All right, we'll go back to John
chapter 11. John chapter 11. And the title of the message
is, Behold the Glory of God. The Glory of God. Here before us, without question,
is the greatest miracle that our Lord Jesus Christ had performed
while he was here upon the face of the earth. This man, Lazarus,
who was a dear friend, a dear companion of the Lord Jesus Christ,
and his sisters, Mary and Martha, were well acquainted with the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He visited their home. He loved
them. He loved this family dearly. He was well acquainted with him,
and they were well acquainted with him. They both had a love
for one another. But tragedy struck. In this blessed
house, in this house of three believers in Christ, tragedy
came. This blessed home of believers,
this man, Lazarus, whom Jesus loved, became very ill, very
sick, and was nigh unto death. And so they, as believers in
Christ, knowing His love for Lazarus, they sent a message.
Jesus was off preaching. Jesus was away from them. And
they sent a message to Him. And the message was very simple.
The message is found in verse 3. Therefore his sisters sent unto
Jesus, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Now I'm sure as soon as they
sent this message that they expected Jesus to stop everything he was
doing. They expected Him, because He
loved Lazarus, because He loved Mary and Martha, that He would
stop preaching, that He would leave His work, and He would
rush to their house and heal their brother. They were sure
of this. That's why they sent the letter.
They sent the letter. It was a loving letter. It was
a plea to Him. Come quickly, Thou whom Thou
lovest. Lazarus is sick. Come and heal
him. But much to their surprise, and
I suppose even the surprise of the disciples, Jesus stays right where he is. John says this in verse 5, he
reiterates this, his love. He said, now Jesus loved Mary,
Martha, and Lazarus. He restates His love for them. There is no question of His great
love for them, yet Jesus did something that seems contrary
to love. He did something that was contrary
to human logic or reason. In verse 6 it says, When he heard,
therefore, that he was sick, he abode, he stayed two days
still in the same place where he was. Why? Why would Jesus do such a thing? Why would Jesus not rush to his
side and heal this man that he loved? Why would he purposefully
abide in the same place and allow his beloved friend to suffer
such pain? Why? Well, Jesus tells us the
reason in verse 4. He says this, This sickness is
not unto death. But for the glory of God, that
the Son of God might be glorified thereby. This sickness is not
unto death. Now surely this word, the messenger
heard this word. He's heard that sickness is not
unto death. So what does he do? He goes back
to Mary and Martha. He says, all right, this is what
the Lord said. The Lord said, this sickness
is not unto death, but for the glory of God. Now, surely this
must have comforted Mary and Martha for a minute. They had
some reprieve of this. Lazarus was sick, he was hurting,
and Jesus said, this sickness is not unto death. And yet, he
starts getting sicker, not better. He starts gasping for air, and
he dies. He dies. What confusion must
have taken place in the house of Mary and Martha? What confusion? Jesus said this is not unto death,
but look, He's dead! He's dead! How is this for the
glory of God? How is this going to work out
for the glory of God? He said it would, but it doesn't
seem that way. He's dead. Our brother is dead. Jesus' disciples They heard the Lord Jesus when
He stayed in the place two days. And after that, in verse 7, He
said, Let's go to Judea again. And the disciples said, Lord,
Master, these Jews want to stone you, and why do you want to go
to Judea? Really, He was going to Bethany, which was on the
way to Judea. That's where He was heading.
And He answered this, and He said, Are there not twelve hours
in a day? If any man walk in the day, he
stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of the world. But if
a man walk in night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in
him. And he said unto his disciples, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth,
but I go to wake him out of his sleep. Jesus, knowing the exact time
of the death of his friend, tells his disciples, I must now go
to him. The disciples thought Lazarus
was resting and said, Lord, if he's resting, isn't that good?
Jesus said, no, I don't mean resting, I mean he's dead. He
said, told them plainly in verse 14, he said, Lazarus is dead. And he says this in verse 15,
and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there. To the
intent you may believe, nevertheless, let us go unto him. Isn't that something? I am glad
I was not there. Did you hear what he said? The
man he loved, the man he adored, Lazarus, was sick. He abode purposely
two days in the same place, did not go to heal Lazarus, and now
then that Lazarus is dead, Jesus said, I am glad I wasn't there. Does that sound different to
you? Does your flesh throw up some
flags? Because when I read it, it sure did. You're glad you
weren't there? I don't get it. I don't understand. I'm glad you're not there. He said, I was glad I wasn't
there to heal him. He's glad that his friend was
not healed of the sickness, but was now dead. Why? He says the reason for this. that you may believe. Do you not see what he was doing?
