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Dr. Myron Golden
Well, praise the Lord, we can shout to the north and the south, amen? Amen. Alright, turn with me if you will to John chapter 11, John chapter number 11, and we'll start out reading verses 1 through 4 of John chapter 11.
We say it's good to be here, always a blessing, amen? We got to be here for Brother Otis' Sunday school class, that was a blessing. Even though I didn't have the right answer, I'm still studying, and it's always a pleasure to be with Brother Dave and his family, and I've learned a lot from Brother Dave over the years, a whole bunch, learned a lot of Bible stuff too, okay, alright, amen.
John chapter 11, John chapter 11, verse number 1 through 4, 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 sister sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick, is sick. Sick, when Jesus heard that, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, the Son of God might be glorified, and thereby, I want to talk to you on this subject today, this sickness is not unto death, let's pray, Father, thank you for your word, thank you for the power of it, thank you for the truth of it, and we thank you Lord that your word has the answers for the questions that we don't even know yet, we pray Lord that indeed you would help us to see clearly that our problems have a purpose, and help us to rejoice in that purpose, in Jesus' name, amen.
The Bible says, now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, and as I began to study this passage, the first thing I like to look up when I'm studying the Bible, if I'm studying a story, is I want to find out who is this person that the story's about, who is this Lazarus, and I looked up Lazarus' name, and Lazarus' name was very interesting to me from this perspective, when I looked up his name, his name means, he whom God helps, and I thought, you know, I can relate to Lazarus, because I'm certainly one that God has helped, how many of y 'all can relate to Lazarus, can I get a witness?
He whom God has helped, and that's who this man was, but the Bible says this man whom God has helped was sick, I can think of many, many ways that I've been helped by God, I thank God for the parents that I had, I thank God for my mom and my dad, and the fact they taught me to work hard, and they taught me I could do and be anything I wanted to be, and they raised me up to have confidence and competence, and to work hard, and to believe in God, I thank God that God helped me with my parents, I thank God that God helped me with my brothers, I've got six brothers, y 'all wondering how I got to be so tough?
I have six brothers, and you better be tough when you got six brothers, I thank God for the brothers that I have, the one older brother and the five younger brothers that I have, I'm truly one that God has helped, I thank God for the fact, most of all, that when I was 16 years old, that I received Christ as Savior, and I thank God that Jesus saved me, of all the things I'm excited about, I get excited real easy, y 'all, it don't take a whole lot to get me excited, of all the things I get excited about, yeah, I get excited about my golf game sometimes, I get excited about my children, I get excited about my wife, I get excited about just being able to travel and see the world, but the thing that excites me most is the fact that I'm saved by the grace of God, there's nothing in the world that I'd rather be than saved, I'd rather be saved than anything else I can think of, I am like Lazarus, I am he whom God has helped, I could tell you story after story after story after story, how God has worked mightily in my life, I could tell you the story of how one time I needed a car to go on vacation, we were coming to Texas, and God allowed me to buy a Cadillac that only had 19 ,000 miles on it for $480, I could tell you a story, I could tell you a story about how we needed a house and I told everybody at my job that I was gonna buy a house and pay cash for it, but I didn't have any cash, and I prayed and God allowed me to buy a house for $200, I could tell you stories about how when I was really having a rough time right after I resigned from pastoring the church that I pastored in Georgia and financially it was tough times and we prayed and God blessed us and I spoke at a church and I mean I was all the way down at the bottom of the barrel and we were in a little bitty church out in the middle of nowhere and I preached on a Thursday morning to about 40 or 50 people and they didn't even know I had a need but God put it on the pastor's heart to raise a love offering and that love offering was $4 ,000 and a pickup truck, I mean I got a lot to be excited about but the thing I'm most excited about is the fact that I'm saved by the grace of God.
Who is this Lazarus, this one whom God has helped? This Lazarus is a picture, we know that he is not, this story even though it's about Lazarus, it's not just about Lazarus because it starts out saying a certain man, which means that we could put ourselves in that certain man's place.
This story is a microcosm, it is a picture of life, it's a picture of a child of God whom God has saved and he ran into some trouble. Lazarus is a picture and sometimes we have sickness rise up in our lives and sometimes it's in the form of physical sickness but sometimes it's not, sometimes the sickness is financial sickness.
