If you'd like to come back there
this morning to the 11th chapter of John, that's what we'll be
looking at. I woke up this morning, about 3.30
or so, and my stomach was churning, turning. I went to the restroom and I thought,
oh no, I'm sick, I'm getting sick. When I get sick, everything
shuts down. Everybody comes to take care
of me. Because when I get sick, I'm sick. That's it. I can't
do anything but lay. I remember last year, we had
a terrible virus going around there at home. My son got it,
and they put him in the hospital. His daughter got it, and they
took her to the hospital. And we took care of another one,
our two-year-old granddaughter, and she was sick. Everyone kept
telling me, boy, you don't want to get this one. This is a bad
one. One night I felt my stomach churning
and I thought, oh no, I'm sick. And I was sick. And I was sick. And when I woke up this morning
and my stomach was churning, I thought, oh no, oh no, I'm
sick, I'm sick. And this passage of scripture
came to me, he whom thou lovest is sick. Sickness, everyone dreads sickness. But I tell you something that's
worse than being sick. When you get sick and you think
you're sick and the Lord don't love you, you can endure sickness and remembering
that you're one of the Lord's loved ones will make your sick
bed. But if you're sick and you get it in your heart, you get
it in your thoughts that he don't love you, and because you're
sick, that's a proof that he doesn't love you. That'll make
a sick bed almost unbearable. Just because we get sick, just
because we suffer, is definitely no sign the Lord does not love
us. Many are the affliction of the
righteous. Some of the Lord's greatest saints,
the most loved saints have been sick and been afflicted with
diseases. Isaac, Isaac, in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. Isaac, the choice of God. Isaac was blind and he died blind. David, that sweet psalmist of
Israel, the apple of God's eye, thou hast made with me an everlasting
covenant, ordered in all things and sure." You know when he made
that statement? When he was an old man and he was sick. Job
sat on an ash heap and scratched his balls with a broken posture. But the Lord said about him,
he's my servant. Ain't nobody like him. But he's
sick. He's sick. A man can be sick, but he's loved
of God. It says here twice, they sent
a message to the Lord Jesus, Martha and Mary, and said, he
whom thou lovest is sick. And that just wasn't their opinion.
Because it said again in verse 5, the Holy Spirit said, Jesus
loved Martha and her sister, and Lazarus. Almost every time you and I get
into trouble, one of the first things we begin to think, if
the Lord loved me, this wouldn't be happening. We'll never get away from that,
probably we will. This self-righteousness, this
legality, cleaves to us. And because we think that we
have to see something in someone to cause us to love them, the
Lord is the same way. But He is eternally different
than we are. His love rests upon its own bottom. He loves us because He loves
us. And our situation and our circumstances
in this life will never change that. He loved us before we had
a being, he loves us now, and he'll always love us. Having
loved his own which were in the world, even those who are sick,
he loves them unto the end. Now, that'll make your sick bed.
That'll make your sick bed. He whom thou lovest is sick. And you'll notice here, and this
is so important, the Lord never came and healed
this man. When he heard Lazarus was sick, he remained two more
days in the same place where he was. Two days' journey away.
If he had came immediately, he could have probably got there
in time to heal him, but he waited two days. Something's going to
take you out of this world. Probably some disease, old age,
sickness, but you and I are going to get old, we're going to get
weak, and we're going to die. and don't change His love for
us. This man was not only sick, but he got so sick and so weak
that he died. And yet the Scripture says, He
whom thou lovest. The Lord loved him. He loved
him when he was alive, loved him when he was healthy, loved
him when he was sick, loved him when he died. But I want you
to notice here in this story After two days, the Lord said
to his disciples, he said, We're going to awake Lazarus out of
sleep. Our friend Lazarus is sleeping.
Now, the Lord doesn't look at things like you and I look at
them. His disciples says, Lord, if he's sleeping, he does well.
