John chapter 11, and let's read
the whole incident, or at least most of it. It continues in chapter
12. But let me read maybe through the first 48 verses of John chapter
11. 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 Jesus loved Martha and her
sister and Lazarus. When he had heard, therefore,
that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place
where he was. Then after that he saith unto
his disciples, Let us go unto Judea again. His disciples said
unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and
goest thou hither again? And Jesus answered, Are there
not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he
stumbleth not. because he seeth the light of
this world. But if a man walk in the night,
he stumbles, because there is no light in him. These things
said he, and after that he said unto them, Our friend Lazarus
sleepeth, but I go that I might awake him out of sleep. Then
said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he doth well. Howbeit Jesus spake not of his
death, Howbeit Jesus spake of his death, but they thought that
he spake of taking of rest and sleep. Then said Jesus unto them
plainly, Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that
I was not there to the intent that you might believe. Nevertheless,
let us go unto him. Then said Thomas, which is called
Didymus, unto his disciples. fellow disciples, let us go also
that we may die with him. Then when Jesus came, he found
that he had been laid in the grave four days already. Now
Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about fifteen forlongs, around
two miles, and many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort
them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard
that Jesus was coming, went and met him. But Mary sat still in
the house. Then said Martha unto Jesus,
Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. But
I know that even now, whatsoever thou shalt ask of God, God will
give it thee. Jesus said unto her, Thy brother
shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know
that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He
that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest
thou this? She said unto him, Lord, yea,
I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should
come into the world. And when she had so said, she
went her way, and called Mary her sister, secretly saying,
The Master is come, and calleth for thee. And as soon as she
heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him. Now Jesus
was not yet coming to town, but was in that place where Martha
met him. The Jews then, which were with
her in the house, and comforted her, when they saw Mary, that
she rose up hastily, and went out. They followed her, saying,
She goes to the grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come
where Jesus was, and she saw him, she fell down at his feet,
saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had
not died. When Jesus therefore saw her
weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned
in the spirit and was troubled, and said, Where have you laid
him? And they said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. Then said the Jews, Behold, how
he loved him! And some of them said, Could
not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, have caused
that even this man should not have died? Jesus therefore again,
groaning in himself, comes to the grave. It was a cave, and
a stone lay upon it. And Jesus said, Take ye away
the stone. Martha, the sister of him that
was dead, said unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for
he hath been dead four days. Jesus said unto her, Said I not
unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the
glory of God? Then they took away the stone
from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up
his eyes and said, Father, I thank you that you hear me always,
that you have heard me. And I knew that thou hearest
me always. But because of the people which
stand by, I said it, that they might believe that thou hast
sent me. And when he thus had spoken,
he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead
came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face
was bound about with a napkin. And Jesus said unto them, Loose
him, and let him go. Then many of the Jews which came
to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on
him. But some of them went their way
to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done. Then
gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council, and
said, What do we? For this man doeth many miracles.
If we let him alone, all men will believe on him, and the
Romans will come and take away our place and our nation. That's somewhat of a lengthy
reading, but I wanted to read the whole incident to you. And
I want to concentrate on a couple of particular things in this
incident that you and I, I think, can learn from this morning.
