Now a certain man was sick, named
Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary, and his sister Martha.
And it was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped
his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore
his sister sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest
is sick. So the first thing we see here
is their brother is sick and they went to the right place.
They went to the Lord. They went to the one who could
help him. And it's not just that they're indiscriminately calling
out asking for help. They're appealing to the Lord.
They're saying, Lord, we need your help. It's not just that
we want anybody's help, but we need your help. And the second
thing we see is if you if you had a loved one who was sick,
Wouldn't you appeal to the one whom you knew who could help?
You wouldn't just go to anybody. You would go to the one. This
is the great physician. So they knew that the Lord could
help them. And the second thing we see is Lord he whom thou lovest
is sick. How many people were brought
to the Lord through his time on this earth that maybe he had
never even met before and never heard of him. But here's somebody
sick that they brought to him and they say Lord put your hands
on him and heal him. And so this is not just one of
those people, this is someone whom the Lord knew and they appealed
to him on the ground of his love. They said, Lord, he whom thou
lovest is sick. This is not just anyone, this
is someone who knew love. And so in verse four, it says,
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, you can imagine being one
of the disciples or someone who is close by hearing this and
thinking, what is he talking about? We know the story, but
in the time of when these people were standing there with him,
they think, what is he talking about? Your friends have come
to you and have told you that your friend whom you love is
sick. And then he says this, so that we have some confusion.
What is the Lord talking about? And in verse five, it says, Now
Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. Now, just in case
this is a one sided love, because how many people today who don't
know who the Lord is, but yet they profess to love the Lord.
This is not just that's a one sided love. They love some idea
of what the Lord is. But these people actually knew
who the Lord was, his person. And it says that he loved them,
too. It's not just this wasn't a one sided thing. So the Lord
did love this man. And in verse six, he says, when
he had heard that heard, therefore, that he was sick, he abode two
days still in the same place where he was. And again, this
to us, this doesn't make sense. This is someone whom the Lord
knew, whom the Lord loved and whom this man loved the Lord.
And he was sick and his friends were appealing to help. And yet
it said after the Lord heard this, he stayed there two more
days. Now, I know me and this probably wouldn't be my reaction
that if somebody came to me and said, you know, your wife's sick,
you need to go, you know, go take care of her. I would leave
where I was and get there as fast as I could in order to help
her. But yet we find here the Lord stays two more days. Well,
we know that the Lord doesn't do anything idly. It's all for
a purpose. So it's not that just that he
was detained. and couldn't leave, and he was there doing what he
was doing, and finally he got away after two days. He does
what he does for a purpose, and he told them in verse 4 that
the sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, the
Son of God might be glorified thereby. So that's the reason,
the purpose behind what he did, but they couldn't see that at
this time. If you go over to verse 11, it says, These things
said he, and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus
sleepeth. but I go, that I may awaken him
out of sleep. Then said his disciples, Lord,
if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit, Jesus spake of his death,
but they thought that he had spoken of taking rest and sleep.
Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. So the master
now declares why he's doing what he's doing in the next verse.
In verse 15, he said, I'm glad for your sakes that I was not
there. to the intent that you may believe." And this is the
Lord's purpose and why did he delay himself in going there?
He said, I'm glad that I wasn't there for your sakes, because
if I was there and was able to heal him and keep him from dying,
then evidently that would have prevented some of there that
were with him from being able to believe. It was this instrument,
the means the Lord used to reveal who his person was to these people
that were with him. In verse 17, it says, Jesus came
and he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.
This is not just, I mean, there's plenty of things in this world
that we could say, you know, we can put people on the edge
of death. You know, if you get really sick,
they can take your body down to a temperature that is, you
know, basically freezing your body to keep you alive. And so
all intents and purposes, when you look at the body, you say,
well, they're dead, but they're not really. You're alive. put
in a kind of suspended state. Well, here we're saying Lazarus,
he's been dead for four days. He'll die without water for three
days. It's clear that this man was
really dead. There's no mistaking this. In
verse 21, then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been
here, my brother had not died. But I know even now that whatsoever
thou wilt ask of God, God will give it to thee. So Martha had
confidence in the Lord's power to heal. And isn't this our hope
that what she said to him right now, even I know right now that
whatsoever thou will ask of God, God will give it to thee. So
my hope is that God would hear me for Christ's sake, because
Martha knew if she had appealed to God, if she had appealed to
her brother, that God wouldn't hear her for her sake or any
man standing in their own self to speak to God. I have to speak
through the person of his son. And that's what she was saying
here. I know that if you ask, the Lord God will give you exactly
what you ask for. In verse 25, the Lord said unto
her, I am the resurrection and I am the life. And he that believeth
in me, though he were dead, he shall live. And this is the whole
intent behind all of this. He says, I am the resurrection,
I'm the life, I'm the reason. If you live, it's going to be
through me and I'm going to be the reason that you do live.