Anybody ever had a weak wallet? Can I get a witness in here? Sometimes it's in the form of family sickness, sometimes maybe it's a child that's wayward, maybe it's a spouse that's wayward, maybe it's just some trouble between you and your spouse, we, it doesn't always, it doesn't always have to be physical illness, it's just a problem and sometimes that problem can weigh on your spirit and make you feel like you're about to die.
Lazarus was a picture but we know also not only was he a picture but Lazarus was also a very prominent man. The Bible says that now Lazarus was, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and Martha, her sister, it was that Mary that anointed the Jesus with the ointment and wiped his feet with her hair.
See the Bible says that Bethany was the town of Mary and Martha. Now I'm from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania but I promise you there is not a person there who refers to Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania as the town of Myron Gold.
Okay, that's, it's just not known by that but Lazarus, Mary, Martha, their family was a very prominent family but even in their prominence they had a problem. Lazarus was sick and maybe you have something in your life right now that feels like a sickness that might take your life, maybe something, you've got something in your life that makes you distraught and makes you distressed but I've got good news for you this morning, this sickness is not unto death because Lazarus had a purpose and the purpose was that the glory of God might be made manifest.
Do you realize that's what our problems are for? Our problems are that God might get glorified by our problems. God is glorified when we are weak and he is strong through us. You know I used to get worried when I had problems.
I get excited now and the reason I get excited because I know that God is getting ready to do something. Until I come face to face with the Red Sea with Pharaoh at my back, I will never be able to discover that God can open up the Red Sea.
Until Nebuchadnezzar threatens to throw me into the furnace, I never know that God can deliver me through the fire. Until the giant Goliath is shouting in the valley, I never know that I can defeat that giant.
I thank God that I don't want to have problems. I don't chew my fingernails like I used to. I don't paste the floor and wring my hands like I once did, but now when trouble comes, I start getting excited because I know God is getting ready to do something I've never seen him do before.
I get excited about my problems because I know my problems have a purpose and that purpose is to bring the glory of God. We see in our story that Lazarus was diseased, but I want us to read down a little bit farther.
It says in verse four, it says, when Jesus heard that 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, and when he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days in the same place where he was.
Lazarus was diseased, Jesus was delayed. The Bible says when Jesus heard that Lazarus was sick, because he heard that Lazarus was sick, he abode therefore two days where he was. Isn't that interesting?
You know we like to think that God is as interested in our trouble being over as we are. Wouldn't we like to think that? We would like to think that God is interested in us getting out of this situation, but I've got news for us this morning.
God is more interested in us getting from this situation what he wants us to get from this situation than he is in us getting out of this situation. I can remember when I was in college and we had this class called church education and every Friday in church age you had a test and if you didn't pass the test, you got to take it again on Monday.
If you didn't pass it on Monday, you got to take it again on Tuesday, and if you didn't take it again on Tuesday, guess what? Yep, you got to take it again on Wednesday, and you have to keep on studying that same material over and over and over and over again until you pass the test.
You know it's amazing people come to you sometimes for counseling, Brother David, don't they? They come to you sometimes say I don't understand why this always happened to me, this always happened to me, this always happened to me, because you have not yet learned the material, and once we learn the material and we pass through that test, then we can go on and learn some new material, but it's interesting to me that the Bible says here when Jesus had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was.
Jesus didn't get in a hurry because Lazarus was sick. Jesus didn't get all in an uproar, well we better go saddle up boys, we got to get back and take care of Lazarus. The Bible says clearly that Jesus loved Lazarus.
Jesus loved Martha and Mary, but he didn't hurry up and go solve their problem because sometimes we can get more out of going through it than we can from avoiding it in the first place. The Bible says Jesus the Lord was delayed because Lazarus was sick.
You know sometimes God takes his time answering our prayers because we have that challenge in our lives, because we have that problem, but not only was Jesus the Lord delayed because he was sick, let's read on in verse number seven, then after that he and his disciples, I'm sorry, then after that he saith unto his disciples, let's go into Judea again.
Now he's leaving, he's not even going to where Lazarus is. Let's go into Judea again, his disciples say unto him, master the Jews of late sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again, and Jesus answered, are there not yet twelve hours in a day?
If any man walk in the day he stumbleth not, but he seeth the light of this world. If a man walk in the night he stumbleth because there is no light in him. Jesus said I don't have to be worried about anything, I'm going to take, I'm doing the will of God, I am invincible.
