I'll wait on him. I'll raise the window over there
and tell him to get in here. I'm going to go see him. Get
in here, old man. I was just ready to come out and
get you. I thought you were getting... No, I put that cable back out,
John. Okay. That's where it got me,
too. Did it? Oh. All right, John chapter 11. He
that was dead came forth. It has to do with Lazarus here
as we were talking earlier. Now verse 1 and 2 says, 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. Now, Lazarus is sick, and they
send someone to the Lord to tell him that Lazarus is sick. And the person that comes to
him says, the one whom thou lovest is sick. I love that statement. Because He doesn't say, Lazarus,
Lord, who loves you, is sick. But He says, Lord, the one whom
you love is sick. They believed, when they sent
to the Lord, that He would immediately come, because of His love for
Lazarus, that He would immediately come and heal him. They believed
that. They knew that the Lord took
care of His own and that He would surely come and take care of
Lazarus. And the Lord tells them, He says, This sickness, in verse
4, is not unto death, but for the glory of God. And no doubt
this person goes back to them and tells them what the Lord
said. And you know this gave them hope. You know how much
hope this gave them. I'm sure it relieved their fear
of Lazarus dying from this sickness. The Lord said, this sickness
is not unto death. And Mary and Martha, I'm sure,
their spirit was lifted. I thought of what David said
in the Psalms. He said, I hope in Thy Word. What gives you hope? What really
gives you hope? It's His Word. That's the promises
He's given us in His Word. It's His Word that gives us hope.
And the Lord said, This sickness is not unto death. And they took
Him at His Word. They believed Him. They believed
Him. Now, in verse 5 He says, Jesus loved Martha and her sister
and Lazarus. And no doubt John writes this
because of what is about to happen. He loved that family. There's nothing that I would
rather have said of me and my family than this right here,
that the Lord loved my family. There's nothing greater, nothing
greater. Jesus loved Martha and her sister
and Lazarus. But there's something else here,
the reason this is said. is that we should not let circumstances
determine our judgment of God's love. Don't we do that too much?
Too often, our circumstances, we think God loves us, and then
things are going well, you know, He loves us, and things are going
bad, He doesn't love us. No, don't judge God's love by
circumstances. If we did that, The Scripture
that says, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. If you were
able to see the outward circumstance of Jacob and Esau, you would
think God loved Esau and hated Jacob, wouldn't you? Jacob said
to Pharaoh when he was speaking to Pharaoh, he said, I have not
attained unto the days of my father, That is, I haven't lived
as long as they have lived. He said, My days have been full
of evil. They've been few and full of
evil, that is, full of trouble. Esau's the one who had an army.
You know, when Jacob sent stuff to him, he said, I have enough.
You don't need to give me these things. I've got enough. Don't judge God's love by circumstances,
by what's going on. You know, if something is going
on that's very difficult, that doesn't mean God doesn't love
you. He chastens every son whom He receives. Whom the Lord loves,
He chastens. You would think, if that were
the case, Job would probably be the most hated if we went
by circumstances. God took all of His children,
all of His servants, took His health, but God loved that man. He loved that man. Now, Christ,
in verse 6, stays two days longer. After hearing this, He stays
two days longer where He was. You see, the great physician
need not be in a hurry. Everything's under His care.
Everything's under control. But also here we see this. He
demonstrates His sovereignty. He demonstrates it. He's the
sovereign. He's going to come, but He's
going to do it in His time. He's going to take care of Lazarus
in His time. And it's going to be a time when
it most benefits God's glory and the good of His children.
So he stays two days longer in the same place. And after he
purposely, purposely stayed away, he says, let us go into Judea. And they said, well, Lord, the
Jews want to kill you. Why do you want to go there for?
Why do you want to go there? They didn't understand that he
was going to go there and raise Lazarus. He knew. being God,
he knew Lazarus was dead. Lazarus was his child, one of
his sons. He knew he had passed away. But
to him, we'll see this, to the Lord he's just asleep. He said,
he sleepeth. We'll see this in a minute. But
he's going to go there now and raise Lazarus, and also he has
to go there anyway himself to die. They said, don't you know
the Jews want to kill you? Yes, they do. I know this. And that's why I came into the
world. Jesus Christ is the only man who purposely came into the
world to die. We all try to keep living, don't
we? We do. Doctor says you got this or you
got that. I know I would too. We try to keep living. Christ
is the only man who came to die. You know when He was on the Mount
of Transfiguration, He spoke to Moses and Elijah, and you
know what they spoke of? The death that He should accomplish. Death was an accomplishment for
the Lord. He accomplished our salvation.
