John chapter 11. I'll be reading, starting in verse
1, and we'll pretty much be reading whole chapter, we're gonna read
down to verse 40, 45. Then we're gonna be looking at some verses
in chapter 12. John chapter 11, let's bow and
ask the Lord to bless this service. Heavenly Father, we come to you
this morning and we thank you so much for your mercy, for the
grace that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for
life. We thank you for being born of God. We thank you for
forgiveness of sin. We thank you father for, uh,
the way that you have taken sinful man and that you have given him
life, uh, that you've given him eternity. Lord, we thank you
for that. But more than anything, father,
we thank you that you have made us one with our Lord Christ Jesus. We cannot fathom, uh, being joint
heirs with the Lord Jesus Christ. He who is perfect, He who is
God Himself, being one with Him, being an heir equal to Him. Father, we surely are not worthy
of that. We know. But Father, by grace,
You have condescended to man and You have given him salvation.
And we are thankful to be a part of that. And Lord, we just pray
that You might forever remind us of that through Your Word
as we preach it. as we proclaim it, as we live
it daily to those that we are around. And Father, we just are
grateful for the word of God that teaches us these things
and the spirit of God that makes those things known and the understanding
of it being given to us. And so we ask this morning, Lord,
that you would come by your Holy spirit and be with us in our
worship, that you would be with us in our listening, that it
might empower us to hear and to understand the things that
you've given us in the message. And Lord, we pray that you might
speak through your word this morning, Lord, and teach us these
things that you would have us to know, and all these things
to glorify our savior, Jesus Christ. Help me now to deliver
the message, Father. I pray that you'd give me the
words to say that you'd keep me from error, and we ask it
all in Christ's name. Amen. John chapter 11. starting in verse one. This is
now a certain man was sick and. The Holy Spirit doesn't just
throw words in for nothing. It was a certain man. There was
a certain man. This man was being. He was being. This is Jesus was coming through
in his ministry. What was taking place with Lazarus
was to a certain man. It was picked out. He was chosen
of God for this very purpose, predestined for this very display
that we're fixing to read here, a certain man. It wasn't just
any old man. It didn't happen by happenstance.
You know, it wasn't by mere chance that this happened. This was
a certain man, a particular man. Now, a certain man was sick named
Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped
his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore,
his sister sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest
is sick. Now also pay close attention
that that certain man was loved of the Lord. The Lord loves his
particular people and his particular people only. Uh, but notice he
loved this certain man, but we'll see how this unfolds here in
a minute. When Jesus heard that he said, the sickness is not
unto death. Now this is kind of weird because
Lazarus surely dies, right? But there's going to be something
that takes place. Something that happens though.
He died. He does not die. And we're gonna tie this in now.
We're talking about, we're reading something, I want you to keep
this in mind before I read any further. Keep in mind, we are
talking about a physical thing that really happened, okay? This
really happened. But while this is a physical
thing that really happened, there is a very important spiritual
teaching behind what we're about to see here. says this sickness
is not in the death, but for the glory of God, that the son
of God might be glorified thereby. Now Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus. When he had heard therefore that
he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where
he was. So he didn't go right away quickly.
He went ahead and stayed behind. Then after that, saith he to
his disciples, let us go into Judea again. His disciples say
unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone 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. Now notice, he has
to go. to awake out of the sleep. He
didn't send his disciples to send him, to awaken him out of
the sleep. He had to go. Then said the disciples, Lord,
if you sleep, he shall do well. How be it Jesus spake of his
death, but they thought he had spoken of taking a rest and sleep.
Then said Jesus under them plainly, Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes, that
I was not there. to me just seems weird for Jesus
to say. And for most religion, it is
an offense for Jesus to say. Jesus wants everybody to be healthy,
wealthy, and, you know, alive, right? And Jesus here said, I'm
glad that Lazarus is dead for your sakes. There was a purpose
behind this, right? For your sakes that I was not
there to the intent you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go unto
him. Then said Thomas, which is called
Didymus unto his fellow disciples, let us also go, that we may die
with him. Then 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 in
the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus,
Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died, but
I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will
give it 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.
See, Martha had her theology correct. She knew that there
was a resurrection. She knew that Christ was going to resurrect
all his people at the end time. So even here before Jesus' death,
they knew the gospel. The gospel had been preached
to these people. The Old Testament people had been preached the
gospel. Now, granted, it was veiled to them. They didn't have
it in its fullest understanding like we have now. but they were
preached the gospel. They knew of a Messiah that was
going to come and going to take their place and going to make
provision for their sin. And in the end was going to resurrect
them. They knew the gospel. Okay. And Martha knew the gospel, but she didn't know all of the
gospel in his fullness. 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. Believeth thou this? Now, that's
not a condition there, brethren. Verse 26 is not a condition.
