We're singing that song. Down here, we ask the question,
is he worthy? But when we get there, there
will be no question. We will know as we enter into
the gates, he is worthy. And that is why we preach. This
is to tell men that he is worthy down here because men don't know
that. Men don't know that he's worthy.
And so we, we testify what God's word has declared about who our
Lord is. It's good to see you guys again
this week and pray that everything is going well with you. And we
continue to pray for your church and we always enjoy the time
of fellowship whenever you come. Turn with me if you would to
the 11th chapter of John. 11th chapter of John. I'm going to start our reading
in verse 1. And bear with me because I am
going to read down to verse 45. John chapter 11, starting in
verse 1. It says, Now a certain man And
whenever the Bible uses the phrase a certain man, may your ears
perk up because there's something special being made there. The Lord is drawing your attention
to something. He wants you to know something
about this certain man. Now, a certain man was sick named
Lazarus, by the way, A certain note lets us also know that this
is not a fairy tale. This wasn't a made up story that
Jesus was telling, like a parable or something like that. This
was an actual event that actually took place. I had somebody tell
me one time that this was just a story. And I was like, I beg
to differ. There was a certain man. A certain
man was sitting in 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 sisters sent unto
him, saying, Lord, behold, even thou lovest is sick. When Jesus
heard that he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the
glory of God. And the Son of God might be glorified
thereby. Now, keep your finger there,
mark that. That's going to be a good verse
for us to come back and look at. Now, Jesus loved Martha and
her sister and Lazarus. And when he had heard, therefore,
that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place
where he was. Then after that, said he to his
disciples, let us go into Judea again. His disciples said unto
him, Master, the Jews have laid socks of stone on thee, and goest
thou thither again? Jesus answered, 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. Then said his disciples,
Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. How did Jesus speak of
his death? But they thought that he had
spoken of taking a rest and sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes
that I was not there too. the attempt that ye might believe. Nevertheless, let us go unto
him. Now, that seems strange to a
lot of us, to the natural ear. But the Lord said, I am glad
that Lazarus is dead. Then said Thomas, which is called
Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die
with him. Then when Jesus came, he found
that he had lain in the grave four days already. Now Bethany
was nigh unto Jerusalem about 15 furlongs off. And many of
the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their
brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming,
went and met him. But Mary sat still at the house.
Then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hast been here,
my brother had not died. But I know that even now, whatever
so thou wilt ask of God, God will give it to thee. Jesus said
unto her, thy brother shall rise again. Martha said unto him,
I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last
day. Jesus said unto her, 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. Believe
ye thou this? She said unto him, yea, Lord,
I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which hath come
into the world. And when she had said so, But
when she had so said, she had went her way and called Mary,
her sister, secretly, saying, The master has come, and call
us from thee. And as soon as she heard that,
she arose quickly and came unto him. Now Jesus was not yet come
into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him. The
Jews then, which were with her in the house, and comforted her,
when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out,
followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there.
Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell
down at his feet saying unto him, Lord, if thou hast been
here, my brother hath not died. When Jesus therefore saw her
weeping and the Jews also weeping, which came with her, he groaned
in the spirit and was troubled and said, where have you laid
him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, behold how
he loved him. And some of them said, could
not this man which opened the eyes of the blind have caused
that even this man should not have died? Jesus, therefore,
again, groaning in himself, come to the grave. It was a cave and
a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, take you away the
stone. And Martha, the sister of him
that was dead, said unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh,
for he hath been dead four days. Jesus said unto her, Said I not
unto thee that if thou wouldst believe thou shouldst see the
glory of God? 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,
and I knew that thou hearest me always. But because of the
people which stand by, I said that they may believe that thou
hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken,
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead
came forward, bound hand and foot with great clothes, and
his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus said unto him,
Loose him and let him go. Then many of the Jews which came
to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on
him. Father, we ask now that you would
come and be with us as you have promised as we gather together.
And we ask, Lord, that you would give us the ability to worship
you in spirit and in truth. Father, we know it's not this
building that causes the worship, it's not this building that is
the church, it is the people that is gathered here today.
And you have promised where two or three are gathered in your
name, there you will be also in the midst of them. You also
promised that the church and the commission of Christ, that
you will be with us always, even up to the end of the age. So
Father, we pray that even now that as we gather here this morning,
we pray that you are in the midst of us even now. And by your Spirit,
Father, that you will teach us this morning. I pray that you
would help me to preach, to speak truth to these people, Lord,
that you would keep me from error. I pray that you would give understanding
that the Spirit would teach them the things of the spiritual nature
of what is being said here today, Lord. I pray for those listening
and watching. I pray, Lord, that you, too,
might minister and edify them by your Word. We continue to
lift up this church, Father, and pray that you might bring
the man that you have for them to pastor this church for, and
that they would see and understand that, that they would know who
that would be as he comes. Lord, that the very man that
you have, wherever he is at, Lord, that you would just enable
him, that within his heart also, that you would make peace there
to know your calling upon him to this place. Father, we ask
that you would guide and direct them, that you would give them
wisdom and discernment in their looking for a pastor. We pray,
Father, that this church might continue to be a blessing and
a light and a witness here in this town and in the surrounding
communities, Lord. And we thank you for it. We thank
you for the gospel that has come from these walls for many years
now, Lord. Not just in the pastors that's
been here, but Father, from the people that are here that believe
the gospel. and share the gospel wherever they may be. And father,
once again, we know that all of this is not because of us
and of ourselves, but because of you. And so we give you glory.
