In John chapter 11, we find the
Lord Jesus Christ coming to the grave of His departed friend,
Lazarus, who had died. And the Lord commanded, the Lord
commanded, Lazarus, come forth. He did not invite Lazarus. If He were so inclined, Lazarus,
come forth. That wouldn't have worked at
all. Lazarus couldn't respond to the invitation. But the Lord
walked in front of that tomb and commanded Lazarus to come
forth. I'm entitling the message from
the words that the Lord declares in verse 43, Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus, come forth. Lazarus didn't have an option.
It wasn't optional whether he would or would not, he did. command
of God, Lazarus came forth. Now in the raising of Lazarus
from the grave we see in this the glorious, almighty, unlimited,
sovereign power of the Lord Jesus Christ over all things, death
and Death was not an obstacle to the Lord's power, to the Lord's
glory. He said, all power is given unto
me in heaven and earth. He speaks and the wind stops.
He speaks and the waves stop. He speaks and the dead come forth. You know, in scripture, He raised
three people from the dead. Lazarus being one of them. The
widow's son, remember he walked out and touched that coffin?
Raised that young man from the dead. And then the father, or
Jairus' daughter, who was also dead, the Lord raised up her. And now we see the Lord raising
up Lazarus. But the Lord Jesus Christ, having
all power, all authority, nothing can hinder nothing. I put emphasis
upon the word nothing, can hinder His will. He doeth in heaven
and in earth, He doeth according to His will, and none can stay
His hand, or none can say unto Him, Lord God, what doest thou?
None can hinder His will, none can hinder His way, He's gonna
have His way. His way and His will will be
done. Nothing can hinder His command
when He speaks. He speaks as God. When He speaks,
He speaks with absolute authority only as God can. Even while He
is incarnate as the God-man mediator. A real man, one among men, he
never stopped being God. You remember they said of him
when they came to arrest him, and then those officers came
back without him, without a prisoner, they said, never man spake like
that man. You see, he speaks with all authority
and power. At the end of the Sermon on the
Mount, Those who heard him said, he speaks not like the Pharisees
and the scribes. He speaks with all authority
and power. No man speaks like this man.
You see, this man is no ordinary man. This man is God Almighty
incarnate. He speaks and it is done. He
commands and it stands fast. Psalm 33 says that. For he spake,
and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. His will, His way, His purpose
will be accomplished. But not only in the raising of
Lazarus from the dead, we see a picture of our spiritual resurrection
being raised from being dead in trespasses and in sins. You
remember Ephesians 2.1? You hath he quickened who were
dead. dead in trespasses and in sin. But also in the raising up of
Lazarus, we see a picture of our physical resurrection at
the last day. When the Lord comes back, there
will be a glorious general resurrection. Some unto life, some unto the
eternal condemnation. Turn back over here to John chapter
5. We see both things, our spiritual resurrection and our bodily resurrection
in John chapter 5. And Lazarus is a picture of both.
In John chapter 5, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth
my word and believeth on him that sent me has everlasting
life, shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto
life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is when the dead, O ye dry bones,
hear the word of the Lord, When the dead shall hear the voice
of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live." Here he's talking
about our spiritual resurrection, talking about being born again,
talking about the new birth. As the Father hath life in Himself,
so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself. The Son
quickens whom He will, and hath given Him authority to execute
judgment, also because He is the Son of Man. He's the Son
of God, and He is the Son of Man. Now, it talks about there
our spiritual resurrection, and here He talks about our physical
resurrection. Marvel not at this, for the hour
is coming in which all that are in the graves shall hear His
voice. All that have ever died. Now
you think, history passed, how many people have died thousands
and thousands and thousands of years ago. Nothing but dust. They're gonna come forth with
a new body, with a body. Some, some, he says, all that
are in the grave shall hear his voice. Some shall come forth
that have done good unto the resurrection of life. Now who's
done good? Only those in Christ, through
his goodness. And that will be a resurrection
unto life and glory. And then it says, those who have
done evil, those who have rejected the gospel of God's grace, unto
the resurrection of damnation, a resurrection of condemnation.
