It's always great comfort to
have the Lord's people to assemble. I would invite you to turn back
with me, if you would, to the 11th chapter of the book of Saint
John. John's Gospel, chapter 11. I want to read the first four verses. I want to read the first four verses. Now a certain man was sick named
Lazarus of Bethany the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It
was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped
his feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was sick Therefore
his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest
is sick. When Jesus heard that, he said,
this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that
the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now my subject this
morning is comfort in sickness. comfort in sickness. And I want
to do just this this morning. Number
one, I want to give a preface opening up the subject, and then
I would like to ask and answer four questions that will make
up our message for this morning. First of all, then, the preface.
Let us open up this subject. We're told here that he whom
thou lovest is sick. We read that here in the third
verse. These sisters of Lazarus, Martha
and Mary, you see Lazarus was sick and they sent unto the Lord,
sent unto him the Bible says in verse 3, Lord behold Lord
behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Now those who are dearly
loved of God frequently suffer sickness and disease here in
this world. Now realizing this fact, I believe
that it is very important for us to understand something about
God's purpose in the sickness of his children. to understand
something of what the Word of God teaches so that we can prepare
ourselves to glorify God when sickness comes upon us, as it
surely will, seeing that we have, seeing that we're living in a
body of flesh, and seeing that we have a fallen nature and have
been affected with all the sons of Adam by the fall, then we
owning our part and having our part in the fall most surely
will come in a day in our lives to the place where it can be
said of us, there was a certain man was sick. There's a certain
man that was sick, his name is Carl, his name is Mike, his name
is John, or his name is Dennis, or the same can be said of you
dear sisters here in the Lord. The day is coming because of
our part in the fall, and because of the fact that we're living
in this body of flesh. Now I do hope that this little
talk this morning or this message that we are trying to give you
will help us under God to be able, when that time comes, the
time of suffering comes for us, that we'll be able to glorify
God in our afflictions. It is still desperately true
for those that are in Christ Jesus that they are to give thanks
for everything. For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. And this is true. This is a true
statement. And there isn't anything ever
going to alter that, that God's people are more than conquerors
through Him that loved us. We are more than conquerors.
We are not those who are to succumb to or to give ourselves up in
despair and defeat to the enemy. and we're to believe God and
we're to believe His Word and we're to glorify Him in the hour
and in the time of our sickness. Now you're familiar, of course,
with Martha and Mary and this story here concerning their brother,
Lazarus. Now these three people, they
love the Lord. These three people, they live
by faith as the righteous do. And they were earnest seekers
after the will and after the honor and the glory of Jesus
Christ. These were indeed followers of
the Lamb. They were the disciples of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now they were all three, I say
they were saved people in whatever that implies. They were saved
people. They trusted the Lord. They were
indeed believers. Now their eyes have been opened
to see the glory of God in the face of their master, the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you look at verse 27, when
Martha was asked, she said unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe that
thou art the Christ. the Son of God which should come
into the world. Now this is her statement of
faith. And beloved, is this not the same statement of faith that
we give to the question, do you believe? Do you believe on the
Son of God? I believe that thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. And so I believe that these two
sisters and this brother had seen the glory of God in the
face of the Lord Jesus Christ. They had believed upon Him. They were truly the Lord's children. Now they were among the few in
that day who worshiped Christ as God and their Savior and King. And the Lord loved them. Look
at verse 5. Now Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus. The Lord Jesus Christ loved them. And we know that their love for
Him that it was because he first loved them. Jesus loved this
man and his two sisters. Now then, Martha and Mary knew
of the Lord's love for them and their brother. I believe that.
I believe they were convinced of it. They had spent time in
His presence. They had been in His fellowship.
