And I pray for you that God would
open your heart to receive it. Take your Bibles and turn with
me to John chapter 11. John chapter 11. A message of comfort for the beloved. If I had a title, that'd be it.
A message of comfort for the beloved. The scripture says,
now a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany, the town
of Mary and her sister Martha. And 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, in this passage
of scripture, we know this passage very well. It is the passage
of Lazarus and the resurrection of Lazarus by the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now this passage we have before
us, as most often the Lord does, he uses a physical event to describe
spiritual truths. Our Lord doesn't do any of these
miracles just as a manner of displaying only his power, but
yet it is a message of the gospel he preaches by every one of his
miracles. And this one's no different.
Now I have four points in this message. Four points in this
message. First of all, I want us to see
the love of Christ. The love of Christ. Secondly,
we want to see the troubles of those loved. Those who are loved
of Christ will experience many trials and troubles. Now, third,
I want us to see delayed deliverance. We know here the Lord delays
in coming to deliver his beloved. And the fourth thing I want us
to see is the comfort. The comfort of those that are
loved is the gospel of Jesus Christ that he preaches through
this resurrection. So first of all, the love of
Christ, the scripture says in verse three, therefore, his sisters
sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is
sick. Now, this man, Lazarus, was a
dear friend of Christ. He was loved of Christ, not because
of his morality, not because he was a mighty man. He was loved
because he was the one of his elect children, one of his elect
sheep. He was one that was saved by
the grace of God through faith in Christ. And so this is a blessed
truth for each one of us who believe in Christ. As he loved
Lazarus, so he loves us. Now this idea of Christ's love
has been so saturated by false religion that it makes it no
love at all. Listen, if Christ loved Peter
as much as he loved Judas, then what does the love of Christ
have to do with salvation? Nothing. It would be meaningless.
If Christ loved Judas, then what good was that love toward him?
We know that's not true. He did not love Judas. He loved
Peter. And so it is with us. I want
you to embrace this. Take this with you wherever you
go. Jesus loves you. If you are a
believer, you can take this mantle with you everywhere you go. He
loves you. This is something as believers
that in Christ will never be able to fathom the depths of
this love. Try as you may, you can't find
a bottom to this love. It's endless. It's eternal. Now, If I were to plumb the depths
of my love for him, that's very shallow. That's very easy. How much do you love him? Not as much as I would. I confess he is altogether lovely.
But my love for him is not even worthy of being spoken. So I don't want to talk about
my love for him. I want to talk about his love for me, his love
for us, how I long to love him more.
And by his grace, as we walk through life, we do grow in grace
and love. But I can never come. I can always
come to the end of my love for him, but I can never come to
the end of his love for us, for me. There are times in our lives
when we feel less spiritual. Less spiritual. David, you said
this once. He said it's hard to be spiritual
when you're sick. Isn't it? That flesh is crying
out all the time and it won't shut up. And so we don't feel
our love for him. We are often overcome with sin,
overwhelmed, we're taken in falls, our love waxes cold. We become indifferent to the
things of God. We hear them over and over and
our heart becomes grossly fat. I think of that sheep that sometimes
sheep gets a fat that they just tip over. They just fall over.
What they call a cast sheep. You ever been a cast sheep? You
know what? No matter what that sheep does,
he can't ride himself. He can kick and and buy all he
wants to. He won't. He can't ride himself
until the shepherd comes and lifts him up. That's the way
we are with our cold and different hearts. But dear believer, Jesus
Christ. Let us never base the love of
God on our love for him. Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't
do it. Don't base your love on your
good works or your religious action or your feelings, but
simply base it on this, the word of God. Feelings come and feelings go,
feelings are deceptive. The only thing worth believing
is the word of God. That's it. Now, if God says he
loves you, listen, he loves you. He loves you. Listen to what
he said. The Lord hath appeared of old
unto me, saying, Yes, I like that it begins ascends with.
