Some of the events and words
of our Redeemer are more commonly known than others. I suppose
nothing that transpired in our Lord's life is more commonly
known than his discourse with Nicodemus when that ruler of
the Jews came to him by night and the master taught him the
necessity of the new birth. Most everywhere have some familiarity
with our Lord's teaching with regard to the Good Samaritan
given by Luke in his gospel. And then the most notable of
our Lord's miracles, the resurrection of Lazarus from the dead. Almost
all men have some knowledge that this is at least recorded in
the scriptures, though few understand anything taught by the resurrection
of Lazarus from the dead. This morning I want to address
this question. Where was Lazarus? Where was
Lazarus? Now you know and I do that Lazarus
being raised from the dead was intended by God the Holy Spirit
to be a picture of our spiritual resurrection. All things recorded
in this book that deal with Carnal things. I don't mean by that
evil things. I mean by that natural fleshly things all things recorded
in this book dealing with natural things are Intended by our God
to display the supernatural and the spiritual they're intended
to teach us spiritual lessons And certainly Lazarus being raised
from the dead was intended by our God in the arrangement of
his wise and good providence to give us a picture of how it
is that dead sinners are raised from spiritual death to eternal
life by the power and grace of God in union with Jesus Christ. That's what the new birth is.
It is a resurrection from the dead. It is God calling sinners
born in spiritual death, born going forth from the womb, dead
in trespasses and in sins, raising them up to life, giving them
faith in Jesus Christ by virtue of their union with Christ, planting
the life of God in the soul. Blessed and holy is he that hath
part in this first resurrection, this spiritual resurrection,
on such the second death shall have no power. And these who
are raised from the dead in the first resurrection spiritually
have something better awaiting them. We shall be raised from
the dead into glorious immortality from our very graves these bodies
too shall be raised to immortality. This corruptible shall soon put
on incorruption. This mortal shall soon, this
body, this mortal body shall soon be made immortal. This terrestrial body shall soon
be raised a celestial body. This body of corruption shall
be raised in incorruption. And this too is pictured in the
resurrection of Lazarus from the dead. Let's begin this morning
at verse 11 of John chapter 11. And I want to talk to you about
Lazarus, the state and the place where Lazarus was for those four
days between his death and his resurrection. And in doing so,
I will be attempting to address what God the Spirit declares
to us in his word about the state of God's saints in glory between
death and the resurrection. This is of keen interest to me
because I hope soon to join them. This is of keen interest to many
of us because we have friends we hope soon to see around the
throne with our Redeemer. But where are they now? What
are they doing? What is their present state as
we anticipate the resurrection of the body at the last day?
John chapter 11, verse 11. These things said the Lord Jesus,
and after that he saith unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth,
but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. Then said his disciples,
Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. How be it Jesus spake of
his death. But they thought that he had
spoken of taking rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead. And I am glad for your sakes
that I was not there to the intent that you may believe. Nevertheless,
let us go unto him. The Lord Jesus said, Lazarus
is dead. And his next word was, I'm glad. Lazarus is dead, and I'm glad. I'm glad. Oh God, give me grace
to see things as he reveals them, as he sees them. Lazarus is dead,
and I'm glad. Verse 23, Jesus saith unto her,
Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Jesus said unto her, I am the
resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Verse 39, Jesus said, take you away the
stone. Martha, the sister of him that
was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh. His
flesh has already started to rot, for he hath been dead four
days. Jesus saith unto her, said I
not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, Thou shouldest see the
glory of God. And verse 43, when he had thus
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. Jesus saith unto them, loosen
and let him go. Then many of the Jews, which
came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed
on him. But some of them went their ways
to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done. When the day was over, some who
observed our Lord's wonders some who observed not only his Performance
of this miracle, but his words by which he reveals himself in
the performance of this miracle Many of them believed on him. I Pray that you will I Pray that
you will and many of them when they saw this miracle Astounding
as the miracle must have been to their eyes When they saw this
miracle, many of them, in spite of the miracle before them, hardened
their hearts in rebellion against the Son of God and went their
way and told the Jews as if to say, now, we've got to do something. We've got to do something. This
man's getting too popular. And they were determined to destroy
him. Let me say just a few things
about Lazarus, and then I'll look at what I want to deal with
this morning. First, it should be noted that
in the book of God we are told nothing about Lazarus during
those four days his body was in the tomb. Nothing. Nothing. Lazarus never mentioned it. As far as we know in the book.
