again. Don't go there again. Don't talk
like that again. Don't act like that again. He'll
put that chastisement on us. And sometimes he'll bring such
pressure on you that you'll feel like you can't stand another
second of it. But you do. You do. Sometimes
he brings sickness. Oh, he brings sickness. Oh, he
brings us sickness. People's never been sick. They
don't know what it is all of a sudden to be sick. I've met
people that's never ever had a headache. I know the fella
died when he was 101 years old, old Frank Sepp, said he never
had a headache his whole life. And then there's other people
that get headaches and they debilitate them. They have to go to a room
and cover themselves up. And you know what the things
that bothers us and shows our real nature more than anything
else? It's the little bitty petty things. The pettiest things that
can happen to us in life aggravates us to death. And we think because
it's a little thing that justifies us getting upset and getting
angry and getting impatient. Oh, my. And I tell you, beloved,
he puts us in situations just to see how we'll react. regardless
of how somebody else acts. How are you going to react? How
are you going to do? Oh, to know and to grasp the
love that's in our Lord's heart, and not to question the dealings
of His hand. Job. Let me just mention two
or three people, Mr. Job. He was praying. He was worshipping. He was offering
sacrifices for his sons. Perhaps they had sinned against
God. In their hearts against God.
And while he got up, while he was speaking, here comes a story.
While he was speaking, here comes another. While he was speaking,
here comes another. While he was here speaking, here comes another.
And when the last fellow come along, he said, your sons and
daughters are gone. You know what Job did? He wretched. Man ripped it like that. Shaved
his head. Got down on the ground before
God. He said, Blessed be the name
of the Lord. The Lord gives. Oh, we rejoice
in Him giving. Oh, He gives us children. He
gives us life. He gives us blessings. He gives
us hope. He gives us health. He gives
us husbands. He gives us wives. He gives us
beautiful grandchildren. He gives us everything. But then
He turns around and says, but now I'm going to take. I'm going
to take what's mine. I'm going to take the beautifullest
flower you've got in your home. The one that you love more than
anything else. It belongs to me. It's time for
me to get it. It's time for me to take what
belongs to me. It's wonderful to give, and oh
we rejoice in His giving, but He also takes. And what do we
have that He didn't give us? We have a home that He didn't
give to us? We have a job that He didn't give to us? We have
money that He didn't give to us? Do we have health that He
didn't give to us? Do we have good sense that He
didn't give to us? What do we have that God did
not give to us? So if he wants to come and take
anything from us, he just take what belongs to him to start
with. Huh? And he said, I came into this
world naked. Whenever one of us come into
this world, we was naked. We was naked. And when we leave this world,
we're going to leave it the same way we come. We didn't bring
nothing, and we ain't taking nothing with us. Not a thing. Bill Gates, with
all his bids, he's not taking one dime with him. He won't even
know how he's dressed when he leaves this world. Ain't that right? And Joseph,
17 years old, 18 years old, his brethren hated him and despised
him. Threw him down in a pit, went back and told his daddy
that he was dead. And then they saw some people
coming along and said, listen, how much you give me for this
boy? They sold him as a slave. And then when he goes down to
Egypt, he's in Potiphar's house, and a woman lies on him, and
he goes from that house to the prison. And then he's in prison,
and then somebody comes and remembers him, brings him up out of prison.
But all those things happened to him. And did you hear him
murmur? Did you hear him complain? And Daniel, he's gonna worship
his God no matter what anybody says. And they made a law, said
if anybody don't call on this statue that old Nebuchadnezzar
raised up, said if we ever catch him praying to accept anybody
but him, they gotta go to the lion's den. Daniel's over here praying, got
his window open, he's praying. They caught him. Threw him in
the lion's den. The king come down there and
said, oh Daniel, Will your God deliver you? I don't know if
he will or not, but I do know he's able. He went down there
the next morning, and there's lions all over the place. Daniel's
just laying there asleep. Oh, listen. May we be made that
way. God make us restful and peaceful. And then he tests his disciples. Look what he done. He tests his
disciples. Oh, to know, to grasp the love
in his heart, not to question the dealings of his hand. Not
to question the dealing of his hand. He tests his disciples. Then
he said after that, he abode two days in the same place where
he was. Then after that he says to his disciples, let's go into
Judea again. And look what his disciples say
to him. Master? The Jews of late sought to stone
thee and go in there again? You know, when he was in Judea,
in Jerusalem, they tried to stone him twice. Tried to stone him twice. One
because he said he blasphemed, a man making himself God. And
another one because he said, I before Abraham was, I am. They
took up stones to stone him. But look what he says, you know,
let's go into today again. He didn't say let's go to Lazarus
or let's go to Bethany. Let's go see Mary and Martha
and check on Lazarus. He didn't say that. But look
what he says here in verse 39 of chapter 10. Therefore they sought again to
take him, sought again to take him, but he escaped out of their
hands. He is trying His disciples just
like He tries everybody else. Oh Lord, why are we going back
over there again? They tried to kill you over there. They
picked up stones to stone you. They want you dead. And Judah
is a place of hatred, opposition, danger. You know, our Lord never chose
the easiest path or He certainly wouldn't have come into this
world. And he don't choose the easiest path for us, but I'll
tell you what, wherever we go, he goes with us. He goes with us. We may not feel
it, may not understand it, but believe me, he's there. And look
at their response. Oh, the Jews, they sought to
stone thee and you going there again? That don't seem like a
very smart thing to do. That doesn't seem like the wise
thing to do. Why in the world would you go
back over there? Look over here in John 10, 31. John 10, 30 and 31. He said in verse 30, I and my
father are one. Then the Jews took up stones
again to stone him. Stone him again. Oh my. Took up stones again to stone
him. John 8 they took up stones to
stone him. Why would he go back to that
place again? You keep this and look with me
in Proverbs 3. You keep John 11. Let's look
in Proverbs 3. You know I'm a very, I don't know about
you, but I'm a very, very poor disciple, very, very slow learner. You know, and I'll tell you this,
you all know this, and you all have experienced this, that the
sun can be shining as bright as it is right now, but it can
be a very, very dark day for you. and then it can be raining or
snoring or something like that and it can be a very, very bright
day for you. Do you know what makes the difference?