He allowed his friend to die so that you may believe. This was on purpose. He did this
on purpose so that you may believe. Believe what? Believe that Jesus
Christ is God manifest in the flesh. That's what He had been
teaching. That's what He had been showing
these people. In John chapter 8, He tells these
Pharisees, He says, If you believe not that I am, you shall die
in your sins. What was He saying? If you don't
believe I'm God, you'll die in your sins. You see how important
the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ is? You can believe in Jesus
the man, but I'll tell you, if you don't believe in Jesus the
God-man, you shall die in your sins. This matter of His deity
is altogether important. And when he said, I am, I want
you to understand he was saying the same thing that he said at
the burning bush. That's what God said to Moses. When Moses
asked, who are you, that I should tell them, he said, you tell
them that I am has sent you. And that's what Jesus was saying.
He said, I am. I am God. That's what he was
telling them. Jesus tells them in John chapter
8 and verse 58, before Abraham was, here it is again, I am. And the Jews picked up stones
to kill him because they finally got it. It finally registered
in their puny little brains what he was saying. He said before
Abraham was, I am God, the eternal God. And they picked up rocks
to kill him because he made himself equal with God. He was equal
with God. And then in the next chapter,
in John chapter, after he did that in John chapter 8, he proves
it. He proves His deity. How? By
healing the man that was born blind. He said that in John chapter
9 verse 3. He said, neither hath this man
sinned nor his parents, but this is why he was born blind, that
the works of God should be made manifest. I must work the works of Him
that sent me while it is day. The night cometh when no man
can work, and as long as I am in the world, I am the light
of the world." Compare that with what we just read. Isn't that
what He just told His disciples in John 11? He said there's 12
hours in a day. If a man walk in the day, he
stumbleth not, because he seeeth the light of the world. Jesus
said, I am the light of the world. I reveal things. Isn't that what light does? I'm
not speaking over anybody, am I? When you caught on a light,
you do it for a reason, to see. Okay? Jesus is telling them,
I am the light so you might see. See what? See that I am deity,
that I am not just a man, I am the God-man. And I'm going to
prove it by allowing my friend to die so that I can go and raise
him from the dead so that you might believe. This is the purpose
of him allowing his friend to die. He had purpose to allow
his sickness to die so that he might go and raise him from the
dead so that you would have no excuse as to believing his deity. Purpose of this tearing until
Lazarus was dead and returning to Bethany was for the glory
of God, to manifest the glory of God by raising this friend
from the dead. Now, when Martha came, Jesus
said, Lazarus had died, and now then he's on his way. And he
gets close, and Martha hears that he's coming, and so Martha
runs out to him. And she says the first thing
that every one of us would have said. Lord, if you'd been here,
He had not died. She blamed him. She blamed him. Lord, if thou had been here,
my brother had not died. You know, Mary said the same
thing. They must have been talking together. They were women, and
they were upset, and they were all, they must have chatted together
these two days as he was on his way in. Four days he'd laid in
the tomb. They must have been talking. Oh, Lord! Man, if God
would, if Christ would have been here, then he wouldn't have died.
Why did he leave us? Why did he tarry? And so when
he came, they let him have it. Lord, why? Martha was a woman of great faith
in Christ, and yet she's like every believer that is confused
as to why the Lord tarries in our time of need. Lord, why did
you allow my brother to come into such affliction? Why are
you allowing us to go through such great trouble? Why did you
not heal my child? Why did you not heal my spouse?
Why did you allow this? Why did you allow that? If you
had been here, this wouldn't have happened. Surely, if you just put forth
your hand, all of our troubles would flee away. But I'll tell you what, Martha,
in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, had also faith. Look
at this, she says, but I know. This is what I feel. Lord, if
you'd been here, he wouldn't have died. But this is what I
know. Isn't that just like every one of us who believe? Don't
we have these two natures? The old man who spits out, Lord,
you're to blame, and then all of a sudden the new man says,
but I know. I know you're of God. I know! I tell you we don't know much
we don't know much but in time of great trouble you should stick
to what you know rather you should cling to who you know Jesus Christ God I don't know
why But I do know you. And God, if you would please
just give me strength to cling to the hymn of your garment.