Well, buddy, I just have to talk about that. Not if you've been
where Lazarus had been. We only know of one other person
in the scriptures described who had gone into the third heaven
and came back to this earth. That was the Apostle Paul. And
he said, I don't know whether I was in the body or not. I don't
know whether I had died or what. I just don't know. He said, I
don't know what happened to me. He said, I know I was transported
to the third heaven and I saw things, not only things I can't
talk about, things that words can't describe. I heard things
that I can't express to you. Words cannot express. Now, I
say this because it's important. We live in this day when men,
of course, we always, man likes to sensationalize everything,
especially the supernatural. But we live in this age, you
know, this incredible age of enlightenment. Brilliant people. Brilliant people. I'm talking about folks. Man,
they can have two and two come up with four every time. Brilliant
folks. Folks went to school at Harvard
and Yale. You see them on television. And
they interviewed people who had an afterlife experience. And they're a gag. Now these folks who just cannot
believe that God created the heavens and the earth, actually
believe these fools who are selling their books, who say they died
and came back to the earth, actually believe it. They actually give
credibility to it and interview them. And folks make lots of
money because they've had an afterlife experience and came
back to the earth. Let me tell you something. It
ain't so. It ain't so. If it happened,
they couldn't tell you about it. If it happened, they wouldn't
want to tell you about it. If it happened, they would have
seen things, not a great light drawing them, but another light
pulling them this way, and they're gonna go back. No, no, no, no,
no. No, no. that baffle reason. Things that
confound understanding. Things that are beyond human
comprehension in this moral state. And so Lazarus never mentions
it. His sisters Martha and Mary never
mention it. In fact, the only other thing
we know about Lazarus after his resurrection from the dead was
he seen sitting at the table with the Lord Jesus and is the
object of the Jews' hatred because he'd been raised from the dead.
That's all we know about him. All we know about him. God wisely
and graciously draws a curtain over his most wondrous works
that we may behold them and marvel not behold them and investigate. God's most wondrous works are
those works that cannot be explained in human terms. I was talking
to Brother Todd Nybert yesterday or the day before, I've forgotten
when now. He called and we were chatting about these very things.
And I said to him, as you know, when there was a controversy,
a great controversy, about our Lord's incarnation. They had
a council. Preachers got together. Theologians
got together. Church representatives got together.
They had lots of these throughout history. And they decided how
to explain things. They decided how to explain it.
Now, who's going to explain how God became a man and never ceased
to be God and is fully man? Do you know what the theologians
came up with? Have any idea what they came up with? They call
it a hypostatic union. Boy, that helps, doesn't it? That helps. What foolishness.
What they came up with after their days and weeks of debate
and argument and they draw a consensus opinion is let's invent a term
that means nothing. And now we will explain how this
took place. Men start to explain how Christ, who knew no sin and
could do no sin, was made sin. It's something that's unexplainable.
And when men start to explain it, they only show their ignorance.
Men start to explain how it is that a man is born of God and
made partaker of the divine nature. And when they start to explain,
they only show their ignorance. And we start to talk about the
resurrection body and the resurrection of the dead. And men start to
try to explain how this shall take place. They only betray
their ignorance. Lazarus saw and heard and experienced
things that cannot be expressed by words. All we can do is behold
what God Almighty has revealed for our learning and admonition
and worship Him and rejoice in the hope that's set before us
in this book. Now, I want us to look at three
things this morning. First, Our text speaks about a time of separation,
when Lazarus' soul was separated from his body. It speaks about
Lazarus being dead for four days. During this state of separation,
Lazarus is separated from his body, but not from his Redeemer. And then it speaks about a time
of reunion, when Lazarus' body and his soul are reunited. And all three of those things
portray for us that which is our hope of life and immortality
in and with the Lord Jesus Christ. First, the scriptures tell us
much about the bodies of God's saints when the soul is separated
from the body at death. Our Lord Jesus spoke of Lazarus
and first he told his disciples, Lazarus is asleep. Because he
was talking about his body being asleep. Because believers never
really die. Believers never really die. Please get this. Please get this. Believers never die. He that liveth and believeth
on me shall never die, the master said. Do you believe this? Do
you believe this? Really, do you believe this?