And they knew of His love and of His compassion for them and
of His tenderness and His pity toward them. And they knew that
the Lord could heal Lazarus if He would. If He would, if He
willed to do it, they knew that He could do it. And they knew
that whatever He would ask of His Father, that the Father would
give it to Him. They knew that. They expressed
that in their faith. They believed that the Father
would hear the Son and that He would give answer and that He
would heal, if so be. It was the will of God. So they
sent a message here to the Lord saying, He whom thou lovest is
sick. Now this is an example I think
of just simple confidence and faith in Christ as being God. Just simple faith. Now they just
simply sent a message. saying, Behold, he whom thou
lovest is sick. Now then, Lazarus is sick, and
the Lord loves him. Well, how do you explain that? How can it be explained that
Lazarus is sick And yet the Lord loves him. Well, learn this,
if you please, that it is evident that the sickness of Lazarus
is not a sign of God's anger or His displeasure toward him. Now the devils and how many poor
souls fall into this trap. The devil he traps men and women
and he gets them down and gets them thinking, he puts his foot
upon their neck and gets them thinking that God must be angry
with them or they would not be sent. and that they're sick,
they're afflicted, they're tormented, they're suffering, they have
pain and it's because God is angry at them or God is mad at
them or something like that. Now that's the way the devil
traps men and women in their misery. But this is evident,
here's a man that Jesus Christ loved and yet he was sick. And
so there was nothing in regards to his life that caused this
sickness to come upon him. He didn't bring it upon himself
by committing some particular sin that brought this sickness
upon him. Now note that in their time of
need, Mary and Martha, they turned to the Lord in this simple, confident,
submissive faith. They simply informed the Lord
of their trouble and they did not ask for anything, much less
demand anything from Him. They just simply sent the message
and said, He whom thou lovest is sick. They didn't make any
demands of him. They didn't tell him how to run
his business. They didn't tell him what to do. They just simply
said, he whom thou lovest is set. And they believed that the
Lord Jesus Christ, as we explained earlier, was sympathetic toward
them, that he was of tender mercy, and that he would have mercy
upon them, and that he would pity them, and that whatever
he deemed to do, that it would be right. Now they simply told
him of the burden of their heart. Now I believe they were resigned
to the Lord's will and they were submissive to his purpose as
we always must be as the children of God. We always must be submissive
unto the will of God and so even when we pray, thy will be done.
I told you last week here in this service that if it ever
come to vote that all of us would surely vote Thy will be done. We would not want our own will,
we'd want the will of God to be done. No panic, no despair,
trust Thy will be done. Lord, He whom thou lovest is
sick. Now what will you do? What will
be your will? What will you do? How will you
work it out? How will you deliver? How will
you show thyself? And how will you bring glory
to yourself in this situation? Lord, we leave it up to you.
We don't know how that you would glorify yourself in allowing
Lazarus to be sick, our brother whom you love to be sick. We
don't know how that you would possibly get a hold of this and
turn it about to where it would glorify you. But Lord, he whom
thou lovest is sick and we simply commit it to you and we submit
ourselves unto you. Now they knew that Christ's love
and power was able, as we explained, they knew that he could do whatever
was best and they believed it. They just simply believed it.
Now you and I are plagued with many things. But unbelief is
certainly one of those things that we're plagued with. We have
a difficult time resigning all to God and believing that what
is best The Lord will most surely do in every one of our cases. And especially we feel that way
when we are afflicted. What is best for us, the Lord
will do. Now these two sisters, they anchored
their hearts confidence in the Lord himself. In all that that
means, in the Lord, in His attributes, in all that He's expressed Himself
to be in the Holy Word, a God of absolute mercy, a God who
is so wise that He cannot err. It cannot be said that God Almighty
ever committed a mistake or that he ever made a mistake or was
in error about anything. God is all-wise and so they anchored
their hearts in this confidence on the Lord himself. Now they
did not say he whom we love though they did love him is sick. Now you see we might do that.