He accomplished our redemption. It was an accomplishment. And
then He says to them in verse 9 and 10, If any man walk in
the day, he stumbles not. But if he walks at night, he
stumbles because he has no light in him. And what He's telling
them here is this, there is a fixed time to work. And the Lord is
saying, I have a fixed time to work and it's right now. It's
now. He has a fixed time to work out
our redemption. He had a fixed time to work out
our righteousness. He must be about his father's
business. He says, right now, it's day, it's light. I must
be about my father's business. And that's redeeming sinners.
That's redeeming sinners. And these things He said there
in verse 11, these things said He, and after that He said unto
them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth. Two days had gone by, and He
says, Our friend. What if He said, Our friend John
or Doug or Peggy, Our friend sleepeth. God called him a friend. Like he did Abraham. Abraham
is my friend. These things said he, and after
that he said, our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may
wake him out of sleep. You know, this is how it really
is with those who die in the Lord. We'll see later, he says, those
who believe me shall never die. It's a sleep. It's just like
you shut your eyes at night time to go to sleep, you wake up this
morning. For a believer, it's to shut their eyes in this life
and to wake up in the presence of the Lord. It's a sleep. And his disciples said, if he's
asleep, he shall do well. You know, one of the things I
thought of this morning because When the Lord spoke to Martha,
Mary, about the resurrection, she said, I know He'll rise in
the resurrection in the last day. And here the disciple says,
well, if He's asleep, He shall do well. I thought, I'm glad,
and this shows me how ignorant I can be and still be saved. I don't have to know everything.
But you know what I do have to know? Him. Him. I'll show you this as we go along. He is asleep. And this is how
we must think of death. When one dies in Christ, they
are asleep. And listen, they do well. They
say, if he's asleep, he doeth well. Everyone who dies in Christ
does well. They're with Him. Couldn't be
any better. Couldn't be any better. You know,
our brother Don went to be with the Lord here just a week or
so ago, and he's well now. He's well. All that sickness,
all that pain, all that suffering is gone. It's gone. I try, from time to time, I try
to imagine what that's like. But I can't even scratch the
surface. I can't scratch the surface of what it is like to
have no sin, no sorrow, no pain, no suffering. No heartache. If he's asleep, he does well.
But he says in verse 13, but he spake of his death. As far
as this world is concerned, yes, he's dead. As far as God's concerned,
he's just asleep. That's all it is. And I'm glad,
he says in verse 15, I'm glad for your sakes I was not there
to the intent you may believe. I'm glad for your sakes, and
this is why he stayed away. This is why he allowed him to
die on purpose. Lazarus is okay. Lazarus is asleep. Lazarus is just fine. This is
for you. This is for you. to the intent
or for the purpose that you may believe. That you may believe
what? In me. That you may believe me, trust
me, look to me, and find your hope and rest in me at all times,
in all situations. Because they were going to face
some hard, hard situations down the road. I'm glad for your sakes I was
not there. All that our Lord sends our way is to strengthen
our faith in Him. Christ is saying that He was
glad that He was not there to prevent Him from dying because
what He's going to do in raising Him is going to strengthen their
faith. They're going to see something. They're going to see something.
They're going to see Him raise the dead. And this will be useful
for them down the road when they will preach in the gospel that
Christ will raise those who are spiritually dead. It's no challenge to His power
to raise the dead. And it's no challenge to His
power to give spiritual life. It's no challenge to His power. I know this. If we did not need
a trial, our Lord would not send it. All trials are need-be trials
for God's children, every one of them, they're all need-be.
As you said over in 1 Peter, if need be, that you're tried
with fiery trials, if need be, God will send them. If it were left up to us, we
would never have a trial. Would we? If it were left up
to us, we would never, we'd never have a loved one pass into glory. We wouldn't let him go. Would
we? We wouldn't let him go. We wouldn't
do it. Let me say a few things here
on trials. Trials are absolutely necessary for the growth of faith.
He said, I'm glad for you, your sakes, that I wasn't there, because
this is going to help you in faith, in this matter of faith,
it's going to help you in faith. Just as rain is necessary for
the crops to grow, So trials are necessary for faith to grow.
It's not going to grow any other way. No, it's not going to grow.
You're going to have to have, you know, for crops to grow,
you've got to have two things. You're going to have to have
sunshine. You're going to have to have rain. The same is with faith. He's got to, it's like fertilize. Trial is like fertilize. I mean,
it strengthens faith. Then trials prove if we have
faith or not. I want to know, right? I want
to know in this life that the faith I have is genuine. Do you want to know that? Well,
the only way you're going to know, the only way it's going
to be proven is by trials. And then trials teach us our
dependence on our Lord. Christ said, without me, you
can do nothing. But now, do we always believe
that? No. We don't always believe that. Sometimes we think we can
do about anything. I heard a man say that one time. He said, I
believe I can do just about anything. Christ said, without me, you
can do nothing. Nothing. And trials teach us how frail
we are. How frail we are. We see that right now with this
virus, how frail we are. And then trials are always connected
to the glory of God and our eternal good, and they teach us that
His grace is sufficient. The grace of God is sufficient.