Believers never die. But then the Lord said Lazarus
is dead. He did that, Alan, to accommodate the folly of our
puny brains. We just can't seem to get a handle
on things. He did that to speak in human
terms so that his disciples would understand that as this is serious,
Lazarus is dead. But I'm glad for your sakes,
because I'm fixing to teach you something. I'm fixing to show
you something that you could not know, and you could not see,
and you could not learn, except Lazarus had died. I'm glad for
your sakes. This everlasting union that's
ours with Christ is an indissolvable union. It's indestructible. And though these souls shall
be for a while separated from our bodies, we shall never be
separated from our Redeemer. The scriptures clearly show us
that the separation we experience at death, at what we call death,
the death of our bodies, the separation of our souls from
our bodies, doesn't separate either the soul or the body from
the Redeemer. The Lord's people are as truly
his people when these bodies are dissolved, as they are in
the most manifest revelation of life in resurrection glory. And our interest in him are the
same when we draw our last breath in this world as they are while
we live with him now and live with him in eternity. It is a
separation, but a very brief separation. I want you to turn
with me to Exodus chapter 3, Exodus 3. And when you found
that place, turn to Luke chapter 20. I want you to hold both places. The separation we must sustain
shall be a brief separation, not an everlasting one. A separation
that shall be everlastingly compensated by our Lord Jesus in the resurrection.
When our Lord revealed himself to Moses, back here in Exodus
chapter 3, are you there? He's at the burning bush, and
the angel of the Lord is speaking. That is, the Lord Jesus is speaking
to Moses out of the bush. He reveals himself to Moses as
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
Not of the dead, but of the living. Look at Exodus chapter three,
verse six. Moreover, he said, I am the God
of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God
of Jacob. And Moses hid his face for he
was afraid to look upon God. Now. You could read that until
you read the ink off the paper and never get an idea what it
was intended to teach until you turn to Luke chapter 20. Luke
chapter 20. Our Lord Jesus is about to tell
us what he meant when he said to Moses, I'm the God of Abraham,
the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, not the God of the
dead, but of the living. He's about to explain it very
clearly. He's talking to the Sadducees
who denied the resurrection. He says in Luke 20 verse 38,
Now that the dead are raised. Now I read that again this morning
and I thought that's strange language. Surely he meant to
say the dead shall be raised. I don't think so, Rod. I believe
he meant to say just what he said. He said the dead are raised. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, though
their bodies are in the grave, they're already raised. They're
still alive. They're very much alive. Now
that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush. That
is, this is what's revealed in what Moses recorded about God
speaking to him out of the bush. When he calleth the Lord, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. For he
is not a God of the dead, but of the living. for all live unto
Him. Our Lord Jesus tells us here
that the intent of Exodus 3, 6 is to teach these two things,
the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body.
That's the intent. The separation of soul from body
makes death Not a separation of the soul or the body from
Christ, but merely a brief separation of that which is spiritual from
that which is carnal. A brief separation of this soul,
which is the real life of a man, from this body in which we live
and move and have our being before God. It's called a time of sleep. Not a sleep of the soul. No,
no, no. Never do the scriptures speak
of the ungodly, their bodies sleeping in the grave. Never.
The sleep is always the sleep of those who sleep in Jesus.
It is always the sleep of the body. in the arms of the Redeemer,
cradled in the earth, which he has made. As these bodies dissolve
and go back to the dust from which they were formed, as God
intended, as it is right, they should. We will, however, soon
awake out of sleep. These bodies rest in the earth
for a period of time, and these bodies will rise again by the
power of God. Sleep. I'll try to talk to you about
this again later, but sleep, when you're weary, is the sweetest
thing you can imagine. When you've been without sleep
for a long time, to get just a few good hours sleep, What a delight! What a rest! How sweet the rest is, especially
when it is a rest anxiously longed for, a rest from which you've
been deprived for a long time. And for God's elect, when these
bodies return to the earth, they return to the earth to sleep
as the objects of Christ's mercy, love and grace. You see, our
bodies are the purchased possession
of the Son of God. Let me stop a minute here and
interject a thought or two with regard to this matter of burial or cremation. I had some
friends just this past week asking me about cremation. Cremation,
I'm not suggesting everybody who Has this done as unbelievers? I don't mean that at all. I'm
certain that's not the case. I have many friends who I know
of who've been cremated, but the excuse for it is unreasonable. It's unreasonable. And there's
much reason not to practice it. We're believers. And while we
recognize that this body is going to the dust, don't ever imagine
this body is nothing. Don't ever imagine it's nothing.
The Lord Jesus redeemed our bodies as well as our souls. In fact,
the resurrection today is spoken of as the redemption of the purchased
possession, the final deliverance of our entire being from all
the consequences of sin. Cremation was practiced in the
pagan world as a very denial of the resurrection. It was practiced
in days of persecution as a denial of the resurrection we hope for.
Even in the ancient times, days of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
men who believed God honored the bodies of their dead. Joseph
made his brethren promise not to leave his bones in Egypt.