We might say he whom we love is sick. But now they, as we
said, they did not say that. Neither did they say, he who
loves and serves you is sick. That wasn't what they said. Or
even he who has great faith in you is sick. No, no, no. No, they just simply said, he
whom thou lovest is sick. Now that's a wonderful, I think
it says a whole lot when you see what they did not say. Do
you know there's a lot of times that what people don't say tells
you a whole lot more than what they do say. And here's a case
where this is desperately true. Now that's their appeal, he whom
thou lovest is sick. Well you know how the story turned
out. You know that the Lord Jesus
came that he knew what was going on even though he wasn't over
there, he waited until just the right time to come so that the
outcome of this would glorify God and would strengthen the
disciples and that it would bring out the faith of Martha and Mary,
bring it out. And then too, that there would
be conversions here because the love, the grace, the power of
Christ was greatly displayed in Jesus Christ raising Lazarus
from the dead and the faith of Mary and Martha as we said was
strengthened and there were conversions that followed. Many believed
on him because of what happened in this matter of sickness among
the people of God. There's four questions that I
want to ask you, and I believe that they're legitimate questions,
and I think that we can, by the Word of God, give you these answers. Now, I want you to be aware of
the fact that as we get into these questions, that I am approaching
these questions from the standpoint that I believe that ever affliction
of a child of God is a sanctified affliction. I believe that every
illness, that every disease, while we have in common with
others around us, we're afflicted as others are, and have a disease
that the doctor treats exactly like he would treat in an unbeliever
and a whirling sinner. Yet our affliction as a child
of God is a sanctified affliction. Meaning that God has a design,
a plan. God has a purpose in allowing
that particular disease or affliction to attack us. or to come upon
us. Now then, the number one question,
just keep that in mind as we get into these questions. Number
one, why does sickness come? Now how would you answer your
son or daughter if they approached you and they said, Daddy, Mother,
why do people get sick? and die. Why? What would you
tell them? How would you approach this? What would you say to your son
or daughter if they were to ask that question? Well, we must
look to the Word of God alone for the answer to this question.
And you listen to Romans 5 and verse 12. Romans 5 and verse
12 says Therefore, as by one man, Adam,
sin entered into the world, and death by sin. Death entered by
the sin of this one man, Adam, and then it says, and so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. And that means
that all of us sinned in Adam. And that's why death reigns over
all the sons of Adam is because when Adam did what he did, we
did it too. We were in him when he did it.
He was our representative and our federal head. So when Adam
thumbed his nose at God and did that which God told him not to
do and rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden and took the
forbidden fruit, then death passed upon him. He started to die. at the very moment of his rebellion,
and death is passed upon all. of the descendants of Adam, and
therefore we all are plagued with sickness and death. Now
one of the great proofs, I think, of original sin is the fact that
even babies and little children get sick and die, even before
they get to the age of what the theologians tells us is the age
of accountability. We know, and I preach the funerals,
the first funeral I ever preached was of a three-year-old girl. A beautiful three-year-old girl
who had a brain tumor. And of course at that time they
couldn't do a thing for her and she died. But here she is, three
years old. And so we believe that's one
of the great proofs of original sin. is the fact that this sin,
that this death passed upon all men for that we all sinned in
Adam. Now that is imputation. We know that in Adam his sin
was imputed to us. And in Christ, His righteousness
and merit is imputed to us. Imputation. Now then, I want
to go on with this. If there were no sin, there would
be no sickness and there would be no death. If there were no
original sin. Now I did not say that your sickness
is because of your particular sin. I did not say that. I said
if there were no sin, there would be no sickness. If there had
been no original sin, there would have been no sickness, there
would have been no death, there would have been no thorns on
the rose bushes and there would have been no thorns on the berry
bushes if it had not been for sin. And that's original sin. And all of us are affected by
original sin. So you see the difference? In
other words, I'm not going to say that it's because you have
been gambling, brother, that you now are afflicted. I'm not
saying that at all. I'm saying that because Adam
thumbed his nose at God, told God to go on back to heaven,
we'd run this world and run it like we wanted to. That's why
we got the problems we've got. That's our original sin. But now still there's a question
that arises and that is why do those whose sins are forgiven,
whose sins are blotted out, those who are loved of God, Why do
they get sick? I mean, if God has forgiven sin,
then why is it that we still get sick? If the Lord has forgiven
us and blotted out our sins and blotted out and given us pardon
for all of our iniquity, past, present, and future, then why
is it that we still get sick? Well, of this much we're sure,
and that is this, that if God willed it, He could prevent it.