I'm not worthy to grab ahold of your legs. I want to. I want
to grab ahold of your legs in this trouble. But if you'll just
give me the skirt, if you'll just give me the hymn to hang
on to, I know you. I know that when you talk to
God, He listens. That's what she said. She said,
I know whatsoever you ask of God, he'll give it to you. And Jesus said to her, thy brother
shall rise again. And she said, I know, Lord. Oh,
boy. How many times do we say that
to our Lord? I know, I know, I know. I know he'll rise again at the
resurrection at the last day. Oh, but Jesus was going to reveal
something great about himself. Look at this in verse 25. He
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? When Lazarus died, he didn't
die. You believe that? That's what he was telling her.
He said, I'm the resurrection and the life. He that believeth
in me shall never die. You believe that? Do I believe that? And all Martha could come up
with is, yes, Lord, whatever you said. I know she didn't fully
understand that. She said, I know, yes Lord! I
believe thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which is come
into the world. That's all I know. That's all I know. I know who
you are. I don't fully understand what you just said, but I know
this, I know you. I believe you. Jesus tells her plainly. that
the reason for Lazarus dying was to show his deity. That he
did not come to heal his beloved friend. Why? And why he must
die. so that by the raising of Lazarus
from the dead, He should show how He saves sinners. This whole event is for a purpose. Jesus is showing us His deity. He is showing us how it is He
saves sinners. How does He save sinners? He
raises them from the dead. That's how. If you're ever going
to be saved, it is by a resurrection. A miracle. A miracle. Now there is coming a day in
which God will judge all the world. There is coming a day
and there's a resurrection. Every one of your friends, every
one of your loved ones who have died, they will be raised from
the dead. And so when you die and your
body goes down to the ground, there is a resurrection. Everybody's
going to be part of this resurrection. They're going to be raised from
the dead. Their spirit and body will be reunited and God will
judge all men and there will be a division made. There will
be a distinction made. All of the righteous shall enter
into heaven and all of the unrighteous shall enter into hell forever. Forever. It is a final judgment. A final resurrection. A resurrection
unto death and a resurrection unto life. Which one will you
be in? Now, you're going to die. Except
the Lord come back first, you'll die. That is a guaranteed fact. A hundred out of a hundred surveyed,
all will die. All will die. Most likely, everyone
in this room will die. I know you teenagers think you've
got so much more time. So did I. So did Joanne. who is, imagine, the oldest one
in the room. So did her husband. So did her
sister, who are now dead. They had life like you. They
had energy. They had a rebellious heart just
like you. And I'll tell you, we all shall
soon die. And after this, what? What's
next? The judgment. The judgment. And I tell you this. Listen to
me very carefully. If you are not born again of
the Spirit of God, you will die in your sins. Jesus said you must be born again. What is he talking about, born
again? You must be resurrected from the dead. Revelation chapter 20 and verse
6 says, Blessed and holy is he that hath part... Listen, in
the first resurrection, On such the second death shall
have no power. The first death is your bodily
death. The second death is eternal death. Now, who shall escape eternal
death? Only those who have part in the
first resurrection. What is the first resurrection?
It is the resurrection of the soul. It is a resurrection of
life. It is faith in Jesus Christ. That's what it is. It's a resurrection. If you are to have any part in
the resurrection unto eternal life, you must first have a part
in a new birth, a resurrection of the soul. Now then, see the
picture. I want you to see the picture
that God paints by this history. This man Lazarus who died is
a picture of you. You and I are Lazarus. Lazarus was what? Dead. Dead. We are born dead. We are born dead. As Lazarus was without breath,
without life, without strength, and without feeling. Even so
were we born into this world without strength, without life,
and without feeling. Spiritually speaking, this is
not physical. Obviously you were born with
some life, a physical life, but inside you were born dead. You
were born liars. You were born haters of God. We had physical life, but we
were dead to the things of God. We, by nature, went about to
establish our own righteousness, and we thought that God should
accept us. We thought that we were the offended
party. Isn't that how you feel, who
are lost? You are lost. You think you're offended. You
think God should come down and save you because of who you are.
You're special. You think you're real special.