The elect of God and every believer shall be blessed to experience
both glorious resurrection, being regenerated and made a new creature
in Christ Jesus, and then someday when you take this body of mine,
and take it out and bury it away somewhere. Waiting upon that
glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ, He's going to give me
a new body, like unto His glorious body, that will never die, that
will never sin, that will worship Him perfectly, love Him like
He ought to be loved. Now, in John chapter 11, this
morning, I want to pick out a few nuggets here from verse 38 down
through verse 44 of John chapter 11. Look at verse 38, and the
Lord Jesus again, groaning in Himself, You remember the Lord
asked, where have you laid him? And they said, Master, come and
see. And the Lord Jesus Christ stands at that grave weeping,
so much so that they said, behold, how he loved Lazarus. Evidently tears streaming down
his face. He noticeably wept and cried
before them. And then he says here, It says
here that he groaned within himself as he came to the grave. As the Lord Jesus Christ, God
Almighty, stands at the mouth of the cupboard grave of his
friend Lazarus, again we see him weeping before men, Not ashamed
to weep. And then we see him groaning
in himself. He weeps with Mary and Martha
being a real man full of compassion, full of concern. Remember the
scriptures teach us to rejoice with them that do rejoice and
then to weep with them that do weep. He weeps with Mary and
with Martha. He's concerned and has compassion,
but he also groaned within himself over their wicked unbelief, as
it says in verse 37. And some of them said, could
not this man, which opened the eyes of the blind, could not
this man have caused Lazarus that he should not have dined?
He groans over their rumblings, over their complaining. He groans
over their unbelief and their wickedness. It says in Hebrews
12, For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners
against himself. He sees the wickedness of their
heart. Remember, now this is God. He
looks right on the heart. He sees the wickedness of their
unbelief. And He groans in His Spirit. He groans in His heart. And then
verse 39, the Lord Jesus Christ again, this is not an invitation
to take away the stone. The Lord speaks with absolute
command, with absolute authority. Take ye away the stone. Now I'm
sure it was a heavy stone. It was a big stone on the mouth
of this grave that was a cave and Martha, the sister of him
that was dead, saying to him, Lord, by this time he's been
dead four days and I don't know if we want to take that stone
off. There's going to be a terrible, terrible smell that's going to
take place. The Lord could have commanded
the stone to move itself, couldn't he? He could have spoken a word.
or it could have dissolved the stone with a word. But rather
He commanded them to remove the stone." Now why did He do that? Well, he does everything that
he does on purpose. He does everything that he does
for his own glory. He never makes a mistake. He
acts with absolute wisdom and power. But let me speculate just
a minute. Why did he ask them to do it,
to expose to every one of them the vileness of Lazarus' body? He could have just said, Lazarus,
come forth and have Lazarus push the stone and there wouldn't
have been that aroma and that smell, right? But he had them
remove the stone that there might not be any question in anybody's
mind when they smelled the stench of that dead body, there was
no question in anybody's mind that that body really was dead. Graveyard dead. No one could
doubt that this was some kind of trick or some kind of gimmick.
They took the stone off and everybody standing around there said, yeah,
he dead. He did to expose to everyone
the vileness of Lazarus' smelly body that he was truly dead and
that there was no trickery involved. The Lord would not even touch
the grave, but rather he simply spoke three words, Lazarus come
forth, and the deed was done. Martha now, in verse 39, not
fully knowing, now the Lord told her, remember, back earlier,
your brother is going to rise again. And she thought, well,
you know, long term in the resurrection, yeah, there's going to be a resurrection.