But the reason that it happens is, in the believer, is because
we are still living in this body that has a fallen nature and
it has been cursed because of the fall and we still are affected
though our souls be redeemed, the body is still under the penalty
of the curse and is still affected by that curse until today. when
God raises it from the dead and gives us a glorified body. Until that day, as long as we
live in this body, it's going to be affected by the fall and
we're going to suffer. We know that God could prevent
believers from getting sick if he will to do it. But as long
as we're in this body, this is the body of sin and it's a body
that must die. Now brother, sister, you pay
no attention to those who tell you that it is not God's will
for his people to suffer or become sick. You pay no attention to
them whatsoever. Because if such were not God's
will, it would not happen. You mark it down. If it was not
God's will, and I've heard these preachers say, it's not the will
of God that any of his people be sick. Well, now wait a minute. But those preachers will turn
around and tell you that they pray for people but that not
everybody is healed. Well now why is it that if it's
not God's will that people be sick then why is it that people
are sick? I mean, listen to me, I'll go
ahead on here, and I think the answer will come out very clearly
here. Now, when sickness comes, it
comes, and I want to make this clear as far as the believer
is concerned, and I am approaching it from the standpoint of what
I mentioned earlier. It comes from the hand of God
according to His will and according to His purpose. And if it comes
from the hand of God according to His will and sovereign purpose
into the lives of those who love God and are called according
to His purpose, then there is some good purpose in the design
of God for that Christian. for that believer. Romans 8 and
28 would tell you that. Now there was an old preacher
by the name of Trench, and he said this. He said, those whom
Christ loves are no more exempt from earthly trouble and anguish
than others. Rather, he says, they are bound
over to it more surely. Meaning this, that God uses affliction
and sickness, disease in his children for his purpose. And we'll explain that. Job,
David, Hezekiah, Paul, and Epaphroditus were all faithful and beloved
servants of God and yet they suffered painful and protracted
illness, sickness. Every one of those men. They
were not exempt They were holy men, they were believers, but
they were not exempt. And none of them could deliver
themselves out of their affliction. It is the Lord who delivers.
Psalm 34 and 19. Many are the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. And even
death is a deliverance from the plague of sin and from the curse
of sin. Yes, God has a good purpose.
in bringing brethren and sisters down upon a bed of sickness.
A loving father's hand will never cause his child a needless tear. God has a purpose in it. By this
means, by the means of illness, by the means of sickness, God
will, I believe, prove the sincerity of a believer's love and the
sincerity of a believer's faith. Through pain and sickness, Christ
will often become more precious to the believer than he has ever
been at any time before. Sickness also has a way of humbling. and mellowing our hearts, teaching
us patience, and increasing our faith in the Lord. And sometimes
God makes one of his children sick, I think, for the good of
another. And we see that here in the case
of Lazarus. I believe that Mary and Martha
were better off After this happened to their brother, he got sick
and he died and they saw the glory of God. They saw God raise
this one from the dead. And look at the conversions of
others in verse 45, how the others came to believe. And this was
for the good of others that Lazarus, that he became sick. Now Mary
and Martha needed to learn something. that could only be taught by
this sickness and the death of their beloved brother. Now, I
want you to understand that you must trust God's wisdom in this
thing. It's the wisdom of God that must control this thing.
It's God that dictates. You say, well, I don't think
it'll ever work out like that, preacher. Well, you've got to
leave that with the Lord. You cannot, you cannot, you didn't
design this, and you can't control it, and you have no effect or
no control over the effects of this sickness and this disease,
how far-reaching it might be. Whatever his purpose may be,
our hearts rest in this assurance that the sickness of God's children,
according to verse 4, is for the glory of God. It's for the
glory of God. Now, I think that we can establish
that, that this is true, that, as we said before, every affliction
and every sickness of God's people, that it is ultimately for the
glory of God. And it's not unto eternal death,
but it's for the glory of God. Now we notice that Lazarus, Jesus
said in verse 11 that he just sleeps. But Jesus said, I go
that I may awake him out of sleep. Now sleep is a short death. And
somebody said that death is a long sleep. And it's true. But here's this man and he is
sleeping, and the disciples said, well that's good because if a
person's sick, they sleep. does him good to get rest but
Jesus said no he's dead Lazarus he is dead now I want you to
understand here my point is that this was for the glory of God
that he got himself in that he became sick and that he died
and here he is dead and Jesus wakes him up and this is said
in verse 15, Jesus said I'm glad for your sakes. I'm glad. You mean you're glad Jesus that
Lazarus got sick and died? You mean you're glad? Well he
said I'm glad for your sakes that I wasn't over there to the
intent that you may believe nevertheless will go to it. But the purpose
of God in it was that the power of Jesus Christ would be manifested
and men would believe that he was the Christ sent of God. Now the number two question,
the first question was this, why do people get sick and die?