But he's saying that he that believeth in me. So you back
up to verse 15 where he said this is the whole reason why
I'm doing this. I'm glad that I wasn't here for
your sakes to the intent that you may believe. So he is further
letting us know this is what he's doing. And in verse 26,
and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest
thou this? And she said unto him, Yea, Lord,
I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should
come into the world. And as soon as she heard that,
she arose quickly and came unto him. And Jesus was not yet come
into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him. The
Jews then which were with her in the house, and comforted her,
when they saw Mary, and saw that she rose up hastily, and went
out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep
there. Then when Mary was come to 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. And this is the verse that
really drew me to this text. this beginning part of verse
33, it said, when Jesus therefore saw, and it kind of stopped me,
you know, it's something that normally you kind of read over
in passing to get to what the later part of the story is, but
when Jesus saw, I mean, aren't you thankful that he sees? I
mean, how many things that each person in here goes through,
your own burden that you bear, your sin, Trials in your life,
things that are going on that nobody else knows but you. The
only things that you pray and cry to on your bed at night,
in the dark, to the Lord, Lord save me, Lord deliver me from
this, give me strength from this, something nobody else knows but
yet the Lord sees. And that's what struck me about
this, that all that these two women were going through, nobody
else could really feel the pain that they were. This was their
brother. It wasn't everybody else's. They may miss him. But
it was their brother. It was their family. And the
Lord saw. The Lord knows. He knows. He cares. How could he not? It said this is one whom he loved. This was one of his children.
He doesn't care for every single one out there and the meaningless
love that religion today tries to say that what his love is,
this is someone whom he actually cared for. Whom he loved and
loved him. How could he not? So when my
child hurts, so do I, because I don't physically feel his pain,
but I hurt for him because he hurts. I don't want him to be
in pain. I want to do anything that I
can do to prevent him from being in pain, from being upset, and
to protect him from that. Couldn't the Lord have helped
him? Couldn't the Lord have kept this from what happened, where
he was sick and then he died? Couldn't he have healed his friend?
didn't the Lord feel for their situation? Well, it says that
when Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping,
which came with her, it said he groaned in the spirit and
was troubled. And he said, where have you laid
him? And they said unto him, Lord, come and see. And it said
Jesus wept. And this is something that I
think that I often forget, that I don't view the Lord as a man
the way I do men and women in this room here, because we think
of the Lord as, and he is so far above what we are in our
experience and in terms of who he is, but yet he still had the
same feelings that you and I do, yet without sin. And for the
fact that the Lord to weep, this was not just something he did,
it's because he wept because he loved this man, and he wept
because he loved his brothers, or his two sisters in this And
it's hard for me to imagine the Lord feeling the same things
that I feel, because I know that I'm so sinful, but yet I have
emotions where I'm happy about things. The Lord was happy about
things. There are things that I sorrow
over, and the Lord sorrowed over things. And to see his humanity,
seeing joy, seeing him weeping, this further exposes a part of
who the Lord is, the man, Christ Jesus. And that it's not that
we feel sometimes disconnected where we don't feel like he understands
the way I feel. But yet the Lord does. He shows
that he does by how he reacts to this family here. Says the
Lord wept. He's God and he's man. He's all
God and he's all man. He's not half God and half man.
But he's all God and he's all man. Do you understand that?