Let's leave him alone and let him rest. The Lord, you poor
disciples. How long am I going to have to
bear with you? You know, we were talking yesterday,
the pastor and Brother Don and I were talking yesterday. The
Lord has gave us a language to speak to us in. And it's a language
that you and I can relate to, but it's very, very weak. And he has language, heavenly
language, that he can speak to us in, but we couldn't understand
it. Paul said he was called up to
heaven, to the third heaven. And he heard words there that
were unspeakable. He couldn't speak it in Hebrew.
He couldn't relate it to men in Greek and certainly not in
English. Heavenly language, you and I
could not understand it. When the Lord Jesus Christ estimates
the death of his people, he says they sleep. We say they die. He says they are just resting.
They are just resting. That is his language. That is
heavenly language. If he wrote us a book in heavenly
language, we couldn't grasp it. We would just twist it and try
to figure it out instead of just believing it. Sometimes he will
take our language that he's written to us in, and he'll drop some
of these heavenly languages in it, and we still can't hardly
get a hold of it. Those whom God foreknew. Can you get a hold of that? Go
way back in eternity. Go back to the edge of the creation
where time began. and take a giant leap of faith
and sail and soar as far back into eternity as you can on the
wings of faith, and back there you'll find the triune God. And
he dwelt alone, perfectly full, complete, and happy, in need
of nothing. And back there he loved a people. And he provided for them. He
predestinated them. He ordained them for a wonderful
purpose, to be just like his Son. And those that he predestinated
to be conformed to the image of his Son, those he called them,
irresistibly called them, subdued them, conquered them, began a
new work in their hearts. And he justified them from everything. There is no guilt. There is no
condemnation. They are free from condemnation
in this life and in that life to come. And those he justified,
he glorified. Where is the saint of God today?
He is in heaven. Well, no, he is not. You are
right here. But in God's language, he is in heaven. Ain't that what
he said? He instructed his apostle that
this is my purpose and I want you to write it all as though
it is in past tense. It is finished. It is complete.
They are glorified. And what do we say when we read
these heavenly words? Oh, I don't know if I am going
to make it. I may not make it. Oh, I am in a valley I may not
get out of. I may not get up this hill of difficulty. And
here is this heavenly language we just can't hardly get a hold
of. God's purpose is history. The Lord Jesus doesn't speak
to his disciples here in the language that they can relate
to. So finally he has to say plainly to them. He has to condescend
and speak to us in language that we can understand. Finally he
says plainly, he's dead, he's dead. Brother Greg told us, and
he probably told you before, that one of the best illustrations
I ever heard, Brother Greg was telling us yesterday about how
the Heavenly Father condescends to speak to us in our language.
And he says it's like a father bending over the crib of his
little infant and speaking to him in that baby language. And
that's what our Father's done, ain't it? He has to speak to
us in this baby language. that we can get a hold of. He's
not dead. He sleeps. He sleeps. And I go to wake him out of sleep.
And that's what he did. And he went here to Bethany,
and it was such a sad, sad time. Four days this man had been dead,
and they still couldn't get on with their lives. They still
were weeping. Everybody was weeping. Mary was
weeping. The Jews were weeping. Even the
Lord Jesus wept. Only time that's ever written.
The Lord Jesus wept here. He wept over Jerusalem, didn't
he? A sad time. And the Lord went
to awaken him out of his sleep. So Martha went out and met him. Boy, she had some things to learn
about the Lord. She had some things to learn.
She knew the Lord. She loved Him. She believed Him.