The Lord. And if He wants us to have a
heavy day, we'll just say, Lord, that's a heavy day. But one of
these days we'll be done with those heavy days. Oh, look here what He said here
in Proverbs chapter 3. Look in verse 5. Trust in the
Lord with all thy heart. You people pour out your heart
unto him. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. And here's what
not to do. Lean not to your own understanding.
That's what these fellows are doing. They're leaning to their
own understanding. They say, Master, that don't seem like
the right thing to do to go back up to Judea. They're up there
trying to stone you, trying to kill you. They want to destroy
you. Trust the Lord with all not heart.
Don't lean till you don't understand. They should have just said, Lord,
let's go. That's where you're going. We'll follow you right
up there. And look what he said. In all our ways, acknowledge
him. Whatever way you're in, whether
you're up or down, sick or weak, poor, bad health, good health,
tried, burdened, whatever's going on in your life, whatever it
is, in whatever way and whatever situation you're in, in all your
ways, acknowledge Him. It's the Lord. Let Him do what
seemeth good. And He'll direct your paths.
Huh? Oh, bless this holy name. Oh
my, why would you go back? Well, listen to what our Lord
told them. Listen to what our Master told them. And oh, what
a lesson for us to learn right now. Our Master said unto them
in verse 9, Are there not twelve hours in the day? Huh? Are there not twelve hours in
the day? You get up at six, 6, 6 hours a day, 12 hours a day,
that's what our master said. And they're not 12 hours in a
day. Cause they're not 12 hours in
a day. And our Lord often used figurative
language to give us a spiritual meaning. And he's not talking
about a literal 12 hour day. He's using this as a figure to
teach us something. You know, that's what our Lord
said, you know, He said, you know, you can't see, and that's
what He goes on to say, if a man walk in the day, he stumbles
not, because he sees the light of the world. And our Lord said, except a man
be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God. He told that
woman in the well, if thou knewest who the gift of God was, you
would have asked of Him. So our Lord is telling these
fellows, He said, look here, you got to have eyes to see,
you know, and you're walking in the day. There's 12 hours
in a day, the sun's shining in a day, you got 12 hours in a
day. And He's answering their fearfulness, their reasoning,
their unbelief, and that's what they're doing here. He's rebuking
their fears. Oh, it's not right, don't go
back over there, why you wanna go? He said, listen, there's
12 hours in a day. 12 hours in a day. And what he means is we got an
allotted time. We got an allotted time. A definite
time. A day is measured, it's not over
until it's up. A day is measured, it's not over
until it's up. And what he's saying is here,
I have a day. I have a day. I have a time.
I have a work that I have to finish. And I will finish this
work. You being cautious and not wanting
me to go to Judea again will prolong my time, not by one minute. And I'll tell you, my enemies
who despise me and want to kill me and stone me, they're not
going to shorten it. He said, I must work while it's
yet day. For the night's coming and ain't
nobody can work. And oh my, look what our master
said, keep John 11. Look in Luke 13, 31 with me. Luke 13, 31. Look in Luke with me. I must work while it's yet day. And that's why he said he escaped
out of their hands. He escaped out of their hands
three different times that the scriptures tells us I Must work. I've got to be about my father's
business And look what he said here in verse 31 The same day
there came certain of the Pharisees saying unto him speaking to Christ
get thee out and depart out of here quick For her it's gonna
kill you The king's gonna kill you And you know what our master
said unto him? You go, go ye and tell that fox,
that old deceiving, sly fox, behold, I cast out devils and
I do cures today and tomorrow and the third day I shall be
perfected. Nevertheless, I must walk today. and tomorrow and the day following
I don't care what Herod says he's going to do I've got things
to do and I'm not worried about Herod you go tell him that I'm
going to keep on doing what I do that's what he's telling them
that a prophet perish not out and oh my look what our master
goes back over here he says in verse 9 again are there not 12
hours in a day He said, if a man walk in the
day, he won't stumble. You know why he won't stumble?