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me is not the condition to
live. That's just a statement of fact. Whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die. That is the statement of fact
for those who are the whosoevers. The whosoevers are the ones who
are alive and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And they are
the ones who have been given eternal life and they shall never
die. That's what John 3, 16 said, right? God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son so that the giving of the
only begotten son was so that those believing ones should not
perish but have everlasting life. Even in that itself, that was
not a, Condition, it's not a condition, it's a statement of fact of who
we are and why we are. Verse 27, she said unto him,
yea, Lord, I believe that thou art Christ, the son of God, which
should come into the world. Now we know that Martha was a
believer here because the Bible says that those who don't believe,
those who are not believers does not believe that Jesus is the
son of God. She believed that Jesus was the son of God. And when he had said so, when she had said so, when she had
so said, she went her way and called Mary her sister secretly
saying, the master has come and calleth for thee. And soon as
she heard that, she arose quickly and came unto him. Now Jesus
was not yet coming to 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
thee. 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 had not died. Now both sisters knew that
Jesus had the power to resurrect or keep her brothers, or keep
her brother from dying. They knew he could have healed.
They've seen him healed. All through his ministry, he's
been healing people, right? So they know he could have healed him.
But this is the first time that we see that Jesus is gonna do
something more than just healing a sick person, right? When Jesus
therefore saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping, which
came with her, he groaned in his spirit and was troubled and
said, where have you laid him? And they said unto him, Lord,
come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews,
behold, how he loved him. Listen, brethren, don't ever
mistake the fact Though we talk about God and His sovereignty,
we talk about God and His holiness and His righteousness, His wrath,
all the things that we talk about and how God is so much higher
than us, He loves those certain men. He loves His people. He loves them with an everlasting
love. And He truly loved Lazarus. He loved him. He loved Mary.
He loved Martha. He loved these people. Not just
in an eternal, salvific way, but even now as man, he had a
strong love for these people in a relational way. They had
a relationship together, and Jesus loved them. 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, he engroning in himself, cometh to the grave, It was a
cave and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, take ye away the
stone. Martha, the sister of him that
was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for
he had been dead four days. Jesus said unto her, said I not unto thee that if
thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest 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 it, that they may believe that
thou hast sent me." Now see, Jesus here, whatever Jesus wants,
he's going to give because he's God. OK, he's showing he is showing
forth and manifesting to us the relationship of how we are to
God, how we are to him. And so he as God, but yet manifested
in that flesh is showing what the relationship is to that invisible
God that we don't know and don't see. We see Jesus made a little
lower than the angels submitting himself and showing how we ought
to be to God, giving all praise to God, giving all glory to God,
knowing that God is capable of all these things, praying to
God, and whenever He asks in God's will, He gets it. Of course,
Jesus asks everything in God's will, right? Because it's His
will. It's Jesus' will. There ain't a will, you know,
there ain't a bunch of wills. There's only one will, and it's
His will. But yet, He's showing to us this very thing. And Jesus
is doing this whole entire thing, this whole scenario, Jesus is
doing for their benefit that they might believe. It says that when he had thus
had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth. And
he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes.
And his face was bound about with a napkin. And Jesus said
to him, loose him and let him go. Then many of the Jews which
came to Mary and have seen the things which Jesus did, believed
on him. Now, brother, what I'd like to
talk to you about this morning, what a great story this is, a
beautiful story, what Christ did with Lazarus. But listen,
this here is the story of every child of grace. This is a story
of us. This is a picture of us and our
salvation and our, I should say, our experience of salvation. And what I'd like to speak particularly
on is the effectual call this morning. But it goes beyond that
because the effectual call is just basically the beginning
of where our experience of our salvation takes place. See, there's other things that
take place spiritually in our walk of salvation, our experience
of salvation. See, we were saved before the
foundation of the world. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 1-9,
it says that we were saved and called according to His purpose
and grace which He had given us in Christ Jesus before the
world began. See, our salvation was already
given to us, was already declared unto us, was already a sure thing,
legally given. before the foundation of the
world, but was made manifest by the appearing of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ, who had abolished sin and death and
had brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
See, the gospel is preached to tell us about what was already
taking place in eternity. But that making manifest, that
bringing to light, that preaching of the gospel Something has to
happen before even that can be done. And that is the effectual
call of God. The effectual call of God must
take place first before the hearing and conversion of the gospel.
And that's what we see in this picture before us in John 11. The effectual call is a theological
term. We use it all the time whenever
guys are debating junk. We talk about the effectual call.
That word is not in the word of God and you can use it or
not use it. It doesn't make any, no difference
how you use it. I use the word quickening is
the word that I use, but for intense purposes here. So people know what I'm talking
about. The effectual call, the irresistible grace, we call it
irresistible grace of God. But what is it? Well, it's the
tender influence of God upon the heart. It's the overpowering
love of God to the heart, where we who are dead in trespasses
and sins, whose heart is stone, the Lord in grace removes that
heart and puts in a heart of flesh. He gives us life, okay? The effectual call is that point
in time where the Holy Spirit comes and gives life, spiritual
life, to the dead, spiritually dead sinner. That's the effectual
call. God calling into life, calling
us out of darkness into light, calling us from death unto life. We are dead in trespasses and
sin. He calls us into life. That's the effectual call. Now,
why do we make that distinction, effectual call? Well, I mean,
why don't we just say it's a call of God? Well, that's because
we understand in scripture that there are different calls, right?
We know that in 2 Timothy 1, 9, that that call was before
the foundation of the world. I would call that call is election.