But I tell you, if there was ever a case, an argument, that
a young believer needs to grow in grace and knowledge, Martha
is one of them. The Lord went there where she
was, and you know what she said? Lord, if you had been here, You mean he had to be there physically? He was there. He wasn't there
physically, but he was there spiritually. He waited until
he knew that Lazarus was dead. If you had been here, my brother
had not died. Oh, she's got something to learn
about the Lord Jesus Christ, doesn't she? He's everywhere. When he was here in his physical
body, he was everywhere in his spirit. He's in heaven today
seated on the right hand of God. But you know what he said, where
two or three are gathered in my name, I'm in the midst of
them. He's here. He's down in Mexico
where they're gathered. He's in Crossville, Tennessee
where they're gathered. He's up in Newcastle, Indiana where
the saints are gathered. David said this about him. David
said, if I send them to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed
in the grave, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, he said, Lord, even
there your hand shall hold me up. You are everywhere. To knowledge
is such wonderful for me. It is too high for me. I cannot
attain unto it. The Lord Jesus Christ does not
have to be physically present. He is present in his spirit. He is everywhere. The Lord was calling some of
his disciples in John 1. And he had called Philip. And Philip ran and found Nathanael,
his brother, and said, Come see, we found him whom Moses and the
prophets wrote about. We found the Messiah. He's come. Nathanael must have been waiting
for him, too. Because soon as Philip found
out who the Lord was, he ran and told his brother. He's got
to hear about this. So he runs and finds his brother. Come see a man that Moses and
the prophets wrote about. The Messiah. Nathanael said,
Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? Well, you come and
see. You meet him for yourself. He's
the son of Joseph. He's over here. He's over here.
You come with me. Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. Here comes
Nathanael. And the Lord looked at him and
said, Behold an Israelite, a son of Jacob, in whom is no God. How do you know me? He said,
When you were over there hiding out underneath that fig tree
in that orchard, I saw you. Have you seen me over there? I saw you. I not only saw you
physically, I saw your heart. I saw your thought. I saw what
you were praying for. You are not the son of Joseph.
You are not Joseph's son. Why, you are the son of God.
You are the King of Israel. What is he saying? The Lord Jesus
Christ, when he was upon this earth, he was not limited to
space. That centurion sent for him one
time and said, I've got a sick servant and he's dying. And the
Lord said, I'll come and heal him. I'll come and heal him.
Boy, this centurion now, he knew something about the Lord Jesus.
I'll come and heal him. And that centurion said, you
don't have to come. You don't have to be here. I
know who you are. You're no ordinary man. You just
speak the word. Just speak the word. That's all
it takes. Martha didn't know that this
year. If you had been here, you'd have been here. No, he's in heaven
today, but he's here. He's here, ain't he? Something Martha did know, though,
look here in verse 22. Well, she did know this. But
I know that even thou whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, he will
give it to thee. She knew that he was a mediator. She knew that he was chosen of
God and accepted of God. And every desire of his heart
And every request of his lips would not be denied of God in
heaven. What a blessing, brothers and
sisters, to have someone like that to please your cause. How many prayers have you prayed
and God has said no? And you're not the first one.
He said no to some greater people than you and I are. But there's
one that he'll never say no to, and that's his son. My son, you
asked of me the heathen. I'll give them to you. You ask
the uttermost parts of the earth, it's yours. What's the desire
of your heart, my son? You've got it. You know one of
the desires of his heart and the request of his lips, Father,
receive them. Father, forgive them. Be a father
to them as you've been to me. Love them as you've loved me. And Father, I will that those
that you've given to me be with me where I am. You think he's
going to answer that? That they may behold my glory.
I know, Martha said, whatever you ask of God, he'll give it
to you. Oh, man, what a plea to go into
God's presence. I don't care who you are this
morning, dear soul, or how vile you are and feel yourself to
be and how mean and lowly. Through the Lord Jesus Christ,
we have access to the Father. It doesn't matter who we are,
what we've done, how we feel. Our access is not by our feelings.
