Have you ever heard, do you know
anything about the love calls of our omnipotent Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ? It is impossible not to know
them if ever you've heard the Savior's call. When God the Son
calls his people by the power and grace of his spirit, though
You have never heard his voice before. When he calls, the sheep
know the shepherd's voice immediately. Immediately. When he calls, you
know it. When the Savior speaks to a sinner
dead in trespasses and in sins, he speaks to him with a mighty,
powerful, loud voice that cannot be missed. He said to Lazarus,
when Lazarus was in the tomb, we read specifically, he said
with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. He speaks with a powerful
voice that cannot be resisted. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full
of majesty. His voice cannot be resisted.
When God speaks, that which God speaks is done, just like that. His voice is irresistible. He
speaks in a still, small voice, though, that no one hears except
the one who's called. You might be like those on the
Damascus road when Saul of Tarsus was called by God's grace. They heard a noise but not a
voice. They knew something was going on but they had no idea
what it was. Saul understood clearly. When
the son of God speaks, when he speaks to the hearts
of his own, he speaks in a sweet, loving, winning, overpowering,
irresistible voice that causes the one he loves to arise and
seek him. And when he calls, he calls his
own with a personal voice that causes the one who is called
to come and follow him. He came in Luke chapter 19 to
a publican Publican named Zacchaeus and he said to him Zacchaeus
come down for today I must abide at thy house and Zacchaeus made
haste and came down and followed him If you will turn with me
to John chapter 11, I want to preach to you this morning on
the subject Lazarus raised grace irresistible The resurrection
of Lazarus is a declaration and a picture of God's sovereign,
almighty, irresistible grace by which he saves sinners. Sometimes
folks say, well, you folks preach and teach as though God forces
people to be saved. Aren't you glad? If God didn't force you to come,
you would never have come. If he didn't sweetly constrain
you to come to Christ, you would never have come to Christ. And
you who are here this morning, I've been begging of God that
he will sweetly force you to the Savior. Because unless he
forces you to come, you will never come. Unless he works faith
in you, you will never believe on the Son of God. I don't spend
my time begging sinners to do something for God. I try to beg
God to do something for you. Now, in order to introduce this
message and lay the background for it, to prepare our hearts
for the message I believe God's given me, I want to show you
four things plainly taught in this book. Here's the first one. It is my responsibility It is
our responsibility collectively as a body of believers, but it
is my responsibility as a preacher of the gospel to preach the gospel
to all men as the Lord gives me opportunity. I am often urged by well-meaning
people to adjust my schedule, adjust what I do, such as that,
and I may be forced to do so in time, but it's my responsibility
while God gives me breath to devote myself tirelessly and
relentlessly to the business of preaching the gospel to all
men by whatever means God gives me as I have opportunity to do
so, whether here in this pulpit or in another, whether using
the electronic means God's given us or whether by print to preach
the gospel to all men. Our Lord said, Go ye into all
the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Someone said,
well, if I believed like you do, I'd just go preach to the
elect. I would, too, if I knew who they were. And I would, too,
except for this fact, God commanded us to preach the gospel to all
men. to preach the gospel to all because his elect are scattered
among all. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. It is our responsibility then
to preach the gospel to all men, to preach with sincerity, simplicity
and steadfastness, to preach and to preach the gospel. Let
us not get sidetracked with any other issue. I can't tell you
how easy it is for preachers and for congregations to get
turned aside from the business of gospel preaching and take
up some other calls, which becomes then their only calls. And gospel
preaching is just something by which they attempt to support
and buttress their calls. Our cause is not the Baptist
denomination. Our cause is not religious history. Our cause is not political conservatism. Our cause is not prophecy. Our cause is not religious and
theological jargon. Our cause is not even moral uprightness. Our cause is the gospel of God's
free grace. We have no other cause. Second,
it's your responsibility. It is your responsibility. It
is your responsibility to believe the gospel. Some men foolishly imagine that
to use the word responsibility and apply it to men is somehow
to deny the gospel of God's sovereign grace and deny man's total depravity
because people you know, people who ought to know better, who
at least could get a dictionary if they wanted to and look up
the word, but they foolishly imagine that responsibility implies
ability. Oh, no. Oh, no. Responsibility
replies nothing but responsibility. It is your responsibility to
obey the gospel. We then as workers together with