The Bible says, Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written
for our learning. And I want us to learn some things
this morning from this incident that took place. And to get right
into it, the first thing that I want to learn something about
this morning is prayer. It's prayer. We find it there in the verse
where they said, Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick. That was
a short prayer. It was to the point. In verse
3, his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, he whom thou lovest
is sick. What is the first thing we can
learn about this? We learn what we see in so many
places in other passages of Scripture. The Lord's people are a praying
people. They are praying people. They
pray when trouble comes. They pray when trouble is gone. their praying people. You know
our way begins, this heavenly way to the celestial city begins
by praying. A prayerless man is a graceless
man because our journey begins with prayer. All who call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Take with you words and
turn to the Lord and say unto Lord, take away all iniquity. We begin by praying. One of the
things that was peculiar about Saul of Tarsus, after the Lord
had struck him down upon the Damascus road, the Lord said
to Ananias, Behold, he prayeth. And I tell you, that's a characteristic
of every child of God. You don't pray, you're not saved. You don't pray, you have no life. Prayer is the breathing out of
the soul to God. And a man might as well live
without breathing as be saved without praying. They sent unto
the Lord, Lord, He whom Thou lovest is sick. But boy, when
we come to prayer, the subject of prayer, I tell you, prayer
is a mysterious thing. And the Lord answers in different
ways. Sometimes he answers immediately. There are people that come to
the Lord like that leopard and say, Lord, if you will, you can
make me clean. And the Lord said immediately,
I will. There was a man who was blind
and he was a beggar and sat by the highway side. He began to
call out for mercy, and the Lord said, What will you that I should
do for you? And he said, Lord, that I might
receive my sight. And he said, You've got it. Boy,
sometimes he answers so quickly. There's a very, very peculiar
verse of Scripture in Isaiah chapter 65. And listen to what
this says. And it shall come to pass that
before they call, I will answer them. Now, that's amazing. before
they speak a word in prayer. This shows us the Lord knows
the desires of a person's heart. He knows the needs of the soul,
and He answers because He can see that. But listen to the last
portion of that verse, Isaiah 65 and 24. And while they are
yet speaking, I will hear them. That's quick, isn't it? That's
how quick the Lord answers prayer. But sometimes, as we learn from
this passage, and we'll see more from it in just a few minutes,
sometimes prayer is delayed. Sometimes he delays an answer
for his own reasons, his own purposes, but he doesn't always
answer quickly. Sometimes he delays his answer. Jacob wrestled all night with
the Lord before he got an answer. The Apostle Paul prayed three
times about the thorn in the flesh before the Lord answered
him. And Elijah prayed seven times about rain that would come,
knowing the Lord had promised it would rain. And yet he prayed
seven times before the Lord finally sent abundance of rain. If you've
been seeking the Lord about something, an issue, and He's not yet answered,
don't be discouraged. Sometimes He delays and answers
to His prayer. Thirdly, sometimes the Lord answers
quickly, sometimes He delays, and sometimes He says yes to
our prayer. Hannah prayed and asked for a
child. Lord, would You give me a child?
Yes, I will. Yes, I will. And he gave her
a child. Jabez prayed that the Lord would
bless him and enlarge his borders and keep him from sin, that it
would not be grievous to him. Lord, would you do that for me?
Would you bless me? Yes, I will. And the Lord blessed
him. You find answers to prayers in
the positive all the way through the scriptures. The Lord can
say yes to a person's prayer. And He often does. But here's
something we parents can learn from the Lord. He sometimes says
no. It's difficult for us to say
no to our children. We want to give them everything,
sometimes whether it's good for them or not. We just can't bring
ourselves to say no. The Lord can. And boy, sometimes
He does. And often as you read the Scriptures,
you find in prayer where the Lord says no, no. I remember Moses wanting to go
to the land of promise so very, very much. And he begged the
Lord to let him go see the land. And the Lord said, No. And don't
you ask me any more, he said. That's a paranoid. Don't you
ask me about this any more. The Gadarean said, Lord, can
I be with you? Can I go with you? You have saved
me. And I want to be with you now.
I want to look into your eyes. I want to hear your voice. I
want to see your work. Lord, can I go with you? And
the Lord said, No. You go tell people what great
things that I've done for you. Paul had that thorn in the flesh,
and he said, Lord, will you remove this thorn? And the Lord said,
No. No, I won't. Prayer is amazing. The way the Lord deals with us
in prayer is amazing. And notice this request here
by these two sisters, Martha and Mary, in verse 3. Notice
their prayer. It wasn't a selfish prayer. It
wasn't for them personally. They weren't sick. They weren't
dying. But it was for somebody else.
It was for their brother, Lazarus, that he might be healed of the
Lord. And notice something else here. It wasn't for their glory
that they were asking this. It was for Christ's love's sake. He whom thou lovest is sick. That was one of their pleas.
