Turn back to John chapter 11. John chapter 11, title of the
message, Lazarus is dead. If I were to tell you that someone
died, as I did this morning, you would have no trouble understanding
what I mean, would you? I said a certain person is dead,
you would have no trouble understanding what I mean by that. If I said
a certain person was in a car accident and had been hurt, you
would say, how bad? How bad were they hurt? What's the extent of the damages?
But if I said that person was dead, you wouldn't say how dead
would you? You'd never ask how dead. Dead
is dead. Dead is dead. People know what
dead means in every area except when it comes to spiritual matters. when it comes to spiritual matters.
People think because we have physical life that we automatically
also have spiritual life. That because we can talk to one
another that we can just automatically speak to God. That's not so. That's not so. Physical life and spiritual life
are two separate things, totally separate. The one is flesh, and
that which is born of the flesh is flesh. The other is spirit,
and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. And that's what they'll ever
be, and they won't mix. They will not mix. And I want
to speak to you this evening on man's condition by nature and our only hope. What is our only hope? Who is
our only hope, I should say? And I want to use the physical
death of Lazarus as an allegory, as a type, as a picture. You and I know that Lazarus himself
was not dead, he was asleep. The Lord said, he sleepeth. But
the disciples didn't understand that language. They said, well,
if he's asleep, he doeth well. Well, he sure did. He was doing
well. But the Lord then said, Jesus,
in verse 14, then said, Jesus, unto them, plainly, plainly,
they understood this, Lazarus is dead, and I want to use the
physical death of Lazarus, his body, his physical death, and
use it as a type here. Now, I listen to some of the
TV preachers from time to time, and it's very evident that they
do not know what happened in the garden. They don't know. Adam was not in an accident.
He died dead, spiritually dead. He was not in an accident. They
do not understand what dead and trespasses and sins mean. I'll tell you what it means.
It means this, dead. Is there anything hard to understand
about dead? Look over in Ephesians chapter
2. Ephesians chapter 2, in verse
1, now hath he questioned has been supplied by the translators
to make it read better. But let me read it like this,
and you who were dead in trespasses and sins. It does not say, and
you who were in trespasses and sins. He said you were dead in
them. No spiritual life whatsoever. Dead in sin. I hear them preach on issues
like morality and immorality when they should be preaching
on mortality and immortality. They should be preaching on Christ
crucified, redemption, forgiveness. Not trying to give up this or
give up that because that doesn't save anyone. Give up all you
want to give up. If you miss Christ, you still
perish. Someone was talking to me some
time ago about a certain person, no one that you all know. You
don't know this person. And they were telling me that
this person needed to get back in church. She used to go to
church, so-called. And I said to them, I said, no she doesn't. She does not need to get back
in church. I said, she needs Christ. She needs the Lord to
save her. And the place where she was going
does not preach the gospel. The last thing she needs is to
go back to that place. She needs Christ. She's dead.
She needs the one that can give life. She's dead. She's dead. Now let's look at Lazarus' physical
condition here. Lazarus was alive at one time
physically. He had sweet fellowship with
his Lord. The Lord visited this family.
It says back over there that the Lord loved. It says now Jesus
loved Martha, her sister, and Lazarus. And He experienced that
love. He knew it. He tasted it. He
tasted it. The Lord visited his home. But something happened. Something
happened. One day he got up out of bed
and he was sick. He was sick. Deathly ill. And he died. He died. There was a time when Adam was
alive. I mean alive spiritually. He
had sweet communion with the Lord. You know that verse that
says he heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden in
the cool of the day. That happened time and time again. That wasn't the first time that
happened. He had had sweet communion with his Lord. But one day, one day, something
happened. Sin entered into him and he died. How dead is he? Dead, dead. He died. Turn over to Romans
chapter 12. Romans chapter 12. No, I think I wrote down the
wrong one. I think it was in Romans chapter 5. I wrote down
the wrong scripture. Let me read it to you. Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death Not just
sickness, not lameness, death by sin. How many funerals have we gone
to? Death. Death by sin. And so death passeth all men
for that all have sinned. James, over in the book of James,
chapter one. But every man is tempted when
he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath
conceived, it brings forth sin. And sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death." Death, that's the result of sin. It says in 1 Corinthians 15,
22, for as in Adam, all die. We died in Adam. And this needs
to be, you know, I have a radio, we have a radio message here
every week, and this is the one thing that I want to make clear
when I send them a CD and they put it on the air, I want to
make clear that man by nature is spiritually dead and he's
shut up to the mercy of God. We are shut up to God's mercy
because we are naturally dead. Dead. And all that Adam represented,
all that were in him, which is everybody, died. The life of God, gone. Gone. No taste for God. No thirst for God. No hunger
for communion with God. Blessed, the Lord said, blessed
are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness. One reason,
they shall be filled. Second reason, it is a definite
sign of spiritual life. It's a sign that God has given
life. And hunger is evidence that I
have life. Now when I die, when this body
dies, it's not going to hunger and thirst anymore because it's
dead. But hunger and thirst are signs of life. And blessed are those who hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. But
men do not have this now naturally. Then that, the spiritual senses,
all the spiritual senses are gone. They're dead. No taste for God, no thirst for
God, no hunger for God. It's gone. It's gone. Then we see Lazarus now as a
dead man. He doesn't call for help now.