the triune God, Paul said, beseech you that you receive not the
grace of God in vain. God commandeth all men everywhere
to believe. This is his commandment that
you believe on his son. I rejoice to declare to all men
everywhere that any sinner in all the world who will call upon
Christ in true faith shall be saved. This is what the book
says. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Somebody said to a friend of
mine, Brother Herbert Wilson, years ago, he said, you folks
don't believe in whosoever will. He said, oh, yes, we do. We just
don't believe in whosoever won't. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. I know that you're responsible
before God to believe. to believe that which is plainly
revealed in the word. And I know that if you will believe
on the son of God, God will save you by his grace. The Philippian
jailer said to Paul inside a search, what must we do to be safe? What
must I do to be safe? And, you know, Paul, I, I just
kind of have a hunch that Paul knew the right thing to say. I've got a hunch he did. I got
a hunch he understood that it was correct to say, well, buddy,
there's nothing you can do. There's nothing you can do. It's
all up to God. That would have been right. That
would have been absolutely right. He could have said, don't you
know that you're lost and dead and trespasses and sins and a
dead sinner can't do anything? And that would have been right.
But he was inspired by God the Holy Spirit to say, believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Will you hear
me? Will you hear God this day? Will you hear? Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But brother, you got
to qualify that. God didn't. But you've got to,
you got to put up some fences. I'm amazed at the number of fellows
who preach as though they're scared to death some of the non-elect
might get in. If you get in, it's because God
chose you. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Indeed, if you believe, you're
believing is proof positive that God has saved you. Because he
that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life. Yet, I know that no man by nature
can or will come to Christ. Our Lord Jesus said, ye will
not come to me that you might have life. But he said more than
that. He said, no man can come to me
except my father, which has sent me draw him. And when he says
my father, which has sent me draw him, he's not talking about
just gently urging him or even powerfully urging him. He's talking
about bringing him. Because those the Father draws
to him, he says, I will raise him up at the last day. It is
not within the realm of man's power. It is not within the scope
of his heart's desire to come to Christ. I've had two letters in the last
couple of weeks from a man. One wrote to me, he's just all
distressed, he'd been reading his Bible and praying and doing
this and that for years, last two, three, four years, crying
out to God, scared to death and dying. And he wrote to me and
said he'd been seeking the Lord, but it was obvious from his letter
he hadn't been seeking the Lord at all. He'd been trying to do
good to get God's approval to stay out of hell. And I wrote
back to him, having read his letter carefully, and I wrote
as gently as I know how to write. And I said, your problem is you've
not been seeking the Lord. You've been trying to win God's
favor to stay out of hell. And I was a little surprised.
I suspect he will hear this sermon. I just, I just suspect he will.
If you do, God make it effectual to you. But he wrote back and
he said, you're right, I wasn't seeking him. I was just trying
to stay out of hell. I've decided to be an atheist instead. Well, the fact is, you too, you'll
do anything but seek him. You'll choose anything but faith
in Christ. You'll choose any way but Christ
the way. To find some favor with God,
unless God conquers you by His grace. You can't believe except God
create faith in you. You cannot and will not come
to Christ except God bring you to Christ. You cannot and will
not trust the Son of God except God calls you to trust Him. And I know this too. True saving
faith in Christ. Is the gift of God. Unto you
it is given. In the behalf of Jesus Christ
to believe on him, Paul said. By grace you saved through faith
and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. We believe by the mighty operation
of God's power in us. We believe by God performing
faith in us. We do not believe by the exercise
of our will. We do not believe by somehow
trying and mustering faith from within. We believe because God,
the Holy Spirit, works faith in us by the operation of his
mighty power, that same power by which he with which he wrought
in Christ Jesus when he raised him from the dead. Now hold your
place here in John chapter 11 and turn back a few pages to
chapter 6. Look at this. Hear what our Savior says about
faith, about coming to him. Verse 37. All that the Father giveth me,
that's present tense, Bob. All that the Father is right
now giving me shall come to me. Who's going to come to God this
morning? Who's going to come to God this
morning? Everybody the father by his omnipotent grace gives
to the son. They shall come to me and him
that cometh to me. How do you come any way you can
get to him? You come on right where you are. Don't wait to
say a prayer. Don't wait for an invitation.