No, not really. But that's what the scripture
says. But you do believe it because how do you explain what your
flesh is or where's your soul? Which part of you is flesh and
which part is your soul? Are you half flesh and are you
half soul? Or maybe it's 90-10. Some relationship. No. I'm all
flesh. I'm standing here. I know I'm
all flesh. But yet I know I have a soul in me. It's not just part
of me. It's all soul too. And so I know
that they both exist. I don't understand where one
starts and the other ends, but they're both there. And so the
Lord was God and he was man. And he was a man who loved his
friends. And when they hurt, it hurt him too. He hurt for
them, not because he would miss Lazarus in the same way that
we would when we lose a loved one, but he hurt for them because
they hurt. If it were within his power,
to stop their pain, the Lord would have. But yet, he had a
purpose in doing this. So was the Lord prevented in
saving Lazarus? In verse 38, the Lord therefore
groaning in him, coming to the grave, it was a cave and a stone
lay upon it. And Jesus said, take you away
the stone. Martha, the sister of him was dead, saith unto the
Lord, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead for four
days. And Jesus said unto her, Said I none unto thee, that if
thou wouldest believe, that thou shouldest see the glory of God."
The Lord was not prevented in saving Lazarus in terms of his
ability, but he was prevented in saving Lazarus because it
wasn't the will of his father. Just as when he said in the garden,
you know, Father, this cup can pass from me. All the pain, all
the weight of sin, of him becoming sin itself, was bearing down
upon him, and it seemed to him something that was so great tormented
him so much that he desired to be delivered from it if it were
possible. But he said, not my will, but
thine be done. So what he was doing here, even
though the Lord may have desired to deliver his friends from this
hurt, this pain that they went through, he knew that he was
there to do his father's will, not just what he wanted to do,
even though he may have desired to deliver them from this. All
things are ordered and sure. There are no surprises. It always
goes according to plan. There's no deviation from the
plan. My greatest joys, my greatest indifferences, my greatest sorrows,
they've all been foreordained by Him who knows what I need. How many bad things would you
prevent if given the chance? I would say most, if not all,
I would prevent. If I had the ability for my family
not to go through any pain, any sorrow, anything that would hurt
them ever, if you said, you have the ability to change, to do
this, so that they don't, I would do that. I don't want them to
experience that. But that may not be what's best
for them. And that's here kind of what
the Lord's saying. He's saying, I'm glad for your sakes that
I wasn't there, even though all of your desire would be for me
to heal him before he died. I'm glad for your sakes that
I wasn't there. If you will, turn with me to 1 Peter 1. And this is how he describes
the reason why he does what he does. So, 1 Peter 1 verse 6,
wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need
be, see that, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold
temptations, that the trial of your faith, if need be, be much
more precious than of gold that perishes. though it be tried
with fire, might be found in the praise and honor and glory
of the appearing of Jesus Christ. So you see what he describes
here, your faith, that is not the experience of your faith,
but he calls it the trial of your faith. And in this world,
we all know we will go through trials and temptations But yet
the Lord describes it not in the same way we do. We feel like
it's a burden. It's something, oh, I got through
that. And so you're through the trial and you're thinking, you
know, now things are better. No, he describes this as more
precious than gold, though it be tried with fire. Gold that
has the impurities removed from it. Burn through with these trials
to purify your faith. And that's the way he describes
our faith and our experience in this life. Not the way we
would think of it. Not the way I would do it. But
yet this is the Lord's way. So this is how the Lord teaches
because he does it this way because it breaks down our false refuges.
Whether it be I come from a family where maybe my mother, maybe
my grandmother, maybe my great-grandmother were all believe the gospel.
Does that give me any confidence that the Lord would do something
for me just because my family believe the gospel? No. There's
no one that is saved just because they come from a family that
has people that believe the gospels, believe the gospel. These are
false refuges, I think, that we can hide in and take comfort
in. And so the Lord will remove these, whether it be works, whether
it be the place that I go to worship, whether it be anything
that we would look to that are outside of looking to his son
alone. This is the only thing that is
going to be sure. And the reason the Lord does
this is to show us that all these things are vain. It's just a
show on the outside, and it can be removed, and it won't last.
So, what lasts is what he's saying here. It's the gold tried in
the fire. The rest of the stuff, that's just stuff on the outside
that'll be burned up. And so, that is why the Lord
puts us through trial in order that he might refine our faith
and remove all the false refuges. And through these experiences,
this is something that causes me to pray more, causing me to
seek his face more. If this is something that gives
me, if asked, would you trade all the pain, all the trial,
all the things that you've been through in my short 34 years
of life, and I'm sure 30 years later, if I live that long, I'll
have double or triple the amount that I have now. Would you trade
anything that you've gone through to this point from what you've
gained in terms of faith and looking to God through those
trials? I wouldn't trade a bit of it. At the time, I would think,
do anything to deliver me from this. I can't deal with this.