Man, if God's going to save me, man, He's going to have to do
something for me. He's going to have to work some
kind of miracle in front of me or something because I'm just
too good for this. No, you're dead. You can't feel your guilt of
sin. You can't feel your shame of sin. You can't You can't even
know who God is or what God demands. You make it up in your mind what
God is and you have a God in your mind, a puny little God,
a little God that you can put over in a corner. Little God,
I saw this in a movie one time, some guy was about to sin and
he had a little figure of Jesus and he threw a cover over it
so he can hide. You see, that's a puny God. That's
your God. Your God, you think you can hide
from Him. Not God. Not God. You won't hide from
Him. This is why lost men cannot feel
guilt or shame. This is why they expose their
shame. They flaunt it. This is why men
will not come to Christ for sovereign mercy. You will not plead. You
will not weep. Though we poke you, though we
prod you, though we weep for you, though we cry for you, though
we were to take the Bible and beat you over the head with it,
you're not going to feel one thing because you're dead. You're
dead. What do you need? You don't need
to reform. If I were to lay a rotten corpse
on this table right here this morning, you can beat him, you
can kick him, you can try your best to plead with him, and what
is he going to do? He's going to lay there and be
dead. There's nothing you can do. What does he need? He needs something that I can't
give him. Kathy, you have children and
grandchildren and they need something you can't give them. I have children whom I love and
they need something I can't give them. They need life. Sinners need life. Secondly, notice that Jesus Christ
is the resurrection. When Jesus came to this tomb,
I see Him. Here He is. He comes to the tomb.
He said, Where did you lay Him? He's weeping. And I tell you,
He's not weeping for Lazarus. He's upset. He's upset at the
unbelief of the people. He's upset at the unbelief of
the people. And he gets some men together
and he says, take away the stone. They put Lazarus, not in the
ground like we do, they put him in a cave. That's the way they
buried their dead. They put him in a cave and rolled
a big stone over it so it'd keep all the smell out. You know,
we got formaldehyde and all kinds of things and bombing people.
They can last a little bit longer without stinking, right? But
back then they didn't have none of that. So when a man died,
almost immediately his flesh began to rot off of his bones.
And he began to stink. It was a stench. And so they
put the stone over it to hide the body. Nobody wanted to see
that rotten corpse. Nobody wanted to smell that rotten
flesh. And now Jesus says, you guys,
move that stone away. Martha says, whoa, whoa, wait,
wait. He's been dead for four days,
Lord. He stinks. You don't want to
open that tomb. There's stench in there. Get this. Preachers are commanded
of God to roll away the stone. I'm a stone roller. I go to the graves this morning
and I roll away the stone from your tomb. And as soon as I do,
out pours this stench. What is that stench? It's your
sin. Preachers are only to preach
the Word of God and by doing so I expose who you are. I don't follow you around. I
don't take notes as to what you're doing and what you're not doing.
I'm telling you, you sin and your sin reeks in the nostrils
of God. This morning as I rolled away
the stone, the stench of man's sin begins to come out, and like
Ezekiel, I begin to preach to dead bones. This morning I'm
preaching to dead people. Some of you are dead, and I'm
preaching to you anyway. I don't make human logical sense,
does it? Preach to dead bones. Why would
you do that? I'd do it because God told me
to. And like Ezekiel, he was asked of God, can these bones
live? And you know what I say? Lord,
you know. I don't know. You know if you're going to make
them live or not. That's not my business. In other
words, a stone roller, we don't do anything to give life. These
guys, when they rolled away that stone, they didn't make the corpse
smell and they didn't raise the corpse from the dead. All they
did was roll away the... Expose it. All I'm doing is exposing
the truth to you. That's it. The preachers just exposed the
truth. What you need is the Lord Jesus to stand in front of the
tomb of your heart and say, Lazarus, come forth. And that's what He
did. He took away the stone, He prayed,
and He said with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. See then that salvation is not
an invitation. He did not say, Lazarus, will
you come forth? Lazarus, pretty please, would
you just accept me into your heart? Lazarus, now if you make
the first step, I'll make the rest. That's not what he said. He said, Lazarus, get out and
come here. What do you suppose Lazarus did?
Do you suppose he laid there a minute and scratched his head
and said, well, Lord, you know, just give me a minute. I want to roll around in my decayed
corpse a few more minutes. Just give me a few more minutes.
Isn't that some of the stupidest things we say when we were young?
Well, I won't come to Jesus because I got so much to do. Oh, I got
so much to sin, and I'll come later. I'll tell you what, if
you'll come later, He's not calling you. He's not calling you. When He calls you, you will come.
There's no question here. This is a statement of command.
