Turn back to John chapter 11. John chapter 11. All things are for His glory
and our good. All things are for His glory
and our good. And the sooner we learn this,
the sooner we learn this, the quieter Will our conscience, our heart
be as we journey home? It says a certain man was sick
named Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. Now this is that same Mary that
anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair. Can you ladies imagine wiping
the Master's feet with your hair? Can you imagine doing that? It
seems like every time we read of Mary, where is she? At His
feet. She's at His feet. Taken up with
Him. She's absolutely consumed with
Him. She sat at His feet. You remember,
Martha was busy in the house. He was busy, busy, busy. Mary
sat at his feet. She chose that one thing needful.
And this is that same Mary, that same one. And their brother,
Lazarus, and you know how dear their brother was to them. He
was dear to them. And he became sick, more than
just a cold. He became very sick. They knew
it was serious. So they sent someone to tell
the Lord that not Lazarus was sick, but He whom thou lovest
is sick. They didn't commend Lazarus to
Him. They commended His love to Lazarus. Lord, the one You
love, one of Your children, one of Your children is sick. The
one You love is sick. Now, they believed They believed
in their heart that he would come, and he would heal Lazarus,
and he would be all right. Our Lord takes care of his own
in his time, and we learn this as we grow older. He takes care
of his own in his time. He takes care of his own in his
way. See, he's the physician. He knows
what's best. That would be like me going to
the doctor and saying, Doctor, I think you ought to give me
this, this, this, and this. This is what I think you ought to
do. Well, I don't know a thing about medicine. That would be so foolish. Our
Lord knows what's best for us at all times, in every situation. And He knows what's best for
us and for His glory. And you can be sure of this,
that's what He'll do. He will do what's best for us
and for His eternal glory and our eternal glory in Him. And
He tells this person, He says, this sickness, this sickness
is not unto death, but for the glory of God. It's for God's
glory. So that person, that person goes
back to Martha and Mary and Lazarus is there too. He's still alive
probably about that time. And he goes back and he says,
The Lord said, this sickness is not unto death. And you know,
you know that gave them some hope. You know that brightened
their day. The Lord said, this sickness
is not unto death. His Word causes us to hope. David said, I hope. in thy word."
So for a little while, they had some hopes. For a little while,
I'm sure their heart had some relief. Now it says in verse
5 that he loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. How precious is
that? I tell you, you can't even begin
to think of how precious it is when God saves a family. When
He saves a family. Martha, Mary, and Lazarus. He
loved them. He loved that family. But now listen. Don't let circumstances
determine your judgments of His love. I'll tell you, when I was a boy,
just a little boy, Mom would take me to the doctor. They said
I had rheumatic fever. And I used to get a shot. She'd bend me over her knee,
and I'm telling you, I didn't like it. Back then, they used
nails. It felt like a nail. Not like
they do now. You're needled now, you don't
really feel it. But back then, it felt like it was using the
nail. And I was just upset. But I tell you what, my mother
took me and had the doctor to do this because she loved me. Now you couldn't convince me
at, I was about five years old, five, six years old, you couldn't
have convinced me of that, that hurt. But here, it says here,
and this is noted because of this pain that's going to happen
and what's going to go on here, this is written that you and
I would know that he loved that family. He loved that family. So let's not let circumstances
determine our judgments of his love. Now it says he stayed two
days longer still in the same place where he was. Not anxious,
not surprised. You mean Lazarus is sick? How
sick is he? He knew Lazarus was sick and
he knew how sick he was and he knew. That this sickness was
not unto death. There is no sickness for a believer
that is unto death. He said, though he's dead, yet
shall he live again. He's alive. Martha, your brother's
alive. Mary, your brother's alive. If
I die of some sickness, this body's what dies. I live. I'm not dead. I live. This sickness, he says, is not
unto death. So he stayed two days longer in the same place
where he was. The great physician need not
be in a hurry. The patient is under his care. And there's more than one patient
here. We see Lazarus as the patient, don't we? Oh, that whole family. That whole family. He's going
to take care of this whole family. He's going to doctor or take
care and teach this whole family. Though it's under his care, the
patient's under his care. And he demonstrates also here
his sovereignty. You know, he's not at our, you
know, we can go to the throne of grace at any time, but he's
not at our beck and, here, I need you, you know, come over here.