We give you honor and praise because we do know that you are
worthy. And we ask for that you just
be our helper today, for it's in Christ's name that we pray.
Amen. Well, a very familiar passage
of scripture to us all, I'm sure. What's generally preached about
whenever we talk about Lazarus? Anybody got a clue? Come on now, you gotta know.
What do we normally talk about whenever we talk about Lazarus
coming back to life? The miracle of it, bringing him
up. We talk about the miracle. What about the spiritual aspect
of it? We usually talk about the effectual call, right? We're
talking about Jesus calling into life and how we are calling to
life. Well, I think that's very true. I think the effectual call
is definitely shown vividly in this account of Lazarus and his
being raised to life. But brethren, I would say that
this whole passage that we looked at before us this morning actually
shows the whole picture of the child of grace. Everything in
here talks about all of us from all points of our life and how
we experience our salvation. And I hope that we can see that
today as we go. I don't know whose glasses those
are. I'm going to move those out for him. They're probably
Tom's. Huh? They're probably Tom's? They're community glasses. Oh, man. Where was I? OK. Whenever we look at the account
of Lazarus, We see the child of grace on the spiritual aspect
of this meeting. You know, the Bible tells us
that we want to look at everything and discern the spiritual with
spiritual, right? We're not looking here just for
a historical account. It's nice to have these historical
accounts. Surely looking at Jesus raising
someone from the dead gives us great admiration for Christ. It gives us love for Christ,
astonishment, amazement, It shows us truly that He is God, that
He can raise somebody to life. And there is some aspects of
spiritual worship that can come from looking at the literal aspect
of this historical account. But brethren, whenever we dive
into the Word of God, we always want to dive in and look for
the spiritual things that these things are telling us. Every
miracle, everything that Jesus did as far as it pertains to
those miraculous works. and everything had a spiritual
aspect to it. And when we look at that spiritual
aspect to it, it tells us of our Savior. It tells us of what
Christ has done for us and who God is and how we are to understand
him as God. And so never just stop with the
literal, never just stop with the historical account. The Bible
is written in many different genres. It's written in historical,
it's written in a poetic, it's written in apocalyptic, but at
the end of the day, everything in here points us to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Everything. The Bible tells us
that in the volume of the book, everything is written about him.
Jesus even told the disciples on the road to Emmaus, he said,
you know, starting from Genesis and working all the way through
to Malachi, he taught them that everything in there was talking
about him and he explained to them how everything talked about
him. But so often we make things about
other things. We try to surround these passages
with our little pet projects, pet topics and everything. And even today we hear with all
the stuff that's going around, with all the political things
that's going around, men like to go into the Bible and cherry
pick verses out of the Bible and press it on today's societal
problems. Really, if the churches would
just preach the word of God and go verse by verse and show Christ
in this thing, we would learn and understand what the Bible
teaches about a lot of these things. And we wouldn't have
to cherry pick things out of their context. Now, the first
thing I'd like you to notice here, John chapter 11, is, uh,
and how it pertains to every child of grace. Uh, and actually
every son of Adam is their condition. What was Lazarus' condition?
Well, his condition was that he was dead. Matter of fact,
Jesus plainly said it in verse 14. Then said Jesus unto them
plainly, Lazarus is dead, he had sugarcoated. You know, the
disciples were thinking that Lazarus might have just been
taking a nap. And isn't that even today, a lot of religious
societies think that we spiritually are just taking a little nap,
that we just need to be woke up. You know, we need to be woke
up spiritually. There's a whole line of, and
I don't mean to mingle in other denominational things, but there's
a whole line of one denomination that come from a certain man
of old who believes that all men have this little spark of
fire still there and it just has to be flamed up. Some people
think that we are just sick, kind of as it was shown here
at the beginning, Lazarus is just sick. No, he's actually
dead. But they think that we're just
sick. That our condition is that we need to be revived. That our
condition is we just have a little flame. That flame needs to be
blown into a big flame. And if we just get that flame
burning strong enough, then we'll see some action. Some folks think
that we need to be, and I'm glad to hear Denny say this this morning,
and he said, he used the term regeneration, and he said it's
probably not the best term. Quickening is the term regeneration. I believe this is an incorrect
word whenever it comes to the new birth. We are not regenerated. To be regenerated means that
there was a life there to begin with, to regenerate. means there was a generation
of life to begin. We never had life. We were born
without life. We were made natural. We never
had the life of Christ in us. So to regenerate life is not
the same as to be reborn. Whenever Jesus said a man must
be born again, he didn't mean to be born again the same way
as the first time. That's what the argument between
him and Nicodemus was. Nicodemus was looking on the
outward and the natural. Jesus was talking about the spiritual.
I'm not talking about you being reborn again and going into your
mother's womb. I'm talking about a spiritual
birth. It's another kind of birth. It's a different birth. You need
to be reborn in a different way, not a natural way. Because that
which is natural is only going to produce that which is natural.
