If you would, turn back to John
chapter 11, the passage that we just read. The title of the
message is The Irresistible Call of Grace. In our text, we're
going to see two examples of the Lord calling His own to Himself. In both times, when our Lord
calls, His elect hear the irresistible call of grace, and they come. No obstacle is too great. They
come when He calls. We're going to begin in verse
28. When Martha had so said, she
gave this verse 28 or verse 27. She said, Yea, Lord, I believe
thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which hath come into
the world. And when she had so said, she went away and called
Mary her sister secretly, saying, The Master has come and calleth
for thee. And as soon as she heard that,
She arose quickly and came unto him. Now every single time I
read that verse 28, I always think this. I'd love to be married. Wouldn't you love to be married
and have someone come and tell you the Master's come and He's
calling for you? Well, if you're one of the Lord's
own, He has. He has called you. Because this
is what the Lord does for all of His people. And here's the
first time in our text the Lord calls one of his people. And
there's some things we learn about him calling Mary and some
things we learn about him calling Lazarus. And the first thing
we learn from our Lord calling Mary is the irresistible call
of grace. It's a call of grace where the
Lord calls sinners to himself. Now, up until Martha came and
told Mary the Master's come, Mary hadn't come to the Lord.
She's sitting in the house grieving. And she never would have come
either until the Lord called her. I don't know why Mary stayed
at the house and Martha went on to the Lord. As soon as Martha
heard the Lord was coming, she didn't wait for Him to come to
her. She went out where He was. Mary didn't do that. Maybe Mary
didn't come because she's pouting, pouting at the Lord. And that's
a picture of a sinner, isn't it? Have you ever done that? Pouting at the Lord because He
didn't give you what you've been asking? Maybe she was. Maybe
Mary didn't feel worthy to come to the Lord. She questioned the
Lord. She questioned His providence.
She questioned His love. Maybe she didn't feel worthy
to come to the Lord. Well, that's a picture of a sinner, isn't
it? If we see our sin, that's one thing we know. I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy to come to Him.
Maybe Mary didn't hear the Lord was there. That's why she stayed.
Martha somehow heard She couldn't find Mary because she's off to
herself. She didn't hear that the Lord
was there. Again, that's a picture of a sinner. We can't hear. We don't hear that the Lord's
here. But when the master called the sinner, the sinner came to
Christ. As soon as she heard, she came
to Christ. When the master calls, nothing
will stop that sinner from coming to Christ. Nothing. Mary didn't
let politeness stop her. Well, all these people here,
you know, at the house, and they've come to comfort me, I shouldn't
run off and leave them. She didn't let politeness stop her. She
didn't stop to explain. She didn't apologize. She didn't
let the pressure of social conventions stop her. You know, well, you
ought to, you know, stay here and wear black a certain number
of days. No, she didn't let that stop her. She came straight to
Christ the moment He called her. And our message, the gospel message
to sinners, Come to Christ. Come to Him. And I can tell you
when you'll come, the moment He calls, you'll come to Christ. It's an irresistible call of
grace to sinners. In verse 30, now Jesus was not
yet coming to the town, but He was in that place where Martha
met Him. The Master sent word and called for Mary. And He wasn't
hard to find, was He? He was right where He said He'd
be. And whenever we come to Christ, you know what we find out? We
find out I was the one lost all along. The Lord was never lost.
Someone asked Greg Hemquist one time about, have you found Jesus? Greg said, I didn't know He was
lost. He's not the one that was lost. We were the ones that was
lost all along. The Lord was always exactly where
He said He'd be. He's in His Word. He's where
His people meet together to worship Him. He's never hard to find.
He's in His Gospel. Well, verse 31, the Jews, which
were with her in the house and comforted her, when they saw
Mary that she rose up hastily and went out, they followed her,
saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there." Now, these friends,
they didn't hear the Lord's call, did they? They didn't know why
she was leaving, because they didn't hear the Lord's call.
The Lord just called Mary. See that back up here in verse
28? She called Mary, her sister, secretly. saying the Master calls
for thee. This message, this call, was
only issued to Mary. That's the second thing we learn
about the irresistible call of grace. It's a sovereign call. The Lord calls whom He will. And He always calls His people.