Don't wait for an altar call. Come to him right where you are
without moving a muscle. In that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. You know I won't because I came
down from heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him
that sent me. This is why I came down here. And this is the father's
will. This is the will of him that
sent me. Which has sent me that of all which he hath. That's past tense isn't it? All
which he hath. in His eternal sovereign decree,
given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the
last day. All that the Father gives me
comes to me, I'll raise Him up. All that the Father has given
me shall come to me, and I'll raise Him up. Now look at verse
40. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that of every one which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life, And I'll raise him up at the
last day. Now, this is our Savior's doctrine in those words. No one
can come to him. No one. But anyone may come to
him. Anyone may come to him. And someone
shall come to him. And all who come to him, he will
raise up at the last day in everlasting life. It is written, thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power. Blessed is the man
whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee. Now, there
are numerous pictures and examples of this mighty operation of God
called effectual calling, grace irresistible. given in the scriptures. Many examples there are pictures
that clearly illustrate and teach us how it is that God the Holy
Spirit saves sinners in the mighty operations of his grace in the
experience of grace. You have Abraham, the son of
a idolatrous man down in Ur of the Chaldees. And the Lord God
appeared to Abraham and said, Abraham, get out. and Abraham
got out. You have a picture given of a
man by the name of Saul of Tarsus I referred to earlier. This man
who was standing holding the coats of men who stoned Stephen
to death as he listened to that man Stephen preach the gospel
of God's free grace with his last breath. I suspect he never
got over it. It lodged in his mind and in
his conscience, and he couldn't get rid of it, though he was
on his way to persecute all who believed in the name of the Lord
Jesus, to rid the world of the name of Jesus Christ. And God
stopped him in his mad rush to hell, saved him by his grace. You remember the story. God came
to this man Zacchaeus, our Lord Jesus did, and he He explained
the reason for his being there. Zacchaeus was a publican, a tax
collector, a man of small stature. He climbed up in a sycamore tree
so he could get a good look at this man he'd heard so much about,
Jesus of Nazareth, who was passing by. What Zacchaeus had heard,
I don't know, but he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth who
was passing by. Jesus, the Nazarite, that one
who claimed to fulfill the vow of the Nazarite, he's passing
by. And Zacchaeus heard things he
had done and climbed up in that tree because he was curious.
Because he was curious. Oh, I've I've seen God save folks
who came in and sat down where you are just because they were
curious. They were just curious. Just curious. What's going on
in there? And the Lord came to where he
was. And he said the reason he did
so, because Zacchaeus was a child of Abraham. He was one of Abraham's
children. He said, Zacchaeus, come down.
For today I must abide at thy house. And Zacchaeus made haste
and came down because master called. Sometimes the Lord calls his
sinners to hear the word for years before he calls them by
his grace. Sometimes he calls them immediately. Sometimes he calls as a sinner
to hear the word And it just, he tucks it away in the man's
memory, maybe in the boy's memory for a while and calls him by
his grace in time. There was an old man, an old
man who came to confess Christ and someone asked him how he
heard the gospel. He said, I recall distinctly
when I was a small boy, going with my father to hear George
Whitfield preach, and he preached the gospel of God's grace, and
I've never forgotten it. I've told you before, I was in
Newcastle, Australia, preaching at a church where Brother Don
McMurray pastored. The place was packed. It was
a building less than half the size of this auditorium, and
the place was just packed. Folks standing on the outside,
the doors and windows were all open. And back in the days when
those fellows wore those real short basketball shorts running
in when they'd go out jogging, I saw them run down the street. And then I saw them come back
and just pause right there. And as soon as they're sitting
on the front steps, I'm talking about God's call,
not a man's. Of all the pictures given of
this call, none is clearer, none more instructive than the picture
given to us in John chapter 11 with the resurrection of Lazarus.