The spirit is going to produce what is spiritual. The flesh
is going to produce what is flesh. So you have to be reborn spiritually,
not physically. Well, whenever we talk about
regeneration, we can't be regenerated because we never have had spiritual
life. Matter of fact, the word regeneration
in Scripture, and I have a whole sermon on this, by the way, but
regeneration only is found two times in the Word of God. In
both places, that's found in the Word of God. The way that
it is used has nothing to do with being quickened. It has
to do with the work of Jesus Christ and His death, burial,
and resurrection, and our union with Him in that. And so anyway,
I would encourage you to go study about regeneration, but we don't
need to be regenerated. We need to be born from above.
We need to be brought to life. We need to be given life. And
so the condition here is Lazarus is dead. Jesus said Lazarus is
dead. And that is the state of all
humans by nature. They are spiritually dead. The
Bible says that they are dead and trespasses of sin, that they're
incapable of either knowing or changing their condition. Okay,
they are dead. A dead man cannot change his
condition. If you had a funeral here today
and you had a casket laid down here and the person was laying
in that casket, it doesn't matter how many pleadings you have with
that person, you can come down here and beg that person to death. We've had family in times past,
distant family, family from California, I would say, that we have seen
actually crawl up into the casket, begging them to come back, you
know. It doesn't matter how much you plead with that dead person
to come back and to come alive, they can't hear you. And there's
nothing that they can do to sit up and come alive. There's nothing
within them has the ability to make themselves whole again.
And there's nothing that you can do outwardly to make them
whole again. The only way that that person
could ever come alive is by the miraculous work of God alone
to raise that person to physical life again. Brethren, it's the
same way in our spiritual lives. There is no way in your own self
that you can do anything to bring yourself alive to God. No way you can bring yourself
to God. There is no way that you can
do anything to make yourself alive spiritually and there's
nothing that anybody on the outside can do to make you alive spiritually. My preaching, you're reading
the Bible, you're coming to church, all these things cannot make
you come alive. The only thing that can make
you come alive is the voice of God speaking into you saying,
come alive, come forth. And so we see that there are
conditions physically in Lazarus and spiritually in each child
of grace is the same. We are dead. We are dead in trespasses
and sin. Romans 5, 12 says, Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. Not any of us are exempt from
this. And so the dead cannot move towards
God. The dead have neither any will
or ability to come to Christ. The dead has no desire for God's
salvation. The dead cannot see their need
for salvation. The dead cannot understand how
salvation works and how they can get it. The dead must be
raised from death to life by the power of God. And so the
resurrection is the new birth. The first resurrection. Turn
with me if you would to John chapter 5. John chapter 5, look with me
if you would, down to verse 25. Jesus says, Verily, verily, I
say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. If you would, Ephesians chapter
2. Ephesians chapter 2. Starting in verse 1, Scripture
says, And you hath be quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sin. That word quicken means to be
made alive, be made alive. And you hath be quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sin, wherein in times past ye walked
according to the course of the world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. Now, I'll just pause here and
make note. You see where the Holy Spirit
of God makes a distinction between the child of grace and the child
of disobedience? Even though by nature we're like
them and walk according to the flesh like them, we are not the
children of disobedience. We never have been the children
of disobedience. While we disobey, we were not
part of that group. They are two distinct groups.
The children of disobedience are those vessels of dishonor
that the Lord talks about in Romans 9. There are two groups
of people, the vessels of honor, the vessels of dishonor. That's
the children of disobedience. They're also called the children
of the devil. They are the seed of Satan. We
are the seed of Christ. They are the seed of Satan. There
are two seeds. There is a spiritual seed and
there is a natural seed. The natural seed of Adam is flesh. They cannot please God. They
only do the will of their father, and they are saved. But we are
of the spiritual seed of Jesus Christ. And as Denny said today,
even though we don't know about it, our whole entire lives, as
we were born from the womb, we were born already children of
God. We didn't become children of God at some point in our life.
We were already children of God. The Bible says that God sends
his spirit into us because we are already children. So we were
children of God in a spiritual aspect before the foundation
of the world. In union with Christ Jesus, we
were his seed in him before the foundation of the world. The
picture of Adam and Eve shows that very thing. It shows that
in Adam, his wife was already there. And God blessed them,
plural, them, in Adam. Christ has blessed us in him. seeds in Christ Jesus, we have
been blessed just like He's been blessed. And all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places has been given and blessed upon us before the
foundation of the world. Why? Because we are the seeds
of Christ. If you bless the root, the fruit
will be blessed as well. If you bless Christ, everything
that comes from Christ will be blessed. And Christ has been
blessed by God and everyone in Him. has been blessed. And so
we see in the natural realm, we are not the children of disobedience,
excuse me, in the spiritual realm, we are not the children of disobedience. And so even though we might by
nature look like them in the flesh, in the spirit, we are
not like them. Among whom also we all have our
conversation, time has passed, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. Not that we are under
wrath, but we were by nature children of wrath, meaning that
we were wrathful towards God. But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by grace
ye are saved, and hath raised us up together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages
to come Here it is, he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace in his kindness towards us through Christ. See, the purpose
of all this, of the Bible says that God has subjected everyone
to vanity, not willingly, but in hope for something to come.