Because you love Him. Would you do it for that reason?
It wasn't because of their devotion to Him or their love for Him. But it was for His glory and
His love's sake. And here in verse 21, we're told
something else about their prayer. We find out here it was a prayer
of faith. They had no doubt in their hearts
if the Lord would, He could heal their brother. Lord, if you had
been here, our brother would not have died. Now that was a
prayer of faith, wasn't it? So everything about this prayer
was good. And in verse 4, we find out something
here that they didn't know, but you and I now know it. Their
prayer was heard. When Jesus heard that Lazarus
was sick. So boy, here's a mysterious thing.
That they prayed for your love's sake. They prayed in faith. And He heard their prayer, but
He didn't answer, did He? He didn't answer. We're told
here in verse 6, as a matter of fact, He deliberately delayed
His answer. When they told Him, He whom thou
loveth is sick, He purposely stayed two more days where He
was. And then it took Him two days
to get there. Four days this request was delayed. I imagine, and it seems to indicate
here, their hearts were very burdened about this. I imagine
they were somewhat anxious about it too, don't you? Both of these
sisters made the very same statements when they first saw him. Both
of them said the very same thing. I wonder if they hadn't been
talking about it. Lord, if you had been here. My brother would
not have died. Now, there was no animosity.
I'm not saying that. But I think there was some confusion
about why he wasn't there. Why their request wasn't answered. Four days after the burial, and
we read here they were still weeping. They were still unable
to get on with their lives. And all these friends and their
loved ones had come together. trying to comfort them. And the
first words these sisters said that tells us a lot about how
they were feeling, Lord, if you had heard us, if you had come
in a timely manner, if you had answered our prayer, our brother
would not have died. If you and I have no need to
be heard of God, If we don't pray in faith, and if we don't
hope that He'll answer for His love's sake, then it don't matter
if we're here or not. But when we pray like these sisters
pray, when we pray in faith, and when we're in trouble like
they're in trouble, and then our prayer is delayed The answer
to it, I tell you, that can be a burden on one's heart. Sometimes we just pray, and it
really don't matter, does it? We're not sincere in our prayer
anyway. But boy, they were. And there's times in our life
when we are. And when we're shut up, and our
only help comes from Him, and He delays an answer, boy, that
can be a burden to our hearts. That can be a burden to our hearts.
Their hope of the Lord answering their prayer was dashed. Their fear was realized because
now it was too late. If you had been here, we hoped,
we prayed in hope. Boy, I tell you, when you hope,
here's something about hope. Naturally speaking, if you're
hoping for something and it doesn't come to pass, that's a discouraging
thing when your hopes are dashed. The Bible said hope deferred
makes the heart sick. And sometimes it's better, naturally
speaking, not even to have any hope, than to have hope and have
it dashed. And that's what had happened
to them in this prayer. We prayed and we waited and we
hoped. But you didn't answer. And now
it's too late. It's too late. Oh, I bet you the enemy afflicted
their hearts, don't you? Where's your God now? He could
be here. Where is He? You're in desperate
need. Where's your God now? Listen
to how David prays about this very same thing in Psalms 42.
I will say unto God my rock, why have you forgotten me? Why
have you forgotten me? Our brother Lazarus is sick.
Why have you forgotten us? He's been dead four days now. Why have you forgotten us? David
said, why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy
as with a sword in my bones? My enemy reproaches me while
they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? If you've never experienced this,
you don't know what I'm talking about. But boy, if you've been
in trouble, and your only help didn't show
up, he delayed an answer, boy, I tell you, that's a burden.
Because the devil steps in. And there's where he begins to
question. Things have gone bad, and now things have got worse,
and we prayed and we waited, our hearts are broken, our tears
have been our meat, and the Lord whom we knew was able was not
here. Was not here. Sometimes you and I take comfort
in these words Well, it wasn't His will. It just wasn't His
will. And there's comfort there. And
sometimes we have to rely upon that, don't we? Job said the
Lord gives and the Lord takes away. There's some help there.
