All right, John chapter 11. The title of the message is God's
Love in a Believer's Trouble. Now, there can be no question,
no argument, God loves His people. God loves His elect with an everlasting,
immeasurable love. You can't measure the depth or
the height or the length of it. Well, that begs the question,
then why do those who God loves so much, why do they suffer so
much and so often? In our text, there's a family
that the Lord loves, and they, in return, truly love the Lord.
Verse 3, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Verse 5,
now Jesus loved Martha and her sister. In verse 36, then said
the Jews, behold how he loved them. The Lord loved this family,
each of them, Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. And they loved the Lord
too. See that in verse 2? It was that
Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, wiped his feet
with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. She loves the
Lord. This family loves the Lord. And
the Lord loves them. Yet they're suffering. They're
truly suffering. Now why? Well, there's five things
in our text this morning that we learn about God's love for
His people. And the first one is this. Good
news. God loves sinners. Look at verse
one. Now a certain man was sick, named
Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
Lazarus was sick. Well, he wouldn't have been sick
if he's not a sinner, would he? He's sick because he's just as
full of sin as you and I are. Yet the Lord loved him. There's
no question about it. Scripture plainly says the Lord
loved Lazarus, who was a sinner, because he's sick. Now this is
an amazing fact. God doesn't love good people.
God doesn't love people who deserve God's love. God loves sinners. Now that love's in Christ. That
love is because of Christ. It's for Christ's sake. But God
loves sinners. That's why God sent his son to
save sinners, for God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish,
but have everlasting life, because God loves sinners. Now, someone
will say, all men are sinners, so you're saying God loves everybody.
No, that's not what I'm saying. That's not what scripture teaches.
First of all, all men are not sinners. Just ask them, they'll
tell you. All men are not sinners. Now,
they are sinners. But they don't know they're sinners.
God loves sinners who know they're sinners. Now, they know sinners
because God showed them they're sinners. God taught them that.
But God loves sinners who abhor themselves. God doesn't love
the self-righteous. God loves sinners who are helpless,
who are hopeless, who have no other hope but Christ. God loves
sinners who need a Savior. God loves those sinners who are
like Lazarus. They're dead. They're dead in
trespasses and sins, and those are the sinners God sent His
Son to save. God loves sinners. Secondly, we learn this about
God's love. God's love does not exempt His people from trial
and trouble. The Lord loved Lazarus, but Lazarus
is sick unto death. His body is going to die, and
before his body dies, in the meantime, he's going to be miserable. He's sick unto death. Now there
are three kinds of death mentioned in scripture. I told you the
last time I would repeat myself a time or two because these subjects
are very similar. But there are three kinds of
death mentioned in scripture. There's spiritual death, physical
death, and eternal death. Spiritual death is separation
from the soul from God. That's what happened to us in
Adam. When Adam fell, we died spiritually. Our soul was separated
from God. But a believer is free from spiritual
death because we've been born again. God has given us the life
of Christ. So a believer is free from spiritual
death because God's given us spiritual death or spiritual
life. Second, there's eternal death. Eternal death is separation
from the body and soul from God for all of eternity. And a believer
is free from that. A believer is free from eternal
death A believer is free from separation from God for all of
eternity for this reason. Christ died for us. Christ suffered
that separation for us. And He's given us eternal life. So we're free from eternal death.
But third, there's physical death. Physical death is the separation
of the soul from the body. The very moment the soul leaves
that body, the body is dead. And no one is exempt from that
physical death, even believers. Sin is in this flesh, it's in
this body, and this body must die. But believers have no reason
to fear physical death. Matter of fact, we've got every
reason to look forward to it, because to be absent from the
body, the soul's absent from the body, that means the soul's
present with the Lord. In physical death, the believer
will finally Be rid of sin once and for all. Be rid of this body
of sin and suffering and depart and be with the Lord. Now that's
what these ones who are loved in the Lord are faced with. They're
not faced with spiritual death. They're not faced with eternal
death. But they're faced with physical death. Now the Lord
loves Lazarus. And he's hurting. He's probably
got a fever. That's what a lot of the speculation
is. He's got a fever. He's miserable. He's sick unto
death. He's free from spiritual death.
He's got eternal life. He's free from eternal death.
Christ's going to die for him. But he's not free from physical
death, and that's what he's suffering. And the Lord loved Martha and
Mary, too. Martha and Mary are in the midst of a real trial.
I mean, this is tough on them. You know how it is for them.