Okay, here we see that our being dead, just like Lazarus, Our
being dead was ordained of God. Our being in Adam naturally and
dying, or being dead in trespasses of sin and spiritually dead to
God was foreordained of God. See, the fall of Adam was not
an oopsie, okay? It was intended by God. And it
was intended by God just like the death of Lazarus was for
the glory of God. See, our fall into sin and death
was purposed by God so that God would glorify Himself in the
ages to come through the redemption of Christ Jesus and His people.
Christ Jesus would come, redeem those people from their sin,
and then in glory we would be set as vessels of honor. That's
what it's saying here in verse 7. That in the ages to come,
the reason that we experience that death that spiritual death,
that being just like the children of disobedience by nature. We
are just like them. The reason for that is so that
in the ages to come, He might show His exceeding riches of
His grace and His kindness towards us through Christ. For by grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It
is the gift of God, not of words, lest any man should boast. For
we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus, I have two good
words which God has before ordained that we should welcome in. Turn
quickly with me, if you would, to Revelation chapter 20, and
I hope to show you the fulfillment of that. Revelation chapter 20. Starting in verse four, and I'm
not gonna get all the ins and outs of what all the imagery
is here. That's definitely for several
days worth of preaching, but verse four, it says, and I saw
thrones and they had sat on them and judgment was given unto them.
And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness
of Jesus and for the word of God, and which had not worshiped
the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark
upon their foreheads or in their hands. And they lived and reigned
with Christ a thousand years. But the rest of the dead lived
not again until a thousand years were finished. This is the first
resurrection. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection. On such the second death hath
no power. But they shall be priests of
God and of Christ and shall reign with him for a thousand years. Brethren, as you see here, we
are made for the glory of God. We are made priests. We are made
kings. We are made to rule and to reign
with Christ Jesus, as we read in the passage before, that we
rule and reign with Christ Jesus now. And so that we are made
to be a shining show of God's glory, what God has done to sinners. And so the reason that we have
died spiritually, the reason that we are in the condition
in Adam that we are, just like Lazarus, is as it says back in
our passage here, let me get turned back to chapter 11. It says, verse four says, this
sickness is not unto the dead, but for the glory of God, that
the son of God might be glorified thereby. That is why we are in
the condition that we are in. As Lazarus' sickness and death
was for the glory of God, that the son of God might be glorified
thereby, So our sin and death and our father Adam was for the
glory of God that the son of God might be glorified thereby. And we will be glorified and
be shown as those vessels of mercy in the end. Now, the second
thing I'd like us to notice here is not just the condition of
every child of grace being dead in sin, but we also see in Lazarus'
story here, his calling. we see his calling. Look with
me if you would at verse 43. And when he had thus spoken,
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. Now all of us here,
we know that there is what we would call a general call, right? I hope you guys know, kind of
know by now the difference between the general call and an effectual
call. What we mean whenever we say
the general call, is that we preach the gospel and the message
of the gospel goes out to everybody. Now, I would make note here,
a lot of people that use these two terms, general call and effectual
call, usually in the back of their mind, they are thinking
that the gospel is a offer or an invitation. The gospel is
not an offer or an invitation. The gospel is not even a command
for somebody. The gospel is a declaration of
a finished work already done. And so whenever we proclaim the
gospel, that proclamation of the gospel of Christ dying and
that salvation is in Christ goes out and everybody hears that.
So whenever you hear me say the general call, it does not mean
an invitation or an offer of salvation, because I don't believe
that the gospel is an invitation nor an offer. God does not offer
salvation to anybody. He gives it as a gift. It is
a gift of God. And he has those who he knows,
the ones that he gives it to. Christ has been given a people
before the foundation of the world and they and they only
are the ones who will receive the gift of eternal life. Jesus,
the Bible says that Jesus has power over all flesh to give
eternal life to as many as has been given him. Okay? So this gift of salvation is
a particular salvation. It's for a particular group of
people Therefore, God is not offering it to anybody because
only those in the particular group were meant to get it. Nobody
outside of that group is meant to get it. And what we hear in
our modern missionary endeavors is we must scour the earth and
preach the gospel because we're losing people to hell because
they're not carrying the gospel. We got to get out there and give
them a say. Matter of fact, me and Laura on our way here this morning
heard a radio program and a guy talking about that, talking about
how COVID has caused, you know, the churches People were, the
memberships were declining even before COVID hit and then after
the COVID last year, how it really took a toll and that how the
churches now are declining so much that we can't sustain. He said, we can't sustain this. We have to get out and get to
work and get people in here and get them saved. Eternity and
hell is at stake for all these people if we don't have enough
people to get out there and get to work. And I looked at Laurie
and I said, that's just absurd. That's absolutely, that is completely
opposite of the gospel. Completely opposite of the gospel.
Number one, Jesus says the gates of hell will never prevail against
his church. The church is not falling away
and going away. It is exactly as the Lord of
the church wants it to be. Every number, every member in
that church is as many as the Lord has called. The Lord is
the Lord of the church. It's his church. He adds to and
takes away as he sees fit, brethren. The church is not in a twist. We have been beaten and battered
all throughout history, but we are not going to be overcome.