But let our case become desperate. And let the enemy come in like
a flood. And buddy, then it will take
the exercise of faith to keep your heart from sinking from
the weight of this. We'll have to exercise our faith
upon the love and goodness of Jesus Christ and submission to
God's will. Well, prayer is a wonderful thing. It's the breathing out of the
soul to your God, to your Creator, to your Redeemer, to your Savior,
to your Friend, to your Helper, to your Strength. And when those
prayers are delayed, boy, it can sank the soul. It can sank
the soul. Lord, he whom thou lovest is
sick. Lord, if. Boy, see the weight? See the weight in that word?
If. If. These ifs can kill us, can't
they? If. If. If. You have been here. Lesson about prayer. It's a vital
thing. It's a precious thing. Boy, I
tell you, sometimes, sometimes the way the Lord deals with us
in prayer can be a heart-wrenching thing. I'll say just a little bit more
about this in just a minute, but let's learn something else
from this passage. Not only something about prayer,
but let's learn something of the love of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our love to Him and His love
to us. And the first thing we see here
is this. Our love for the Lord Jesus Christ and our devotion
to Him will not secure us from the terrible trials and the heartbreak
of this life. I don't know of a family in the
Bible that loved the Lord and was devoted to Him any more than
this family. The Lord used this as a place
of refuge. It was just two miles or so from
Jerusalem, and when he got into conflict with those Pharisees
and those scribes, he often went here, a place to hide out from
the battle. We find Martha often feeding
him, cooking a meal for him. Mary sat in his feet hearing
his words. This family loved him. They were
devoted to him. But that love and devotion did
not secure them from this awful trial that came upon them. You and I, boy, we can have trouble. And the worst trouble sometimes
we can have is family trouble. Family trouble. Trouble in the
family. That's what comes to them. Trouble
in the family. The worst kind of trouble. You've
got trouble on your job. You can go home and get away
from it, at least for a few hours. Even trouble in the church and
conflict in the church. You can get away from that. The
neighbors. Trouble with some friends. But boy, when trouble
comes to the family, that's trouble indeed, isn't it? Old David,
bless his heart, he went out and fought and cut people's head
off. Come home soaked in the blood of the enemy. Almost got
himself killed different times. But you never see him crying.
You don't see him in too much fear about it all. But when trouble
come to his house, boy, you see him crying about
it then. You see him covering his head and going up Mount Olive
barefooted, crying as he went. You see him standing over a dead
son's grave, crying, Oh, would to God I had died instead of
you. Family troubles. As you read
the Old Testament, boy, you see family troubles. It's trouble
indeed. There's a little article by Moose we
put in the bulletin this week. He was talking about reading
the scriptures to our children. Brother David spoke about our
houses, our homes should be little temples of worship. The Lord
help us to mend our ways. Help us in our families to live
devoted, to love our Lord and to teach our children from His
Word. But I tell you, our love and
our devotion to Him will not secure our suffering, the trials. of this life. It didn't this
family, and it won't ours. If we think it will, if you think it will, you're
going to be disappointed. And we're going to be saying
with Newton, do I love the Lord or no? Am I His or am I not? I've said I've loved Him. I believe
that I'm His. But that being so, why this dreadful
trial? Why has it come if I truly love
Him? If I've been devoted for Him?
Because your love for Him and your devotion for Him does not
secure you from these hard afflictions and these trials. They often
come to those who love Him most and are most devoted to Him. Second thing, learn this from
this passage here, that Christ's love to his own will not secure
them. Christ's love for them will not
secure them from the heartaches and the heartbreak of this life. Sometimes his loved ones are
the ones that are mostly exposed to the slaughter. were counted
as sheep to the slaughter. But Christ loves me. Yes? Does that secure you from heartbreak?