Yes. You ever ask anything? Lord, do you love me? Begins
with. Yes. Yeah, I have loved thee. What kind of love? Ever lasting love. What's evidence of his love for
me? Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. Have he drawn you? Has he drawn
you in? You believe in Christ? Well, listen, you've got a short
word of prophecy there. You've got a word from God. He
said, yeah, I've loved you. I loved you. What kind of people did
God love? What kind of person were you
before you realized God loved you? You were a sinner. You were a rebel. Matter of fact,
the scripture tells us that, yea, when we were yet sinners,
Christ died. He didn't wait for you to get
better. He loved you before you got better. Let us then take comfort in this
fact that God loves us not in ourselves. God don't love you
because of you. I got to hold on to that. God
doesn't love you because of you. He loves you because of Christ.
How much he loved Christ. Well, that's how much he loves
you. How long has he loved Christ?
Well, that's how long he's loved you. Weren't we put in Christ
before the world began? Scripture says that in love,
having predestinated us according to the adoption of children by
Jesus Christ to himself. You see, his purpose is to bring
you to himself. It's always been his purpose,
bring you to himself. And he did this in love, in love. He predestinated you not to be
slaves, but children, sons, sons of God. Believer then, Hold fast. You are loved of God. And when
you doubt that, there's one place you can look to always see it. The cross of Jesus Christ. You
wanna know how much he loved you? For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten son. Isaiah 53 verse 10 says, Yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief
when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall
see his sin. and prolong his days, and the
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of
the travail of his soul and be satisfied. See, God's satisfied
with you. You know what you have to do
to satisfy God? Nothing. Christ already satisfied God
for you. So I like this hymn, when Satan
tempts me, when Satan tempts and doubts and fears assail,
what do we do? Look to the Lamb of God. You
in his strength shall over all prevail. Look to the Lamb of
God. Are you weary? Does the way seem long? Look
to the Lamb of God. His love will cheer and fill
your heart with song. Look to the Lamb of God. So as
he loved Lazarus, so has he loved Now secondly, I wanted to see
the trouble of those he loves. This man who was loved of Christ
had great trouble. The sisters that cared for Lazarus
had great trouble. So notice this, in the very first
verse, this man, this certain man was sick, named Lazarus. And we as sinful creatures, We
often base our love on something someone could do for us. And
so if you do something for me, something great, something wonderful,
I think, wow, you really must love me. But I'll tell you this,
if you ignore me, if you don't help me, then I automatically
think your love for me is diminished. This is how we feel about love.
Our love is fluctuating, isn't it? Our love. Our love for one
another fluctuates. Never put that on God. Never
put that on God. I'll tell you this, oftentimes
I love my children, but oftentimes they don't always get what they
want. They don't always have a smooth path. Why? Because I
love them. At times they think I don't love
them. Matter of fact, they've stated
that several times. You don't love me. I can't believe you'd
do that to me. Well, how do we do that to God?
How often does God do something to us, cause us grief, and we
question his love? We question his love. Listen,
the Lord's love for his children is greater than we can possibly
fathom. His love is greater than we can
know, yet at times, at times, his children fall into many hurtful,
and painful trials, sickness, pain, and death. Yet every believer ought to know
by faith that all things work together for our good. Isn't
that right? Is that not true? All things, not each individual
thing may not appear to work together, but it is working together
with everything is going to work out for your good. going to because
God promised it. All things work together for
good to them that love God. To them are the called according
to his purpose. Look at Jeremiah. Go to Jeremiah chapter 29. Look
at this verse. Jeremiah 29 and verse 11. This is the Lord speaking. He
said, for I know the thoughts that I think towards you, saith
the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of
what? Evil. How often do we put this
on God that his thoughts toward us are for evil? And God says,
look, I know my thoughts towards you. Thoughts of peace. Isn't that
right? So every thought God thinks of
you is for peace and not of evil. To give you an expected end. Don't you know you have an expected
end? You have an expected end. So no matter what happens in
the middle, you have an expected end. Heaven, glory, eternal life,
righteousness, peace with God. Go to Jeremiah chapter 32 and
look at this in verse 40. God says, I will make an everlasting
covenant with them that I will not turn away from them to do
them what? Good. I will not turn away from
them to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts and
they shall not depart from me. This is God's covenant of peace.