God elected us. That's him calling us to himself
as a people who has saved us and called us with a holy calling. That holy calling was that election
of God before the foundation of the world. But we see that
there's also a call of the gospel that goes out and we preach the
gospel. Come unto me all ye who are weary and heavy laden, I'll
give you rest. That call, everybody here, by
their ears, hears that. But that call can't do anything
in here. It can't do anything in here. See, the effectual call and the
reason we call it and differentiate that is because this effectual
call is exactly what it says. It's effectual. It doesn't miss. It doesn't fail. This call. To come to life, it's a call
to come to life. It's not a call to believe. It's
not a call to repent that comes later, but this call is a call
to come to life. And whenever Jesus calls to life,
That person comes alive. It's effectual. It's not a proposition. It's not a condition. It is something that will take
place. And so that's why we call it
effectual call. Now, there's some things I want
us to see in this passage here. First of all, and like I said,
this is an example of every child of grace and how we experience
our salvation. The first thing we want to look
at is Lazarus and his condition are the child of grace in our
condition. What is our condition? Look with me if you would, verse
40 or 14. Jesus here, I mean, just bluntly,
clearly says Lazarus is dead. Brethren, that is the state of
all human beings by nature. Dead. We are dead. completely dead, spiritually
dead. That's how we come into this world, spiritually dead. We are created in the natural,
just like our father Adam. With no spirit alive, with no
propensity for holiness, we cannot please God. Why? Because we are
of the earth earthy. That's how we are. That's our
nature. And so we are dead in trespasses and sins. Now Adam
surely brought sin and death into the world and so those sins
that we now commit that make us worthy of death, those sins
that are upon us came because of Adam. By one man's sin entered
into the world and death by sin. Wages of sin is death, right? And so that came by Adam, but
don't be mistaken, that before Adam manifested that sin, that
nature was already there. That nature was already there.
He already had that, but it waited to be manifest. Matter of fact,
we see in Romans chapter five, that the Bible says that the
law came in so that the offense might abound. See, it wasn't
until the law came in, see the law came in to manifest the inability
of Adam. And so it is with every child
of grace. Every one of us has that ability. Every one of these
children and every one of us, whenever we are born, we come
in, we always talk about the innocency of children and how
they're so precious and so innocent and things like that. Brethren,
when they come into the world, they come in with that nature. The
nature that cannot keep God's law. So that means that they
come into this world in such a way that they cannot hit the
mark. That's what sin is, right? They
cannot hit the mark. Even though they look precious,
even though they look innocent, even though they seem to be such,
they are by nature in need of redemption. And so with that, we see that
we are dead in trespasses and sin. We are by nature dead. And because of that, That nature
will manifest itself. As surely as the law comes in,
you can see that in children. You tell the children, don't
do that. What do they do? They do that. You see that some kid takes their
toy, what are they going to do? They're going to go over and
slap that kid in the head and take the toy back, right? They're
going to manifest that nature. Lazarus manifested the death
that he had. He ceased to be. There was no
life in him. He was a corpse. He was there
and he couldn't do nothing about it. He couldn't raise himself
from the dead. We can't raise ourselves from
the dead. Our condition is dead. And if you're dead, you have
no hope. There is no hope for you if you're
dead. Once you die, you're dead. The only hope that we have is
if somebody comes along and raises you back to life. That's the
only hope you have. Whether it's physical or whether
it's spiritual, the only hope you have in this life, physically,
if you die, is somebody there to give you CPR that might be
able to bring you back. But even at that, whenever the
brainwaves stop, whenever the heartbeat stops, whenever the
blood quits flowing and the air stops pumping, guess what? There's no hope for you even
with choppers. There's no hope for you. unless
someone resurrects you from the dead. See, this is showing us
that our condition is completely and totally dead. We are dead. Lazarus didn't have any hope.
He was dead. Four days they mourned for Lazarus.
The people mourning for Lazarus did not bring Lazarus back alive.
No matter how much his family loved him, didn't bring Lazarus
back alive. Same thing in the spiritual realm. People can mourn
for you and pray for you all they want, but unless God gives
somebody life, they will not be brought to life. You can love
somebody all you want, raise them up in the church, raise
them up under the gospel, but that doesn't give them life.
Only Jesus can give them life. Only Christ can give life. Our
condition is dead. We need someone who can resurrect
dead people to effectually call us. So our condition is dead. Dead
men cannot move towards God. Dead men cannot and will not
have the ability to come to Christ. Dead men does not have a desire
for God's salvation. Dead men cannot even see their
need for salvation. Why? Because we're all by nature
self-righteous. We think that we have something
before God that we can do that will make us acceptable to God.
And if you don't believe me, just look, what is the world?
Not even religious people, unreligious people, what is their default
position as far as after death? They believe, well, we're all
going to heaven. Watch all the movies. Everybody
that dies goes to heaven. Nobody goes to hell in any movie.
Unless it's some horror movie or something like that. that
likes to glorify death and hell, but you, you, you, you talk to
anybody, they're going to heaven. They're loved one. Listen, I've
said on and on funerals of people that wasn't Christians. And a
lot of people preach them into heaven. They go to heaven. Everybody
goes to heaven. And what is their idea of that? Well, he was a
good person. And what do they do? They sit there at the pulpit
in front of all the grieving loved ones, and what do they
do? They write off the list of all the things that they did
in this life that was so wonderful. But what if we unraveled all
the things in this life that they did that wasn't wonderful? That list would be way more longer
than the list of good things. But yet, in our minds, what do
we do? We try to justify ourselves by our self-righteousness. Well,
brethren, That isn't how it works. And here, people being loved,
being mourned for, being cared for, doesn't bring anybody back
to life. Only the one who can give life
can bring somebody back to life. See, the dead cannot understand.