Now in verse 17, when Jesus came, He found that He had lain in
the grave four days already, and no doubt Martha and Mary
were crushed. You know they were crushed. They
had had this high. The Lord said this sickness is
not unto death. They were on this high. He said he's not going
to die. And they took him at his word,
and he died. You ever pray about something
that you would ask God not to let happen, and it does anyway? Huh? It does anyway. They took our Lord at His Word.
He said, This sickness is not unto death. They hoped in His
Word. And I know they kept looking
for Him to show up. They kept looking out the window
saying, Is He coming? And they kept looking for Him.
He didn't even show up at the funeral. He didn't even show up at the
funeral. You know how devastated they were. They knew He loved
Lazarus. Why did He not come? He said
this sickness is not unto death. Can such love allow such pain? Can such love allow such pain? God's love, listen, God's love
is not always demonstrated in what He gives, but also in what
He takes away. Job, as I've mentioned earlier,
Job's a good example of God's love. We must learn to trust
our Father at all times. Remember that old program that
was on years ago, Father Knows Best? He does, doesn't he? Our Father
knows best. He does. But consider this. He has not
done to any of His children what He did to His Son. Whatever God sends my way is
nothing compared to what He did to His Son in my place. Now,
as I said earlier, Christ allowed Lazarus to die on purpose. God allowed all His children
to die in Adam on purpose. Did He? Yes, He did. And He did so for
His eternal glory and their eternal good. We would not know, and
I want you to get a hold of this, we would not know the depth of
the love and grace of God any other way. Well, let me mention this and
I will mention the scripture to it. The angels, the elect
angels, the ones that did not fall, they will never know the
very depth of the love and the mercy of the grace of God that
you and I know. Peter said, listen here, in 1
Peter 1.12, unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselves
but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported
unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire
to look into." The angels desire to look into these things that
you and I know. The Son of God has come and given us an understanding. Look over in Revelation 5. It
says in verse 8, And when he had taken the book, The four beasts and four and
twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of
them harps and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers
of the saints. And they sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof,
for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood
out of every kindred, tongue, and people, and nation, and hast
made us unto our God kings and priests, and we shall reign on
the earth, that is, that new earth. And I beheld, and I heard
the voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beasts,
and the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times
ten thousand of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is
the Lamb that was slain to receive power." riches, wisdom, strength,
and honor, and glory, and blessing. And every creature which is in
heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as
are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I say, blessing,
and honor, and glory, and power be unto him that sitteth upon
the throne, and unto the Lamb forever and ever." That's our
song. Worthy is the Lamb. We sing that
now. Worthy is the Lamb who has redeemed
us. We could not know the depth of
God's love and grace any other way. And I tell you this, right
now in this life, we just know a little bit of it. We really
do. We just know a little bit of it. What we are about to know
of the depth of God's love, the height, the depth, the breadth,
the width of the love of God, the scripture says that passes
understanding. We just know a little bit of it now, but in glory,
Then we will know the depth of God's love and grace and mercy
to us in Christ. Now, in verse 21, when Martha
heard that He had come, she went to Him and fell at His feet and
said, and you know this, I think this is one of the reasons
it says Jesus wept. She said, if you'd have been
here, my brother wouldn't have died. See how little she still knew,
but yet she was one of his. If you'd been here, my brother
had not died. We know that Christ could have
spoken the word only and healed him, but what would that have
done for their faith in God's glory? We are so caught up in looking
at the little picture that we miss the big picture, don't we? We keep looking at those little
photo albums and we miss the whole picture, the big picture.
God's eternal glory and our relationship to it is the big picture. And
when we finally see the big picture in glory, we will see and understand
that all these things were but light afflictions. They were
just a line of fiction. All these things are part of
conforming us to the image of Christ. But now look, in verse 22, here's
the answer of faith. But I know, I know, that even
now, whatsoever thou would ask of God, God will give it to thee.