They're sick with worry for their brother. They don't have, you
know, nurses and hospitals and stuff in, like, you know, we
do now. They themselves, they're the ones nursing their brother
round the clock. And they're heartbroken at the
thought of losing their brother. And it, I mean, this is a trial.
Now they're, I mean, they're worried, they're nursing him,
they're doing everything they can for him, but they're learning
this the longer this sickness goes. They're helpless. They're powerless to do anything
to make this situation better. Now, a believer is free from
the curse of the law because Christ has made a curse for us,
right? A believer is free from soul sickness because Christ,
the great physician, shed his blood. That's the balm that cures
every spiritual sickness and every spiritual disease. Christ
took our spiritual disease. He took our sin, his own body
on the tree, and he gave us his spiritual health. He gives his
people his righteousness. So, believers are free from soul
sickness. But we're not free from sickness
of the flesh, are we? We're not free from trial and
trouble and heartache in this world, and we're not free from
physical death. So as much as we dislike the pain of trials,
trials are good for the children of God. Our Father sends trials
to His people for their good. They don't come by accident.
They're sent of God. And this trial is the same way.
It came to a certain man and his sisters. And God sends this
trial, all trials, for our good. There are about four reasons
for that. There are many, but we'll mention four from our text
this morning. First, trials are good for believers
because trials soften our hearts. Someone who's strong all the
time can't understand somebody that's weak, and they tend to
be hard on them. When God sends a trial that weakens
us, buckles our knees, makes us dependent on somebody else,
Then we can tend to be a little more soft and caring and sympathetic
on someone else who's weak. When God sends a trial that weakens
us and makes us doubt and fear, well, maybe we'll be softer,
a little more sympathetic on others who have doubts and fears.
Second, trials are good for believers. They wean us away from this world.
Now, we have to be brought through many dangers, toils and snares,
before we're ever ready to say with the Apostle Paul, I'm ready
to depart and be with the Lord. I love y'all, but now I'm ready
to depart, be with the Lord, be with Christ. Nearly every
letter I get from Brother Henry, he tells me, I'm ready to go
home. Pray for me that the Lord will
take me home. I'm ready. Marvin Stoniker told me every
single visit. When Marvin went up to Katie,
At least once a week, he took Scott out and they had breakfast
and they talked at least once a week. Every meeting. Every time. Scott said, Marvin,
do me a favor. Marvin said, Scott, anything.
He said, pray Lord, take me home. I want to go home. I want to
be here. He did eventually, didn't he? David Edmondson told me,
every visit, he had with Jack Shanks, who's down there in Houston.
Every visit. He's leaving. Jack got ahold
of him and said, you pray. that God take me home. I don't
want to be here no more. You have to spend a lot of time
on the battlefield. I mean there's got to be scars
and bumps and bruises before you're ever ready to say that.
I'm ready to depart. Trials wean us away from this
world. That's not going to happen overnight.
This flesh is just going to cling to this world. God made these
bodies for a living. They're going to cling to this
world. God has to send us trials to wean us away from it. And
third, these two things, these sisters are going to learn in
this trial. Trials are good for us. They cause us to call on
God more fervently than we ever would if we were on a mountaintop.
When you're on a mountaintop and everything's good, you're
thankful. No, you are. You're thankful.
You appreciate that. But you don't call on God on
a mountaintop as fervently as you do when you're down there
in the valley, the valley of the shadow of death. And fourth,
trials are good for believers because they teach us more of
God's glory than we ever could have learned on the mountaintop.
When we're in the fiery furnace of trial, then we learn something
about God's glory that we couldn't have learned anywhere else. God
loves sinners. That love does not exempt sinners
from trouble and trial. Thirdly, we learn this. God's
love for sinners causes sinners to love God. Look at verse 2.
It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped
his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. We
love him because he first loved us. Isn't that right? Look over
Matthew chapter 26. This is what John's referring
to. You know, whenever you hear of Mary, what do you always think
of first? Mary's sitting at the feet of
Jesus. She's chosen the better part. She's always sitting at
his feet. That's pretty humble, sitting at somebody's feet, isn't
it? Why'd she do that? She loved the Lord. It's because
he loved her first. Now, she loved the Lord, didn't
she? Look at Matthew 26, verse 7. This is what John's referring
to. And there came unto him a woman having an alabaster box, a very
precious ointment, and poured it on his head as he sat at me.