Now Jesus knew his friend was sick, did he not? Jesus knew his friend was going
to die, did he not? He knew that. But listen, this
sickness and this death was for a purpose, the glory of God. Isn't that what he says in verse
four? Look at this. Jesus, when he heard this, Mary
and Martha, they don't know what to do. They're beside themselves.
This is one that Jesus loves, and he's sick. Surely if we send
him a message, he's going to come. They say, send him this
message, he whom thou lovest. See how they're compelling his
love? And look what he says. When Jesus
heard this, he said, this sickness is not unto death. but for the
glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Listen, I cannot always, I cannot
explain God's dark providence. Can't. We have people that have children
that have died. Can you explain God's providence
in that? No, you can't. I can't explain
God's providence or what he's doing, but I know this. He is
working all things for our good. And that thing, whatever thing
you think is evil, is intended for the glory of God. We've got to understand that
everything God does is for himself. Everything God does is for his
own glory. And every believer in Christ says this, amen. to
God be the glory. And some believers, we fall into
this trap sometimes of saying this, well, if God loves me,
then surely he wants me to be healthy. God, if you love me, then why
am I dealing with this trouble? Why is this trial so heavy? Why
is this burden weighing me to the ground? If you if your love
is so great, then why are these things? Listen, if God wanted Lazarus
to be well, he would have been well. If God did not want him
to die, he would not die. You listen, God decreed he'd
be sick, and he was sick. God decreed he would die, and
he died. Same as with us. Our troubles
are decreed by God. And who are we to question his
wisdom? Simply believe and trust His
love. Trust His love. I'm gonna show
you this and I'll go to my next point. Go to Ecclesiastes nine.
This is really helpful to me. Ecclesiastes chapter nine. Look at verse one. For all this
I considered in my heart. even to declare all this, that
the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of
God. After all his searching, all
his wisdom, this is the conclusion of this. Salvation belongs to
God. Are you wise? Why are you wise
and someone else foolish? Why do you believe in Christ
and someone else don't? It is in the hands of God. That's what
he figured out. Salvation is in the hand of God. Now listen to this next part.
No man knoweth either love or hatred by all the things before
him. You cannot determine the love
or hatred of God based on your circumstance. Yet this is what
we try to do. Don't look at the circumstance.
Lazarus was dying. Lazarus died. Do not look at
the circumstance to determine if God loved him. Christ loved him. And yet he
still was sick and he still died. What about all the people in
this world that are without Christ that are prosperous? Their way just seems to be open
there. I mean, everything is just falls, falls out of the
sky for them and just their path is so smooth. And here we are
believers in Christ, sons of God, and our path is not smooth.
You can't determine God's love or hatred by what you see. God's
people will suffer. Matter of fact, scripture says
that your faith is given to you, so is your suffering. It is given
unto you not only to believe, but to suffer for his namesake. So know this, that God's people
loved do suffer. Now the third thing is this,
delayed deliverances. Look at chapter 11 again in John,
Look at your text after the Lord heard that his friend, whom he
loved, was sick at the point of death. Look what he did. Look at verse six, when he had
heard, therefore, that he was sick, he immediately got up and
went to him. Is that what it says? No. He abode in the same place two
days. Two days. Matter of fact, I believe
it was six days, maybe even seven, before Christ got there. Remember,
it's two days he abode, and Lazarus was dead four days. We don't
even read of Lazarus' death until, I believe, Verse 14, the Lord abode two
days. And then he went to another place
and then then he heard he was. Then he said, hey, Lazarus is
dead. And when he gets there, remember,
he had already been in the ground four days. It had been at least
six, six days before the Lord decided to get there. Delayed
deliverance. Sometimes in our lives, when
we are in trouble, the Lord does come right away. I guarantee
you this, more often than not, he immediately comes. How many
times has he answered prayer that you probably don't even
know of? Instantly. Heard our prayer, immediately came to our
aid. But other times, our Lord delays
in coming. Remember, Jerry, That man, his
little girl was sick. She was on the brink of death
and it was a state of emergency for this man. He came to Christ
and he said, my daughter is grievously sick. And Jesus promised to come
and heal her. He said, I'll come. And he's
on his way. And you remember what happened.