There was a reason for that. Because these bodies shall rise
again. And the body is as precious to
Christ as the soul. He's going to redeem it, you
know. He's going to deliver it in that great day. This purchase
possession of his shall be brought forth from the earth. So let
us likewise honor the body in burial as we bury the body in
hope of the resurrection. We sleep when we leave this world
in the arms of our Redeemer. Until then, we grow. Turn to first, second Corinthians
chapter five. This body carries with it all the ruin
of fallen humanity. Inside this body is a soul corrupted
by sin. And living in this body, this
body is the instrument of sin by which the wicked man in me
continually lives in rebellion against God. Yet this body is
the instrument by which the new man in me walks before God and
serves him. This body is the instrument by
which God allows me to study and prepare and preach to you,
to write and minister to others. And this body is the instrument
of much evil. So in this we grow, we grow.
Not desiring to be naked, unclothed. No, no, no, no, no. But desiring
to be clothed upon. Second Corinthians five, verse
four. For we that are in this tabernacle do grow. being burdened,
not that we want to escape the trials and difficulties of this
life, not that we want to escape the trials and adversities of
life in this world, though certainly there's a sense in which that's
true. But God, while he draws a curtain over the most profound, wondrous, mysterious
things, like the resurrection. I'll draw the curtain over that.
Have you ever noticed that he goes into great detail when he
deals with pain and heartache and trouble? Read the book. A whole book is written about
Job. It goes into great detail. Read the book. It goes into great
detail about those who have heartache and sorrow, those who go to bury
their dead. Those who watch their loved ones
gradually fall off into death. Why? Because it is far better
that we study adversity and heartache and trouble far more profitable
that we go to the house of mourning than to the house of laughter
that we may learn to live in this world for the honor of our
God and the benefit of others. But here we grow. Look at verse
4, 2 Corinthians 5. For we that are in this tabernacle
do groan, being burdened, not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon. It's not that we want to cease
living, no. we want to really live. Clothed upon, that mortality
may be swallowed up of life. Then the very being of sin in
this body of flesh shall be over forever. I feel this blessedness in my
soul, in the anticipation of life, the anticipation of glory
with Christ Jesus. Death will end the warfare. Death will put an end to sin
for me. Death will put an end to all
the consequences of sin for God's elect. But there's something
even more wonderful in contemplation than this. The separation of
our souls from our bodies is for the glory of Christ. Lazarus was dead. His body slept in the tomb. And the Lord Jesus said, I'm
glad for your sakes. For this is for the glory of
God. This world was made for God's
glory. Everything in it made for God's
glory. The Lord hath made all things
for himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. It was for
this purpose that God might be visibly glorified to wandering
worlds, visibly glorified by his saints. For this purpose,
the Son of God took our nature into union with himself. And
the son of God bore our sins upon the cursed tree. And the
son of God was raised from the dead visibly for this purpose,
that he might be visibly, manifestly glorified before all the universe
in the resurrection of our bodies as the objects of his redeeming
mercy, grace, and love. Turn to 2 Thessalonians. Lazarus was with the Lord in
glory. Brother Don, the Lord was down
here. Yeah, but he was still there. His taking our nature
into union with himself placed no limitation on him. It did
not, the fact that the triune God is in him who is God our
Savior. The God-man does not in any way
limit the immortal, invisible, incomprehensible God, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ, our Lord, the God-man
on this earth, is still God the Son with the Father in heaven.
He never left heaven's glory. He never ceased to be God. And
Lazarus was with the Lord. just as our friends, our brothers,
our sisters are with him. And he's still here with us right
now, visiting with us, making himself known, making himself
manifest as he does not to the world. Lazarus is with him. And Lazarus is about to be brought
back to the earth. Now, we're not told a thing about
that. But I just can't help but think about it. I just can't
help but think about it. Not even a thought. No, I'd rather stay here. Not
even a thought is expressed. How come? Because when we have
at last dropped this robe of flesh, We will then experience
what we most earnestly desire. Complete consecration to our
God so that we can then, with true hearts, say what our Savior
said when he was about to suffer sin and the wrath of God as our
substitute. Not my will. Thy will be done. Lord, whatever is best for your
glory. Oh God, teach me. Teach me now. Whatever is best for your glory,
that's what I want. But my flesh struggles with that.