And he said, no, I'm the resurrection, I'm the life. The Lord had already
told her that Lazarus would be raised up. But she doesn't fully
understand yet what's going to happen. Or she wouldn't have
made this comment. Verse 39, Martha, the sister
of him that was dead, said to him, Lord, by this time, He's
really, really stinky and he's been dead four days. Martha,
not fully knowing what is about to happen, what the Lord is about
to perform, objects to exposing the rotting flesh of her brother. Maybe she was embarrassed. Maybe
she thought He's beyond help. He's beyond
anything. Maybe she was embarrassed for
her brother to be exposed in this vile condition. But something
we know, she supposed it useless to remove the stone. How solemnly
this warns us that the natural man, his thoughts, can never
arise to the thoughts of God. He knew what he was going to
do, but Martha had no idea. You see, the will of the flesh
can never rise above its nature, which is wicked and sinful. What Lazarus was in the grave
physically, you don't have to picture what we are in Adam spiritually. before a thrice holy God, rotting,
stinking, defiled flesh." Flesh. That's what we are in God's sight.
Now, we look pretty good one to another because we all have
that same problem. Flesh. That which is born of
the flesh is flesh. But in God's sight, do you know
what He said? It's smoke in my nose. Turn over to Romans chapter
3. You remember from reading Isaiah
Chapter 1, where it says the whole head is sick, the whole
heart is faint, from the sole of the foot to the top of your
head, nothing but wounds and bruises and ugly, infected, running,
sores, before God, smelly. That's us before God. That's
us by nature. That's us as we are in Adam. Romans chapter 3, look at verse
9. He says, we have before both
proved Jews and Gentiles are all under sin. Romans 3.10, as
it is written, there is none, there is none righteous. No, not one. There is none that
understandeth. There is none that seeketh after
God. They're all together gone out
of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is
none that do us good. No, not one. Their throat is
an open grave. There it is. Smell. All we can
do is stink before God. Their throat is an open grave,
with their tongues they've used deceit. The poison of a snake
is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery
are in their ways. The way of peace they have not
known. There's no fear of God before their eyes." Boy, what
a true description that God paints of us. Now back to the text.
What Lazarus was physically is what we are spiritually before
God. By nature, in Adam, dead, dead
and rotten, dead and stinking before God. Now look at verse
40. Then the Lord said unto her,
John 11 verse 40, said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest
believe, you'd see the glory of God? Thou wouldst believe
ye'd see the glory of God." Here the Lord rebukes Martha and He
rebukes us. Martha, if you would believe,
you'd see the glory of God. Now often we say this, often
people say this, seeing is believing. Have you heard that saying? Well,
seeing is believing. I won't believe it unless I see
it. Seeing is believing. But here the Lord says, By believing,
we see the glory of God revealed in Christ Jesus. Turn back to
John chapter 6 a minute. Remember what Peter confessed? John chapter 6, verse 69. And we believe and we are sure. We believe and we are sure that
thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now, I want
you to find one other reference you might want to mark. Psalm
27, turn over there. If you would believe, you'd see
the glory of God. Believe in God, we see the glory
of God. Go over here to Psalm 27. Psalm
27. I'd fainted, verse 13, Psalm 27. I'd fainted unless I had believed
to see. It's not seeing to believe, it's
believing to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
living. Wait on the Lord and be of good courage. He shall
strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord. Now let me show you another example
of this. If you'll turn to John chapter 20. John chapter 20. You remember Thomas? After the
Lord was raised from the dead and appeared to the disciples
and Thomas was not there? Turn to John chapter 20. And
Thomas 1 of the 12, verse 24, was not with them. And the other
disciples therefore said unto him, We've seen the Lord, but
he said, except I see in his hand the print of the
nails, and put my fingers in the print of the nails, and thrust
my hand into his side. I will not believe. You see what
he's saying here? I'm going to see first and then
believe. And after eight days his disciples were within, and
Thomas with them. Then came the Lord Jesus, the
doors being shut, and stood in the midst of them, and said,
Peace be unto you. Then he saith to Thomas, Reach
hither thy finger, behold my hand, and reach hither thy hand,
and behold my side, and be not faithless, but believing. And
Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Now one more verse, look at this.