It is not by the strength of our faith or the greatness of
our understanding. Our access is through the Lord
Jesus Christ by whom we have access. Therefore, we have continual
access. Any moment of the day we can
go into the presence of God because we have a mediator that is always
accepted. And he is there to plead and
maintain our cause. This is why the writer of Hebrews
said that all those who come to God will be saved forevermore,
if they come by him. Isn't that what he said? Those
who come to God by Jesus Christ shall be saved forevermore, because
he ever lives to make intercessions for them. Lord, I know whatever
you ask of God, he will give it to you. And here we can learn something
in verse 23 and verse 24. We learn something here. The
Lord Jesus in verse 23 said, ìThy brother shall rise again.î
And Martha said unto him, ìI know that he shall rise again
in the resurrection at the last day.î Now we learn something
there, havenít we? This world doesnít end at all.
This wasn't just Martha's opinion, this is scripture. She had learned
this from scripture, from her teachers that had taught her
well. I know that he'll arise again at the resurrection. There's
going to be a resurrection someday. God deals with us now in our
realm of time. There's a time to be born, there's
a time to die, there's a time to sow, there's a time to reap,
there's a time to talk, time to be quiet. There's a time,
and God deals with us. He's condescended to deal with
us according to time. But there's coming a day, there's
coming a day when he'll not deal with us in this realm of time
anymore. He'll deal with us in his realm.
Eternity. Eternity. Daniel said there's
coming a time, an hour, which those who sleep in the dust of
the earth, they're going to wake. They're going to get out of the
dust, they're going to be changed, and some are going to inherit
everlasting life, and some to everlasting shame and contempt. But it's everlasting. It's everlasting. God has not purposed that this
soul and this body should be separated forever. When a man dies, whether he is
in Christ or outside of Christ, his body goes to the dust and
his soul goes to its long home. But there is coming a day, Martha
said, the last day in which the soul and the body will be reunited
together. the resurrection at the last
day. Now, we learn. You say, I didn't
know that, and I really don't like to think about that. That
scares me. Confuses me. You know the Bible
doesn't pull any punches with us. It doesn't hide these truths
from us, though sometimes they make us afraid, may make us somewhat
fearful, sober. But it confronts us with the
truth. But when it confronts us with these truths, it tells
us also where we can find hope. And that's what the Lord is going
to tell Martha here. Look at this. Look at this. Martha
knew something about the resurrection as a fact, as a doctrine. And
the last day she says, I know there is going to be a resurrection.
The dead are going to rise. But the Lord Jesus is going to
teach her something about the resurrection she does not know
anything about. She has never considered this
aspect of the resurrection. And he says this to her there
in verse 25, I am the resurrection. I am the resurrection. And he
is going to give her some proof to tell her and show her what
he means by that. But to do that, you're going
to have to jump all the way over to the end of the story. And
he said, let's go where he's laying. Show me where you've
buried him. And they all go over there to
the tombs. A rock tomb. They've got this stone to cover
it. And the Lord Jesus said, roll
the stone away. And she said, Lord, please don't
do this. We've done washed his body. They've wrapped him in the grave
clothes. They put all the spices in there, but he stinks. He's
decaying. He's rotting. Please don't open
that tomb." And the Lord said, Martha, I told
you I am the resurrection, and I'm going to show you what that
means. So they rolled away the stone, and the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, lifted up his voice and said, Lazarus! Somebody
said if he hadn't said Lazarus, everybody would have come out.
And that's probably so, isn't it? Lazarus comes forth, and
the scripture the pastor read said, he that was dead came out. That's what the resurrection
is. And there's the power of the resurrection. I am the power,
I am the sovereign power of the resurrection. That's what he
means by that. The day is coming, he said, the
hour is coming, which those who are in the grave shall hear his
voice. Those who have been in the grave
for decades, there's nothing left of them but dust and But when they hear the voice
of the Son of God, they're going to get up. Their bodies are going
to come together. They're going to be raised up
by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if he can raise
those who have been dead for decades, he's not going to have
any problem raising a man that's been dead for four days. And
that's what he did. I'm the power of the resurrection. But he said something else to
Martha. He said this, not only am I the power of the resurrection,
but I am the life of the resurrection. I'm the life. You remember when God first made
Adam, made him out of the dust of the earth. That's amazing
to me, that he made a man out of the dust of the earth. All
these intricate details of the digestive system and all the
the things that runs in his brain and sends all the messages, all
that was made out of dirt. But he had no life in him. He
was a good looking man, but he had no breath in him until God
breathed under his nostrils the breath of life and he became
a living soul. And this is what the Lord Jesus
is saying about the resurrection. Not only are the bodies going
to come together and be changed and have a new body, a glorious
body like unto Christ, but where does that body get its life?