But when his disciples saw it, they had indignation, saying,
What purpose is this waste? For this ointment might have
been sold for much and given to the poor. When Jesus understood
it, he said unto them, Why trouble ye the woman? For she hath wrought
a good work upon me. For ye have the poor always with
you, but me ye have not always. For in that she hath poured this
ointment on my body, and she did it for my burial. Verily
I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be priests in the
whole world. There shall also this, that this
woman hath done, be told for a memorial to her." So one more
time, that was told as a memorial to her, wasn't it? She would
only do that if she genuinely loved the Lord. To take something
so costly and so expensive and pour it all out upon the Lord's
body to dry His feet with her hair. God's love for His people
does the same thing today. It makes us love Him and to serve
His body here on earth. If you want to do a good work,
you serve the Lord's body. His body is His people here on
earth. Our Lord called that a good work. You serve His body. God's
love for sinners causes sinners to love God and to love one another.
Four, we learn this about God's love. God's love for sinners
causes sinners to call upon God. Verse 3, Therefore his sister
sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is
sick. Now this is a trial. These sisters
seem a little bit surprised that their brother is sick unto death.
They say, Lord, behold. They're kind of shocked. They're
kind of amazed. Our brother is sick unto death. But this time
of trouble caused Martha and Mary to call on the Lord like
they never called on Him before. more fervently than they've ever
called on Him before. So this trial, as painful as
it was for them, is good for them, isn't it? They called on
the Lord very fervently. Now, it's God's love for sinners
that causes us to call on Him. Not the other way around. It's
not our love for God that makes us call upon Him, is it? If I
had to depend upon my love for God to make me call upon Him,
I'd never call on Him. It's God's love for us that makes
us call upon him. Lord, he whom thou lovest is
sick. God's love came first. God chose
us. God saved us. God called us. God caused us to be born again.
God put a heart of prayer into us. God put a heart of love into
us. And then, he did that because he loved us. And then, we call
upon him. Now, this is a fervent prayer.
I love the prayer of these sisters. We can learn a lot from this
prayer. It's short, but we can learn a lot from it. Notice these
sisters, they didn't plead their own merit, did they? They didn't
say, Lord, every time you come through town, we've fed you.
We've shown you a lot of hospitality. We've given you a place to stay.
Often you don't have a place to stay. The foxes have their
dens and the birds have their nests. You don't have a place
to stay, but when you're in town, in Bethany, you do. We give you
a place to stay. Give you a nice bed. We've done
the same thing for many of your disciples. They didn't pray that,
did they? They didn't pray their own merit.
They didn't plead, Lord, our brother who loves you to sit.
They didn't say that. They didn't plead their own merit
because they don't have any. And they didn't plead their love
for Christ because it's not worth mentioning. Yes, they love Christ. You do, too. You who love Christ,
you know you love Him. But you also know this. My love
for Christ is not even worth mentioning. Not in comparison
to His. My love is weak. It waxes cold. It's ugh. Actually, my love is
embarrassing, so I just soon not mention it. But now I'd like
to mention His love for me. It's eternal. It's matchless.
Oh, it caused Him to do such wonderful things. They didn't
mention their love for him because their love is not worth mentioning.
But they did plea Christ's merit and they did plea Christ's love
for them. Lord, he whom thou lovest is
sick. And notice this. They didn't
tell the Lord what to do. Have you ever done that? Lord,
here's this problem. Here's how you could fix it.
They didn't do that, did they? They didn't say, Lord, Would
you come heal our brother that you love? They didn't say, Lord,
we're not worthy that you come unto our house. Speak the word
there. Right where you're at. Our brother lives. They didn't
say that, did they? They didn't offer the first suggestion. They
just laid it at the Lord's feet. He's softened. He's keen. He
knows what's best. Lord, he whom thou lovest is
sick. I love that song we sang Wednesday
night, take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. And
that's just what they did in prayer. They left it there. God's
love for sinners causes sinners to call upon Him, not offer Him
suggestions, to call upon Him and beg for mercy. And fifth,
and I want to spend just a little bit of time with this. God's
love for His people moves God to show us His greatest glory. Look at verse 4. When Jesus heard
that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the
glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister, Lazarus. When he had
heard, therefore, that he was sick, he abode two days in the
same place where he was. Then after that, saith he to
his disciples, let us go into Judea again. Now you and I would
think, As soon as the Lord heard this prayer, it's a good prayer.
You and I would think that as soon as the Lord heard that from
these two sisters, now He loved them. He loved Lazarus. You'd
think He'd have gone straight to them to help them, wouldn't
you? We think that because that's what we do. If I got a phone
call from Lexington, one of my daughters said, Daddy, I need
you. I've got this problem. I need help. I'm on 64. I'm headed there. Because that's
what I do. That's not what our Lord did.