When he was sick, when he was laying in there in the bed, he
would say, Martha or Mary, bring me something. He doesn't cry
out for anything now because he's dead. The man is dead. Men who are spiritually dead
will not call upon the Lord for help. Listen, they don't know
they need it because they're dead. They don't
know their need of Him because they are dead. If you know your
need of Christ, it's because He's given you life from the
dead. He's given you life. Only the living know they need
help. Not until God gives a man life
does he know that he was dead in trespasses and sins and knows
what that means. And not only could he not call
for help, he could not seek help, because when he died, his will
died with him. His will died with him. Man does not have the will to
come to Christ. When Adam died, the will to have
God's presence, the will to come to him, died with him. It died
also. Listen to the Scriptures. Our
Lord says this in John 5, 39-40. Search the Scriptures. For in
them ye think ye have eternal life, and there they which testify
of me. And ye will not. Here's your problem. Ye will
not come to me. You don't have a will to come
to me. We love darkness rather than light. That we have not the will to
come to God. Not naturally, not naturally.
He said, you will not come to me that you might have life.
Why? Because you're dead. You're dead. You have no spiritual will. You
have a fleshly will. And that's just exactly what
it is. It wills after the flesh. Isaiah is very bold and says,
I was found to them that sought me not. I told you this morning
when you found Christ, you wasn't looking for him. He found you. He went out and found the lost
sheep. He revealed himself to you. I was found to them that
sought me not. I was made manifest unto them
that asked not for me. Where's the great physician? We didn't ask. We didn't care. Not until he gave us life and
we realized we need help. We need help. We need the balm
of Gilead. Those are signs of life, but
dead men don't know those things. And Lazarus could not do anything
by way of giving himself life. Oh, sinner, why don't you take
the next step? Why don't you accept Christ Jesus
as your personal Savior? You wouldn't say it to a dead
man, would you? You wouldn't say it to a dead body. You wouldn't go up to a
casket and say, why don't you get up? Why don't you come out
of there? Now, you've got enough sense
to do it. They can't take you away. But men will stand in a pulpit
and leave it into the hands of sinners to make that final move
in order to make everything work. Listen, life begets life. Life begets life. Life must come
from life. It comes from life. Therefore,
if we are to have spiritual life, it must be given to us by Christ,
who is life. He is life. Listen to this, John
5.26, For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given
to the Son to have life in himself. And He gives that life to whom
He will, sovereignly. But life comes from life. You're
not going to ask a dead man to do something. You're going to
ask life to do something. He says in John 17, too, as thou
hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given Him. He has the power to
do it. He has the right to do it. He
is life. And if we ever have it, you'll have to give it. You'll
have to give it. And then Lazarus lost all physical
discernment. Couldn't smell. Couldn't see. Couldn't hear. Couldn't taste. He lost it all. He lost it all. Scripture says the natural man
receives not the things of God, of the Spirit of God, for they
are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they
are spiritually discerned." And he's lost all his spiritual senses. They're gone. They're gone. We shouldn't get so frustrated
when we speak to lost people. They're dead. They're dead. They have nothing to work with.
Literally, they have nothing to receive unless the Lord commands
life, unless He gives life, creates faith in the heart, gives a new
heart, gives a new nature. That spiritually dead man has
nothing to receive the things of God in or with. He has lost all discernment,
all discernment. And then Lazarus, as I said,
he lost all of his senses. He couldn't hear anymore. He
couldn't hear his sisters crying, all the weeping that was going
on around there. He didn't hear any of it. He
didn't hear any of it. Fallen man cannot hear the words
of God, unless God gives him ears to hear. The Lord said in
John 8.43, Why do you not understand my speech? And then he answers
his own question. I'll tell you why. Even because
you cannot hear my words. You can't hear it. God speaks once. Yea, twice,
man perceives it not. God sends Katrina through, and
it was Mother Nature. He said, behold what desolations
I have made in the earth. God did that. And yet, they call
it the forces of nature. He perceives it not. I used to live beside a deaf
man Years ago, when I was at home, 16, 17, 15, 16, 17 years old, you could set off
a bomb. You could set off an atomic bomb,
and that man couldn't hear it. He was stone, absolutely stone
deaf. I can't imagine that, because
I've had my hearing, and I've had my eyesight. I can't imagine
what it'd be to be totally, absolutely born blind, or to be born totally
deaf, not to hear a sound. And Christ said, why do you not
understand my speech? Why do you not understand what
I'm saying? Even because you cannot hear,
you're deaf. You're spiritually deaf. So Nicodemus,
coming to the Lord to ask Him some questions, and the Lord
stopped him. He said, Nicodemus, unless you're born again, you
cannot see the kingdom of God, you cannot understand the kingdom
of God, unless you're born again. The questions you're going to
ask me, he knew what he was going to ask. He knew every question
he was going to ask. And the Lord stops him right
there. And what he's saying is, Nicodemus, everything you had
to ask me, you can't understand. You can't understand the answers.