First, look at verse 14. Let me show you four or five
things about this man, Lazarus. Verse 14. We're told that Lazarus'
condition was just like ours. Lazarus was dead. Then said Jesus unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead, dead. That's the state of all men by
nature, dead in trespasses and in sins. I find it remarkable
that people will actually say to me, what does that mean? If you were, I presume they got
somebody laid out at one of the funeral homes downtown. If you
were to go by there after lunch today and walk into the room
and you didn't know anybody there, you didn't know anybody there,
I'll guarantee you, you could spot the one that's dead. He's
not drinking coffee. He's not up milling around. He's
not coming up with ideas. He's not talking to people. He's
the one laying in the coffin, cold, stone, cold, dead. And you who are without Christ
are dead in trespasses and in sins. Wherefore, as by one man,
sin entered into the world and death by sin, and so death passed
upon all being for that all have sinned. When our father Adam
sinned in the garden, we sinned in our father Adam. The dead
cannot move toward God and never do. The dead have neither the
will nor the ability to come to God by faith in Christ and
never do. The dead don't even desire God's
salvation. Now, you who are spiritually
dead are very much alive in your carnal flesh and in your enmity
against God. And you, with your guilt in your
conscience, may desire to escape the fire of God's wrath and the
judgment by which you're constantly tormented day and night. But
you will never seek Christ, God's salvation. You will never seek
the righteousness of another. You will never seek atonement
by the sacrifice of God's Son. The dead must be raised from
death to life by the power of God. This resurrection from death
to life is called the first resurrection. It's called the first resurrection.
The hour is coming, our Savior said, and now is. when the dead
shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. John said, blessed and holy is
he that hath part in the first resurrection. On such, the second
death hath no power. Turn to Ephesians 2. Let me show
you. Ephesians chapter 2. Our Lord Jesus told us plainly
that Lazarus sickness and death was for the glory of God, that
the son of God might be glorified thereby. And our death. Our sin and death in and by our
father, Adam, the sin and death of God's elect, the ruin of the
human race in Adam was for the glory of God. that the Son of
God might be glorified thereby in the saving of his elect. God's
glory in Christ could not have been known as it was made known
in Lazarus' resurrection had Lazarus not gotten sick and died. You see that clearly enough,
don't you? Merwin never have seen him raised from the dead
if he hadn't gotten sick and died. And God's glory, God's
great, great glory in Jesus Christ could never have been known had
we not perished in Adam that we might be raised in Christ. Now, let's see if that's what
the book teaches. Ephesians 2 verse 1. And you hath he quickened. The
word is made alive. who were dead in trespasses and
sins. Wherein in time past ye walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our conversation,
our manner of life in time past, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind. What will you do
before God saved you? living in the lust of your flesh,
fulfilling the desires of your flesh and your mind. Oh, but
brother Don, don't you know he was a he was a famous politician. Don't you know he was a famous
sports star living after the lust of your flesh, fulfilling
the desires of your flesh and your mind. Worthless flesh. That's what you were and are
by nature. and worthless flesh, you would
remain chasing the vanity of a corrupt heart and life until
God steps in by his grace. Read on. And we're by nature
children of wrath, just like everybody else. But God. Oh, hallelujah. But God. But God, who is rich in mercy. For his great love, wherewith
he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened
us, look at it now, together with Christ. He quickened us
when he quickened Christ. He raised us from the dead when
he raised Christ from the dead, quickened us by virtue of our
union with Christ. We are raised by the merit of
his resurrection power. For he's quickened us together
with Christ by grace. You are saved and have raised
us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in
Christ Jesus. Now, watch this. This is for the glory of God,
that the son of God might be glorified thereby. That in the
ages to come. He might show the exceeding riches
of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. All right, back to John chapter
11 verse 33. Here's Lazarus calling. He was dead, but he was called
to life. It's a picture of our calling
of that effectual irresistible, omnipotent, gracious call of
God. There's a tendency among many
to try to take away the offense of the cross. And since people
don't like to hear about irresistible grace, they'll find something
else to call it. Well, that's reason enough to
call it exactly what it is. It is grace you cannot resist. Grace, you will not resist. Grace, though resisted you try,
you cannot resist. Look at this, verse 43. And when he had thus spoken,
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And when he did,
the dead man arose to life. He that was dead came forth.