And He did this. He delayed so that we'd learn
something about the power of the Savior over sin, over death,
and over hell that we wouldn't learn if He didn't delay. He
delayed so that we'd see a picture. This is how God calls a dead
sinner to life. I don't know if it's going to
take me one or two Sundays to get there, but I'm telling you
this call Lazarus come forth. Wouldn't have happened. Would
not have happened. That sovereign call. There he
is dead. Roll away the stone. You've got
to... I'm starting on my message when
I get there. You've got to reveal him for what he is. Martha said,
Oh, don't do that. Don't. Oh, he stinks. She's embarrassed. She's protecting her brother.
Don't embarrass him like that. He thinks he's going to be seen
for what he is. He had to die. The Lord had to
delay until he died. Lazarus, if the Lord had come,
he wouldn't have died. How could Lazarus die in the
presence of life himself? Couldn't he? So he delayed so
that Lazarus would die. So he'd be revealed for what
he is. He's a dead sinner, stinking
and rotting without any hope. He just man-turned-their-nose-up-at-him,
much less God. But God said, roll away the stone.
Let's show everybody what He is. Lazarus, come forth. He could have said that if he
hadn't died. And he came forth. He that was dead, stinking and
rotting. He was dead. He couldn't hear.
He can't move. The Lord said, set him free. How'd he move? He's all wrapped
up. The Lord had power. Set him free. Couldn't have happened. If the Lord did not delay, He
did that to show us how God calls dead sinners to life. Scripture
doesn't say the Lord loved them, yet He delayed, did it? Scripture
said the Lord loved them, therefore He delayed, because He loves
them. He's going to show them His greatest
glory. He's going to do something better
for them than if He came straight there and healed Lazarus. That
would have been wonderful, spectacular. If the Lord had come, Lazarus
was sick unto death, and he healed him. That would have been wonderful.
That would have been a show us the power of the Savior, healing
all of our spiritual sicknesses. But that's not what he did. He
delayed, because he's going to show them his greatest glory. And he's going to show them,
in the salvation of a dead sinner, he gets all the glory. Now, if
Lazarus was sick and the Lord healed him, somebody might have
thought, well, he would have gotten better eventually. But
when he's dead, he's dead four days and he stinks despite all
the spices and things they put on him. Now, Lazarus didn't do
that. Christ gets all the glory and
that's what he's going to show them. If God saves you and me,
he's going to show us the same thing. We're a dead sinner without
any hope other than Christ alone. Now, our Lord said this sickness
is not unto death. The purpose of this death is
not that Lazarus died physically. The purpose of this death is
that the Son of God be glorified. The purpose of this sickness
and this death was sent to Lazarus, this trial was sent to Lazarus
and his sisters, is so that in the whole situation, Christ be
glorified. Now, in all things, in all things,
Christ is going to have the glory. He's going to have the preeminence
in all things. Now, you and I don't always know
how the Lord's working all these things together for His glory.
We don't know. So there are times we pray and the Lord doesn't
grant our request, does He? There have been many times, many
times. And the reason for that is that
what we're praying is not for our Lord's greatest glory. We
ask the Lord to spare the life of a loved one. Well, you know,
it could be, look in John 17, it could be that there's another
prayer in conflict with our prayer. We're praying, Lord, spare the
life of this loved one. But it could be the Father's
hearing another prayer. In John 17, verse 24, Father,
I will, that they also whom Thou hast given me be with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory, which Thou hast given
me, for Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
Have you ever been like Mary and Martha? I had a loved one,
sick unto death. Pretty sure they're going to
die. Pretty sure. And you ask the Lord to spare them. You beg
the Lord to spare their life. And He doesn't do it. Why not? Why didn't He spare their life?
Verse 24, Father, I will. It's the will of the Savior.