From suffering? John Bunyan in his little book,
Grace Abounded to the Chief of Sinners, had seven abominations
that he found in his heart to that very day. Now, I can see,
boy, John Bunyan getting average Baptist pulpit and say, I want
to preach this morning on seven abominations I see in my heart. I doubt seriously, brothers and
sisters, if he'd get through the first one. We're living in a day where nobody
hardly knows the plague of their heart. And he said one of those seven
abominations is this, forgetting Christ's love for my soul. That's abomination. Yeah, that's
abomination. One of the abominations that
I've found in my heart, and maybe you can relate to this, doubting
Christ's love for my soul in times of my trials. Does He still love me? My experience If I'm convinced
that Christ loves me, if I live in the faith of that, my darkest
track is brightened. But when I lose the knowledge
of that and the discernment of Christ's love, my brightest day
is darkened. How do we judge of the love of
the Lord Jesus Christ? We can't judge of it by our discernment. If we do that, we're going to
be in a mess, aren't we? If we say, I know He loves me
because I discerned His love for me. Well, what are we going
to do when we get in a severe trial like this? And we have our senses warped
And our discernment darkened. How then do we judge of Christ's
love? How can we judge of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ
to us? Well, listen to this. We start
first right here. We start first discerning the
love of Jesus Christ because of what He's done for us. I'm talking about personally.
This comes down to personal. We talk about a personal relationship. He loved me. Where do we first
discern the love of Christ to our souls? It's when He saves
us. That's where we see it. Paul
made that wonderful statement in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse
4. But God, but God in Christ, who
is rich in mercy for His great love, Wherewith He loved us,
even when we were dead in sin, hath quickened us together with
Christ." Where do we first discern the love of Christ for us? When
He quickens us from our dead state of sin. My, my, what is
it to be dead in sin? All that that entails, being
enemies of God in our mind, fallen in with the devil, fulfilling
the lust of the flesh and the desires of our mind. And when
we were in that deplorable state, in that awful condition, He gave
us life. He quickened us from that death. And why did He do that? The Apostle
attributes it to this, His love. His great love wherewith He loved
us. Let a man say what he will about
the love of Christ. You can't know the love of Christ
apart from the revelation of it. Now, you can't. Talk about it all we will, but
it has to be revealed. And it's first revealed to us
when He quickens us, when He saves us. If He hasn't saved
us, we can't a bit more believe in the love of Christ than devils. I love the Lord because, because,
because of what? Because He has delivered my soul
from death, my feet from falling, my eyes from tears. He saved
me. He has given me life. He has
had mercy upon me. He has forgiven all my sins. He has raised me from that spiritual
grave of death. Why? Because He loved me. He loved me. And I tell you,
you won't find it attributed to anything else. There's the
root cause of it. For His great love was with us. He loved us. Love. And being convinced of the love
of Christ, because He has saved us and given us life, then we
can look in both directions. We can look backwards. What did it cost Him to save
me? He saved me. He loved me and
He saved me. What did it cost Him to save
me? That's when we go to the cross,
isn't it? That's what it cost Him. It cost Him the cross. What did it cost Him to forgive
me? His blood. What did it cost Him
to give me His life? His own life laid down. What
did it cost Him to reconcile me to the Father? His being separated
from the Father. What did it cost Him to comfort
me? His enduring torment in His own
soul and body. What did it cost Him to give
me His righteousness for Him to be made sin? What will it
cost Him to take me to heaven for Him to burn my hell? And why did He do that? Love. He loved me, blasphemous me,
injurious me, chief of sinners me, He loved me and gave Himself
for me." But you know something, brothers and sisters, here is
the tough point about the love of Christ. When we go forward
with it, you go backwards. And there you find everything
He's done for you to save you. Upon the cross, infusing you
before the world ever was. And you can read there that it's
all attributed to His love. But in our experience going forward,
how do we know that He still loves us? I know He loved me because He
quickened me. I know that. He saved me. He loved me. I know it. But Willie
always loved me. I mean, it's been five years.
It's been ten years. It's been twenty-five years.