This is too great for me. But looking at it from the other
side and saying what faith the Lord gave me in looking to him,
in trusting him for his faithfulness, in trusting him for his mercy
through those times when I couldn't see it. But yet now on this side
of it, after all those things have been burned through, now
I've got the gold that remains. This is the gold, that precious
gold. It is your faith. So I'm glad it's this way. And
who knows where I would be without it? Who knows where you would
be without the trials that you've gone through? The Lord gives
each of us what we need when we need it and not before we
need it. And he gives grace to bear it
and not before we go through it. So there are many things
that I can't imagine going through. that I don't think that I would
have the strength to bear certain things if they were to happen.
And I'm sure you have certain things in your life that you
know it would be awful if this happened. I don't know how I
would deal with it. The Lord can give grace for that too.
Even though we can't see it at the time, we would want the grace
before we go through it to know to have the confidence when we're
going through it, the Lord's given me faith to get through
this. Well, that's not how he works. And that's not how he
worked back here with Lazarus and his family. He said, I'm
glad for your sake that I wasn't there to the extent that you
might believe because they wouldn't have evidently believed these
ones that he was speaking to apart from going through this.
So in verse 41, then they took away the stone from the place
where he was. He was 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." Why would the Lord put this family through
this? Well, he tells us right here.
First, that he might be manifest who he is. He's manifesting who
he is, that he's God. Second, that he might get all
the glory. Lazarus is dead. If Lazarus is
alive, there's only one reason why Lazarus is alive. It's because
the Lord has raised him. And third reason is that you
might believe. And then when he had thus spoken,
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. Did he do it? Did Lazarus come forth when the
Lord cried that? Yes, he did. Did he have any
power to resist it? Lazarus, come forth. Did he lay
there for a minute and think, OK, now I think I'm OK where
I was at before. I don't want to get up and do
this. No, he didn't. There was no reaction. It was
Lazarus come forth. And it said Lazarus came forth.
The Lord knew that Lazarus sick. The Lord allowed him to die for
this purpose that you might believe Lazarus come forth. He has a
purpose in all things, irrespective of how we may perceive it. How
I perceive it usually is directed to how do I benefit from it or
how do I suffer from it. But yet the Lord doesn't look
at it that way. He looks at it only as he's doing
this for the good of his children. His purpose is built. It's grounded. It's written in stone. You wonder
why the Old Testament, the laws were written in tables of stone.
You know, when we write things down, it's either electronically,
you can just erase it. You write it with a pen and paper, we have
white out, erase it with a pencil, but these were written in tables
of stone. It's because there's no change. There's nothing new
that causes it to change from what it was, even though people
today try to take the scriptures and modify them for contemporary
life, a contemporary God for contemporary times. There is
no change. The Old Testament was written
in stone because there's no change. It's to call out and to bring
home his purpose. Call out and bring home his lost
sheep. And such is this story even here. How many different
roads have each of us come on to come to this place today?
I'm not talking about from your house, but from where you were.
Each of us have come from a different road and a different place, and
the Lord has ordered things to have everyone here who's here
this morning because he had ordered it that way. You may have been
somewhere where you weren't even seeking him. You weren't even
thinking of him. You had no interest in him. But
there's one day that he reached out and grabbed you and said,
you're mine. And no longer did you care about
the things that you did before, before he put your hand on you
and revealed himself to you. If you will turn back to Ezekiel
chapter 16 with me. I want to look at this is this
is a picture of who we are and how the Lord reached out and
grabbed us. Let's start reading verse 1.
Again, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man,
cause Jerusalem to know her abominations, and say, Thus saith the Lord
God unto Jerusalem, Thy birth and thy nativity was of the land
of Canaan. That's nobody. That's not the
Jews. Thy father was an Amorite, and
thy mother was a Hittite. And as for thy nativity and the
day that thou was born, thy navel was not cut, neither was thou
washed in water to sepulchre, nor was thou salted or swaddled
at all, and none I pity of thee. This is a newborn baby. I mean,
you think at least you can have some mercy on a newborn child,
but yet this is how we're spoken of. To do any of these unto thee,
to have compassion upon thee, but thou wast cast out in the
open field to the loathing of thy person, thrown out to die,
worthless, in the day that thou wast born, so basically left
there to die. And when I pass by thee, and
saw thee polluted in thine own blood, I said unto thee, When
thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, When thou
wast in thy blood, live. I have caused thee to multiply
as the bud of the field now is increased, and waxen great, and
are come to excellent ornaments. Thy breasts are fashioned, thy
hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed
by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time
of love. I spread my skirt over thee,
and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine. Then washed I thee with water.