And the Lord said unto Thomas, Because thou hast seen me, thou
hast believed. But, he said, blessed are they
that have not seen, and yet believe. Believing to see the glory of
God in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Exactly what saving faith
does. He's telling Martha, forget about
the circumstances, forget about the deadness of Lazarus, fix
your heart on a true and living God and behold His glory. And this is exactly what saving
faith does. Unbelief looks within. Unbelief
looks to the circumstances. Unbelief looks to the trouble.
Saving faith looks to the Lord Jesus Christ and rejoices to
see His glory. Remember it said of Abraham,
Abraham fully believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.
He was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being persuaded
that all that God had promised he was able to perform. Unbelief
hinders our seeing the glory of God, doesn't it? Unbelief
hinders us seeing the glory of God. If you would but believe,
you'd see the glory of God, the glory of His mercy, the glory
of His love, the glory of His salvation, the glory of His grace,
the glory of His person, the glory of what He did, redeeming
us from all our sin. You see, it's unbelief which
hinders our seeing the glory of God. It's not our sinfulness,
although unbelief is sinfulness, it's not so much our unworthiness
and our ignorance, our feebleness that stands in our way, it's
unbelief. Lord, give me faith to believe
Thee, and believing to see the glory of God in the face of the
Lord Jesus Christ. I like what one man said in Scripture,
Lord, I believe, help Thou my unbelief. Now watch this. You would see the glory of God. If you would believe, you'd see
the glory of God. You'd see the glory of God. Now
look back at John 11. John 11 verse 4. You see, everything
the Lord does is for His glory. And by His grace He gives us
faith that we might see the glory of God that shines in the face
of Jesus Christ. John 11, look at verse 4. This
sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the
Son of God might be glorified. Everything He does. Now turn
back to John chapter 2. You remember this in John chapter
2. When they ran out of wine at that wedding, and He had in
place before Him six empty pots and had him put water within,
and he made the water wine. Look at verse 11, John 2, verse
11. This beginning of miracles did
Jesus in Cana, Galilee, and manifested forth his glory, and his disciples
believed on him. You see, everything he does is
for his glory, for his glory. And this sickness that came upon
Lazarus and this family, was for the glory of God. And believing,
we see the glory of God. When God reveals the gospel unto
us by His grace, we see His glory, don't we? And we say with David,
not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name do we give
glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. The glory of God
is a revelation of His excellency, His superiority. It's a visible
display of His invisible perfections. It was the glory of God which
came, which caused the Lord Jesus Christ to come here to manifest
the Father's glory. For He is the manifestation of
God's glory. It says in Hebrews chapter 1
that He is the brightness of His glory, the express image
of His person. The glory of God. Do you remember
John chapter 1 verse 14? The Word was made flesh, dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Oh, if thou wouldst
believe, you'd see the glory of God in the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ. You see how precious faith is?
Faith is a gift of God, not of work that any man should boast.
Now look at verse 41. Then they took away the stone,
just as the Lord commanded, from the place where the dead was
laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, Father,
I thank you that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest
me always, verse 42. But because of the people which
stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent
Now the first thing the Lord does when the grave is uncovered,
the first thing he does, he prays unto the Father. He gives thanks
unto the Father. Father I thank you that you've
always heard, always have heard me. Remind thee of what said
back in verse 14 and verse 15 in John 11. Turn over there. Then said the Lord Jesus unto
them, Lazarus is dead but I'm glad for your sake. that I was
not there to the intent that you may believe, nevertheless
let us go." He stands before this crowd and Martha and Mary
and gives thanks unto the Father. In everything give thanks for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. And notice this. He says, Father, I thank Thee
that Thou hast heard me, and I knew that Thou hearest me always. Every prayer that the Lord Jesus
Christ prayed was heard and answered. The will of the Father and the
will of the Son are one. In John 8 he said, He that sent
me is with me, the Father hath not left me alone, for I always
do those things that please Him. The Father wills what the Son
wills. The Son wills nothing but what
the Father wills. So then it is impossible that
the Father should not hear and grant the will of the Son. He
also prays for the benefit out loud audibly before this crowd
of the people for their benefit that they might believe the gospel
and believe that the Father had sent the Son. It reminds me of
this. You remember Elijah on Mount
Carmel? before those 400 prophets of
Baal. Do you remember they had that
sacrifice? And Elijah poured all that water,
barrels and barrels of water on that sacrifice on the altar.