And He calls them by name, one at a time. She came secretly
to Mary, saying the Master's calling for you. In verse 32,
then, when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell
down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been
here, my brother had not died. Mary said the exact same thing
Martha said. That's what we looked at Martha
last week. She said the exact same thing. They must have been
talking about this amongst themselves if the Lord had been here, Lazarus
hadn't died. And again, just like last week, we saw this.
There's faith. Mary believes Christ. She believes Him. But it's weak faith. Even in
this faith, she's questioning the Lord's love. She's questioning
His power. Lord, if you loved us enough,
you'd have been here. She's questioning His love. And she's questioning
His power. Lord, you had to be here to heal
my brother. You couldn't have spoke the word
from where you were. She's questioning His power.
But in this, there's faith. It's weak faith. But we also
see a different personality of believers. Mary believes the
exact same thing her sister does, doesn't she? Well, if you've
been here, my brother hadn't died. She knew that. But her
personality is different. And that's the third thing we
learn about the irresistible call of grace. The irresistible
call of grace is a humbling call. Calling us to the feet of the
Savior. Mary goes right where we always see Mary. As soon as
she saw the Lord, she fell at His feet. And now where do we
always see Mary? At the feet. of the Lord, and she worships
at the feet of Christ. And that's very good instruction
about worship. Our faith might be weak. Maybe it wavers. Maybe
we're going through a very difficult trial. But you know what's always
appropriate? Whether my faith is weak or strong.
Whether I'm on the mountaintop or in the valley. You know what
is always appropriate? Worship. Worshipping at the feet
of Christ. God's grace reveals to our soul
that we are nothing and Christ is everything. And just like
Mary, who is often at the feet of Christ, will fall at His feet
in humility, worshiping Him. And you know when we'll do that?
After we hear this irresistible call of grace. Being at the feet of Christ,
that's the place of worship. That's where we worship at His
feet. Being at the feet of Christ is a place of submission. I submit to the Master. I submit to His rule. I submit
to salvation by Him. I submit to His terms. I'm surrendering
to Him. That's the word you use in surrender
in the dead. Surrender to Him. In the feet
of Christ, that's the place of communion. You're close to Him
when you're at His feet. That's where you find His people.
Now verse 33, when Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews
also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the Spirit
and was troubled. Now our Lord groaned. And that
word means not just aggravation, it means a deep feeling of sorrow. He groaned. Our Lord was deeply
troubled by the unbelief that was around Him. And He was troubled. Now that just doesn't mean He
felt troubled, you know, because of what was around him. It means
that he troubled himself. Our Lord caused himself to be
touched with the feeling of the weakness and infirmity and sorrow
of those around him. Now that's comforting to me.
That's our Savior. He troubles himself with all
of our sin and all of our trouble and all of our weakness. He causes
himself to be troubled with our sin. so He can save us from our
sin. He causes Himself to be troubled
with our sorrow, so He can comfort us in all of our sorrow. He causes
Himself to be troubled with our weakness, so He can strengthen
us in our weakness. He troubled Himself, caused Himself
to be troubled. In verse 34, And He said, Where
have you laid Him? And they said unto Him, Lord,
come and see. Now, our Lord knew exactly where Lazarus was. He
actually knew where Lazarus, they just knew where his body
was. Our Lord knew where Lazarus was. He knew where that body
was, but he asked this question so people would know this is
not an elaborate hoax set up by the Lord and Lazarus. Lazarus
is sitting, just hiding in that cave for four days and he's going
to pop out, you know, make it appear like the Lord raised him
from the dead. This is not a hoax, you know,
cooked up between our Lord and Lazarus. In verse 35, Jesus wept. And I think there are several
reasons that our Lord wept. He's weeping because he saw the
lack of faith around him. He's weeping because he really
does feel the pain of those people that are around him. And he's
weeping because he's going to bring Lazarus back to this world.
Nobody there in that cemetery knew the real sorrow of what
he was getting ready to do with our Lord. He's going to bring
Lazarus back to this world of sin and sorrow and a place of
weak faith. Lazarus is in paradise and getting
ready to come back to this slum, this sewer. You know, we say
about our loved ones who died in the faith, we say, I miss
them. But I wouldn't bring them back.