These things said he, and after that he saith unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may wake him out of his sleep. Then his disciples, this state, what they said here reminds me of me.
Then said his disciples, Lord if he sleep he shall do well, howbeit Jesus spake of his death, and they thought that he had spoken of taking rest and sleep, and then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
Not only was the Lord delayed because he was sick, but the Lord was delayed until he was separated. Lazarus was diseased, the Lord was delayed, and Lazarus was dead, and then it says something strange.
Verse 14, and he said, and 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.
It said that Lazarus was dead, and the Lord was delighted that he wasn't there to stop him. Isn't that something Paul? Lazarus is dead, and I'm glad. Now we can put ourselves in that situation. Well, so-and-so has financial problems, and I'm glad.
This person over here, they're having some problems with their kids, and I'm glad. This person over here, their children are giving a rough time, I'm glad. This person over here having some marriage problems, and I'm glad.
This person over here is having some problems in their career, and I'm glad that I wasn't there. Why? To the extent that ye might believe. Do you understand that God is trying to get us tuned into the real world?
Last time I was here, I preached on, I can't believe my eyes, and the fact is, when God is working in our lives, God is working to get us to see the invisible, and to believe more in the invisible than we do in the visible, and the problem with us sometimes in this world is that we don't believe it until we see it, but God wants us to get to the place in our lives, not where we don't believe it until we see it, but where we believe it until we see it.
Do you remember what David said over in Psalm chapter 27, verse 13 and 14? He said, I had fainted unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living, and what we need to learn to do, we need to learn to believe to see.
It's hard to do, because we, since the time we're knee-high to a grasshopper, we see things, and we begin to equate the stuff we see and the stuff that we can touch as real stuff, but the real life is the invisible life, because the things which are invisible, those are the things that are eternal, but the things that are visible, those things are temporal.
The Bible tells us clearly in Hebrews chapter 11 that Moses endured seeing him who is invisible. Jesus said, Lazarus is dead. I'm glad. I'm glad that he's dead, because you're going to believe after you see.
Man, the reason Jesus let him see one thing after another, after another, after another, because they saw it, and then they believed it. They saw it, and then they believed it. They saw it, and then they believed it, and then after he was crucified, he went on up to heaven.
Then they began to believe and then see, and that's the place that God wants to get all of us to. Jesus said, Lazarus is dead, and I am glad that I was not there, to the intent that you might believe.
God's more interested in your faith than he is in you having perfect circumstances. God is more interested in us believing in what he said than he is us not having any problems. Verse 16, then said Thomas, they call him Doubting Thomas, then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him.
He didn't get it. When Jesus come, then when Jesus came, he found that they had laid him, I'm sorry, that he had laid in the grave four days already. Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem, about 15 furlongs, and many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary and confronted them concerning her brother, I'm sorry, and comfort them concerning her brother and Martha.
As soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary sat still in the house, and we see in verse 21 that the ladies were distraught. It says, then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
Do you realize that Martha thought it was over? This is it, it's over. He's already dead. He's already been dead four days. There's nothing you can do about it now. Distraught, she's weeping, she's broken.
Lord, why didn't you get here a few days earlier? He was already two days away. He stayed away another two days, and then it took him two days, he was, it took him four days later. Then said Martha unto Jesus, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died, but I know even now that whatsoever thou will ask of God, God will give it thee, and Jesus saith unto her, thy brother shall rise again.
Martha said, let me make sure he just said what I think he said. Verse 24, and 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, and he that believeth in me, though he were dead yet shall he live.
Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, yea Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which had come into the world. And she said, and when she had so said, she went her way and called Mary, her sister, secretly saying, the master has come and called for thee, and watch this, and as soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came unto him.
Let me ask you a question, when God speaks to you, as soon as he speaks to you, do you arise quickly and come? Or do you hesitate? Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was at the place where Martha had met him, and the Jews then, which were with her in the house, had come and had comforted her, when they saw Mary, that she arose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, she goeth unto the grave to weep there.
And when Mary was come where Jesus was, she saw him and fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord if thou had been here my brother had not died. Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which were come with her, and he groaned in his spirit, and was troubled, and said, where have you laid him?
And they said unto him, Lord come and see, and Jesus wept, and Jesus was not weeping over the death of Lazarus, Jesus wasn't weeping because of the tragedy, Jesus was weeping because of the lack of belief.