And then you know what he did? He prayed. He prayed that God
would send fire and consume the sacrifice. And this is what he
prayed. Elijah the prophet came near
and said, Lord God, Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, let it
be known this day that thou art God in Israel, that I am thy
servant, that I have done all these things, that thy word hear
me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art
the Lord God." And you know what happened? Fire fell from heaven. Consumed not only the sacrifice,
consumed not only the altar, but consumed those twelve barrels
of water that were poured over that. God answered by fire, and
they said, this is God. The God of Elijah is God. And
that's what the Lord is doing here. The same, same situation. I knew that thou hearest me always,
but because of the people that stand by, I said it, that they
may believe the gospel. Think of this. Everything the
Lord Jesus Christ prayed about was granted unto him. Everything
he prayed about was granted unto him, because he prayed according
to the will of God. This teaches us something about
prayer. This teaches us how to pray. When the Lord taught His
disciples, when they asked, Lord, teach us to pray, He told them
to pray this way, that the Father's will will be done in heaven and
in earth. We read this in Scripture. This
is the confidence that we have in Him that if we ask anything
according to His will, He hears us. Everything the Lord Jesus
Christ prayed about was given to Him because He prayed according
to the will of God. Lord, if it's Your will, let
it be done. Thy will be done, not mine. And that teaches us
something about prayer. It has to do with the will of
God. Now look at verse 43. What's going to happen here?
When he had spoken this prayer, the people heard him pray this
prayer, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, Lazarus, come
forth. Lazarus, come forth. He cried
with a loud voice, the Word of God. Lazarus, come forth. Now
remember, this Grave is in a whole cemetery of graves. There are
many people that are buried in this location. But the Lord doesn't
call all men everywhere that day, that whole cemetery. If
He just would have said, in that cemetery, in that day, come forth,
everybody would have gone out of the tomb. Or everybody who
had died previously would have been raved up from the dead.
But this is a particular call, isn't it? Lazarus come forth. This is a call of the great shepherd
to one of his sheep. They will hear his voice. This is that effectual call of
God the Holy Spirit that's sent to the heart of God's covenant
people. It's a personal call. It's a powerful call. It's an
irresistible call. God calls his people with the
gospel. Prophesy unto these bones. Hear
ye the word of the Lord. Well, they can't hear. That doesn't
matter. God said, go preach the gospel
to every creature. God sends this gospel call to
the heart of His elect and they will hear it. My sheep hear my
voice. I know them and they do follow me. And Lazarus, That's
what happened. He came forth. He that was dead,
verse 44, he that was dead came forth. Now what Lazarus was physically,
as I said earlier, is a picture of what we are in Adam, spiritually
dead. Lazarus could not hear. He could
not see. He could not taste. He could
not touch. He could not smell. All of his
senses, those five senses, he was physically dead, right? That's
our condition spiritually before God. All of our spiritual senses
are dead. We will not hear His Word unless
He gives us life. We cannot see His glory unless
He gives us faith. We cannot taste. and eat of Christ
and desire the sincere milk of the word unless he gives us life.