And you know, I really do mean that. I really do. I've told
Janet several times, I wish I could just have one more conversation
with my boy. I just, I really would like to
talk to him, you know, about something. Just one more time.
But I wouldn't bring him back. And that's not purely selfless
on my part. If I brought him back, he'd be
so mad at me. He wouldn't talk to me. I could have a conversation
with him anyway. I mean, I often wonder about the conversations
between Lazarus and his sister after the Lord brought him back.
Our Lord knew what he was getting ready to do. bring this beloved
son back to this earth. And he's weeping because Lazarus
is going to have to die again. You'd think that experience being
not once is enough for anybody. Lazarus is going to have to die
again. But all this is the result of sin. Three times it's recorded
in scripture, the Lord Jesus wept. And every time he was weeping
over sin. Here at the tomb of Lazarus,
Sin had caused this death. Sin had caused all this sorrowing
and unbelief and lack of faith. And our Lord wept at the effect
of sin. Now look back at Luke chapter
19. Here's another time the Lord
wept. In Luke 19 verse 41. And when he was come near, he
beheld the city, and wept over it, saying, If thou hast known,
even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong
unto thy peace, but now they are hid from thine eyes. For
the day shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast
a trench about thee, encompass thee round about, and keep thee
in on every side, and shall lay thee even with the ground, and
thy children within thee, and they shall not leave in thee
one stone upon another. because thou knewest not the
time of thy visitation." Here our Lord is not just weeping
over the effect of sin, partially it's that, and the effect of
unbelief. But what he's weeping over is
what will eventually result in all this, the damnation of people,
of Israel, of unbelievers, and our Lord weeps over it. Now one
more in Hebrews chapter 5, one more time we read about our Lord
weeping, and it's over sin. Our Lord wept over the effect
of sin. He wept over the damnation that always results because of
sin. In Hebrews 5, verse 7, he weeps
over being made sin. Who in the days of his flesh,
when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong
crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death
and was heard, and that he feared, he wept over being made sin. Again, he's the only one that
knew what that really meant. Being made sin and the sorrow
and the agony that he would suffer because of that. And I point
all that out to make this point. The Lord is not indifferent to
his people. He's not indifferent to our sin.
He's not indifferent to our sorrow. He's not indifferent to our pain.
And that's why he issues this irresistible call of grace. He's
not indifferent. In verse 36, 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? Absolutely he could
have. But as we looked at this earlier
in this chapter, our Lord was delaying so he did not heal Lazarus. He delayed until Lazarus had
died so that many would believe on him when he raises Lazarus
from the dead. Now they didn't understand any
of that yet. They did not know what our Lord was getting ready
to do. And oftentimes, since you find yourself in the same
situation... I mean, I never feel like I know what the Lord's
doing. I don't know. It's above my pay grade. But when you feel
that way, never forget this. God is God. Now, He giveth not
account of any of His matters. God doesn't owe me an explanation
of what He's going to do or what He is doing, and He's not going
to give it. And I wouldn't understand it even if he told me. And just
because we don't understand what God's doing does not mean God's
doing something wrong. Just because He's not doing something
the way I would do it doesn't mean it's wrong. As a matter
of fact, it probably means it's right if He'd do it the way I don't
and I wouldn't do it. God's working a great and wonderful
redemption for His people. And the scope of that is far
greater than I can ever understand. You know, it might not look good
here in this little pinhole, you know, around where I am.
But look at that in the great scheme of things. And you'll
see God's wonderful redemption that He's working out for His
people. So, verse 38, Jesus therefore again groaned in Himself, cometh
to the grave. It was a cave and a stone lay
upon it. And Jesus said, take ye away the stone. Now our Lord's
still groaning at unbelief. The unbelief that was around
Him, the sorrow that was around Him, And he knew, even after
people saw this miracle firsthand, he knew people still wouldn't
believe on him. Now, some will, but many of them
won't. And that caused our Lord to groan. But he still told somebody,
take away the stone. Somebody is going to take away
that stone. Well, did they help the Lord raise Lazarus? Did the
Lord need them somehow? Are they going to get some credit
in helping the Lord out in this resurrection of Lazarus? Of course
not. The Lord's going to raise Lazarus
by Himself. By His power, for His glory,
His alone. But now the Lord uses means.