That woman with the issue of blood came up behind and touched
the hem of his garment. And Christ did something nobody
would expect. He stopped. And he asked what seemed to be
a foolish question, who touched me? There was a crowd of people
touching him and his disciples rebuked. He said, Lord, what
do you mean who touched you? They're all touching you. And he caught that woman, he
turned around, he found her. And the scripture says she told
him all that happened. How long do you suppose that
took? She was 12 years in that condition, and he listened to
every word she said. Can you imagine Jarius's heart? His daughter was dying, and there
Christ was listening to this woman. He delayed in coming. And you remember what happened.
They came to him and said, Don't bother, master. Your daughter's
dead. How often has the Lord delayed
in coming? and we've experienced such grief
and sorrow and pain. What did he say to him? He said,
be not faithless but believing. Believe. Isn't that what he said? Trust me, trust me. Lazarus, he delayed in coming. But I'll tell you this, no matter
how the Lord delays, I want you to know this, he is not unaware
of your suffering. He is not unaware. When his disciples
were rowing across the sea and the Lord separated himself and
went to the mountain, you remember, they were toiling and rowing,
I think it was nine hours. Those guys, they rowed for nine
hours and went nowhere. The scripture says this, He saw
them toiling and rowing. Do you not suppose that his eye
was constantly on Lazarus, his friend? It was, because the Lord
knew the minute he died. He told his disciples, our friend
Lazarus is dead. He knew the moment his friend
died. In our trouble, though the Lord
delay, yet we have this promise, he is still with us. He is still with us. Hebrews
13, five, let your conversation be without covetousness. Does anybody have trouble with
that? It's just me. I'm always wanting something
I don't have. When I'm sick, I want to be well.
When I'm well, I want more. When I have more, I want more. Let your life be without covetousness
because of one thing, because he has said, I will never leave
thee nor forsake thee. That should be enough. God help us to let that be enough
in every trial. Let this be enough. He loved
me and gave himself for me. Let this be enough. He controls
all things and his eye is never off of me. In fact, every pain I have ever
suffered was at his hand. God controls all things. And my contentment is this. He
said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. And so then the fourth point
is this. God using this physical trial
of his beloved friend teaches us some spiritual truths about
himself. God uses our trials and troubles
for one purpose, to draw us to himself. To draw us to himself. And the Lord not only allowed
this, I gotta stop saying that. I really do. I've said that a
lot. Don't ever say that. Lord didn't allow anything. He
decrees. He decrees. The Lord decreed
this to happen, to teach us a very spiritual lesson, to teach us the gospel. Now,
then the Lord Jesus Christ, after delaying and Lazarus died, he
comes in verse 21 and Martha comes to it. And she says this
in verse 21, then Martha said unto Jesus, Lord, if I had been
here, my brother had not died. She knew this, the Lord could
have raised him up. But in grief and pain, she did
what all of us would say. She cast despair on his intent,
his love. Lord, if you'd been here, he
didn't need to be there, did he? He could have done it without
being there. And so. She said this in faith,
but I know that even now, whatsoever thou will ask of God, God will
give it unto thee. And Jesus said to her, Thy brother
shall rise again. Martha said to him, I know that
he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. Now, Martha
knew something. She did have something. She knew
that whatever he asked, God's going to do. And she knew something
about the resurrection. She knew something that in the
last day he was gonna raise again. But Jesus had something more
to teach her than that. And so he does in verse 25. Here
it is, here's the lesson. 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? The first thing that
Jesus did in teaching this. Now, consider he loved Lazarus,
decreed that Lazarus would be sick, decreed that Lazarus would
die so that he would reveal this. Now, listen, how good is that
for us? We have this passage of scripture because God decreed
the death of Lazarus. The pain of these believers were
for our benefit, wasn't it? And this is what he decreed.