The dead must be raised from death to life by the power of
God. The resurrection is the new birth. This is the first resurrection.
This is the quickening that we experience in the new birth.
Turn with me, if you would, back just a couple of pages in your
Bible to John chapter 5. John chapter 5 and verse 25. The Bible 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." Now, I've heard some guys say, well, that's talking about
the spiritual resurrection. Some are saying, well, that's
the physical resurrection. I say it's both. And I'll tell you
why I believe it's both, because the Bible here puts it in contact
as both. He is speaking of both. Not only
must he physically be the one to resurrect, and only he's going
to be the one who resurrects, but spiritually. He's gonna be
the only one that can resurrect. Look at verse 24. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him
that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into
condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. That is speaking
of the spiritual birth. That is coming spiritually alive.
Jesus is talking about something that happens in this lifetime,
at this point in time, when someone is being brought from spiritual
death to spiritual life. That's the context of the passage,
verse 25. Go down here at verse 28, or
excuse me, 27. And have given him authority.
Well, let's read 26, just to go on. For as a father hath life
in himself, so hath he given to the son to have life in himself
and have given him authority to execute judgment also because
he is the son of man. Marvel not at this, for the hour
is coming in which all that are in the grave shall hear his voice. and shall come forth, and they
that have done good under the resurrection of life, they that
have done evil under the resurrection of damnation." So also in view
of this is the actual physical resurrection of the body. And
who is the one who gives that in both cases? It's the Son of
Man. It's Jesus. Jesus gives spiritual
life, and Jesus will give physical life. Jesus is who it's all about,
brethren. Men can't do that. And listen,
I tell you what, let's look at a couple more. Revelation chapter
20. Verse six. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection. On such, the second death hath
no power. But they shall be priest of God
and of Christ and shall reign with him a thousand years. We won't talk about the thousand
years. We've got one among us who may not agree. Just kidding. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in the first resurrection. Did you hear what the Bible just
said about you? Blessed and holy. You say, well,
wait a minute. I don't see myself as holy. I
continue to sin. We do. We continue to sin. But
brethren, in the sight of God, where our name is written in
the book of life, in that ledger is written, holy, righteous,
not a little righteous, not a little holy, as holy as Jesus, as righteous
as Jesus. Blessed and holy is he that had
part in that first resurrection. Praise the Lord that we have
been resurrected spiritually. Now that's our condition before.
Before us today is our deadness. We are dead in trespasses and
sin, but notice if you would. Back in our passage in John 11
verse three. Jesus said, but for the glory
of God, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory
of God, that the son of God might be glorified thereby. When Adam sinned and brought
sin and death into the world, that sickness was not unto death,
but for the glory of God. Now for the reprobate, death, while we in that one lump
coming out of Adam being just like Thad, who our nature, we
were by nature children of wrath, just as others, who walked according
to the course of this world after the prince, the power of the
air, we being just like Thad, the same lump, Adam, came with
that nature that could not please God, that could not do anything
towards God, could not do anything spiritual. Okay. That even though
we were of that same lump, as we, as we talked about the last
few weeks ago about these two scenes that we see throughout
scripture, the children of God, though, that sickness was not
unto death. For the reprobate, that's all
it is for them. That's all it is. They were created as vessels
of wrath for destruction. But for the child of grace, they
were put in that place for the glory of God in resurrection,
in redemption, is to show forth the glory of God that even though
these people were just like these people, something happened to
these people, but these people couldn't do for themselves. But
this was done for these people to show forth the glory of God. It was for the glory of God that
the sons of God might be glorified thereby. Yes, the fall was predestined
by God. Yes, the fall was desired by
God to happen. Adam's fall into sin and death
was desired of God. That's why God, whenever he told
Adam that in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die.
That's a statement of fact. That wasn't a condition again.
It was a statement of fact. He didn't say, if thou eatest
thereof, he said, in the day thou eatest thereof, thou shalt
surely die. You probably think what Adam
was thinking whenever Jesus, or whenever Jesus, I believe
it was Jesus, but when Jesus said that to him, he probably
thought, well, all right, you're telling me not to eat, but now
you're telling me that I will eat. That's exactly what was
taking place. God was telling him exactly what
was about to happen. But see, that whole thing as
evil as it was. I mean, you think about that.
Adam plunged everybody into sin and death. That was bad. But
what ye meant for evil, God meant for good. See, that principle
applies all throughout the scripture, not just with Joseph. It applies
here as well. The condition of our deadness
was for the glory of God. The condition of Lazarus' deadness
was for the glory of God. And the reason that Jesus didn't
go healing before he died was so that he would die for God's
glory. You ever thought about that?