Why do people get sick? We give you the answer, the best
we could. Now, in the second place, the
second question is, what comfort do God's children have in the
times of afflictions? Now, it's always a great comfort
to have loving friends, to have brothers and sisters, and Lazarus,
of course, he had two devoted sisters, and they cared for him,
I'm sure, in so many ways. And true and loving friends are
a great blessing. They're a great blessing from
the Lord. They really are. And what a wonderful thing it
is to have those around that will be a friend to you in the
time of your affliction. But we have a greater source
of comfort than the best of friends can provide on this earth. We
have a greater source of comfort. We're comforted by the fact that
the Lord himself has been there. Now, I want you to notice in
Matthew 8 and verse 17. Now, if you want to turn, you
can, or if you want to listen, I'll read it to you. Here it
is. Matthew 8, 17. I say, the Lord has been where
you are. That it might be fulfilled which
was spoken by Isaiah the prophet saying himself. took our infirmities
and bear our sickness. He took our infirmities and he
bear our sickness. Now that's what the Word of God
says. Now this means, now this simply means this, that all of
our sicknesses and infirmities by the fact that Jesus bore them
and that Jesus bore them to the cross that these sicknesses and
infirmities are sanctified for our good so that we can say we
are not sick. Even though we are sick in the
flesh, we are not sick. The world must admit that they're
sick, but the children of God are not really sick because Jesus
has borne their afflictions and bore their infirmities. Now that
doesn't mean you're not going to feel some pain. The Lord Jesus
felt pain. He felt pain. Now believer, your
Lord will never call upon you to walk in any path that He's
not already walked. He felt pain. And be assured
that He now sympathizes with your pain. He knows what pain
is. But now listen, we have a sympathizing
high priest in heaven who has touched, the Bible says, with
the feelings of our infirmities. And he's both able to comfort
and to help us and to succor us in the time of our affliction. And then our Lord also has assured
us of his presence in the midst of our deepest distress. His
word is this in Isaiah 43 and verse 1. His word is, fear not, for I
have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name,
thou art mine. And when thou passest through
the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. So you see that we have two things
here. The comfort that we have is,
number one, is that the Lord has bore our infirmities and
our sicknesses and thus has sanctified them to us and for our good. And number two, we have the fact
that he said I'll be with you. I'll be with you and when you're
going through the floods and when you're passing through the
waters, He said I'll be with you and they will not overflow
you. Now in the midst of your sickness,
the Lord Himself will be a nurse to help you and to make your
bed comfortable. If you want, you can turn with
me to the Psalms, Psalm 41 and verse 13. Psalm 41, 13. where the scripture says this.
I think I'll just back up and read beginning with verse 1 here. Blessed is he... No, that's verses
1 through 3 I want to read, not verse 13. Blessed is he that
considereth the poor. The Lord will deliver him in
time of trouble. The Lord will preserve him and
keep him alive, and he shall be blessed upon the earth, and
thou wilt not deliver him unto the will of his enemies. The
Lord will strengthen him upon the bed of languishing thou will
make all his bed in his sickness. Now then that just simply means
that God's going to be your nurse. when you get sick. Now isn't
that a wonderful, comforting thing? That God is the nurse
that will make your bed comfortable when you're sick and when you're
afflicted. And we do have this comfort that
our sickness is not unto death. Now brother, you can get sick
and die. Like Lazarus, we may do that. But like Lazarus, we
most certainly will live again. Our sickness is not unto an eternal
death. It is that we go to sleep in
Jesus. We go to sleep in the Lord Jesus. Okay, now then, the third question
is this. What are the benefits of sickness
to God's people, God's believing people here below? We've described
some of our comforts. Now, what is the benefit? How
does it work out and translate in our lives here to benefit? Well, let me show you some of
these benefits. Number one, sickness causes us
to pray. Now it's regrettable that we
do not do much praying until we have a desperate need arises
in our hearts for it. Now you could read in Isaiah
chapter 38 verses 1 through 5 about Hezekiah and the word came to
him that he was going to die from the prophet Isaiah and Isaiah
he cried to the Lord and the Bible says he turned his face
to the wall and he prayed and the Lord delivered him and added
15 years to his life. And so he prayed. And so one
of the things, one of the benefits of sickness is that it will bring
us to seek the Lord. It will cause us to pray. And the next thing is this, that
by sickness I am made to see the vanity of all earthly things. Now none of these things for
which men labor and spend their strength here in this world are
of any real value. Houses and lands and fame and
financial security, education, these things will afford very
little comfort to the sick and the dying man. You remember that
rich fool, that farmer who had much goods. And he had his barns
filled and so he said I'm gonna tear down my barns, I'm gonna
build bigger ones. And he had said he had much goods
laid up for many days. And the Lord said to him that
evening, he said, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
required of thee, and then whose shall all these things be? So
you see that there were not any comfort to him in that hour when
he heard that word from the Lord. When God said, Thou fool, this
night thy soul is required of you. There wasn't any comfort
in all them barns and everything that he had. And so it is true.