So the church is not able to sustain what's going on. The
gates of hell can never prevail against it. And second of all,
there is nobody going to hell that never was intended to go
there. Everyone that is in hell is there because of the design
and the destiny that God has placed upon them. And I know
it's not a popular teaching. I know that's not an easy teaching,
but brethren, that is the truth of the scripture. That God has
elected those to salvation that he has chosen and they alone
will be the recipients of that grace. And as a sovereign God,
he has the right to give mercy upon whom he will give mercy
and compassion upon whom he will give compassion. And everyone
for whom Christ died, not one drop of his blood will be in
vain. Everyone for whom he died will be saved. So when we talk
about a general call, we're not talking about an invitation or
a, uh, some kind of a, uh, a begging or pleading or anything like
that. We are talking about declaring, proclaiming the gospel to all
people, because we don't know who the elect are. We don't know
who the child of grace is. We don't know who those people
are. that are the sheep of God, who he will call. So we declare
the gospel to everyone. But what we're talking about
here, as far as Lazarus is concerned, is that very personal, particular,
I would even say powerful call that we call it irresistible,
right? Y'all are familiar with the term
irresistible grace. That's another one of those terms
people don't like. You only preach in some churches once if you
say that. Irresistible grace. Overcoming grace. I like to use
the word overcoming grace. Or effectual or distinguishing
grace. And what are we talking about?
Well, we're talking about the point of quickening. When Christ
quickens you from the dead, that is the irresistible call. You
can't stop God from making you come alive spiritually. Nobody
can. The Bible says in Ezekiel that he will pour clean water
on you. He will take that heart of flesh
out and put it in a heart or see you take the heart of stone
out and put it in a heart of flesh and cause you to walk in his
statues. That's something that he does. And you don't ask for
it. We don't beg for it. We don't work for it or desire
it even. He just does that. See, all of
us are going to continue to run from God. Just like the children
of disobedience by nature, we're going to continue to be wrathful
towards God. And if it wasn't for the fact
that God did by irresistible grace, change our hearts, we
would have kept going in that same direction. That's why I
say, I used to hate when Tom, He used to talk to me before
I come to the doctor's grace and he would talk to me about irresistible
grace. I hated that. It made me mad. You mean God's
going to force me to love him? Force me to come to him? You
know, all the arguments and stuff. Listen, I love the doctrine of
overcoming irresistible grace. If it wasn't for irresistible
grace, I would have stayed in my sin, hating God and believing
on a religious Jesus, a religious God of my own making. but not
the God of the Bible. I would not have love for a God
that is a distinguishing God, an electing God. I would not
have a love for a Jesus who applies the salvation to all those for
whom he died and no one else. I wouldn't have a love for the
God of the Bible. I'd have a love for some other
God that I've made up in my mind or some denomination that I was
affiliated with had put in my mind. Now, irresistible grace
is beautiful, brethren. Because that is the point that
God gives you spiritual life so that you understand rightly
this right here. The declaration of who God is. The declaration of who Christ
is. If it wasn't for irresistible grace, you would still be misunderstanding
everything about God and salvation. And so, Lazarus' condition, though
it was dead, there was an overcoming, irresistible call to come alive. Now, as I said, some people will
say, so God forced you to come to him. Let me ask you, number
one, was Lazarus upset that Jesus called him back to life? Doesn't
seem like it. He's pretty happy about it, as
we'll see in a minute. Second of all, did Jesus force Lazarus
to come to him? No, Lazarus came alive. But let
me ask you, whenever you first come to Christ, God revealed
your sin to you. You realized that you needed
a Savior. You realized that there was nothing
that you could do and didn't know yourself and knew that Christ
only was your hope. Let me ask you, did anybody force
you to come and ask Him to save you? Me neither. I mean, I wanted to come. I wanted to come. I needed to
come because I knew that there was no hope unless Christ did
it. I needed to come to Him. and
trust Him alone for my salvation. Because for many, many, many
years, I had trusted in my religious activity. Hey, you all know me. You've known me since I was a
little kid. Preaching, teaching, traveling the world singing,
all kinds of junk. Religious activity. Like Paul
said, everything that I thought was gain for my acceptance before
God, it's kind of done. It's just done. whenever I realized
that the only hope is if Jesus gives it to me freely. But see, I would have never known
that if my condition had not changed from dead to alive. I have to be made alive. Only whenever I'm made alive
can I understand what's freely been given to me. That's what
1 Corinthians chapter 2 says. The Spirit has given to us that
we might know what's freely been given to us. And once we know
what's free to be given to us, what do we do? We run to Christ
and say, thank you for that. Thank you for that. That's irresistible
grace. I didn't ask for it, but it was
freely given to me. I didn't, I didn't work for it. I wasn't worthy for it. I didn't
do anything to deserve it. I didn't, you know, there wasn't
no conditions to be met. God in his time said, come alive. Just like he did with Lazarus.