And this is true of the preaching of the Gospel. We can't do anything
to save anybody. We can't do one thing. It's not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. But you know, we can do what the Lord commanded.
Can't we pray the Lord save His people? He commanded we should.
Shouldn't we do that then? He's commanded us to preach.
Then let's preach the gospel. We can do what the Lord has commanded
us to do. And God's going to enable His
servants to preach. Just like He enables somebody
to take that stone away. He's going to enable His servants
to preach. Because this pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. Now we can't save anybody. But
we must do, not just that we should do, we must do what we've
been commanded to do. We've been commanded to preach.
We've been commanded to support the gospel. We've been commanded
to pray. We've been commanded to witness.
Because the Lord uses means. And the taking away of this stone
is a picture of preaching the gospel. Verse 39, and 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 hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I
not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the
glory of God? Didn't I say that to you? Well,
he did, but Martha, she was concerned about protecting the dignity
of her brother and the dignity of her family. Oh, if they take
that stone away, everybody's going to see what Lazarus really
is. Everybody's going to smell what
Lazarus really is by nature. And it's not a pretty sight.
It's not a pretty smell. It's corruption. The sight and
smell of corruption. Lazarus has been dead for four
days. And he smells bad enough. We've been dead for 6,000 years.
About 6,000 years ago, Adam died. And we stink. Our situation is
so bad, it's hopeless. Christ is our only hope. And you and I can't make those
dead bones live. But we can do what God commanded
us to do and preach and cry, dead bones, live. Hear the Word of the Lord and
live. We can do that. We can do what the Lord has commanded
and take away the stone. We can preach the Gospel. So
that we take the stone away and reveal what all men are by nature. We can reveal that we're dead
and stinking and rotting in our sin. We can reveal, take that
stone away and reveal the offense of sin, the stench of it, the
filth of it. We can take away the stone and
reveal what man is by nature. So we see our true condition.
We see how really corrupt we are. You can't gloss over this.
Because there's no salvation until we see our depravity, until
we see our sin, until we see our corruption. When we see how
utterly hopeless and helpless we are, then we can see God's
glory when he gives us life. We have to see how deplorable
we are until we see how glorious he is. We can take away the stone
that's hiding what man is by nature. We have to take the stone
away so that sinners deal one-on-one with the Savior. Years ago, I
heard Cody Gruber say this. I've never forgotten. I love
it. He said we have to preach Christ and get out of the way.
Preach Christ. Take away the stone. So the sinner
deals one-on-one with the Savior. And it won't be until then that
sinner has life. We have to take away the stone of ignorance.
Men have to know who Christ is for them to come to Him. How
come they call on Him of whom they've not heard? We have to
take away the stone of ignorance of original sin. We've got to
get past this notion, I'm not that bad. No, I'm not bad. I
died in Nazareth. We have to get rid of this ignorance
of thinking that salvation can be accomplished or maybe even
helped out, you know, by my deeds to the law. That's ignorance.
We've got to take that stone away. Men don't know who God
is. They're ignorant. We have to
take the stone of ignorance away and tell them. They don't know
who Christ is. They don't know who we are. So
we have to take that stone of ignorance away. Take away the
stone of ignorance. Now, salvation is a heart work.
But that heart work comes through the head. Men have to understand
what we're preaching. Take away the stone of ignorance.
Take away the stone of false religion. There are not many
ways to God. We're not all going to go in
different ways and end up in the same place. That's ignorance. We have to take away that stone
of false religion. There's one way to God. The Lord
Jesus Christ. You come to Him. You come through
Him. If a sinner is going to find the Savior, they have to
know where He's at. They can't look where He's not.