This is what he's testified of. I am. This is one of the I am's
of Christ. What is he saying when he says,
I am the resurrection? He's declaring to us his deity. He's once again manifesting that
he is God manifest in the flesh. The one who loves you is God. Manifest in the flesh. The one
who loves us has all power given to him. He said that in Matthew
28, all power is given to me. You know how much all power is? It's all power. I mean, every
power, every ounce of power in this universe belongs to him.
How much power does it take for you to breathe? Now, whose power
is it? Who's it belong to? You're going
to get up out of that pew. Whose power is it? It's not yours. It's his. It belongs to him. Now, listen, I love you, but
I don't have I don't have power to fulfill all the things I want
to do. If I want to do something for you and you want to do something
for me, we don't have the power to do it. But the one I'm preaching
has power. All that he promised to do for
you, he has all the power to do for you. get into troubles, we say with
our lips that Christ has all, you really believe that? Do I really believe that he has
all power? How often do I doubt his power? When we doubt his power, what
we try to do is deliver ourself. How does that work out? Abraham did that, didn't he?
Well, he knew God was gonna give him a son. He said, well, let
me help him out a little bit. We try to help God out. He don't
need your help. He's God. He has all power. He is God manifest in the flesh. He has all power to deliver us
out of all of our troubles. Secondly, Jesus said, I am the
resurrection. And this, first of all, refers
to spiritual resurrection. What he is going to do for Lazarus
is going to be a picture of what he did for everyone he loves,
what he does for every one of his elect. He is going to raise
them from the dead. I am the resurrection. This has
a connotation to spiritual resurrection. We are all born dead in sins. How many times you heard that? I sat right there for many years
and heard that and I knew that in here. I knew it in my head. It was for many years I did not
know I was dead. I did not know I was dead. The
doctrine of total depravity to the believer is not just a doctrine,
it's an experience. And I haven't stopped experiencing
it, have you? The old nature that still resides
in us, we know its ruin is complete. In my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. Isn't that true of you? I was dead. I had no interest
in the things of God. Until God gave me life. Until God gave me life. We were
born dead. Men preach a message of decision,
regeneration. You know why they preach it?
Because they don't believe you're dead. They believe you have something
to offer. Something that you can do. If
you're here tonight without Christ, friend, you're dead. I want you
to know that you're dead. And what you need is this man
to give you life. I can't give you life. I have
two children and I can't give them life. The only one to give them life
is the one who declares himself to be the resurrection and the
life. Do you know what God requires
of men? Absolute holiness. Absolute holiness. And without
holiness, no man shall see the Lord. And the scripture declares
that there is none righteous. We have all sinned. We have all
come short of the glory of God. We are all born dead in sins
and cannot in the flesh please God. So what do men need? They need life. They need life. I don't know what's happening
out there in Kentucky and Hasbury. I hear that thing about the revival
that's going on. You know, I don't know. I don't
know. I know this. If Christ is preached, I'd say yes. But if just a group of people
run around trying to feel something, no. Life is much more than just
emotion and passion. It's faith in Christ. That's
the evidence of life. And for a man to have faith,
he's got to have what Lazarus had. He has to have Christ come
and give him life. There was Lazarus, he was dead
four days. What did he need for life? He
needed Christ to give him life. Lazarus then is a picture. God
decreed Lazarus to die, that he should be a picture of us
by nature, that we need something outside of ourselves to give
us life. And Jesus is telling that all
men, that they can do nothing without him. They can't give
themselves life. He must have mercy. to raise
you from the dead. I pray that God would do that.
I pray that if you are dead tonight that Christ would give you life. He said this in John 5, he said,
the hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live, shall live. Isn't this exactly what he did? He said, I'm the resurrection.