It's not that way. He demonstrates his sovereignty
in these things. And then our position, when He
demonstrates His sovereignty in these things, is to wait.
That's our position. To wait on the Lord. And be of
good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart. Wait, I say, on
the Lord. Now after He purposely, purposely
stayed away for two days, He said, now let's go to Judea.
It's time to go. It's time to work. It's time
to work. This is what He's saying. We'll
see this here in a second. It's time to work. And they said,
the Jews sought to kill you, to stone you, and you're going
to go back there? Aren't you afraid? Oh, here's the master. Here's the
master of all things. Aren't you afraid to go back
there? Are you afraid they might kill you? They had not yet understood that
he was going to raise Lazarus and that he must in time, go
back there and die himself. But it's time for him to work.
And that's why he says this next verse. If any man walk in the
day, he stumbles. He stumbles not. But now if he
walks at night, he stumbles because he has no light in him. It's
my time to work. It's time to work. I must be
about my Father's business. And right now, part of that business
is raising Lazarus for His glory. Our Lord had a fixed time to
work out our redemption. And he said, this is the time,
this is the day. It's my time. It's my time to
work. And he says to them in verse 11, these things said he,
and after that he said unto them, our friend Lazarus is asleep. He sleepeth. He knew exactly
what was going on. He's omnipresent. While he was
there, he was also in their house in spirit. He was there. He was
not limited by that body. As a man, he stood there. But
as God, he was everywhere. He was everywhere. And he said,
our friend Lazarus is asleep. He's sleeping. But I go that
I may wake him out of sleep. This is how it really is. with
those who die in the Lord. See, He allowed this to happen
not just for them and to strengthen their faith, but for us also.
We get to read this. We get to read what happened.
And we read where our Lord says He's asleep. He's asleep. And this is how it is with those
who die in the Lord. They are asleep. Boy, when you see someone asleep,
It makes you, you know, especially if they've been sick. I know
this with the boys when they were little and with their grandkids
and they've been sick. You just feel good when you see
them laying there asleep, don't you? Taking rest. And he said
he's asleep. And they said, well, if he's
asleep, then let's just leave him alone. Let's leave him alone. Let's just not wake him. If he's
asleep, he'll do well. And this is also, this is also
How we ought to see all those who die in the Lord. They do
well. They do well. Someone who has
been born of God, they come time to leave this life, and we mourn
because we do miss them, but they do well. They do well. That's what they said. They understood
that. They said, well, he's doing well if he's asleep. But they
didn't understand. They did not understand that
he was speaking of Lazarus being dead. So he had to speak to them
plainly in their language, in our language. He had to speak
in our language. And he said, Lazarus is dead.
To God, he's asleep. To us, he's
dead. So he spoke of his death. And he said, we're going to go
raise Lazarus. We're going to go wake him out of his sleep.
And I'm glad, for your sakes, that I was not there to stop
it. Like they said, whenever he went
there, they said, could not this man have stopped this? He gave
sight to the blind. Could he not have stopped this?
And he said, I'm glad, for your sakes, I was not there to the
intent you may believe. Your faith will be strengthened. That you grow in faith. All that our Lord does when He
sends us trials is to strengthen faith. Is to reveal Himself,
His glory, and to strengthen our faith. I'm glad not to have
prevented this trial. This is a very devastating trial. He said, I'm glad not to have
prevented it. It will strengthen your faith.
You can be sure of this. If we did not need it, if Mary
and Martha and the disciples, see, he's going to teach them
out of this, and if they did not need this, it would not have
happened. We do not accidentally go through
trials. We do not just happen to go through them. He brings
them our way. He purposely, purposely stayed
away for two days and let him die. He purposely did that. If it
were left up to us, would we ever have a trial? Would we?
Would we ever have a bad day if it were left up to us? No. We would never. No. No way in the world. We would never have a bad day.