He didn't come when Mary and Martha wanted him to come, or
anybody else that wanted him to come, or even the disciples
wanted him to come. He came at his time, and at his
appointed time, he said, come alive. Same thing with us spiritually,
brother. We're his children. He loves
us. Our sickness is not unto death,
but for the glory of God, he has an appointed time whenever
he says, come alive. And whenever He says, come alive,
we come alive. This is the only way a sinner
will ever be quickened is if the Son of God, by the power
of His Spirit, calls him from death to life. And listen, all
who are called by Him live by Him and with Him and in Him. That's what we call our calling. Our condition is dead. Our calling
is irresistible. But let's look at what else is
in the life of a child of grace, our conversion. Once we are quickened,
we must be converted. The called will be converted. Now, there is a group of Baptists
who believe that you can be the elect of God because of the legal
work of Christ, but never come to know your salvation in Christ
or even know Christ at all, but because you're elect to be in
heaven. And that's not true. The Bible says, All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. That word come means to believe. Every child of grace that is
called, made alive, will be converted. It means that they will be turned
from the false gospels of this world, the false religions of
this world, the false Jesuses of this world, and be turned
to the one and true God, Jesus Christ, and His gospel. The gospel
of sovereign grace. I'm going to be so bold to say
it's that gospel and no other gospel because that's the gospel
that Jesus preached. If you don't believe me, go sit
in Denny's class. He's been going through the book
of John. In the book of John, Jesus preaches on all five points
of the doctrines of grace. Jesus preached sovereign grace. That's his gospel. That's the
gospel he told the church to go with, to make disciples with
in Matthew. That's the gospel that they went
with and asked whenever they were dispersed. That's the gospel
that Paul, when he came along and started talking to the Gentiles,
preached to the Gentiles. That's the gospel of this Bible.
And whenever one has been called to life, their conversion is
being converted from dead works to Christ alone for salvation.
Look at verse 44. Jesus said that he that was dead
came forth, came alive, came forth, but he was found hand
and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound about
with a napkin. And Jesus said unto them, Loose
him and let him go. That, brethren, is the picture
of our conversion. While we might be made alive,
we must be loosed and let go from those grave clothes of dead
works. What we thought were the things
that made us acceptable before God. Do you think your coming
to church makes you acceptable before God? Well, that's a dead
work. You must be shed of those things. Do you think that your
tithing or that your service in this building is making you
acceptable before God? Well, you need to be shed of
those grave clothes. Do you think your Bible reading, your praying,
you're going through this bad history back here and becoming
a member of this church? is making you acceptable before
God, you need to be shed of those great clothes. There's some conversion
that needs to take place and you need to see that the only
thing that makes you acceptable before God is the work of Jesus
Christ alone imputed to your account. That's the only thing
that makes you righteous. That's the only righteousness
you have. That's why Jesus is called the
Lord Our Righteousness. We in ourselves have no righteousness
No, not one. And all the righteousnesses that
we might think we have are nothing but filthy rags. That's why we
need Jesus. That's why we not only need to
be quickened, made alive so that we can understand spiritual things,
but also that we might be preached the gospel so that we might turn
from those dead works of believing that we can make an acceptance
before God, whether legally or practically. that we make an
acceptance before God and turn and trust Christ alone for our
justification, for our sanctification, for our glorification, for any
other occasion that you might want to make up. Everything is
about Jesus and what He has done. God does not look at you. He looks at Christ. If you be
in Christ, you are His. And if you are His, All spiritual
blessings and heavenly places are yours. Justify, glorify,
sanctify. Your sanctification is complete,
brethren. You are complete in Him. Your justification before
God, there is no more sin. All sin has been wiped clear
of your account. Past, present, future. Now, that's not saying, hey,
go out and sin all you want either. That's not what I'm saying. But
what I'm saying is every sin that you will ever commit or
have ever committed has been covered by the blood of Jesus
Christ. And not one will be brought up before the throne of God.
We have to be converted to that mentality. We have to be loosed
from our grave clothes. Your election and redemption
are made manifest and made sure through your own soul in your
conversion. But that conversion will not
happen but by the act of God's omnipotent mercy and affectionately
calling you. See, you'll never be converted
until you are first quickened. You have to be quickened to be
converted. See, once Lazarus was called
or quickened, his quickening was both immediate and by the
power of God alone, right? He was immediately changed from
death into life. But notice in his conversion,
he was gradually freed from his grave clothes. And sinners, brethren,
that are saved by grace, they may be immediately transformed
into a new creation, as 2 Corinthians 5 tells us. But throughout our
lives, we are being saved gradually from our grave clothes. Our grave
clothes of sin. our gray clothes of unbelief,
our gray clothes of legalism, of self-righteousness, from religious
customs, from traditions of men, from rituals. Matter of fact,
look quickly with me at 2 Corinthians 7. Verse 1. Having therefore these promises,
dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh, and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God.
What does that talk about? Can we make ourselves clean?