Yours too. We say no. No. Got to have our way. Got to have
what we desire. Got to have what pleases us. The day will soon come when what
pleases Him truly will please us. Do you reckon there is anyone
encircling the throne of our God who would prefer to stay
here come back here for a while. Well, they're delivered from
all this. You know what? Read the 12th chapter of Hebrews
one more time. You're going to find out that God's saints around
the throne are not at all ignorant about what's going on here. but
rather they are a great cloud of witnesses, urging us all in
the race, urging us all to pursue to the end that finish with Jesus
Christ, our Redeemer, urging us all. And yet at the same time,
they are completely delighted in his presence, completely aware
of what's going on here, but completely delighted and satisfied
with him. Lazarus, was with the Lord for
those four days and then he came back here and was raised from
the dead for the glory of God our Savior. And so it is with
us. We shall be raised from the dead. Now let me hurry. This time when
the soul was departed from the body was a time when Lazarus
was with the Lord in immediate glory. And when the believer
leaves this body of flesh, he is with the Lord. Are you still
in 2 Corinthians? Look at chapter 5, verse 1. We know the day is coming when
the silver cord must be loosed, and the golden bowl broken, and
the pitcher shall be broken at the fountain, and the wheel broken
at the cistern. The dust returns to the earth
as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. And we know
that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved,
we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal
in the heavens. building of God, just that quick. People have the idea somehow
that during this time of separation, the soul just kind of floats
around in some kind of an airy state and maybe floats around
with clouds, whatever. People have the silly notion
that God's saints become angels. What nonsense, no. No, there's
a intermediate body immediately. We have a building of God, a
house not made with hands eternal in the heavens. This body that
shall be joined in the resurrection to this body of flesh so that
this terrestrial body is made in the resurrection to be a celestial
body. Look at verse two. For in this,
in this physical body, we grow. earnestly desiring to be clothed
upon with our house which is from heaven, if so be that being
clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this
tabernacle do groan, being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed,
but clothed upon that mortality might be swallowed up of life.
Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing, not he that
hath wrought for us, but he that hath wrought us for the self-same
thing. That is, he created us that we
may be raised up with Christ in glory. That's the reason he
did it. This is God, who also hath given us the earnest of
the spirit. Therefore, we're always confident,
knowing that whilst we're at home in the body, we're absent
from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by
sight, not by carnal reason. We are confident, I say, and
willing, rather to be absent from the body and to be present
with the Lord. Wherefore, we labor that whether
present or absent, we may be accepted of him. As soon as we
leave this body, we enter into that blessed presence of our
God and Savior, David said, then shall I be satisfied when I awake
with our likeness conformed to Christ perfectly, hoping anxious
for the day when we should be conformed to Christ physically
as well, but conformed to him in our spirits, in our souls,
absolutely consecrated to God, living in sweet communion with
our Redeemer in that blessed state of life that awaits us. utterly then freed from self
and freed from care, face to face with Christ our Savior,
beholding him in all his beauty, who is the brightness of the
glory of the triune God. And then there's a day coming. There should be a day of blessed,
blessed reunion. Turn to 1 Thessalonians chapter
4. I would not have you ignorant,
brethren, verse 13, concerning them which are asleep, that you
sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus
died and rose again, Even so, them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with him. Now, all of you, I'm sure,
have friends who are involved in religious prophecy mania,
and everybody talks about the rupture of the church. They call
it the rapture, but it's just a rupture. It means thinking.
The Scripture teaches nothing of the kind, nothing of the kind.
And they say, oh, I want to go in the rapture. I don't want
to go in the rapture. I want to live till the Lord
comes. Well, Paul makes it plain that there is no preference to
living until Christ comes. No preference at all. In fact,
if there is a preference, those who sleep in the earth now have
the preference, for they shall be first in the resurrection.
They shall arise, meet the Lord in the air, and come with him
in the second coming, in the glorious day of resurrection.
Read on. For this I say unto you, by the
word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the
coming of the Lord shall not prevent, shall not precede or
go before them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with
the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall
we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words. I'll tell you a story, I've told
it many times, but I don't think Audra Grace has ever been here
to hear it. So she'll, I got her attention now. When she was
a little girl, just a little shaver, we had a boxwood elder
tree right behind the patio. And standing at the top of the
patio, you could see right in the top of that tree. And there's
a robin who laid her eggs there on spring. And Audre Grace saw
them first. She looked up there and saw those
and called down and popped to come see. And we talked about
the eggs and the robin. And then she came back one day,
and the eggs were broken. some on the ground. Birds would
go. She looked curious. And I said
to her, honey, the birds hatched out of their eggs and they flew
away. Soon this body shall fall to
the ground. And when it does, there's no
need to weep, no need to cry, no need to be sorry, not for
me, for I will have but flown away to glory. That's all. That's all. Entered into life. Immortality. Where I shall be
with my Redeemer until He comes again and raises this body in
incorruption. Now, who would rob me of that? Who Will you rob of that? No, no. This is as it should
be. And bless God, this is as it
shall be. May the Lord make you to be partaker
now of the first resurrection, giving you life and faith in
Christ. that you may be made partaker
of this second resurrection to immortality and glory at the
last day. Amen.