I'll tell you this, if we didn't have these trials, if we didn't
have them, we'd never know if we really had faith or not. You'd
never really know it. You'd never really know and understand
your need of Christ without these trials, your dependence upon
Him. And you and I would never know
or understand how frail we really are. If every day was a good
day, Well, we'd think we'd be something, wouldn't we? We would
never know how frail we really are. And I heard Henry say this
one time and I never forgot it. Trials are always connected. And you can write this down.
Trials are always connected to the glory of God. Always connected
to His glory. That's what they are. Now, when
our Lord came, He found that he had been in the grave for
four days already. When he came to the place, he
had found that he had been buried for four days. No doubt Martha and Mary were
crushed. You know how crushed they had
to be. He said this sickness was not undead. Didn't he say
that? Can't you just see the doubt creeping in? They said,
Lord, if you'd have been here, my brother wouldn't have died.
They said that. They said the same thing those
other Jews said. If he would have been here, he would not
have died. They were crushed. You said this sickness was not
unto death. Where is he? You know, they had to keep looking
for him. You know, they had to keep going to the door and look
and see if he was coming. Had to. They kept looking for
him to show up. He didn't even show up at the
funeral. You see how low he let them go? You see how crushed he allowed
them to become? They looked anxiously for him
to come and heal their brother. He said, he gave his word. Well, I'll tell you what, he
gave his word, trust it. Trust it. He gave his word and they said,
where is he? Where is he? They're devastated
by this. They knew, they knew that the
Lord loved them. He stayed in their home. They
knew He loved them. Could such love allow such pain? Could it? I mean, love. You know, we spend our life,
really, as parents, we spend our lives trying to keep these
children from having pain. We do. We try to do everything
we can to keep our children from hurting, don't we? And yet, he
makes his hurt, but he controls it. He says,
I don't control that. I can't control the pain. I can't
control the suffering. I can't control the outcome.
He does. He does. Could such love allow
such pain? God's love... God's love is not
always demonstrated in what He gives us, but sometimes in what
He takes away from us. That's His love. And we must
learn to trust Him at all times. Could such love cause such pain?
Well, just go to Calvary. Just go to Calvary. Is there
any sorrow like my sorrow? He said, to all you who pass
by. And why did he do that? Having loved his own, he loved
them to the end. He said this is for the glory
of God, as all things are. Whether little or big, it's for
God's glory. Whether it be a little trial
or a big one, it's for God's glory. Now he allowed Lazarus
to die on purpose. God's glory. is connected to
it. The strengthening of their faith
is connected to it. But now listen, God allowed Adam
to die on purpose, didn't He? That was no surprise. That was
not a surprise. He allowed Adam to die on purpose
for His eternal glory. We would never know. We would
never know the depth of God's love, of God's grace, And of
God's mercy, of His redeeming love, had He not allowed Adam
to fall. I thought, as we were singing
these psalms, the angels cannot sing the songs you and I sing.
The song of the redeemed. Worthy is the Lamb who hath redeemed
us by His blood. The angels cannot enter into
that. They cannot enter into it like you and I can enter into
it, who have been redeemed. who have been down to the bottom,
who have been wretched and then been plucked out of the fire
like a bran. They can't sing like we can sing.
And we would have never known this had He not allowed Adam
to fall and allowed us to fall in at Him and then allowed us
to be the sinners that we are. He did it on purpose that He
might demonstrate His love. Now Martha, she came to him and
said, Lord, if you'd been here, my brother would not have died.
Well, he was there. As I said, he was omnipresent.
He was there. He's going to strengthen their
faith is what he's going to do. Christ could have spoken the
Word from where he was. Did he not do that for that centurion?
He said, my servant is sick. He's about to die. Lord speak
the word only and he'll be whole. And the Lord did. He spoke the
word only. But this was a different situation
and a different lesson. You know, sometimes the classroom
changes within. Sometimes it changes. And sometimes
the lesson changes. But it always comes back to him.
It always comes back, the lesson always comes back to him. So
he could have spoken a word. But this is not what it called
for at that time. This is not what the lesson called for at
that time. We are so caught up in looking
at the little things. And we get so caught up in this
everyday event. We really don't see the big picture,
which is God's glory. Which is God's glory. And I tell
you this, if He's glorified, we are glorified in Him. We are
glorified in Him. And when we finally see this,
it will be like Paul said, these are but light afflictions. Light
afflictions. Now Martha said there in verse
22, she said, I know that even now that whatsoever you ask God,
God will give it to you. I know this. She believed Him. She believed Him to be the Messiah.