It's the life of Christ. I'm the life of the resurrection. Now we have blood in these veins
of water. Now we're mortal. But there's
coming a time when this mortal will put on immortality. And
this corruptible that's in the grave and decayed will put on
incorruption. And mortality shall be swallowed
up of what? Life. Whose life? Christ's life. I am come that they might have
life, and that's what he gives to the soul now. His life. I have given to you eternal life.
This life is in God's Son. You have the life of Christ in
your soul. There is some day, brothers and
sisters, at the resurrection, you are going to have the life
of Christ in your body. Mortality is going to be swallowed
up. And Christ, who is eternal life,
shall be the life of your body. How's that going to be? How will
that be? I'm come that they might have
life and have it more abundantly. You know how the Lord Jesus describes
it here? And he takes a drop of this heavenly
language now and he drops into our English language. Just one
little word. He tells us how it's going to
be there at the resurrection. In the last portion of verse
25, look at it. And he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live. The one who is life and knows
what living is about says they shall live. They shall live. You and I aren't living here,
are we? We're just existing. in this world of uncertainties
and troubles and sorrows. Those who have the most of this
life have very little of it and don't enjoy much of it then.
We labor to get it, labor to keep it, then we get sick and
old and then we die. This is not living, is it? But
the Lord Jesus says those who shall be counted worthy to obtain
that world and the resurrection from the dead they shall live. Body, I'm concerned about this
because I love my body. It's a vital part of me. I don't
like to be sick. I don't like to get old. I don't
like to have pain. And there is coming a day when
everything that afflicts this body here will be done away with.
There will be no sorrow. There will be no pain. There
will be no crying. God is going to wipe all tears
away, and He is going to make all things new. And then we will
be just like the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't that amazing? You see what
He did. He left heaven and eternal spirit. He came down and experienced
our humanity. And experienced the infirmities
of our humanity. And on the cross He experienced
our sin. And the judgment upon our sin.
But a day is coming when you and I will experience His life. And His living. And His holiness. And then everything that's his,
his life and his living, will be ours. And he'll be perfectly consistent
with our natures. We shall live. We shall live. And that's all he says. Bruce
explained that. I can't. That's heavenly language. What
will it be to be free from sin? What will it be to worship him
as you longed to worship him, you and couldn't? What will it
be to walk with Him in white? What will it be to sit with Him
in His throne? What will it be to have the company
of saints and angels? Not only eternal life, but the
quality of it. They shall live. Oh, what a blessed
hope. No wonder the Bible calls it
a blessed hope. A good hope. God has given us
a good hope through grace. And I'll quit with this. Who
is it that can be assured they have such a hope? Look what he
tells us in verse 26. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? And here's Murray's profession,
and here's my profession. And I hope this is your profession.
Yea, Lord, I believe. Thou art the Christ. You're the
Messiah. You're the one the Old Testament
scriptures prophesied of and pictured and promised would come.
You're the servant that came to do the will of God and the
work of God. I believe you're the Christ.
I believe that you are the Son of God. I cleave to you. Isn't that what
she said? I believe in you. What does that mean? I lean hard
on you. I rely fully upon you. I trust
you with all my heart. I trust you. You're my life. You're my salvation. You're my
hope. You're my everything. That's what it means to believe
in Him. And those who believe in Him, they've got a good hope.
They've got a good hope. God bless you. Thank you, Pastor.
Thank you so, so much. God bless His Word. God bless
you.