We'll roll away that stone of false religion so that men see
Christ. We have to take away the stone
of self-righteousness. We have to at least let men understand
in their head there's none good, no not one. That no part of salvation,
not even the smallest part of salvation can be due to any of
our goodness. It's all Christ. Salvation is
in Christ alone. The only righteousness a sinner's
ever going to have is Christ our righteousness. We have to
take away the stone of self-righteousness. And here's a stone. We have to
take away the stone of intellectualism. Intellectualism, that's just
knowing theological facts, knowing doctrine, and not knowing Christ. I hate and despise intellectual
preaching. It gives me a headache. Don't
preach to my head. Preach to my heart. I was looking
over my notes this morning. I looked at that phrase, and
that's true. But you do have to preach to
my head. I mean, you have to preach so
I can understand, right? So this might be a better way to say
that. Don't preach with the goal to fill my head. Preach with
the goal to fill my heart. Fill my heart with Christ. That's
what I need. He's who I need. We have to take
away the stone of intellectualism, and on the opposite end of the
spectrum, we have to take away the stone of emotionalism. Get
saved, so mama will see you in heaven. You know, come down front,
make a profession, make mama so happy. That kind of preaching
gives me stomach ache. This makes me nauseous. Just
preach Christ. And we'll see this in a minute.
I'll show you this. Salvation is not only an emotional response. Salvation's Christ. Now, it'll
draw a response, won't it? It will draw a response. Salvation's
not an experience. But it is an experience, isn't
it? It'll draw an emotional response. You preach Christ and take away
the stone so that sinners see the glory of Christ and they
deal directly with the Savior. That's when they'll have life.
Take away the stone. In verse 41, 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 this prayer
of our Lord's, it wasn't for his sake. It's for our sake. Just like all of his prayers
are for our sake, the sake of his people. And the point of
this prayer is that we believe on Christ. We see the glory of
His power when He gives life to the dead. But you want to
hear something that will comfort your heart? Here we see our Lord
standing at the grave, praying for His people. He's still doing
the same thing today. He still prays for His people.
If the Lord prays, someone believes on Him. Are they going to believe? You know they will. If the Lord
prays someone have eternal life, are they going to stay dead?
Absolutely not. They'll have life. And our Lord
gives us a picture of that here in the next verse, verse 43.
And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus,
come forth. Now, there's several things I
see here in the first one. Our Lord calling Lazarus is this.
This is the irresistible call of grace. Even the dead hear
the voice of the Savior when he calls. He speaks, and the
dead live. Lazarus could not stay dead. He could not stay, and that seemed
impossible, when Christ called him forth. The same voice that
said, let there be light, and there was light, that same voice
said, Lazarus, come forth. And that voice was heard in the
darkness. It was heard in the deadness because God gave him
life. Even the dead hear that voice. That's a whole lot different
hearing the voice of the preacher, isn't it? A whole lot different
than that emotionalism we've got to take away, you know, hearing
the voice of your mama. This is the irresistible call
of grace because of who's doing the calling. It's God himself. Second, this is the sovereign
call of grace. There are a lot of dead people
in that cemetery. But our Lord Jesus called one.
He called Lazarus the one that he chose. He could break anybody.
But he chose Lazarus. He gave life to the one that
he loves. And he left everybody else where
they were. Right where they were. And someone in flesh will say,
that's not fair. Well, yeah it is. Because he's
sovereign. He can do what he will because
he's sovereign. Everybody gets so upset they
left everybody else in the grave. Maybe we ought to get real excited
he called one out. It's a sovereign call of grace.
Lazarus was dead, but the Lord didn't leave him in the tomb.
Just like Mary, she was alone in her grief, pouting and doubting. The Lord didn't leave her there.
He called her and she came to him. And our Lord called Lazarus
and he's coming to Christ. It's a sovereign call. Third,
this is the personal call of grace. Our Lord always calls
his sheep by name. By name. We saw that earlier,
verse 28, where the master, Mary, came to her sister secretly and
called Mary. He calls his sheep by name. And
our Lord called Lazarus by name. Lazarus. Come forth. If he didn't
do that, if he didn't say Lazarus, that cemetery would have emptied.