That they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. It's the Savior's will. They
not be in this body of sin anymore. It's His will. They be with Him
where He is. Well, brother, then you're leaving
this life. If the Lord prays that for you,
you're leaving this life and going to be with Him because
that's His will. If the Lord Himself prayed that,
you cannot stay here, but you will go be forever with the Lord. And Christ is glorified in that
situation. a whole lot more than if He healed
our loved one. We'd be thankful if He healed our loved one. But
the Lord didn't answer that prayer for His greater glory. That loved
one who knew the Lord. My soul. They've experienced
glory we can't even begin to comprehend. Christ was glorified
in that situation. Now the Lord heard the prayer
for these who love. He loves. He loves them. And
He's still delayed. Even while he's waiting, it's
pointed out in verse 5. Now, the Lord loved this family. He loved Mary and Martha and
Lazarus. It's pointed out, so we know, there's no mistake,
the Lord loves them. He loved them so much, he's going to do
something better than coming to heal their brother. He's going
to show his glory in salvation. This sickness is not under death,
he said. This sickness is not even under spiritual death. not
under spiritual death in Adam, our sickness is not under spiritual
death in Adam for God's elect. Because Christ is going to come
and give life to the dead. And this is going to be done
to show us the glory of the Son and the glory of God. Now, we
don't have time to talk about all the glory of God. And we
wouldn't understand most of what we're talking about even if we
tried. But if you look in Exodus chapter 33, You know, when we don't have
time to talk about the subject that's so vast, let's stick to
what we know from Scripture. This is what we know from Scripture.
God's greatest glory is mercy to sinners. It's His goodness.
In Exodus 33, verse 18, and this is Moses speaking, he said, I
beseech thee, show me thy glory. Now, Moses had had a conversation
with God at the burning bush. It was not consumed. Moses, take
off your shoes. You're on holy ground. That bush
burned. It was not consumed. And he spoke
to God in that burning bush. Moses went to Egypt, like God
told him, and he saw all those wonders and miracles in Egypt.
Moses came to the Red Sea. He watched that Red Sea part
and dry ground appear. And he watched three million
people cross the Red Sea on dry ground. Not a drop of water gone
on any of them. They all came across safe. And
he watched that same Red Sea collapse on the mightiest army
on the face of the earth and not one unlived. Not one. He
saw that. Moses had spent 40 days on the
top of a mountain talking to God. Moses watched the finger
of God write the Ten Commandments on two tables of stone. Moses
had seen the manna. He'd seen the quails come feed
the children of Israel every day. Moses saw water gush forth
from that smitten rock, gave water to drink to feed three
million people and all their animals. And Moses asks, show
me your glory. My goodness. Moses, have you
seen God's glory yet? Well, I've seen some spectacular
things, but Moses knew this. I've not seen his greatest glory
yet. Not yet, I haven't. So I beseech thee, would you
show me your glory? In verse 19, God said, all right,
I'll make all my goodness pass before thee. I'll proclaim the
name of the Lord before thee and will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. Now, God defines his greatest
glory as his goodness. And we see his goodness in his
name. and in His sovereign mercy and sovereign grace. God's greatest
glory is His goodness. Do you know when God made that
statement, what was going on at the bottom of that mountain?
When God made this statement, the children of Israel had gathered
up all their gold and melted it down, making them a golden
calf, making them an isle to worship, bowing down and worshiping,
having a big party around it. That's what they were doing.
God didn't wipe out every last one of them for this reason.
God's good. He's good to his people. God's
good to sinners. You know why you and I are wiped
out this morning? Why aren't every one of us destroyed? Yet
here we sit, reading God's word, hearing his gospel preached,
singing his praises, offering prayer to him. Why are we doing
that? God's good. Why aren't we off somewhere else
doing something else? God's good. That's the only reason. God's goodness is seen in this.
God can save a sinner as bad as you and me. That's God's goodness. We're so bad, God's good enough
to save us. That's His goodness. And God's
goodness is seen in His name. That name that describes who
God is. He's the Savior. Of who? Good people? No. Sinners. God's so good, His name reveals
to us He's the Savior of sinners. His name reveals Jehovah, God
with us. Who are we? Sinners. And God's
with us because of His goodness. God's greatest glory is His goodness. And we see that in His sovereign
mercy. I'll be gracious. He's going
to be gracious to somebody. I'm gracious to whom I will.
That's sovereign grace. And I'll show mercy to whom I
will show mercy. And whom He will. He hardens. But you know Scripture never
one time records God saying, I'll be angry with whom I will
be angry. Never once. I'll be gracious to whom I will
be gracious. I'll show mercy to whom I will show mercy. Because
God's good. And God is glorified in His sovereign
mercy. Now, that would be so much more
glorious if we understand what that really means. God chose
In His sovereign right, He chose to save some out of Adam's fallen
race. Not because they deserved it.
Not because they were better than somebody else. Not because
He saw someday they'd choose Him. God chose some out of Adam's
fallen race just because He would. He chose them because He's good.