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, and have caused that this man should have not died? And Jesus therefore again groaning in himself, coming to the grave, and it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it, and Jesus said unto them, take away the stone.
Martha the sister of him, I'm sorry, Martha the sister of him that was dead, said unto him, Lord by this time he stinketh, for he's been in the grave, he has been dead four days. Jesus said unto him, I said unto thee that thou shouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God.
Jesus said, remove the stone. Do you realize that sometimes the only thing separating us from our challenge, the only thing that's separating, when we're witnessing to somebody, sometimes we got to move the stone, so when Jesus calls them out, they're not inhibited.
We got to move the stone sometimes of self-righteousness, don't we? Sometimes that stone blocks people, they can't, they can't, they can't, when Jesus speaks, they're not going to respond because you're stoned.
I know that we can't stop somebody from being saved, I already know that. I've heard preachers say, well, you know, you're keeping somebody from being saved, they're not going to receive Christ. No, I know that's not true, but you know what?
God has some stuff that he wants us to get up out of our lives so he can use us in the miracle he's about to perform. He said, take away the stone. Jesus said unto her, said unto thee, if thou wouldst believe, thou wouldst see the glory of God, and they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me, and I know that thou hearest me always, but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
Jesus, Jesus, the only reason he spoke it is so they could hear him and believe, and notice what happened, and when they had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus come forth, and he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin, and Jesus saith unto them, loose him and let him go.
We see that Lazarus was delivered from the grave. Lazarus was delivered from the grave by the word of Jesus. Lazarus come forth. You know, I thank God that there was a time in my life when he called me.
I thank God for you, those of you who know Christ. I thank God that there was a time in your life when he called you, and he said, Lazarus come forth, but I want you to see that Lazarus was not only delivered from the grave clothes by the Savior, but he was, I mean, from the grave by the Savior, but he was delivered from the grave clothes by the saints.
Jesus didn't take off the grave clothes. Jesus told them to do that, and that's where discipleship, that's where our part comes in. Our part comes in when we begin to teach people the word of God, who have received Jesus Christ as their Savior, and we teach them how to walk by faith and not by sight, and we teach them how to walk in the spirit, then those grave clothes of the old life are removed, and we can walk in newness of life, and I thank God that not only did Jesus call me out of the grave one day, but Jesus commanded some folk to take off the grave clothes, and as I began to study the Bible and have had great men of God teach me the Bible, men like brother David, brother Otis, as I've had people teach me the word of God, the grave clothes have been coming off, and we can walk in newness of life.
The good news is this, when trouble comes, this sickness is not unto death, but that the glory of God might be made manifest. What is the trouble you have in your life today? What is the struggle that you're going through, that you're worried about?
God's not worried about it at all. The only reason it's there is because God is going to bring glory from it to his name. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for the power and the truth of your word.
Thank you for the fact that because Jesus spoke to me one day, 26 years ago, that I received Christ, and thank you for the fact that all the trouble I received had in my life since that time. It's just there that you might manifest your glory.
Thank you, Father, for the fact that you love us, and that you sent Jesus down the cross for our sins, and that we have your spirit with us to comfort us. We pray, Lord, that you would continue to work.
In our lives. Brother Myron has not been here in our church in the last months and weeks, but so he might not have a way of knowing how amazing the timing of that message is. I know that's true in many ways in many of our lives.
I know Raj has been going through some physical difficulties and unusual illness, and many of us, I'm sure that message would speak right to us. It certainly did to me and to our family. The fact that troubles are there unto the glory of God, an amazing illustration of how Jesus waited for that very purpose.
It's difficult for us to think that way when we're going through it, but we know it's true, and we see another beautiful example from the scriptures today. So, Brother Myron and Tony, thank you so much for ministering to us.
Let's stand. We'll have a word of prayer together, and we'll invite you, if you're visiting with us today, to stay for lunch. We have lunch here every Sunday, and then our afternoon service will be sometime between 1 o 'clock and 1 15.
So, let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you so much for Brother Myron and Tony and the way you brought them to minister to us today and the gift that they are to the church at large, and especially to this local church.
Lord, we ask you to be with us through our time of fellowship. Lord, may we encourage one another. May you bless the meal that we have, and we thank you for it. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.