She believed Him to be the Son of David. She believed in her
heart. She believed with what light
she was given. And she believed Him. She said, I know that even
now, whatever you ask of God, He'll give it to you. I believe
that. I believe that. And our Lord said to her, your
brother shall rise again. He'll rise again. He's not dead. Oh, I know He'll
rise again in the last day. I know in the last day, when
the trump shall sound, that the dead shall rise. I know that. I believe that. And that helps
with some of this pain. You know, that's why believers
are not over sorrowful, as Paul says, not to be. We sorrow not
as those who have no hope. And she said, I know He will.
She believed in the resurrection of the dead. And that gave her
some comfort. But my soul, Christ is going
to give her a revelation of this resurrection. He's going to give
her a revelation of this resurrection. He says there in verse 25, And
Jesus said unto her, I am. This is the great I Am. This is God. This is the same
One that spoke to Moses. You tell Him, I Am sent you.
I Am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in Me,
though he were dead yet, listen, shall he live. Now listen, He
didn't say, yet shall he live again. Because he's not dead. You know, you're not going to
live again. You live again if you actually
die. Completely. See, we are born again. That's
a new one. That's a new birth. That's a
new nature. But he says here, he that believes in me, yet shall
he live. Though his body dies, and though
we bury it, and though it's been in the grave for four days or
a thousand years, yet he lives. He's not dead. He's not dead. But he says, I am the resurrection
and the life. We need to quit separating doctrine
from Christ. And that's what he's teaching
here. Don't separate the resurrection from me. Don't separate righteousness
from Him. We are saved by Him who is our
righteousness. I'm not looking to a righteousness.
I'm looking to the Son of God who is my righteousness. I am
the resurrection. I am the life. I'm not looking
to have life. It's that I am the life. And if I'm in Him,
I have life. We don't separate these doctrines
from Him. Not at all. He's the resurrection. He's the life. Listen. He is these things to us. I'm
already risen. Are you born again? Do you believe
the gospel? Do you believe on Him? You're
already risen. You've already risen from the
dead. Spiritually, you have already risen. And someday you'll be
attached to that new body. When God puts this one in the
grave and then when it's all over with, there's that new body
that'll be raised. But we are already risen in Him. If you're just looking for an
event, If that's what you're looking
for, an event, the resurrection, you'll miss Him. But if you're
looking for Him, you won't miss the event. You won't do it. Though He were dead, yet shall
He live again. I mean, shall He live? I'm adding
to it. See? He doesn't say again. He
says, yet shall He live. And shall never die. See? In
verse 26. And whosoever liveth and believes in Me, shall never
die. We're all afraid. You know, it's
just in us to live. I mean, we want to live. And
people in general, I can see why they want to live. You know,
those who don't believe, I can see why they want to hang on
and spend the last time they've got to live. I know someone right
now that's doing that. Spending the last time they've
got to hang on. And they're just dying. They're
at their last step right now. A buddy of theirs doing everything
to hang on. But He that believes in me. He that believes in me. Whosoever
liveth and believeth. You see that? Liveth and believeth.
Dead people don't believe. The living believe. Whoever liveth. He's been given life. He's been
given life. And he believes in me shall never
die. Boy, if we could get a hold of that. If we could just really
get a hold of this, that we shall never die. We're just going to
transfer from here to there. From this place to paradise. Every one of our loved ones who
have gone on, I'm telling you right now, on authority of God's
Word, they are alive. They are alive and they are without
sin, without sorrows, without this stuff that we deal with.
They're without it. I always think like this. When
I think of a believer who's gone on to be with the Lord, I think
they have been taken off the battlefield. They've been taken
off this weary battlefield. They've been taken off from it.