Because he said, you must be born again. He said, how can
a man be born when he's old? He showed, he showed right there
how dead he was spiritually. This was a ruler in Israel. Dead. Even because you cannot hear
my word. Then listen, Lazarus was dead
for four days when the Lord came to him. And his sister said, Lord, he's
been dead for four days. By this time, he stinketh. If there's anything other than
dead that describes the human race, that would be the next
one. Stinketh. Stinketh. He stinketh. Time did not help
him one bit. There was nothing that they could
do for Lazarus that would stop the stench. Nothing. By now, he stinketh. When our Lord came to this earth
in the flesh, man had been dead for four thousand
years. In the Lord's years, He said
it wasn't days, it was a thousand years. He had been dead, man
had been dead for four days. And he stinketh. He stinketh. None the better. None the better. Time did not make him any better. It only reveals his rottenness. That's all it does. And then
Lazarus lost all that he had, that home he lived in, that nice
bed he laid on. He took nothing with him. Nothing. In Adam, we lost the way to God,
the life of God, the truth of God. We lost it all. We lost it all. Lazarus used
to live in a comfortable home, but now his body lies out there
among the dead. That's where his body's at, out
there at the graveyard. Talk about his physical death. Adam used to live in God's Eden.
Can you imagine? Can you even begin to imagine
what that Garden of Eden looked like? No sin. Perfect. No rain, no clouds. Didn't need
any of that. Perfect. Adam used to live in
God's Eden. Now, he's kicked out and his
dwelling is among the dead. Is that not where the world dwells? Dead? If God doesn't save me,
you, our dwelling is among the dead? Is that not where all his
children cast out of that garden? Every one of them born dead?
And I tell you this, every man, Man and woman is born into this
world dead. Every one of God's sheep is born
into this world dead. When I was born into this world,
I was not born with the nature of a sheep. I was born with the
nature of a goat. But God killed that goat. I've
always been His sheep, but that by a new creation. I was his
sheep chosen in Christ, I'm his by new creation. But I tell you
what, I was a child of wrath by nature even as others. Same nature. Then Lazarus used
to live in Bethany. That means house of obedience. House of obedience. But now his
body is cast out of the city. We used to have a place before
the fall in God's presence, but when Adam fell, we were cast
out. And our Lord said in John 14,
I go to prepare a place for you. We lost our place in Adam. But our Lord said, I go and prepare
a place for you. And then Lazarus was allowed
to die on purpose. The Lord purposely stayed away
for two more days. He purposely let him die. And
he said that God might be glorified and that the Son of God might
be glorified. He said, this sickness is not
unto death. All his sheep that died in Adam, and they died,
but it was not unto eternal death. He's not going to let that happen.