He said hell would have emptied if he didn't say Lazarus. The
call of grace is a personal call. God never issues a general call
of grace, ever. He never issues a general call
of grace to see how many people will come to Christ. No. He issues
the personal call of grace to his elect. Now, he does issue
a general call of the gospel, doesn't he? A general call to
the gospel so that men are left without excuse. But here is not
a general call of sovereign grace. It's a personal call of sovereign
grace to his elect. Fourth, this is the powerful,
life-giving call of the Savior. Lazarus, come forth. And he that
was dead, came forth. Now, here's why you have to roll
away that stone of emotionalism. Martha and Mary had faith, didn't
they? But faith couldn't give the brother life. Martha and
Mary, they wept and cried. Their tears couldn't give their
brother life. They prayed. I'm sure they wept and prayed
emotionally. Their prayer couldn't give their
brother life. Even the tears of our Lord Jesus by themselves
could not give Lazarus life. But the dead lived. When life
himself comes to the grave. See that back up in verse 38.
Jesus, therefore, again, groaning in himself, cometh to the grave. Life himself came to the grave
and he issued the powerful, life-giving call. And that call did give
the dead life because Christ calls in power. Those dry bones
live. When God gives them life, when
God breathes the breath of life into them. Captivity is like
captive. Death gives way to life when
Christ calls. And you know why this is a call
to life? It's a life-giving call. Because
Christ calls His people to Himself. He doesn't just call you out
of the grave and go wherever. It's a call to come to Him. And
we have life because we have union with Christ. The body's
dead because of sin, but we have life through union with Christ. It's a life-giving call because
He's life. Life came to the grave. Even
love itself did not give Lazarus life. Christ had to call him
and give him life. The love of God alone, by itself,
could never save God's elect. Christ had to come and die as
a substitute for his people. He had to bear the sin of his
people and put that sin away under his precious blood, the
blood of his sacrifice, and give us life through the preaching
of the gospel. And he comes in power and life-giving
call. Fifth, the call of grace is a
call to obedience. Lazarus, come forth. Now, Lord, dead men can't obey.
Dead men can't come forth. He's dead. They can't if Christ
calls them. This is a call to obedience.
Now, a dead body is a real good picture of our spiritual condition.
That dead corpse is hopeless. He's hopeless. He can't do anything. A dead corpse cannot hear. Lacks
the ability to hear. Lacks the capacity to hear. He
can't see. He can't respond. You can cry
to him with this emotionalism all you want to. He can't respond.
You can cry to him with this intellectual preaching all you
want. He can't understand his mind's dead. He's a mass of corruption. He stinks. He's dead and trespasses
and sins. Well, why bother preaching to
him? Because when God calls, he hears. He's going to have
ears to hear. When God calls, he's going to
respond. When God calls, he's going to
see Christ. He's going to see himself as
he is, and he's going to see Christ, and he's going to obey,
and he's going to come to Christ. Because when God calls sinners
through the preaching of the gospel, he gives life. Now that
dead body can't do anything. Lazarus is dead. He can't do
the first thing to help himself. That dead corpse is completely
dependent upon Christ to do everything for him. But when Christ calls
in power, the dead live and the dead obey. Christ called and
here comes Lazarus in obedience shuffling out of that tomb. His
hands and feet, everything's tied up. He's just shuffling
out in obedience because the Lord called. And since the call
of grace is the call of freedom, verse 44, And he that was dead
came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face
was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose
him, and let him go." Those religious Jews, they had wrapped up old
Lazarus tight, hadn't they, in graveclothes. He couldn't move. He couldn't see. But he still
came forth. He was just shuffling towards
the light. Made that napkin over his head. He couldn't see real
clearly, but he could make out there was light there. And he
came to the light. He's all wrapped up, his ears
covered. But the sound of the Savior's
voice got through there. He came to the sound. The sound
of the Master's voice. And these grave clothes, that's
religion. Religion binds men up with the
law. Binds men up with the ceremony.
And Christ sets his people free. Free to serve him. The law has
got to bind up rebels. That's the only way you control
a rebel. You've got to bind him up, chain him up. Christ sets
his people free to serve him. That sounds kind of dangerous,
doesn't it? Setting a man free to do whatever he wants. How
do you know they'll serve? They'll serve because God gives
them a new nature and a new birth. They'll serve. Those grave clothes
are the clothes of the dead, the dead men getting dead religion. You can't wrap up a living man
like that. The only man you can wrap up so tight in them gray
clothes is a dead man. And it took a long time, I bet
you, to get them on there good and tight. I see on the National
Geographic channel, you know, they open up the tomb and there's
the mummy and stuff, you know. It took a while to do all that.