Now, there is a general call. There is a general call. I talked
about it earlier. We preach the gospel to all men. Now, that
does not literally mean that we preach the gospel to everybody
in the world. Somebody said, but God gives everybody a chance
to be saved. Ask Noah's generation. God gives
everybody a chance to be saved. Ask those Haitians. perished in that rubble under
God's hand in the last couple of weeks who never heard anything
but a mixture of voodoo and Christianity. Ask. Ask. Ask those who perish under the
wrath of God generation after generation around this world
who never heard a gospel preacher's voice. Ask those folks that Paul
desired to go preach to in the spirit of God said no. Ask them.
Ask those Egyptians whom God said I raised you up to cast
you into the ocean, into the Red Sea for the saving of my
chosen. No, men aren't saved by chance.
Men are saved by purpose. And we don't preach the gospel
to all men because we don't have the ability. We don't preach
it to all men without exception. We preach it to all men in the
sense that we preach it to everybody we can. We preach it to folks
no matter where they're found, no matter what their background,
without any preconditions, without any conditions on them at all.
We just preach the gospel generally to all men. But this call by
which Lazarus came out of the grave was not a general call.
It was not a general call. It was very particular. It was
very personal. He said, Lazarus, come forth.
Somebody said there's enough power in that call. If he hadn't
said Lazarus, everybody in the graveyard would have come out
of the grave. My old pastor by the time the David said, when
the Lord called Zacchaeus and said, make haste to come down,
he said, Zacchaeus came down at Sycamore trees and faced his
skin and all the bark off of it. He doesn't have any bark.
The fact is, our Lord's call is personal. Particular, specific. so personal, so particular, so
specific. When he calls you, you'll know
you've been called. You'll know it. You'll know it.
As long as you got to keep coming
to me, trying to get me to tell you you've been called, you ain't
been called. That's just that's just fact and I'm not gonna tell
you you have been I'm not gonna do it I'm not gonna try to convince
you you're going to heaven you're on your road to hell I'm not
gonna you can go down the road to any preacher you want to I'm
not gonna do it. I'm not gonna do it What do you do? I preach
the gospel and wait for God to call and when God calls his sheep
hear his voice They hear his voice and you're hearing his
voice You're being called Not as hearing the word of a man,
but when our gospel comes to you in the power of the Holy
Spirit and in much assurance, Paul said. Remember what it said,
1 Thessalonians chapter 1? Our gospel came to you in power
and in demonstration of the Spirit and much assurance. So you understood
it was God speaking to you, not just a man. That's how we know
your election. Your being called to life and
faith in Christ is the proof that God chose you and Christ
redeemed you. Now, hurriedly, let's move on
to verse 44. 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, under them. Loosen and let him go. Once he was called, Lazarus was
converted. His conversion was both immediate
and gradual. Instantaneous and the process. He was immediately changed from
death to life. We call that regeneration. That's
immediate. But He was gradually freed from
his grave clothes. And sinners saved by God's grace
are immediately made new creatures in Christ. When the sinner is
born again by God's spirit, he's immediately have has a new man
created in him in righteousness and in true holiness. But throughout
our lives, we are being saved gradually. from the grave clothes
of sin and unbelief, legalism and self-righteousness, religious
rituals and customs and traditions. And Paul tells us that we're
to leave these things behind, perfecting holiness in the fear
of God. This conversion, I said, is a
process. It doesn't happen all at once,
always. Sometimes it does. Did with Saul
of Tarsus. But not many people have Saul's
Damascus Road experience. Not many. Not many. Not many
people all at once are convinced of sin, righteousness, and judgment,
believing on the Son of God. For many, I dare say for most,
it's process. I said, well, I'll tell you,
when I was born again, no, you can't. No, you can't. I was born
again. I remember we had a camp meeting,
and I went down the sawdust trail, and I knelt down there at the
morning's bench, and I prayed through it. Right there, I was
born again. Not a chance. Not a remote possibility. I was
at a Billy Graham crusade and I saw everybody going forward
and since they all decided to go forward, I broke down and
started crying. I went forward too and God saved
me, bless his name. Not a chance in this world. Not
a chance in this world. No, sir. No, sir. When God saves
sinners, he gives them life. And they're convinced. So what
the book says? convinced of sin. Not just that
they have sinned. Merle, I knew it was wrong to
cheat when I was in second grade in school. Didn't you? Nobody had to tell me it was
wrong. I knew it was wrong. I knew it was wrong to crawl
over a fellow's fence and steal his apples when I was just a
boy walking home from school. Nobody had to tell me now, Don,
if you steal those apples and that fellow shoots you, it's all right. That
I knew it was wrong. I knew it was wrong. I knew it
was wrong to lie. I was reminded frequently. But
I knew it was wrong. And I knew that I did it all.