Then what'd he do? He went and proved it. He went to that grave
and he said, open the stone, roll away the stone. They said,
no, no, he stinks. You know what your sin smells
like? Smells like a rotting corpse. What a good picture of us by
nature. He rolls away the stone. And
you know what he said? Scriptures are very clear. He
said this. Look at verse. Let me find it in. And verse 41, he said, it took away
the stone from the place where the dead laid and Jesus lifted
up his voice and said, Father, I thank thee that thou has heard
me. And I know that thou hast heard me always, but because
of the because of the people which stand by, I said it, that
they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he had thus
spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. Let me ask you this. Was this
a question? Was he offering something to
Lazarus? If he offered something to Lazarus,
what could Lazarus do to receive it? This was not an offer, friend.
This was a command. That's good news. If Christ wants
you to live and believe in him. And he commands it, you will. I remember a lady in our church,
she'd come to visit us and she was giving her testimony to me.
I didn't know who she was at the time, didn't know where she
heard the gospel. She was in a faraway place and
she heard a man preaching the gospel. And she said, I knew
this, when I began to listen to that message, I did not believe. But in the middle of the message,
I could do nothing but believe. Isn't that true of you? Could
you do anything but believe? You that believe on Christ, is
there anything else you can do? Why is that? Why won't you leave, Johnny?
You've been here a long time. Your dad has preached the same
message to you since you were a boy. Why don't you leave? Why
don't this get old? Why don't you cease to love him
and believe on him? Listen, because he commanded
it. Gave you life. And the evidence of that life
is this, faith in Christ. Faith in Christ. I am the resurrection
life. I am the resurrection life. whosoever
liveth and believeth in me, pay attention, shall never die. When Lazarus died, did he die? Leroy Hartley passed away this
last week. Did he die? Christ said he didn't. Who shall
ever live that believeth in me shall never die. Believe us now
this? You believe that? Why do you believe that and somebody
else don't? Because he commanded you to have faith. And the only
reason you have faith now is because he commands you to have
faith. I'm so glad. I'm so glad at this. And notice
this, when he said, he that was dead came forth. Now, I don't
know how this happened to you. Do you understand how this happens?
Lazarus was wrapped up like a mummy. He was bound from his feet to
his head. I don't know how he walked out,
but he did. Isn't faith in Christ impossible?
And yet, we do it. As many as received him, to them
gave he the right to become the sons of God. Did you receive
him? Well, how'd you do that? It's a miracle. It's a miracle. But you did. Lazarus came out
bound hand and foot. This is how we come out of the
grave. Bound. What did Christ say to him? Loose
him and let him go. What's this picture of? Freedom
from the law. Freedom from the law. Christ, my friend, is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. You
know, we're not lawless. We have a law, but not the law
of sin and death. Our law is a law of faith and
love. Now what John says, let's see,
1 John chapter three. 1 John chapter three and verse
23, and this is the commandment, this is his commandment, that
we should believe on the name of his son Jesus Christ and love
one another as he gave us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments
dwelleth in him, and he in him. What's his commandments? Faith
and love. You realize that's the only commandments
we have that have been given life? Faith and love. How do you live? By faith and
love. Oh, but if you loose him and
let him go, he's gonna, oh man, we gotta put some kind of law
on it. No, Christ said loose him and let him go. You know
the next time you find Lazarus, what he's doing? You know where
he's at? He's eaten with Christ. When you lose a believer and
let him go, where does he go? Where do you wanna go? Where
do you wanna go? You wanna go back to that life?
You wanna go back to that tomb? I mean, I gotta have him. I gotta have him that loved me.
He loved me. with an everlasting love. I know
that though he loves me, I'm going to experience trials, difficulties,
pains. But I know in my pain, he's always
got his eye on me. He may delay in coming, but he'll
come. He'll come. And you know, when
he comes, what comforts me is this, I am the resurrection and
the life. A man, though he were dead, yet
he believe in me, he shall live. And those that live and believe
in me shall never die. This is the comforting message
of God's people in the midst of their trials and pains. I hope and pray that Christ is
magnified and honored through this message, that you should
look to Christ, that you should always look to Christ, When you
don't know where to look, look to Christ. Trust Him who loves
you. Pray God bless you.