Well, it's going to take a while to get them all off too. It's
going to take a while. And the only way they'll come
off is by hearing Christ preach. The only way. Look back over
in Galatians chapter 5. And here's the danger. If we
take our eyes off Christ, we can become entangled again. Wrapped
up in these grave clothes again. So Paul tells us in Galatians
5 verse 1. Stand fast therefore in the liberties. This is a call to freedom. So
you stand fast, therefore, in the liberty wherewith Christ
has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke
of bondage. You keep looking to Christ, and
don't put them grave clothes back on again. You keep looking
to Christ. That will keep them on. And because our Lord commands
it, I say to those dead in sins, you come to Christ. Come to Christ. Come forth. Well, who comes to
Christ? Well, I can tell you three people
who come to Christ, or three, they're all the same person,
but three evidences of coming to Christ. First of all, people
who have been given spiritual life come to Christ. It's the
reaction of life to come to Christ. Coming to Christ is an act that
only spiritual life does. What did our Lord tell the Pharisees?
You will not come to me that you might have life. You won't
come to me because you're dead. But if God gives you life, you
come to Christ. Second, God's elect come to Christ. Coming to Christ is an evidence
that God chose you, that he elected you. All that the Father giveth
me shall what? Come to me. When you come to
Christ, it's an evidence you're one of God's elect. And third,
look at John chapter 6, back a few pages. People who have
been taught of God, come to Christ. Coming to Christ is evidence
that stone of ignorance has been rolled away, and you've been
taught Christ. John 6, verse 45, it's written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore,
that have heard and have learned of the Father cometh unto me. Now, that's the gospel. That's how God gives life to
dead sinners. It's by Christ dying for us,
taking our death and giving us his life. We have life through
union with Christ. Now, in this crowd this morning,
some believe and some do not believe. That's the way it is
every time. That's the way it was in our Lord's day. Even after
they saw firsthand this miracle, some believed. Some did not believe. Look at verse 45 back in our
text, John 11. Then many of the Jews which came
to Mary and had seen the things that Jesus did, believed on Him. And some of them went their ways
to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done. You
know, miracles never save anybody, ever. Even these folks that believed
didn't leave really and truly because they saw the miracle.
And I can make good on that. Faith believes Christ and then
sees the glory of God. Look back at verse 40. Jesus
said unto her, unto Martha, said I not unto thee, that if thou
wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God. You're
going to believe first. God's going to give you faith
first. Then you see. Not the other way around. You
don't see and then say, oh, well, based on the preponderance of
evidence, I believe. No. You believe. Then God gives you sight. Then
you see the glory of Christ. How I pray God be merciful and
make us in that number of believers that come to Him and believe.
If we do, it's because He gave life in them. He called and gave
life. I hope the Lord will bless that
too. And let's bow in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, how we thank
You for this picture of the life-giving call of our Savior, the irresistible,
call of grace. And Father, I pray that you give
each one of us here this morning that sight of faith that would
see and behold the Lord Jesus Christ, that would see his beauty,
that would see his glory, that would see the sufficiency of
his sacrifice, that would see the sweet-smelling savor of his
blood as opposed to the stench of our sin, and be irresistibly
drawn to him. drawn to His feet, that we might
worship Him. Oh, how we pray for the spirit
of worship. And Father, there are those here
this morning that know not Thee, that are still dead in their
sins. And Father, I pray that today would be the day You come
to them in power and call them to life. Call them to the Lord
Jesus Christ. We give you all the praise and
the thanks and the glory for it because it all belongs to
you. It's a work of God alone. Father, we thank you for this
food that we're about to enjoy and the fellowship that we're
about to enjoy. We pray that you give us a good time together
and that you bless the food. We thank you for these three
birthday girls that you've given us. We thank you for them. Father,
we pray your richest blessing be upon them. All these things
we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every
name, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.