I knew it. But that's not the conviction
of sin. Oh, when you, when the Holy Spirit comes, he'll convince
you that you ought not commit adultery and ought not cheat
and lie and steal and murder, bear false witness, all that.
No, no. He'll convince you that that's
all you've ever done. He'll convince you that you're
nothing but sin. And I want to tell you something,
there's never been anything to take the strength out of a man
like the withering work of God's Spirit convincing you of sin. And he'll convince you of righteousness.
Maybe at the very same moment but maybe over a period of time.
With me, I know over a period of time. It'll convince you of
righteousness. The more I tried to make myself
righteous, the more convinced of my sin I was. The more I tried
to work my way to God's favor, the more weak I found myself.
And at last, I was convinced of righteousness. Christ the
Lord has brought in everlasting righteousness. He's done that
for somebody. He's done that for somebody.
And I was convinced. I was absolutely convinced. But
I was still tormented in my conscience. And at last, convinced. Oh, bless
God, convinced of judgment. Convinced not that judgment was
coming. I knew that. Convinced that it's
not anymore coming. convinced that judgment is over
for somebody because Christ has died and the grave clothes begin
to roll away. The grave clothes begin to be
peeled back. And the difficulty is that this
flesh still loves to cling to some sense of righteousness. This flesh still loves to cling
to some effort by which we can please God. This flesh still
loves to cling to something by which we hope we might possibly
appease God's wrath on our behalf. And the Lord God keeps convincing
us, and convincing us, and convincing us of sin put away, righteousness
established, and judgment finished. Now, in chapter 12, you'll skip
down there to verses 1 and 2, you'll see Lazarus sitting at
the table with our Lord Jesus in sweet communion. Soon after
his resurrection, here he is, dining with the master. Now don't
miss this. Don't miss this. Then Jesus,
six days before the Passover, came to Bethany, where Lazarus
was, which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There
they made him a supper, and Martha served. But Lazarus was one of
those, one of them that sat. at the table with him. The house and the table belong
to Lazarus. Is that right? This is the home of Martha and
Mary and Lazarus. The house and the table belong
to Lazarus. But the master of the house was
Lazarus' Savior, his Lord. It was the Lord Jesus who gave
the orders as he sat at the table and Lazarus sat at the table
with him. You see, Lazarus, believing on
the Son of God, surrendered everything to the master and the heart surrendered
to him, sits in sweet communion with him. I can almost hear Lazarus'
heart as he sits here at the table. He said, I am thine, O
Lord. I've heard thy voice and it told
thy love to me. But I long to rise in the arms
of faith and be closer drawn to thee. Consecrate me now to
thy service, Lord. By the power of grace divine,
let my soul look up with steadfast hope. And my will be lost in
thine. Now, let me show you one more
thing very quickly. You turn to Genesis chapter 4. Well, I
read verses 9 through 11 here in John chapter 12. Much people of the Jews therefore
knew that he was there. And they came not for Jesus'
sake only, but that they might see Lazarus, whom he had raised
from the dead. But the chief priests consulted
that they might put Lazarus to death. Because that by him many
of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. Now, what a strange
thing. Lazarus was in great conflict. These Jews, who had known Lazarus
all his life, these good Religious Jews, these good fellas. I'm talking about these were
the fundamental independent bad guys like us. They were good
fellas. I mean, good fellas. These Jews
wanted to kill him. And because Lazarus got him a
fistful of tracks, he started shoving things down their throat.