Yea, I throughly washed away the blood from thee, and I anointed
thee with oil." We see here this experience of salvation. What
did this baby do at all in terms of how was she brought to the
Lord and loved? Did she seek him out? Said, you
were thrown out into the field, left to die, unwashed, polluted
in your blood. Nobody loved you, nobody wanted
you. But when I came by, I passed by thee, I covered you. Said,
I washed you. I washed away all your sins.
I took away all that made you polluted. And he said, I anointed
you with oil. I gave you my spirit. I anointed
you with my Holy Spirit. I gave you a new heart and a
new nature. And this is our experience, those
whom the Lord has saved, that's how he saves. It's all through
his hand. All things are ordered in this
life. Everything that happens is ordered after the saving of
the Lord's people. That's encouraging. Every day.
The only reason the sun rises in the morning is because there's
some whom the Lord has not called out yet. And this is the Lord's
work and this is how he works. Many people believed on him in
the raising of Lazarus or else he wouldn't have done it. Why
put them through this apart from the Lord's purpose that these
people might believe. Well, a few words on Lazarus,
just illustrating our salvation. What did Lazarus do in order
for the Lord to come raise him? Did he sin for him? Did he say,
Lord, I'm sick, come heal me? No, he didn't even do that. Did
he choose to let the Lord do it in his condition where he
was? No, he was incapable of choosing
to let the Lord do it. Well, did the Lord start the
process and then Lazarus came the rest of the way? Did the
Lord get his heart beating and his lungs breathing there when
he was lying in the cave and Lazarus picked himself up and
walked out? No. The Lord came to Lazarus where he was. He didn't
wait until Lazarus got better because if the Lord had waited,
if you wait to come to the Lord before you get better, Lazarus
was already dead. He couldn't have been in a worse
state. And that's why we don't wait to come to the Lord. We
come to the Lord as we are. Lord, come to me as I am. Dead,
no life, no strength. He's rotting. There's nothing
appealing about me and there's no ability for me to come to
the Lord. Lazarus could not come to the Lord. And Lazarus had
no choice. He was laying there dead. And
if he was made alive, as the scripture says he was, then the
only reason he was alive is because the Lord raised him. He became
a trophy of the Lord's grace. So is this sinner that stands
here. God did it all. The Father chose me in Christ.
The Son lived the life that I couldn't and died for me. And the Holy
Spirit called me. It woke me up. Lazarus, come
forth! Can you imagine his surprise?
Laying there one moment and then, Lazarus, come forth! I'm alive. I don't know how I'm alive, but
I know I'm alive because he called me. He said my name. He gave
me life. He gave me ears to hear. Do you
think there's any doubt in Lazarus's mind who brought him forth? I'd
say there's no doubt in Lazarus's mind who brought him forth. The
Lord brought him all the way through his life, his death,
and his life. And you can see how Lazarus is
a picture and a type of Christ. This gives me confidence that
though I don't understand what the Lord is doing, I know why
he's doing it. He knows and he sees. He said
that he'll give people for my life. Gave his son, can he give
any greater? Do you ask me if I would give,
I was thinking this morning about how to say this, if a whole country
of Spain were to live, if I would give my son's life, I wouldn't
do it. I know that would be horrible
and a lot of people would die, but my son is my son and I wouldn't
give his life for them. But yet the Lord gave his son
for sinners. The Lord gave his son for people,
people that don't deserve it, sinners, the worst kind. And
so that's who the Lord gave. And he gave his son so he can
give no greater. He gave all for me. And if he
was willing to give his son for somebody like me, then I trust
him. Job said, though he slays me,
yet will I trust him to deliver me wholly. unblameable and unapprovable
in his sight. In my sight, when I look at me
and my experience, I find plenty of doubts that if I'm holy, unblameable
and unapprovable in his sight, then it doesn't matter how I
look at me because he is my judge, not me. Lord, if thou hast been
here, he is and he knows. I pray that the Lord give you
and me grace to trust him and to look to him and not our own
right hand for deliverance. and given the grace to wait upon
him to deliver me just as he did Lazarus. How sweet the day
when we too shall also come forth as Lazarus, and the first face
that we'll see is our Lord.