And they're at rest. There's a rest that remains for
the people of God. And boy, when we leave this one,
we've finally entered into that rest. And we enter into that
rest when we believe on Him, but not like we do when we're
finally in His presence, away from this stuff, this life. He shall never die. And she said,
I don't know about all this, is what she said. Well, I don't
know about all this, but I believe that thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God, which shall come into the world. I
believe you're the Messiah. At least she believed what she
didn't know. She walked in the light she was given. Walk in
the light you are given, and He will give you more light.
Then Mary came to him and said the same thing Martha said. If
you'd been here, no doubt they'd been saying this together. If
our Lord, if He had just come, He wouldn't have died. You see
why this had to happen? This is a lesson. He's instructing. He's teaching. He's teaching
His own. This had to happen. He's going to teach them that
He is life. He is life and He has the power
to command life. And it says there in verse 35,
Jesus wept. He felt their pain. He felt their
pain. And He said to them, take away
the stone. God uses means when He saves sinners just like this
right now. Preaching. Preaching. Who knows? Who knows? Because this goes out over the
Internet. Who knows? But what God may take this message
in the hands of the Holy Spirit and remove a stony heart and
command life. Who knows? He uses means. He
uses means. And Martha said, Lord, he's been
dead for four days and he's stinking. I'm going to roll away the stone
and you're going to smell what Lazarus smells like. She said, he's stinking. That's us by nature, isn't it?
By nature we stink. We stink up the place by nature.
All the sin and corruption that's in our hearts. Dead things stink. I went by a skunk the other day.
It was smashed on the road. I couldn't drive fast enough
to get past that thing. It got caught in the car and
it was like it was never going to get out. Stinketh. Living things. Living things
smell of grace. Spiritually now. They smell of
grace. They smell of love. They smell
of kindness. These are the smell of spiritual
life. And our Lord says here, and I'll
close. And I knew, let's go back to
verse 41. And 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. I knew this. I knew
this. I'm not praying for my benefit.
I'm praying for their benefit. He's the high priest. And here
the high priest is telling us, I am always heard. I know you always hear me. But
I said these things for their benefit that they may believe. That they might believe. And then he says here, I said
it that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he
thus hath spoken, he cried with a loud voice. He gives out a
call here, a particular call. This happens here when God saves
a sinner. God calls. And He calls you by
name. And He calls you from death.
He calls you from sin. He calls you from darkness. He
calls you unto Himself. This happens every time God saves
someone. This happened. And he called
him. And he that was dead came forth. And he wasn't stinking. He was alive. His flesh was new. It was like it was. But he came
forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes. And I tell you
what, it takes a long time sometimes to get these great clothes off. Sometimes it takes a while to
get them off. And his face was bound about with a napkin. It's
evident he didn't come out of there on his own power, isn't
it? This is what's teaching us. He didn't come out of there on
his own power. This man was dead. This man was stinking up the
place. And when the Lord called him forth, he came out of there
bound. I mean, he was wound up, bound,
and a napkin on his face. He had absolutely nothing to
do with this. It was all the Lord's work. He called him forth.
Called him out of that grave. And the Lord said to them, Loose
him and let him go. Loose him. That's what He says
every time He saves a sinner. Loose him! Loose Him. Let Him go. Loose Him from sin
and death. Loose Him. Sin and death have
no more dominion over Him. Loose Him from the curse of the
law. Loose Him and let Him go. Let Him go. Don't put any more
bounds. Don't bind Him up again. Don't loose Him and then put
some restrictions over here on Him. Don't wind Him up with legalism.
Don't wind Him up with ceremonies. Loose Him and just let Him go. When God saves someone, you can
just let him go. He'll be alright. You'll take
care of him. The Spirit of God dwells in him.
He's more powerful than me and you. He can keep him. Loose him and let him go. And they did. Now the trial's
over. The lesson has been taught. I am the resurrection. and the
life. He that believes in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. Oh, he said, if thou wouldst
believe, Martha, Mary, us, if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldest
see the glory of God. You see that? Said I not unto
thee, if thou wouldst believe? You know, David said this, I
believe to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
I didn't say to believe. I believed Him first. You believe
Him first, and then you see His glory. It's not like, well, you
let me see your glory first, then I'll believe you. No. You
believe me. Did I not say you believe me?
You trust me. You believe me. And you'll see God's glory.