Lazarus come forth and and he that was dead came forth. Is that what your Bible says? That's what mine says. It says
he came forth. Lazarus come forth, he came forth.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and everyone who hears this of
the voice of Jesus Christ will believe. The hour is coming,
and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God, and they that hear shall what? Live. No question. No question. You see, my Savior
is God. And whatever He says goes. When
He commands, it happens. It happens. This is the effectual
call of grace, and I am sure if Jesus did not put Lazarus
in front of it, that every grave in all of the world would have
come up. Imagine if Jesus said, Come forth! Every grave in the world would
have come up. But He didn't say every grave,
did He? he said particularly Lazarus come forth and Lazarus
came forth even so it is with salvation
not all men are going to be raised from the dead only those that
God calls In John chapter 10, the Lord
says to these Pharisees, you believe not because you are not
of my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I
know them and they follow me. In verse 3 of that chapter, he
said, my sheep hear his voice and he calleth them, how? By
name. By name. When he calls you, he'll
call you by name. Behold, the Son of God who came
to honor the law for us who could not honor the law. Behold, the
Son of God who offered His blood for an atonement for our sins
has now risen to the throne of God and sent His Spirit into
the world to do what? To manifest the glory of God
in raising sinners from the dead. Do you suppose He'll fail? Do you suppose He'll fail in
this work? He will not fail. He will not fail. The scripture
says that He will not fail nor be discouraged. So everyone He
comes to and calls, they will have life. They will come forth
from the grave. And as life filled the corpse
of Lazarus, even so everyone that Jesus Christ calls shall
be given a new heart, a new life, and they shall be as holy as
God. You see, I believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and this is no small thing. Faith is like breath to
the living. I was dead and without faith.
Now I'm alive and I have faith. And when God called me, I came
out the same way Lazarus did. Notice how Lazarus comes out. Lazarus come forth, and he that
was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes."
Okay, here it is. He's bound hand and foot. How do you suppose he came forth? You ever thought of that? His
legs were tied together I imagine he could have hopped or something,
but this was miraculous altogether. He came forth bound hand and
foot. In other words, he came as he
was. Grave clothes and all. And if
you'll ever come to Christ, you'll come as you are. If you tarry till you're better, well, I just
need to wait till I get better. You'll never come at all. You're
not going to get better. You're going to get worse. When Christ calls you, you will
come as a sinner bound. And notice this, he came bound
in hand and foot so that he would receive no glory. Isn't that
right? Did Lazarus have anything to
do with his coming? He was bound hand and foot. He could receive no glory for
this miracle. Neither will you receive any
glory for this miracle. He bound his hands to show that
he could do no work. He bound his feet because the
scripture says it is not of him that willeth nor him that runneth,
but God that showeth mercy. You see the faith that we have
in Jesus Christ is by the exceeding great power of God alone. You
read that later in Ephesians 1. Ephesians 1 verse 18 through
19 tells us that the faith that we have is by the exceeding greatness,
greatness of His power. You see faith is no small thing.
Faith is by the exceeding greatness of God's power. Just like resurrection
from the dead is no light thing, neither is faith in Christ a
light thing. And all who have been called
from life to death hear the voice of what Jesus said now to you. Here he is, he comes forth, he's
bound hand and foot in grave clothes, a napkin's on his face,
can't even see where he's going. And what does the Lord say? Say
to those men that rolled away the stone, what does he say to
them? Loosen and let him go. I'll obey. If you are a believer in Christ,
you are free. Free from the guilt of sin. Free. Free from the power of
sin. free from condemnation, free
from the judgment of God, free to receive all of the love and
blessings that God has to give you. Here it is, free. You are heirs of all things. free. I'm not here to bind you again.
I'm not here to command you. I'm here to set you free. Why? He said to. That's not natural
for me. What's natural for me to start
laying a bunch of rules and regulations on you. I'm not going to do that.
If you're waiting for me to put more more grave clothes on you,
I won't do it. You're here because you want
to be here. Because you're free to be here. You're not bound
to be here. You don't want to be here. Don't! God's people will want to, because
they're free. You see, I was bound to stay
outside this place. But now that I'm free, I come
in this place. This is freedom to me. Is it
to you? It's freedom to hear the gospel
for me. It's freedom to preach the gospel. You that have been raised from
the dead, you are forgiven of all your sins. Not by this man. By that man. The man who called
you from death to life. Give Him praise. May God bless this to your hearts.
Let's stand and be dismissed in prayer.