That maybe somebody's death is for the glory of God? Second, let's look at something
else. We not only see his condition, which is dead, but we see his
calling. Look at verse 43. It said, and when he had thus
had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth. Now, like I said, we preach the
gospel to everybody and everybody hears that gospel, right? But
we're talking about here. What did Jesus say? He said,
Lazarus come forth. Now there's a little thing that
preachers use whenever they preach on this that I'm sure JC's even
used before in preaching that says, you know why he said Lazarus
come forth? Because if he would have just
said come forth and everybody would have came out of the graves,
right? And I don't doubt that. One of these days, he's going
to say come forth and all people, quick and the dead, are going
to come forth out of the graves. They are going to come forth. But notice he says Lazarus come
forth. This was not just a general call. This was a particular call. Personal call. The brethren,
it was a powerful call. It was an irresistible call.
A distinguishing call, but a very effectual call. Lazarus didn't
just hang out there and know As the memes that go around Facebook,
you know, show Jesus didn't say Lazarus come forth and Lazarus
go, all right, Lord, by my will, I'm going to let you resurrect
me from the dead. All right. Lazarus was dead. He didn't hear
anything. Like I said, the morning, the
crying, the begging, the pleading to come back to life. He didn't
hear that, but he did hear come forth. He heard come forth. See, the only way any sinner
will be quickened is if the Son of God, by the power of the Holy
Spirit, calls him from death to life. All who are called by
Him live by Him. All who are called by Him live
with Him and in Him. The Bible says that we live and
move and have our being in Christ Jesus. He is the source of all
life. In him is life. I am the way,
the truth and the life. So he is life. And whenever he
gives the command to come forth, life comes alive, so to speak. Life comes alive. And so we see
that his condition was dead, but whenever the call is given,
his calling was come forth and he came alive. Listen, brethren,
in our spiritual quickening, whenever we are brought to life,
we are brought to life by the immediate power of the Holy Spirit
alone. Now, with that being said, your
preacher preaching the gospel to you did not make you come
alive. You reading your Bible didn't make you come alive. You
hearing some evangelist on the, on the radio or at some convention,
you know, didn't make you come alive. You repeating some words
after somebody didn't make you come alive. Your faith, your
repentance didn't make you come alive. You going under the water
in baptism doesn't make you come alive. You came alive whenever
Jesus said, come forth. That's when you came alive. That's
when you came alive. Now, there is a difference between
quickening or calling. in conversion. And we make that
distinction theologically, right? We say that there's a difference
in being born again and being converted. There's a difference
there. And there are some of us, and not a great huge amount
of people, but there are some of us that believe that there
can actually be a little bit of a gap of time in between the
two. Being born of God, being quickened,
and being converted. So let's look at his conversion.
We see this in the live. Again, Lazarus is a perfect example. It shows every part of the Christian's
experience of salvation. His condition, being dead, his
calling, that effectual call, and now his conversion. We see
that his conversion is here. Look at verse 44. And he that
was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes,
And his face was bound about with a napkin. And Jesus said
unto him, again, this came by Jesus's command as well, loose
him and let him go. See, even though, even though
Lazarus was alive, he still had some things binding him up, right?
He wasn't able to just get right out and started walking in the
following. He had to be loosed and let go. Those grave clothes
had to be taken off of him. Now, I believe, even though I
believe in immediate spirit regeneration, that's what they call it. Now,
I don't like the word regeneration. I don't think that this is the
word that we ought to use, quickening. But immediate spirit quickening, I believe that everyone who is
quickened will be converted. Everyone who is bought by blood, legally saved, elected of God
will be converted. Now there is a, there is a segment
of belief among our brethren that believes that you can be
eternally saved, but not experientially saved or saved in time. that
you could go your whole entire life and never come to know Jesus
and never believe on Jesus. But yet, because you were elect,
you're gonna be in heaven. I do not believe that the Bible
teaches that. I believe that is erroneous. The Bible says
that all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And in that
context of that passage, Jesus equates coming with believing. The word come there is believe.
All that the Father giveth me shall be leave on me. So I believe that everybody will
know who Jesus is and will come to Jesus in spiritual faith,
not natural faith, but in spiritual faith that looks to the imputed
righteousness, the sovereign three grace of God alone, however
you wanna put it, the true gospel. They're gonna come, they will
come. Like the workers, some may come
early, some may come in the middle, some may come late, but they're
all going to get the same reward. So in this conversion, your election
and redemption, those are things that you didn't see that happened
before you were even born. They're made manifest and made
sure to your soul in your conversion. That's what being converted is.
I'm converted from my wrong thinking about I can get to God by my
own self-righteousness, by my own works, by my own ability,
by my own goodness. We're converted from that to
trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for our salvation. And
that comes only by the teaching of the Holy Spirit. And that
teaching of the Holy Spirit can only be done if one has been
called and given life because a dead man can't do those things.
See, so conversion is separate from quickening in the fact that
quickening has to precede conversion. You cannot be converted from
one wrong thinking to one right thinking unless one has been
made spiritually alive first because both of these things
are spiritual matters. To know spiritually that I am
unrighteous and to know that only His righteousness is counted
is a spiritual matter. And the Bible says the natural
man can't perceive the things of the Spirit of God, nor can
he know Him. But we've been given the mind of God, we've been given
the Spirit of God. Why? So that we might know what
has been freely given to us. Not earned, freely given to us. See, conversion takes place after
we've been quickened. Lazarus, after he was brought
alive, had to be undone from all those dead, wrapped clothes.