We learn the vanity of all earthly things when we get sick, when
we get sick unto death. Now, number three, by sickness
I'm made aware that sooner or later every earthly tie must
be broken. Sooner or later every earthly
tie must be broken. And so We find that death is
the greatest fact in life. Death is the greatest fact in
life. The old German proverb is that
man begins to die before he's ever born. He begins to die as
soon as he's conceived in the womb. And there is no sure thing
in life but death. That's the only thing sure is
that you're going to die. That sooner or later every earthly
tie must be broken. It must be broken. He that begins
to live begins to die. Now then soon you will have to
let go then and loosen your grip on all earthly things. That's
bound to come And so that's one of the benefits of sickness is
it helps us to come to that place where we see that all earthly
ties are only, that they're only temporary and that soon they
must be broken. Now the next thing is that by
sickness I'm made to see the shortness of time or the brevity
of time. My days are numbered. The night
will soon come when no more work can be done. when my last days
are spent. The sand has run through the
hourglass. If I'm to do anything for the
furtherance of the gospel and for the kingdom of Christ or
for the glory of God, it must be done now. It must be done
today. While it is day, for the night
cometh when no man can work. And sickness causes you to see
how that you need to redeem the time. How short your days are. And they can be gone just like
that, like a mist or a vapor that appears for a little time
and then it just vanishes away. And number five, I think that
by sickness I'm made more sympathetic toward my suffering brethren. In Galatians 6 and 2 it says,
bear ye one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. And then in Hebrews 13 it talks
about remembering those that are in bonds as being in bonds
with them. As those that suffer affliction
as being afflicted with them. Because we're in this body and
we can feel what others are feeling. We have the ability to do that.
And then you could read Matthew 25 verse 36 through 40 I don't
have time to do it this morning and it would help you to also
to see there how that the people of God how they're sympathetic
and visit those that are sick and so on. Now in number six
and ultimately I will come to see in sickness and in affliction
a very clear way in a very clear way in bodily pain and suffering
and the taking down of this tent I'll come to the place where
I see clearly that Christ is all. That Jesus Christ is all. Truly, that He's all my hope,
He's all my acceptance before God, He's all my strength, He's
all my righteousness, He's all my life, and He's all my desire. And when you come down to where
you're facing eternity, and you're facing death, and you know the
hour is coming, when your life's going to be over, Christ will
appear. He will appear as being all.
I like this old song, the words of this old song. You bear with
me as I read them to you. The songwriter said, I entered
once a home of care, for age and penury were there, yet peace
and joy with all. I asked the lonely mother whence
her helpless widowhood's defense. She told me Christ was all. I stood beside a dying bed where
lay a child with aching head, waiting for Jesus' call. I marked his smile to a sweet
as may, and as his spirit passed away, he whispered, Christ is
all. I saw the martyr at the stake.
The flames could not his courage shake, nor death his soul appall. I asked him whence his strength
was given. He looked triumphantly to heaven
and answered, Christ is all. I dreamed that hoary time had
fled, and earth and sea gave up their dead. A fire dissolved
this ball. I saw the church's ransom throng,
I heard the burden of their song, t'was Christ is all in all. Then come to Christ, O come today,
the Father, Son, and Spirit say, the bride repeats the call, for
He will cleanse your guilty stains, His love will soothe your weary
pains, for Christ is all in all. And so, beloved, in sickness,
We come to that place where Christ, now today there may be some things
that intrude. And we may have self-righteousness
may say, well, I need to get some of the attention. And there
may be other things that intrude that are antichrist. But when
you face death, and when you look at eternity, and when you
know that your life is over, Christ will be all to your soul. That'll be the only thing you
can find any comfort in and you rest in. Now the last question
and hurriedly we're done. What are we to learn from these
things that we've talked about here this morning? Well, child
of God, number one, you learn to take your case to the Lord.