It's been thirty years. And I've fallen on some hard
time. Man, I see now corruption in
my heart that I never saw before. I look and I see failings. I
see fallings. More than I could ever dream.
And in my own eyes, I'm getting worse and worse and worse. And now there's this matter of
prayer. I'm in trouble. I'm in real trouble. And I've prayed, and He's not
heard me. He's not answered me. Does He
still love me? A little bit more difficult,
isn't it? You're going to be able to judge of His love then
by what you feel and can discern about it? Oh, you're in trouble
if you are there. There's where we go rest upon
His Word, is it not? Our problem is this. We're constantly
comparing Christ's love to our love. We're constantly comparing
His love to mere human love. All we see around us is failing
love. We know nothing in our experience
of unfailing love. You see a man and his wife hugging
on each other, showing affection one for another, getting along
so well, and the next thing you know, They have thawed for divorce,
can't stand each other and go their separate ways. What happened
to their love? You say they never did love each
other. I don't say that. But that's mere human love. And it's a failing thing. The
Master said, would a mother forsake her suckling child? She might. And she has. We've seen mothers
caress their little infants and love them and care for them.
And we've seen the mother forsake them, put them out of her thoughts. Her love for them dies. And then
we look at the love of Jesus Christ, and we begin to think,
He's like that. But He's not like that. Because He is no mere human.
He is not like us. He is divine. I am the Lord. I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. I am the Lord. I am the Lord
yesterday. I am the Lord today. I am the Lord tomorrow. I never
change. Our Lord is nothing like us. He's eternally different than
we are. In His divine character, in His divine attributes, in
all of them, He cannot change. He does not love today and hate
you tomorrow. He will not let your failings
and your fallings and your doubts and your fears and your trials
change who He is. You can change my feelings towards
you. You just start ignoring me, and
you start talking about me, giving me the cold shoulder, and just
let me know when it finally gets home to my heart, you don't want
to have anything to do with me, and I assure you, my affections
towards you will change. Because that's the way I am.
But He's not like us. He's not like us. But I tell
you what, it's very difficult to distinguish that when you're
in the midst of a trial. It's difficult. And our souls
is going to sink with doubt if we don't remember Jesus Christ
loved me yesterday when I was well. He
loves me today when I'm sick. And he'll love me tomorrow when
I'm dead. He whom thou loveth is sick. You still love him? They had a good handle upon the
love of Christ, didn't they? I don't know if some doubts entered
in finally or not, but I tell you, they had a good handle on
it. How do you know that he still loves him now that he's sick?
Because he loved him when he was well. And if He loved him when he was
well, He loves him when he's sick. And He'll love him when
he's dead. Because that's the love of Jesus
Christ. It's not like ours. And boy, if we can get a handle
on that in the midst of our trials, and when He delays His answer,
that will lighten our load. Look here in John chapter 13
in verse 1. Just over to your right, just
a couple of chapters. John chapter 13 and look in verse
1. Now therefore, the feast of the
Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should
depart out of this world unto the Father, Having loved His
own, and that's the love we're talking about, which were in
this world. Look at this. He loved them until
the end. He loved them until the end. His own. His own. They were His own. Don't forget what kind of people
his own were. And they had every reason sometimes
to believe that it would have been impossible for the Lord
to love them. He said to them one day, I want
to give you some light on what I'm going to do. I want to let
you in on a secret. They're going to betray me. I'm
going to be whipped, I'm going to be spit upon, and I'm going
to the cross, and the third day I'm going to raise again. And
Peter said, Lord, I ain't going to let it happen. And I'm going to fight to my
death to make sure you don't suffer. Did Peter say that by
himself? Why would he have said such a
thing? You know who was speaking through Peter? But this was his own, and he
loved him to the end, even when Satan was using him. I tell you, these fellows were
so proud. They got together one time, and
they were arguing with each other who was the greatest. And James and John got the idea
that We better get something settled
now before somebody else thinks about it. And they got their
mother and went to the Lord and said, Would you grant that we
should set one on your right hand and one on your left in
your kingdom? We want that favor spot. We want to let men come
up and bow to us when they bow to you. What pride! They were going through Samaria
one day, going to Jerusalem. And they stopped to get some
food. And the Lord's face was set like a flint towards Jerusalem.