So do we. We've been given spiritual life
and now we are tuned to spiritual things. We are attentive to spiritual
things. We can now receive spiritual
teaching. But we have to slowly be rid
of the things that tradition has taught us, the things that
religion has taught us, the things that our unrighteous thoughts
have taught us, that our old man Adam continues to grasp for. We have to be Slowly done. So
slowly the Lord teaches us and we grow in the grace and the
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. And how he has been our substitute,
how he has been our savior, how he has been our righteousness.
And as we learn these things, we become less and less dependent
upon the arm of flesh and more and more dependent upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. We see ourselves for how Paul
said, O wretched man that I am. And we see Christ as who He is.
That's our conversion. And just like Lazarus having
to be unwrapped from that, we have to be unwrapped from our
grave clothes, those dead works. See, that's what we're saved.
We're saved unto good works, but we're saved from dead works.
See, that's what we repent of. We repent of dead works, those
things that were of self-righteousness. And that's what happens in conversion.
He was called Lazarus, was quickened, and his quickening was both immediate
and by God's power alone. And he was immediately changed
from death to life. But in his conversion, he was
gradually freed from his grave clothes. And sinners, saved by
grace, are immediately transformed into a new creation. But we must
also be changed. Look, if you would, with me at
2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. And if I'm not mistaken, that's
in the present perfect tense. It has become new and continues
to become new. We are growing in the grace and
knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are seeing more and more who
we are in Christ Jesus. We are looking unto Jesus, the
author and the finisher of our faith for everything in our life,
not just for the legal salvation, but for the experiential walk
before God. We look to him for all things. The Savior's command is loosened
and let him go. And I believe that happens just
as fervently as the call to come forth happens. We talked about
a few weeks ago. We talked that Jesus is the source
of our obedience, that he promised that he would sustain us, that
he would keep us, that he would cause us to persevere through
his preserving us. So we just rest in him, right?
We abide in him. It's not a condition. Abiding
is not a condition. That's something that we are,
we do. Why? Because we've been put into the
vine. And all the branch does is just
abide. And the life flows through that branch and produces fruit,
not at the work of the branch, but at the life of the vine flowing
through. And all the branch does is just
abide. See, all we do is rest in Christ. And listen, that life,
it comes out and produces fruit. The grave clothes comes off just
as sure as the call to come forth does. It will happen. He will
do that. The problem is, is that we get
too impatient and we start pressing upon others. You need to hurry
up and get up to my level. You need to hurry up and do it
the way I think you ought to do it. You need to have all the same
knowledge that I have. Ever hear that? You ever see people like
that? So in our look here, we see that
there is a calling, we see, or excuse me, that there is a condition,
then there is a calling, there is a conversion, but what's the
next step that we experience in our Christian life that Lazarus
shows here? Well, look with me, if you would,
back in John, but look over in John chapter 12. The called and the converted.
Then began to desire communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. Look
at John chapter 12 verses one and two. 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. See, it wasn't long after Lazarus'
resurrection, he's found now sitting at the table of Jesus.
Can you imagine all those people that were sitting there with
him? And even Lazarus himself, his thoughts were, but everybody
that was sitting there with him, looking over the table of Lazarus
and thinking, just a few days ago, this guy was dead. And here
he is sitting at the table with us, eating. All of us probably
wish that for one of our loved ones. How weird would that be
for one of our loved ones that's passed away? to all of a sudden
tomorrow they're eating dinner with us again. That'd be awesome,
wouldn't it? But can you imagine the spectacle
that it caused? And it did cause a spectacle.
I mean, we see that. We'll see that here in just a
second. But notice here, there was some communion there. Now, this was Lazarus' house,
right? But notice if you would, even
though it was Lazarus' house, Who had been made the master
of the house? It was Christ. See, the fellowship was with
Christ. See, Christ didn't, see, it says, then Jesus, six days
before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, which
had been dead. There they made him a supper. They made him,
they made Jesus the supper. See, it was their house, but they made Jesus the supper.
They communed with Jesus. They went to him for communion. Now, surely Jesus came to them
for communion as well. But who do they go to commune
with? They went to Christ. Brethren, as children of grace,
where do we go? We go to the Word of God. We
go to Christ for our communion. Jesus said he equates himself
and the Word of God as bread. We come, man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceeded from the mouth
of God. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. If you eat of
me, you'll never be hungry. See our communion. And that's
why we have bread and wine in the Lord's supper that Jesus
instituted those things to show forth these pictures that his,
the bread is his body. The wine is his blood. And what he did is what feeds
us. See, we go to Christ for our
communion. That's what we feed on. Listen,
we don't feed ourselves on secular thinking. We don't feed ourselves
on secular and the wisdom of men, on secular understanding. Our self-help books. You know,
I mentioned those in our messages a few weeks ago, that you go
to a bookstore nowadays and there is 150,000 books on how you can
do it yourself. And very many theology books.
The section of theology is probably two or three rows long and high,
if that, you know, that speaks of God and who God is and what
God has done. But it's all about you and how
you can make your life better by taking the means that God
has given you, the Bible and church and people and all that
kind of stuff. And you can make your life more happy that way,
more fruitful, more productive. And like I mentioned in, you
know, the Abide in Me message, we can make ourselves abide in
Christ by living these certain ways. Listen, brethren, it's
spiritual life, and that life flows from Him. But listen, one
of the things that spiritual life does is it feeds off of
Him too. The branch feeds off the vine.