Take all your cares to the Lord. Learn from the very outset to
cast all your care upon the Lord because He does care for you.
1 Peter 5 and 7 tells us that. So learn to take everything to
the Lord and cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain
you and practice that in your life. And then when you get sick,
it won't be any burden just to cast that affliction and sickness
upon the Lord. Number two, we learn to submit
to the hand of God's providence, leaving our cares to the wisdom
and the goodness of God, and say with old Job, though he slay
me, yet will I trust him. And whatever comes, I'll just
simply leave my case to the wisdom and the goodness of Almighty
God. Number three, do not hold anything
here too dear. Lazarus died. He did die and
everything else, everybody else is going to die too. We've talked
about that. Now if God calls your dearest
loved one home, do not try to hold to that loved one. Do not
murmur and complain when God takes them because the Lord desires
to have them and that is best. When God takes His own to depart
and be with Christ, Paul said in Philippians, is far better.
And then in John 17 and 24, Father, I will that they also whom thou
hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my
glory, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
So when God takes our loved ones, let's be submissive, knowing
that this is best. And we must all learn to live,
I think, in the immediate prospect of eternity. and not keep putting
it off in our minds. There are some people that just
automatically anytime death, the subject of death is brought
up or eternity is brought up, immediately they postpone it.
They put it away, put it away from them, keep pushing it away.
But we've got to learn to live in the immediate prospect of
eternity. Now, I think learn lastly, that
like all other days, whether they be days of joy or days of
sorrow, like all other days, our days of sickness and sorrow
and pain will soon be over. Days will end. They will end. And whatever those days hold,
they're going to end. But our Lord is coming. He's
coming back to take us to a home that knows no sickness, no pain,
no death, nor sorrow in Revelation 21 and verse 4. Listen to it
as I read that verse. And God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow,
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former
things are passed away. That's what it says. And so the day of your suffering
is going to end. Child of God, seek to honor Christ
always in your time of sickness. He is honored by the faith and
the patience and the submission and the love of his suffering
children. The Lord is honored by it. Walk
by faith in his fellowship and communion while you're in good
health and when you're sick, it'll not be lacking. It'll be
there. You say, well preacher, I mean,
here I am, I've got to deal with this thing now, and I've got
to try to be submissive now, and I've got to try to fellowship
with the Lord in my affliction now. No, no, no, wait a minute. What were you doing when you
were in hell? When you had your strength? Weren't you submissive
then? Wasn't you practicing this? I'm
telling you, whatever you, whatever you would like for to be present
when you're afflicted and dying, you better start practicing when
you're in health. And if you'll do that, David,
you know what Paul said? He said, I die daily. That's
what he said. I've been dying every day. He said, I just die
a little bit. I practice it. I get up every
morning and practice dying. That's what he said. And that's
what you've got to do. And whenever you practice it,
when you're in health, then I think that it'll not be lacking. The
grace, the faith, the patience, the submission will be there
when the hour comes. I believe that. I believe with
all my heart. We must live the immediate prospect
of eternity and live like we believe the Word of God. And
don't keep ignoring and putting off things that are perfectly
obvious. We have some suffering children
of God right in our very midst. We have some that desperately
need the hand of God right now to relieve them and to help them.
And these things that I preached to you this morning, I preached
them simply because I believe that God can use this message
to comfort your hearts and to help you and to prepare you because
I know that every one of us are very soon going to be in the
same place that some others are going to be in affliction and
we just simply need to be prepared and may the Lord be pleased to
so bless us that we'll be so strong in faith that we'll be
able to say well I'm not sick I'm not sick God's hand is upon
me and God's blessing is upon me. This is a sanctified affliction
and it's just going to bring me good. That's all it's going
to do. It's going to bring me good. And I'm not being, you
know, I'm not ignoring the reality when I say that. I'm facing reality
and telling you this is the only way of dealing with it. The only
way. Father, thank you for your word,
your truth, the privilege of preaching today, and I ask that
your people might be helped and edified and strengthened, encouraged
by what we have to say. God help us all, we ask in Jesus'
name, amen.