Can we make ourselves holy in and of ourselves? What's that
talking about? That's not talking about becoming holy in and of
ourselves. It's talking about putting away
all those things that we think are making us holy. How do we
perfect ourselves in holiness? By faith. How do we cleanse ourselves from
all filthiness of the flesh? By not trying to work and do
for God, but by trusting that Jesus Christ alone is that for
us. That's how we do it. That's how we perfect ourselves
in holiness, is by looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. By looking unto Jesus, who is
the one who has imputed His righteousness unto you. By walking in faith
of what Christ has done. That is how we walk with a clear
conscience before God. So the Savior's command is to
loosen and let go. That's what we do in preaching,
right? What we do in preaching is we teach about the work of
Christ and Christ alone. And as we teach and preach that,
and as the Holy Spirit teaches the child of grace, they learn
that those great clothes that they have binding them up needs
to be loosened and let go. Now, after we see conversion,
we see that there's communion with Christ. Once a child of
grace, whose condition was dead, has been called and has been
converted, there now is communion. The called and converted, they
desire communion with the Lord. In John chapter 12, if you will,
back in our passage, we didn't read this, but it's tacked on
to the rest of the story of Lazarus. In John chapter 12, we pick up
with Lazarus again here, and it says, Then Jesus, six days,
before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which
had been dead, whom he raised from the dead, and there they
made him a supper. And Martha served, but Lazarus
was one of them that sat at the table with him." So here we see
that after his condition of death was called into light, and then
he was converted, that Lazarus communed with the Lord. And that
is also how we spiritually do. We commune with the Lord. Once
we have been converted, we will begin to desire communion with
Christ. Now, how do we commune with Christ?
Well, I think we all know, by studying God's Word, prayer,
by meeting with God's people. See, soon after his resurrection,
Lazarus is found sitting at the table with his Savior. And don't
miss this. I know it sounds kind of trivial,
but the house and the table belong to Lazarus, right? But the master
of the house is Christ. It may be your body. At least
you think it's your body. It may be your life. At least
you think it's your life. But listen, whenever you are
called from death to life, you are converted. The master of
the house is not you, but the Lord. The Lord Jesus. See, Lazarus surrendered it all
to his Lord. Listen, the believing will surrender
their heart to Christ so that they might hold sweet communion
together. Jesus taught us to pray, not as I will, but thy
will be done. Jesus taught us that our dependence
is upon him. See, he's not depending upon
us. We're dependent upon Him. And so we have sweet communion
whenever we come into the house of God. And whenever we hear
the preaching of the Word of God, what does that do? And it's
telling us of who Christ is and what Christ has done. And that
becomes food for us. And we commune with the Lord.
The shepherd is feeding the sheep and the sheep is taking nourishment
from the shepherd. It is experiencing the love and
the care and the nurture of the shepherd. But then we come among
the brethren, we see our fellow sheep, our brothers and sisters
in Christ, and we're seeing what the Lord is doing in their lives,
and the edification that the Lord is doing in their lives. And we have part of that. The
Lord tells us that we are to build each other up, and that
we are to encourage one another, and to love one another, and
to pray for one another, and to help one another, reprove
and rebuke one another. And so we have this relationship,
and there is this communion that takes place once someone is called,
converted, And they have now communion with the Lord Jesus
Christ and his people. Listen, it's a weird thing. It
really is a weird thing for someone to say, well, I'm a Christian
and I don't like to be around God's people and listen to God's
Word. Something is not right there. Because if you are a child
of grace, your spiritual nourishment comes from love. It comes from
the Word of God. It comes from communion with
Christ and with the people of God. And listen, Lazarus wanted
this great communion. He desired this. Yes, this is
my house and everything that's in it. And I should be the head
of the table and the one that everybody is paying attention
to. But listen, this is the Lord. He's the one who has called me.
He is the one who's converted me. And everything's going to
be about Him. I want to commune with Him. Now,
there's one last thing that we experience as a child of grace
that Lazarus experienced before we end. Our condition was dead. We were called to life, we were
converted of the gospel, and we communed with the Lord Jesus
Christ. But listen, for the child of grace, we're also going to
experience conflict. We're gonna experience conflict.
Look at John 12 in verse 9. Most people of the Jews therefore
knew that he was there, and they came not for Jesus' sake only,
but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from
the dead, but the chief priest consulted that they might put
Lazarus to death. Listen, brethren, you're going
to get the most guff from religious people. If you're a child of grace and
you're looking to the gospel of grace alone, preaching the
gospel of grace alone, hoping in the gospel of grace alone,
You're going to get the most guts from people who claim to
be Christians. That's who you're going to get the most guts from.
Look at what I have here. The chief priest consulted that
they might put Lazarus. What did Lazarus do? Lazarus
didn't do nothing. Because that by reason of him,
many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. You see that? Why were they mad?
Because the very fact that Lazarus was brought to life and converted
and commuting with Christ, many people were believing upon Christ.
And they were jealous of that because they were not being converts. They didn't like it because that
goes against the message that they were preaching. That wasn't
right because their churches weren't seeing those people filled
with peace. Someone else's was. They weren't happy because they
didn't They weren't able, as the scriptures say, they weren't
able to glorify in their flesh. Remember Paul, whenever he talked
about the Judaizers, the Judaizers couldn't keep the law either,
but they were trying to press the law upon everybody else.