We cannot reach out and touch the Lord unless he grants us
life in Christ Jesus. We cannot smell of the sweet
fragrance of his grace, of his sacrifice, unless he does something
in us. No man can come to me except
the Father which sent me. Draw him, Ladrus, come forth. Unless God calls us out of darkness
to His marvelous light, unless God raises us from the grave
by His grace and causes us to love Him and believe Him, we
will remain, just as we were born, dead in trespasses and
in sin. Born dead and will die dead,
unless God intervenes, unless God does something for us. Transplates
us out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear
Son. Thank God He is pleased to show mercy to whom He will
show mercy. Thank God He calls us out of
darkness into His marvelous light. To many, the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ is an offensive odor. But to those who recall,
it's the power of God. It's the salvation of God. Now
look at verse 44. What's going to happen? There's
a command of God. Elijah's come forth. What's going
to happen? He that was dead came forth bound
hand and foot with grave clothes and his face was bound with a
napkin. And they said unto him, Loose
him, and let him go. Now you know the custom for burial
in that day was to take a body and wrap it up with prepared
cloth that was anointed with some kind of spice or some kind
of ointment to try to cut down on the offense of the odor. And
when Lazarus came forth from the grave as a living man, he
still had on these great clothes. He was bound hand and foot. How
did He come out? That's a miracle, isn't it? By
the power of God He came out. And here again, what a great
and undeniable proof of the Lord's deity, glory, and power. He indeed
is Almighty God. The Lord gave one more command.
He said here, first of all, He said, take away the stone. And
then He said, ladders come forth. And thirdly, He said, loose Him.
Loose Him. Unwind him. Undo what you've
done. Take all the grave clothes off
and turn him loose. Let him go." Lazarus came forth,
but he was yet wrapped up, and the Lord commanded to remove
the grave clothes. Now, this too is another picture
of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Regeneration takes place in an
instant. The Lord's quickening power.
Lives has come forth. He who was dead came forth. And
the Lord gives us life. Regeneration takes place in an
instant in the power. He says, life, live! And we have
life. But even though we're born again
by the Spirit of God, we still go through this process of conversion. of conversion. There is a growth
in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're
encouraged in scripture to constantly put off the old man, the old
grave clothes with his deeds, the grave clothes of the flesh,
the old sinful nature that we still have. It still yet does
hinder us. Wouldn't you just one time like
to really worship the Lord like He ought to be worshipped? I
like to one time really preach the gospel like it ought to be
preached, but I have this flesh to deal with. I have this gray
clothe of the flesh to deal with. The Apostle expressed it this
way in Romans 7, the will is present with me, but how to perform
that which is good? Well, I can't do it. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man, but I see another law of my members warring
against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to
the law of sin which is in my members, O wretched man that
I am! Who shall deliver me from this
bondage of the flesh, these old grey clothes? I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. You see, it's only the truth
of the gospel that will set us free. You shall know the truth
and the truth shall set you free. Loose him and let him go. We have liberty in the Lord Jesus
Christ to love Him and to serve Him. We still have this old flesh
to deal with. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. And
there is that dual nature. There is that fleshly nature.
There is that spiritual nature. Therefore there is a warfare
going on within the believer. But yet we have been set at liberty. Freedom in Christ Jesus. Liberty. Freedom from the traditions of
man, from the ceremony of man, and from trusting the flesh.
We don't trust the flesh for salvation. Cursed is a man that
trusted the flesh. Would you trust your grave clothes?
of the flesh? No, we throw them away, don't
we? "...forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching
forth unto those things which are before, O that we may win
Christ, and be found in Him." Now, verse 45, verse 46 in closing. And we've seen this so many times
in Scripture. Two things happened. Two things happened here. Many
of the Jews which came to Mary and to Martha, they came, remember,
to comfort them And when they had seen the things that the
Lord Jesus did, they believed on Him. But some of them went
their ways and told the Pharisees, told them what things the Lord
had done. Then the chief priests and the
Pharisees took counsel and said, What do we with this man? For
he does many miracles. You see what happened? Some believed,
and some rebelled against God. And that's the same thing that
happens when the gospel is preached to those who are perishing its
foolishness, but to them which are called Christ, the power
of God, Christ, the wisdom of God, Christ, the glory of God.
Ladrus, come forth. And he that was dead, he that
was dead came forth.