He put them in His Son to be their surety. Gene and I were
talking about this the other week. We wouldn't invite people
as bad as us to be with our children. God did. God put him in his son. He put to be their servant to
him. And then God chose, sovereignly chose, to do this. He chose to
send his son to become a man, to establish righteousness for
those people that he chose, those that he loved. God sent his very
own son to humiliate himself, to become flesh, so that he could
work out a perfect righteousness that he would freely impute to
his people. And God chose to make those sinners not guilty.
Make them not guilty in His Son. Make them perfectly righteous.
That magnified God's holiness. That magnified God's mercy at
the same time, didn't it? God made them not guilty. And
God chose to give those sinners life. He chose to give them eternal
life by having His Son die for them. To take their sins, suffer
everything those sins deserve, Die under the wrath of God. God chose to do that for those
people through the death of His Son so that they'd have eternal
life. Not because they deserved it.
Simply because God's good. Oh, now I see. God's good. That's His goodness to sinners.
And that's God's greatest glory. And you write this down. God
not share that glory with another. No, sir. Jealous of His glory. This is God's glory alone. And if we're going to see God's
glory, I'll tell you where we're going to see it. We're going
to see it in the face of Jesus Christ. In verse 4 in our text,
Jesus said, this sickness is not unto death, but it's for
the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified. The
glory of God, the Father, and the glory of Christ, the Son,
they're inseparable. Look over in John 17 again. They
always go together. In verse 1 of John 17, these
words speak Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. Their glory, the glory of the
Father and the glory of the Son is always together. Salvation
in Christ alone, that's how the Fathers glorify. It's through
salvation through His Son alone. Man has sinned and come short
of the glory of God. Christ, He didn't come short.
He established righteousness and redeemed His people from
all their sin so that God's glory is magnified. We've come short
of it. Christ has magnified it. In Christ,
He's going to get all of the glory and salvation. Now, would
you like to know if Christ saved you? Is that interesting? Would
you like to know that? I can answer that question for you
when you answer this question. You answer this question in your
own mind. Would Christ be glorified if He saved you? Would He? Would Christ get all of the glory
if He saved you? Would God's sovereign grace be
magnified if God saved you through the death, the burial and the
resurrection of Christ? Does Christ get all the glory
without any help from you? You can contribute anything and
help in any way. That would mean Christ get all
the glory. Are you so bad, you're dead. Like Lazarus, you're dead. Unable to do anything for yourself. You can't do anything to please
God. You can't do anything to make God save you. So if you're
saved, Christ did it all. So he gets all the glory. Well,
if you say now, you know, I'm not that bad. I mean, yeah, I
do things wrong, but there are people worse off than me. Well,
then Christ's not going to save you. Because you're not going
to get all the glory saving somebody like that. But if you can say,
a greater sinner than me does not exist. My heart is wretched
and vile. I'm an enemy of God. If God's going to save me, Christ
is going to have to do it all. The power of His blood is going
to be greater than anything I've ever imagined to wash away the
sin that's in me. If you say that, God's going
to save you. Because He saved sinners like
that. The only reason you know that is because God showed it
to you. You've got life. You'd never know you're dead
until you've got life. You never knew you were dead
in sins until God gave you life. Now, God loves His people, doesn't
He? With an immeasurable, eternal love. And that love causes God
to give us the best of everything that He has. Just like we'd never
see the glory of God's power to comfort and deliver and provide
until we went through the trial. We never would know that. We
never know Jehovah Jireh until we need him to provide, until
he strips us of everything. Then we know the Lord will provide.
Until we go through that time of trial, we won't learn that.
We'd never see God's greatest glory and His goodness, His sovereign
mercy, sovereign grace in saving sinners. Unless we went through
the agony of seeing our sin and our death by sin first, then
we'll see God's greatest glory in saving sinners through sovereign
mercy. God's love for His people moved
Him to delay until Adam died, until Adam fell. It moved Him
to delay, to delay destroying the whole earth. and to each
one of His elect were physically born on this earth to come to
faith and repentance. What caused God to delay all
that time? I often wish the Lord would just
wrap this thing up. I really do. I mean, sometimes
I just get sick and tired of it. Why don't He? He's good. He's delaying because
He's good. He must have a people he's still
going to save. Somebody is still sick unto death
and they're going to die. They're going to see their dead
and God's going to raise them. That's the only, the only reason
he's delaying is sovereign mercy. How good, how good is our Lord? Now, the only reason we knew
that He loved us. He loved us first. Alright, let's
bow in prayer.