Why? So that they could glory in their
flesh. Look at all these proselytes that I've made. Is that not,
listen brother, is that not the story of modern Southern Baptist
life today? praise the churches for how many
baptisms we've got. I was watching some of the footage
of the annual meeting and all the stuff kind of going around,
some of my friends and family that are still in the Southern
Baptist stuff. And I'm not here to dawdle on thing-bats. I know
the history here. But whenever I see, whether it's
Southern Baptist or there's any denomination, whenever I see
people saying that We did not have enough baptisms. We've got
to change our mode of operation, and let's start doing this to
get more baptisms. That is not this. That is worldly
men's philosophy of how to make more numbers. They want more
numbers so that they can get more money, so they can have
more programs, so that they can keep their jobs to keep doing
the whole thing over and over and over again. We can't make
anybody a child of grace. We can't make anybody a recipient
to be baptized or a prospect to be baptized. There's going
to be conflict whenever you preach the truth of God's Word, whether
it be of the gospel or whether it be of the ecclesiastical aspects
of things, how churches work. You're going to get conflict.
Lazarus here was found in the middle of conflict, and men were
trying to kill him, merely because Christ saved him, he believed
on Christ, he was being converted, he was commuting with Christ,
and men hated that. Because of Lazarus, many others
believed, but the Jews sought to kill him because he had been
raised from the dead, and that's it. He'd been raised from the
dead. He'd been a blessed recipient
of God's great grace, and they had not been. Therefore, they
sought to kill him. Now, brethren, this is the last
that we hear of Lazarus in the word of God. His life with Christ
was a life of unceasing conflict left in the world. We don't know
what happened after this with Lazarus. But brethren, all who believe
will find it so with them. That is the way that it was in
the beginning. And that's the way that it shall be until the
end. There's always going to be conflict in this world. In Genesis chapter four and verse
seven, the Lord said unto Cain, if your worship is evil, sin
lies at the door of your guilty conscience still tormenting you.
Abel's love for you has not changed. He still desires you as a brother.
He still respects you as an elder brother, as the firstborn of
your father, but still Cain murdered Abel. Why? Because Abel was accepted
and Cain wasn't. Abel believed God, and Cain,
trusting in his own righteousness, was still guilty before God,
and he knew it. Abel was chosen. Abel was redeemed. Being chosen and redeemed, and
Abel was then called. And because he was called, Abel
believed. And because Abel believed, Abel
was justified. Not because he believed, but
that showed that he believed. And so justified in Christ, Abel
was accepted and his conscience was clear before God, but Cain's
wasn't. And Cain had conflict with Abel. And brethren, listen, it hasn't
changed clear down until today. There's always going to be a
conflict between the spirit and the flesh. There's always going
to be conflict between Jacob and Esau. There's always going
to be conflict between the seed of the woman and the seed of
the serpent. It has been said throughout all
history, Jesus declared the very thing. We have seen it in the
lives of Jesus. We've seen it in the lives of
all of his apostles. And I bet if I was to take a
vote here, we've probably seen it in the lives of a lot of you
as well. And I just pray that you might understand that that
is the life that we see Lazarus being an example. But brethren,
we praise the Lord that even though that we might have experienced
this conflict, we thank the Lord that we have been brought from
the dead condition and called, converted, and that we can commune
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And that even through conflict,
he can give us power to overcome. He has made us overcomers. There
is nothing that's gonna keep us from being with him. He will
never leave us nor forsake us. His grace is sufficient for everything
that we have need of. And listen, in this country,
if it keeps going the way that it seems to be going, say the
Lord changed what's happening here, we're gonna see a lot of
conflict as Christians. And so I pray that the Lord will
keep this in your mind, that there's nothing new for the child
of grace. It's everyone's life. And so, uh, how we trust in the
Lord, uh, we, we look to him for our, uh, for our hope and
our sustaining grace. Amen. All right, let's bow and
have a word prayer. Gracious heavenly father, we
come to you now and we thank you so much for Christ Jesus.
We thank you for life. We thank you for conversion,
for the gospel that teaches us of your salvation. We thank you,
Father, for the communion that we have with you. To be able
to actually come and to have communion with a Holy God as
unprofitable servants, Lord, is just a grace and a mercy beyond
our fathom. But Father, we stand here today
humbled by the fact that we have been called by you, that we've
been graced today with the grace that we stand in, Lord. We surely
can't stand in our own conditional works But father, we stand in
grace and we give praise and honor to you. Our lips should
not even utter your name, but yet because you have saved us
and you have called us and converted us and that you've given your
spirit to dwell within us and called us your children, we can
cry out of a father. We can call out to you and that
we can come boldly before your throne of grace and make our
petitions known to you father. And that if it be in your will,
if we pray in your name, Lord, you have promised that you will
give us the things that we have prayed for according to your
will. And we ask Lord, even today, that our friends and our family,
we ask Lord that you might save them, that you might bring them
into conversion, that you might give them the knowledge of their
salvation, Father, if that be true. Lord, we pray for the church
here. We ask Lord that you bring other
members here to join in in the labors of the gospel. We pray
Lord that you would give them a pastor whose heart is not only
for the people, but for the Word of God to declare faithfully
and unashamedly the Word of God here. And Father Lord, we just
pray that you just might continue your witness here in Delaware,
in this community, in this county, surrounding areas, Father. We
just pray that these brothers and sisters have been strengthened
in the faith today by your Word, and that the Spirit of God has
taught them today that they've been edified and built up, and
that this week, Lord, as they leave here, they might be filled
with joy and gladness in the Lord, and that they might share
that testimony of what Christ has done to others that they
are around. Lord, we just ask again that
you just might continue to be with this church. The blessing,
Father, and we ask it all in Christ's name, amen.