It gets its nourishment from the vine. It doesn't get its
nourishment in other places. And so we should be desiring
the communion with the Lord and with our Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
lastly, I want us to see the last part of what we see in our
Christian walk. And Lazarus even shows this for
us as well. Look in chapter 12, verse 9. It says most people of the Jews
therefore knew that he was there and they came not speaking of
Lazarus, and they came not for Jesus sake only. But that they
might see Lazarus also whom he had raised from the dead. Again,
like I said, it caused a spectacle. People came. But the chief priest
consulted that they might put Lazarus to death because that
by reason of him, many of the Jews went away and believed on
Jesus. See, the next thing we see is
our condition was dead. We see that we've been called
of God. We've been converted of God. We commune with God. But whenever we do, brethren,
there's going to be conflict because of God. There's going
to be conflict because of God. Lazarus came into great conflict
because of what God had done to Lazarus. We are going to experience the
same thing. See, they wanted to kill Lazarus because Jesus
raised him from the dead. They're going to be people that
hate us because Jesus has raised us from the dead. They're not
going to like us. They're not going to agree with
us. They're going to ridicule us. See, Lazarus had been a recipient
of God's grace, but they hadn't. Some people are gonna be mad
at that. Whenever we preach election, predestination, things like that,
people are gonna get really mad, especially religious people,
just like here. Who were the ones that got the
most mad? It was the religious people. Why? They couldn't do
something that Jesus did. What do you mean by that, preacher?
Religious people think they can bring people to life. Religious
people think they can keep people alive. Religious people think
that they can make people holy. Am I wrong? Is that not what
is being preached in churches all over the world today? Preachers
think that they can, because of their preaching, that they're
making people born again. That they think that by their
preaching, that they're sustaining the people's spiritual life.
That by their preaching, that they're making people more and
more progressively holier. But see, that's something that
only Jesus can do. That's something only Jesus can do. And because
of that, people get mad. That's the age
old story. I can't do it for myself. You
mean I have to rely on somebody else? That is foreign to our
nature. See, this is the very last thing
that we hear of Lazarus in the scriptures. And so all that we
can really kind of assume from that is that that was Lazarus'
lot until the day he finally died again. I mean, they tried
to kill him. If they tried to kill him then,
I'm sure they tried to kill him later. And we don't know, the
Bible hasn't given us any word whether or not they may have
killed him. We don't know. But we know one thing, there
was conflict. Listen, brethren, all who believe
will find it so within. We see that from the very beginning.
Cain killed Abel. Why did Cain kill Abel? In Genesis
4, verse 7, the Bible says, Lord speaking to 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 is your brother. He desires you as your brother.
He respects you as his elder brother, as the firstborn of
your father. See, we love those who hate us, but they hate us
because we're loved. They hate us because of what
we believe. They hate us because of the gospel. See, Cain murdered
Abel for just one reason. Abel was accepted of God in and
by Jesus Christ. Abel knew that. Abel believed
God, came, trusted in his own righteousness and was still guilty
before God. And he knew that. See, Abel was chosen, therefore Abel
was redeemed and being chosen and redeemed, Abel was called,
right? And because he was called, Abel
believed. He's converted. He believed.
And being a believer or being the fact that he believed God,
Abel was conflicted. Because even though he loved
his brother, he could not do what his brother did. He had
to do what God did, said it. And because of that, Cain killed
Abel. Brethren, we're going to experience
turmoil. Jesus said that in this life,
you will have much tribulation. And he said, the reason we're
going to have much tribulation was because of him. Because of
me, you're going to have much tribulation. They hated me. They're
going to hate you. Why are they going to hate you?
Because my life is flowing through you. My thoughts now are your
thoughts. You now have the mind of Christ.
You now believe the gospel. You now have turned away and
been converted because of your calling. You've been converted
to look to Christ alone and not to your own righteousness. The
whole world is going in the way of self-righteousness, and you're
going this way. That's why we see these roads.
This road is wide, and many there be on it. And they're all looking
over at us on this little bit of road saying, where are you
going? Oh, you think you're better than us? You got your own little
road over there? You think you got it all figured
out? Or maybe they just hate it because inwardly they know. Inwardly, they know that our
desire is for God and what God wants. But yet at every turn
they try to be holy and righteous and fail at every turn. And their
trying is becoming exhausting to them. And so they begin frustrated
with those who they see who have learned to rest. Listen, nothing,
nothing makes people more irritated to see someone who succeeds.
Now, I'm not saying that there's something we can do to make us
succeed in spiritual things. What I'm saying is, is that whenever
we see someone who has been given rest in Christ and nothing gets
to them, to the people who are working hard, that makes them
mad. You know, I keep trying to keep trying and I keep failing
and look at them over there. They're just kicked back like
nothing's their business. There's going to be conflict, brethren.
And we see just like with Lazarus, religious people are going to
have conflict with us. The lost world, that's the reprobate
that really has nothing to do with religion and things like
that. You know, they're not hardly going to be as much on us as
the religious are. Just like in Jesus name. I mean,
who was the most vehement, not Not those that were out there.