Because he sees obstacles. He sees the light. He sees the
sun. And we walk in our Master's light.
We walk in the light of Christ. We walk in the light of His Word.
We walk in the light of His Word. We walk in the light of His countenance. There's no stumbling in His sight.
He said, Thy Word is a lamp a lamp up here under my path and a light
down here under my feet got a light on my path lamp on my path and
light on my feet so I can see where I'm going see where I'm
going huh you know where I'm going I know where my journey
ends I know where my journey ends.
I've got today, I've got tomorrow, and if the Lord wills a day,
I know where my journey ends. And I'm walking in the light
of God's Word, and you're walking in the light of God's Word. We're
walking in the light of His countenance. He gave us His light and His
Word for a lamp and a light to our feet. But look what he goes on to say Because he sees the light of
the world and I tell you know who our Lord said in John 8 12
said I am the light of the world These things said he but if a
man verse 10, but if a man walk in the night Walk in the dark You know I don't,
and I've said this so many times, you can live in a house for 40
years, 50 years, and you get up at night and there ain't no
light to see by, you have to feel your way around. I've stumbled
over things in my own house. I forget that it's there. Walk
around the bed and there's something there and just walk into it and
stumble over it. Scott and Martha was in our house
one time, and we didn't have a nightlight. And Martha got
up and thinks she's going to the bathroom, but she went down
to the closet. So needless to say, we went and
got a nightlight the next night. And that's what happened to us.
We didn't get in the bathroom, we get in the closet. Oh my,
that's what they did in our old homes. in our own homes. We stumble around in our own
homes. So what would it be like to walk around in the world in
darkness? Huh? Oh my. But walking, but he walks in
the night, he stumbles. Why? Because look what it says.
It didn't say there's no light. He says there's no light in him.
He ain't got no light in himself. He can't see where he's going.
He can't tell where he's going. He's not following Christ. He's
not following the light of the world. He's not trusting Christ. Because there's no light in him.
There's no light in him. What a warning. Walk in the light
of day. Walk in the light of Christ's
day. I'm going to show you two verses of scripture. And then
I'm going to close. Look with me in 1 Thessalonians
5. 1 Thessalonians 5. Once you see this, and then we're
going to go to Jude. But if a man walk in the night,
or if we walk in the day, walk in the light of Christ, we won't
stumble. We're not going to stumble over
the gospel. We're not going to stumble over truth. We're not
going to stumble over traditions. We're not going to stumble over
works and free will. We're not going to do that. But people that don't have the
light of Christ in them, no light in them, they'll go anywhere
and follow anything. And they're stumbling around
in this world. But look what our Lord said here. 1 Thessalonians
5, 5. Ye are all the children of light
and the children of the day. Oh my, you're children of light
and you're children of the day. We are not of the night, but
we're not of darkness. Children of light. Children that
see the light, children that walk in the light, children that
walk in Christ, see the light of his word. And then look in
Jude verse 24. Oh my. Twelve hours in the day, walk
in the day, walk in the light. Look what he said here now, look
what our master said. Now unto Him, now unto Him that
is able to keep you from falling. Falling. I need to be kept from falling.
Falling into my own thoughts, falling into my own reasoning,
falling into sin, falling into error. Fallen into meanness,
fallen into hatefulness, fallen into pride. None to Him that's
able to keep you from falling. And oh listen, and to present
you faultless. To present you faultless. Faultless. Before the presence of His glory. And guess what he does it with?
With exceeding joy. Mary and Martha, you just hold
on. I'll get there. I'll get there.
And when I do, you're going to see something you ain't never
seen before. You're going to experience something you've never
experienced before. Oh, our Lord tries us, don't
He? He tries us. Keep our Father in the precious,
glorious, blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you
for your gospel. Thank you for your word. Thank
you for the truth. Oh, what a precious, precious
truth it is. Lord, teach us how it is to wait
on you. And oh Lord, whatever you send
our way, and we know you love us in spite
of us. You love us with our ups and
our downs and our ins and our outs, with our stumblings. Oh God, thank you for that. Strengthen
and encourage these dear saints of God. Work in us that we can glorify
you and glorify your son as you're doing here in Lazarus and in
all things that you do. Pray glory to yourself through
this congregation of believers and all you saints everywhere.
For Christ's sake. Amen. Amen. Let's get our hymn
book and turn to 327. 327. Stand with me. We'll sing this
and when you're through with this... No, 357. 357. Let me
see if that's it. Oh for a faith that will not
shrink. Oh for a faith, where's that
at? Oh for a faith that will not shrink. I thought it was
326. How much? 3.7. That's what I thought it
was. Didn't I say that? I didn't see
it when I was there. This is to majestic sweetness. that will not tremble on the
brink of any earthly woe, of any earthly woe, that will not
murmur But in the hour of grief or pain,
we'll lean upon His God. We'll lean upon His God. That when in danger knows no
fear, In darkness fears no doubt. In darkness fears no doubt. I'll taste it now, the hallowed
bliss of an eternal home, of an eternal home. See you tonight, six o'clock,
God willing.