She believed, she believed in her heart that He was the Son
of God, He's the Messiah. And Jesus said to her, Thy brother
will rise again. Now, class is in session. Now class is in session. Now
the Lord's going to instruct. He's going to teach. And Martha
said, I know He'll rise again in the resurrection at the last
day. I know this. She believed in the resurrection
of the dead. She said, I know He'll do this. And the Lord gives
her a revelation of the resurrection. And He's standing in front of
her. The resurrection is standing right in front of her. Jesus
said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. We need to quit
separating doctrine from Christ. He is the doctrine. He is the resurrection and the
life. If you are looking for an event
called the resurrection, you're going to miss Him. But if you're
looking for Him, you will not miss the event. You won't miss it. And notice
here, he says, though he were dead, yet shall he live. He didn't
say live again. He's alive now. He's alive now. He's still alive. He's not dead. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believeth thou this, do you believe
this? I'm serious. Do you believe you're
not going to die? When you and I are able to really
believe that we are not going to die, we'll be able to start
living. Because you won't be living in
the light of, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm not going
to die. This body is going to go to the
dust. I'm going to go be with the Lord
and I'm going to receive a new body. I'm not going to taste
one drop of death. None of it. None of it. The other morning, or the other,
well, just a few days ago, I usually wake up two or three times during
the night. But I went to sleep a day or two ago, and I mean,
it was like that. And I thought, wow, I didn't
wake up till 7.15, it was 7.15. And I thought, man, that was
fast. I didn't wake up at all, and it was like a second. that I had gone to bed and I
woke up. And I woke up and it was a new day, a new morning.
I felt good. That's what it should be like.
Paul said to be absent from the bodies, be present with the Lord.
It's just a second. Just a second. I'm not going to die. I'm not
going to die. You're not going to die. If you
believe the gospel, if you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're
not going to die. You're just going to go from
here to there. That's the way it is. But I like what she said in verse
27. This is why I said we can be so ignorant of many things.
But there is one thing we cannot be ignorant of, and she gives
it. It's like she's saying this,
well, I don't know about all this. But, in verse 27, I believe
that thou art to Christ, the Son of the living God, which
shall come into the world. Brethren, that's salvation. You
can believe all the doctrines and split hell wide open, but
you cannot believe Jesus Christ. Believe on Him. Look to Him,
trust Him, and be lost. And if you and I really trust
Him, He will lead us into the right doctrine. And I tell you
this, that's when you get it right. when you get Christ first. If you get the doctrine first
and not Christ, you're going to get it wrong. If nothing else,
you'll get the spirit of it wrong. She said, I don't know much about
what you're saying here, but I know this, you're the Messiah,
the Son of God, the one promised back in the Garden of Eden, the
seed of the woman. You're the Son of God, the Messiah.
You know the word God tells us, walk in the light that God has
given us and He'll give us more light. Walk in the light God's
given you and He'll give you more light. Then Mary came to
Him. She said the same thing. If you'd
have been here, my brother wouldn't have died. And it says there
in verse 35 that Jesus wept. He felt their pain, but He also
felt the unbelief that was around Him. I heard someone say He wept
because He's bringing Lazarus back into this world. But I like what Matthew Henry
said. Matthew Henry said he felt everything he took away. He felt
their pain. Our high priest feels our infirmities. And then he said to them in verse
39, I'll close here quickly. He says to them, take away the
stone. You know, God uses means in saving sinners. This is what
preaching does. Preaching in the hand of the
Holy Spirit removes the stones. Those things that cause us to
stumble. And Martha said, by this time,
Lord, He's been there four days. By this time He stinketh. He
has been dead for four days. Well, so do we by nature. We
stink. We stink. I tell you what, just
don't take a bath for a few days. I used to work as a carry out
when I was 16 years old. And there was an old gentleman
that would come in there. We called him Rat Man, because
he lived below the store in a one little old teeny trailer. I mean,
teeny, tiny trailer. And of course, the rats were
always down there by the river. And we called him Rat Man. But
boy, when he walked in that store, everybody scattered. That man
probably didn't take a bath. I don't know when he could have
taken a bath. That's human nature. That's human nature. By now he
stinketh. Living things smell of grace
and kindness and life. I tell you, just... One thing as I've gotten older,
when I see youth, youth is beautiful, isn't it? You know, in school,
when you're in school now, when you're in school, you're like,
oh, he's attractive, or she's attractive, and this one is not,
and this one is. But I tell you what, when you
finally get older and you get enough sense, you look at youth. Youth
itself is beautiful. It's just beautiful. Because
it's such an expression of life. It's such an expression of life. But here in the last few verses
here, our great high priest prays. And it says, Jesus lifted up
His eyes and said, Father, I thank You that Thou hast heard me.
And I know that You always hear me. But because of the people
who stand by, I said it, that they might believe. And here's the call. And the
Lord, in verse 33, He says, And when He thus had spoken, He cried
with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth! Someone said if he hadn't
used the name of Lazarus, if he had just called the dead forth,
they'd all come forth. He says, Lazarus, come forth.
It's a particular call, powerful call, effectual call, sovereign
call, and a certain call. Lazarus, come forth. And he that
was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes,
and his face was bound with a napkin. And Jesus said to them, Loose
him and let him go. That's what happens when God saves a sinner.
He calls him forth from the dead, from being spiritually dead to
spiritual life. And He commands Satan to let
him go. He calls him from darkness to
light.