Eventually they all cried crucify, but who was the one that began
the chance to crucify? It was the religious leaders
who had called for him to be crucified. The religious leaders
led the rain. That's what's going on today
is religious leaders out here because they cannot produce what
Jesus produced. They cannot produce life. They
cannot produce longevity. They cannot produce faithfulness.
They cannot produce these things. And so what do they have to do?
They have to manufacture it. And whenever they try to do that
by manufacturing these fake things, it inevitably fails and falls. So they get upset at those who
are experiencing that. Brethren, don't be surprised
if you go through much tribulation. So we see that we are dead, but
then we are called, we are converted, We share communion with Christ,
but we also share conflict because of Christ. That's the picture
of the Christian, and that is the outworking or the experience
of the effectual call. But praise God, no matter how
bad the conflict gets, the Bible says that we have been made victorious,
that we shall overcome the world. The world may have all of its
conflict with us that it wants, But we have overcome the world. We will not experience what they
will experience. By grace, we are going to be
delivered from what they're going to experience. By grace, we for
eternity are going to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ in
worship and praise and adoration. And I don't know what else is
going to go on there, but I know one thing is going to be good.
It's going to be good. No, I have seen no ear heard. Right? We don't even know. Even now we have such a limited
understanding of even the salvation that we have. We don't know its
fullest extent and we don't know its fullest intent at the end,
how it's going to play out, how it's going to look, how we're
going to receive it. He and JC was talking a while back. We
went down to Texas and was coming back and we was talking about
this thing. Have you ever really stopped
and thought what it's going to be like whenever Jesus comes back?
I mean, we all know Jesus has come back. I mean, we believe
that. But sometimes in our day to day life, we just kind of,
you know, it gets away from us and we're really not thinking
about that. But one of these days, Jesus is going to come
back. Everything's going to stop. Every eye is going to see him.
And listen, whatever your life's ambition was, it's not going
to matter anymore. It's all going to stop and we are physically
going to see him. And things are going to change.
I mean, the Bible says that there's going to be a judgment, that
this world is going to be dissolved in a new creation. It's going
to be brought forward. I mean, this is not a fairy tale
that we just say to our kids. This is true. Things is going
to happen. And brethren, we don't have any
idea. We have little visions that God has given us in his
word, but listen, we have no clue the glorious nature of it
all. And so I'm thankful for the effectual
call that comes to us to allow us to, at least in this time,
in this place, experience just a little bit of that salvation,
no matter whether there's conflict or not, right? Anybody have any
comments or anything you'd like to add, any questions or corrections
or rebukes? We're always open for that as
well. It's a glorious thing. Well, if nobody has anything,
it's bad. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
we are so grateful today for the Lord Jesus Christ. The beauty
that we see in not only your creation, but Father, the beauty
specifically in redemption. Man couldn't have planned anything
in this way. It goes against all that we know,
all that we think, All of our nature goes against this very
thing. But Father, we're thankful that
you have given us your word to at least reveal to us what you
desire for us to see. We know that we see in a glass
darkly, but we look forward to that day that that, that sight
will be cleared up. We see and know. more clearly
than we do now. Father, we thank you for Christ's
death for us. We thank you for the work of
the Holy Spirit and bringing life to us. We thank you for
the Spirit's work in preserving us. And as great as it is father,
we truly do love it. We look forward to the day of
your son's return for us. We look forward to that which
is corrupt becoming incorruptible. We look forward to the day that
we stand with no more tears to shed, no more hard feelings,
no more separation, no more sin, no more death. Father, we look
forward to the resurrection and to the coming of our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. We shout from the rooftops even
so come quickly, Lord Jesus. But Father, as you desire in
your time to leave us here, we pray that you might give us grace
for faith, that we might continue to look to you, that you might
continue to preserve us as you've promised, that you might help
us. Lord, sometimes we don't understand
as we sang in that hymn this morning, Father, We don't understand
the reason why you take us through all the trials in our life and
things become so hard and pressing almost to the place where it
looks like you're going to pursue your worm to death. But father,
we know that that's the way that you teach us grace and faith
to make us dependent upon you, trusting in you and to put off
all worldly things that keep us from looking to you alone.
And so father, we pray that you would help us because we surely
need your strength through those times. So I pray that each one
of these brethren have been edified by your word today. I pray that
they have been strengthened in the inner man, that as they look
at these things, Father, they rejoice in hope of the Lord Jesus
Christ and what he has done for them. And Father, we just pray
that you would continue to keep us here in Joplin, in this place,
as a beacon of light and of the gospel to this town. Lord, we pray if there's other,
of your children in this town that you have brought to believe
upon this truth. Lord, we pray that you might
bring them our way. Not so that we might be larger
in numbers, Father, but that they might find a place of solace.
They might find a place of fellowship, of love, that they might find
a place of service to the gospel and coming alongside and labors
of the gospel. Father, we pray that you might
bring them. It is your church. We know that you will build it
as you see fit. And so we pray Lord that we might be content
in whatever state that you might have us, whether it be big, whether
it be small, whether it be great, or whether it be minute. Lord,
we just pray that you would keep us faithful in all things, proclaiming
the word of Christ. And we thank you, Lord, for this
time together. And we pray that you'd be with
us as we leave this place, that you might minister through us
to all those that we're around. For it's in Christ's name that
we pray. Amen.