Not going to let that happen. God allowed Adam to die on purpose
in order to reveal himself in his full glory to us, his church,
throughout the ages. As it says over Ephesians chapter
2, throughout the ages. Now, I think I've covered that. Dead
is dead. He was physically, his body was
physically dead. All senses gone, all feelings
gone, absolutely zero life in that body. Dead. Now what's his
hope of coming out of that grave? What is his hope? Because I tell
you this, the hope that he has coming out of that grave is the
same hope we have. It's the same hope. Lazarus' hope and our hope is
summed up in this one name, Jesus Christ. Turn over to 1 Timothy. 1 Timothy chapter 1, verse 1, Paul,
an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior
and Lord Jesus Christ our hope." There it is. That's it. Christ is our hope. There was no hope for Lazarus
living again in the ordinances, the ceremonies, his good It was the man, Christ Jesus. That's his hope. That's it. His hope was found, listen, his
hope was found in the one who loved him. He whom thou lovest
is sick. And his hope was found and our
hope was found in the one who has loved us with an everlasting
love. That's our hope. Our hope of life, our hope of
forgiveness, our hope of acceptance is Jesus Christ himself. This man is God. He has the power to save. He has the power to get life
from the dead. He has the power to do it. Let all the priests, let all
the scribes, let them all gather around Lazarus' grave, and let
all of them in unison call to him, Lazarus, come out! And nothing will happen. Not
one thing will happen. But let this man, let this man,
this Nazarene, Let this man who was despised and rejected of
men, let this man walk up to the grave and call his name and
tell him to come out. And you know what happens? He
comes out. He comes out alive. He comes
out of there. Look over here, back here. In
verse 43, And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud
voice, Lazarus come forth, and he that was dead came forth,
bound hand and foot with grave clothes. And his face was bound
about with a napkin. And Jesus said unto them, Loose
him, let him go. Oh, Greg, where's your victory? Death, where's your sting? He
was taken away at Calvary. Taken away then. His hope is
in this God-man. This man, Christ Jesus, who has
the power to command life. This is the anointed Savior of
sinners. He said, I am the resurrection. He said to Martha, I am the resurrection
and the life. The embodiment of life. Not just
the giver of it, but also the embodiment of it. He is life. And when they looked at Him,
the disciples, when they looked upon Him, they looked upon life.
That's what John says over here in 1 John 1. Look over here. 1 John 1. He said in verse 1, that which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands
have handled, of the word of life. We've touched life. We've
looked upon life. We've seen life. We've witnessed
life. They saw more than just a man.
They saw life. Life was given a body. And we've seen Him. We've seen Him. Life. This is the one who lighteth
every man that comes into the world. We've seen Him. I am the resurrection and the
life. The resurrection is not an event.
It's a person. We are already resurrected. If
you're in Christ, you're already resurrected. Now there's coming
a time when our bodies, a new body is going to be brought forth. But we're already resurrected.
We're already in Christ. We're not going to die. He that
believeth shall not die. My body is, but I'm not going
to die. I'm going to switch places. I'm going to switch places. And then he's our hope in this
for what he did for us. He called Lazarus forth out of
that grave. But not long after that, he went
in the grave. He took that death. He took the
death that belonged to Lazarus. He took the death that belonged
to every one of his people. And he went into that grave for
them. He released us from the curse
of the law. That curse is a real curse. And
I'm telling you, listen, people die by the minute and they find
out that curse is real. They find out every day that
curse, that law curse is real. Those who die outside of Christ,
they find it out. We're not talking about some
voodoo curse here. We're talking about a law curse. It's very real. And He saved us from that. Those
who believe, those who brought to faith, He saved us from that,
that curse of the law. He tread the winepress of God's
wrath alone for His people. He has set the captive free by becoming a captive, willingly. was led as a sheep to the slaughter. As I told you the other day,
it was a slaughter. And it was a slaughter that belonged
to us. But he took it. He took it. And then he's our
hope in this right now. Right now. This man is seated
at God's right hand. making intercession for the transgressors,
making intercession for His people, ruling and reigning over the
universe for the good of His church. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Can anything separate us from
the love of God? We have one. There is a man,
a real man, God-man, Seated in glory, ruling and reigning
over everything that even exists for our good. A gnat can't even light on me
that he does not allow it to happen. A mosquito cannot bite
me. I believe that. I'm not exaggerating. I cannot exaggerate enough in
this area. It cannot bite me. I was cleaning out here a couple
of weeks ago. I got stunned twice. He gave permission for that to
happen. You say, well, why? Well, I guess
for this sermon, if nothing else. If for nothing else, for this
point. But I can sleep at night. Because my Lord, our Lord, sits
on the throne of glory, sits on the circle of the earth. And
I mean He rules it. Minute by minute, minute by minute,
He commands. He commands, it says, the stormy
wind. He commands the storms. He commands them to come up.
He commands them to be quiet. And He does it all for the good
of His sheep. Can you sleep with that? Can you go to bed with that? I'm learning this as I get older. I don't understand much at all.
I don't. I really don't. But I do understand
something of who He is. I understand He's God. He's the
Sovereign. All power is in His hands. There's
not a power play going on here. There is no power play going
on between God and the devil. The devil is nothing more than
a pit bull on a chain. He's nothing more than a pawn
on a chessboard. Every time our Lord said, Come out of him, he
came out. There was no power play. God is God. And this God is the God of salvation,
and He's our God. And he that was dead came forth,
and the Lord said to Lucy, let him go. Those who have Christ, now you
listen to me. You find this out sometimes,
well, you will. As you get older, those who have
Christ have all they need. I'm telling
you the truth. If you really have Him, you have
all you need. God gave us everything when He
gave us His Son. Everything. Absolutely everything. He gave us His self when He gave
us His Son. And we have no need of anything
else. Alright, Mike.