No, no. Well, everywhere Lazarus went,
all they did was try to get people buttoned to hold and get a profession
of faith out of them. No. No. No evidence he did that.
Well, everywhere Lazarus went, he told the fellas, you've been
in the wrong now. You need to quit worshipping
down there at the temple. You need to start worshipping
with us at the altar of Jesus Christ. No. No indication he
ever did that. You fellas, y'all are just all
will-worshipping idolaters, and you're going to hell if you don't
come my way. No. I don't see any indication
he did that. What did Lashes do? Nothing.
Nothing. Everything we've read about him
so far is what was done to him and done in him. He didn't do
a thing. He didn't do anything. He just worshiped the Master.
He just, he didn't worship the Savior. I'm reminded of what
went on here in Genesis chapter 4. Cain and Abel came to worship
God. Cain brought the fruit of his
own ground, of the ground. Cain, you see, was a Pharisee.
Cain thought that he could produce something God would accept. Cain
thought, boy, if I get in the waters of baptism, I'll take
care of it. Now I believe in Jesus and I've
been baptized. Isn't that good? No, that's just
works. The king thought, the king thought,
I believe in Jesus and I'm going to keep the law. Isn't that good? God will be pleased with that.
No, that's called works. That's called works. King did
not go down and worship at the altar of Baal. He came to worship
Jesus Christ, the Lord Jehovah, but he brought the fruit of his
ground, his own works. And you know what? Canes, apples,
and pears, and bananas, and green beans, and cucumbers laid right
there on the ground and rotted and made fertilizer for something
else to grow. God wouldn't take it. God wouldn't
have it. Like your good works. Abel brought
a kid of the flocks. Like he'd been taught by his
daddy. Has his daddy been taught by God? Nothing else, just a
lamb for sacrifice. And that lamb portrayed the lamb,
the lamb of God. And I can picture Cain laughing
at Abel. Look at you. Look at you. You got blood all
over you. How are you going to worship
God? Cain, but that's the only way you can worship God. What
do you mean? Look at this. I polished this
fruit here. I could take that to the fair
wind blue ribbon with it. Yeah, but God won't have it.
You got to come to God through the blood of his son. And you
know what God did? God accepted Abel's sacrifice. I reckon how he did that. Maybe,
maybe he came down and consumed the lamb with fire. Maybe, maybe. Or maybe, Abel walked home with
a conscience of peace, reconciled to God. And Cain went home just
like he came to church, tormented with guilt, knowing what I've
done is not enough. You're that way. You go without
Christ. You keep trying to do, and your
conscience keeps screaming, not enough, not enough. You who believe, acknowledge your sin, confess
it. Your conscience says Christ is
enough. Christ is enough. Now look at
verse 7 here, Genesis 4. The Lord spoke to Cain, whose
countenance failed. And he said to him in verse 7,
if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou
doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And here's a little
bit of a problem. And unto thee shall be his desire,
Abel's desire. And thou shalt rule over him.
What on earth is he saying? He said, King, if you worship
me, and your worship of me is acceptable, you do well. If you worship me, through the
sacrifice that Abel brought, through the sacrifice of my darling
son, you do well. And if not, if you brought something
else, if you try to commend yourself to me, sin's at your heart's
door. Your screaming conscience condemns
you and you know it. But Abel, Abel hadn't changed. Abel knows you're his elder brother.
Abel knows you're his father's firstborn son. Abel desires you. He still loves you as his brother. And he will still submit to your
place in the house because that's the place God's given you. But
that didn't satisfy Cain. Cain and Abel out in the field, and Cain enraged, enraged because
God would not accept his works, murdered his brother. And for
the same reason, these Jews attempted to slaughter Lazarus. And for
the same reason, those who are called by God's grace, as long
as you're in this world, will live in conflict with those who
were not called. Do you know anything about the
sweet love call of our Savior? Oh, how I thank God that when he called me, he would
not take no for an answer, don't you? Oh, Spirit of God, call the dead
this hour. cause them to live. For Christ's
sake. Amen.