And Samaritans saw Him and said, He ain't coming in here. You're Jews. You're not coming
in here. And those disciples of the Lord said, Do you want
us to call fire down from heaven and destroy these sinners? You
can do that. You have the power to do that.
You don't know what spirit you're of. His own. How stupid, how ignorant,
how proud, how self-righteous. Though everybody else forsakes
you, I'll never forsake you. But they all forsook Him. One
denied Him, and they left Him to suffer and die alone. And yet the Bible says, having
loved them, he loved them until the end. How could he do it? Because he don't love like we
love. He don't have to look at you and wait to see how you feel
about him or how you treat him and then determine you've won
his affection. His love sets upon its own bottom. His love is truly unconditional
to His own. And having loved His own, He
don't cease to love them when they get in a long valley, and
the night gets dark, and the hill gets steep, and the way
gets rough. Having loved His own, He loved
them until the end. And in conclusion, let me say
something that I don't hardly know anything about, but here
it is in our text. I can't explain it, but I can
just mention it. Sometimes the Lord delays prayer that He may reveal greater mercy,
greater glory. He tells us that here in verse
4 of our text in chapter 11. This sickness is not unto death,
but for the glory of God, that the Son of God may be glorified
thereby. And he says here in verse 40
to Martha, said, I nod unto thee, if thou shouldest believe, thou
shouldest see the glory of God. Here we find out something we
didn't know before. Why did he delay? Why wasn't
he there? Oh, He had something more glorious
in store for them. They didn't know it. What if He had come immediately
and healed Lazarus? Oh, they would have thanked Him.
Lord, we bless You. But everybody would have went
on about their business. He was always healing people.
And some of them didn't even appreciate it. ten lepers and they were all
healed and nine of them went on about their business. The
Lord had something greater in store for this family. By delaying
His prayer, He let them see His glory as they never could have
saw it otherwise. And sometimes the Lord does us
that way, brothers and sisters, by delaying our prayer, our answer,
Boy, He shuts us up. He brings us to the point that
we've got no way out, and our hearts are broken, and our tears
are our meat. But by bringing us there, He
reveals Himself in such a way that it blesses our hearts. Lazarus
is sick. You come heal him now. They'll
thank you for it. Lazarus had just died, but he
still warned. If the Lord would just show up
now, he could do something now. Now we've buried him. Now he's
stinking. What can he do now? Can he do
anything now? Yes. Now you're going to see
his glory as you never saw it before. When I began to seek the Lord,
I thought, I really thought, now this may not be your experience,
but it was mine. I had tried to save myself for
so long and no doubt grieved the Lord with my self-righteousness
in trying to save myself. And boy, I tell you, when I turned
to Him and began to seek Him, I thought He was never going
to hear me. I prayed until I had no more prayers to pray. I couldn't
think of anything else to say. I'd shed tears till my tears
were dry. I couldn't even cry anymore.
All I could do is just lay there. Just lay before Him. I couldn't
sleep. So I got out of bed, and there
I laid in the early morning. Could He do anything for me now?
Well, that's where He brought me to. Utterly dependent upon
Him to save me. My prayers wouldn't do it. The
flooring of my tears wouldn't do it. And boy, looking back
now, I'm so thankful. He brought me there and made
me lay, made me wake, made me groan, made me doubt, made me
fear. And then, and then, He saved
me. He revealed His salvation. He
revealed His love to my soul. You may be struggling this morning.
Your tears may be flowing. Your heart may be grieved. But wait on Him. His love for you hasn't changed. It hasn't diminished. He loves
you now as He's always loved you. By His delaying that answer
to your prayer, He may be ready. to show you what you could never
see before, His glory. God bless His Word. Let's pray.