Go back to John 11 with me now.
John 11. Every book, every chapter, every
verse, every line in God's Word is so full. Every chapter, book, line, verse,
every word is so full, full of glory, full of wonder, full of
mystery, full of truth, wisdom, knowledge, full of Christ at
eyes to see. None more so than the shortest
verse in the Bible. Verse 35, Jesus wept. Oh, the mystery, the wonder,
the glory, the Son of God came to this earth. Down in verse
33, it says He groaned in the Spirit and was troubled. You
look at your margin, see what the margin says? He troubled
himself. He put himself through trouble.
He didn't have to come here. He was going to save us, he did. But in order to save us, he put
himself through trouble, sorrow, grief. We sang that song, Man
of Sorrows, what a name. For the Son of God who came ruined
sinners to reclaim." Hallelujah. Because we're so troubled. We're
so full of troubles. Man is born a woman in a few
days and full of troubles. So, the Son of God came and troubled
Himself. Why would He go to the trouble? For who did He come for? Me? Oh boy. Hallelujah. What a saint. Man
of sorrows. Surely, Scripture says, he hath
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. All his life, all
his life he bore our griefs and carried our sorrows. The man
who was touched with the feeling of our infirmities encompassed
himself with the same infirmity. He carried these griefs and these
sorrows, and then one day on the cross of Calvary, carried
them away. If we'd realized that, we wouldn't
be so full of trouble. We looked at the first part of
this chapter, how it says, he whom the Lord loves is sick.
Lazarus, the Lord loved Lazarus and Mary and Martha greatly.
The Jews even acknowledge that. Behold how He loved them. You
just don't know. We just don't know. We really
don't know how much the Lord loves His people. Do you, you
being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children?
You who are sinners, love your children? You love your children.
I don't see how anybody could love their children more than
I do, but there is one. The Lord God. That love you have
came from Him. And it pales in comparison to
His love. Behold what manner of love. That's
what John said. Behold what manner of love the
Father has bestowed upon us. A beloved brother and friend,
Lazarus, was he a Somebody's son, where his parents were living,
doesn't mention them. Was he a husband? He doesn't
say. Maybe he was. He doesn't mention
his wife. But was he a father? Did he have
children? Was he married? Was he a widower? Maybe. Did he have children?
He doesn't say. But he was deathly sick. Who sent this sickness? Why was
he sick? The Lord sent him. The Lord made
him sick. And his brothers and sisters
were full of sorrow for their brother, and they sent word to
the Lord that he whom thou lovest is sick. They were distraught.
They were in trouble. They were worried. And it was urgent, and they sent
word. Can you hear the anguish in their
voices through the word that they sent? Lord, he whom thou
lovest is sick. Hurry. But he didn't. He didn't make
haste. Did he? He that believeth shall not make
haste. Our Lord was never in a hurry. Oh, for faith like this. Are
you with me? We recently had an emergency
in our house. Something happened to me. And
then we were all greatly troubled, weren't we? Weren't we, Isabel?
And it was an emergency, we thought. It was to us. We're creatures
of time, aren't we? We're subjects of time. The Lord
knows that. And we think, hurry! We've got
to do something. We do that all the time, don't
we? We've got to do something. He never did. Look at Luke chapter
21. This is something we need to
dwell on. And this is what our Lord told
His disciples. You say, but He knew the end
from the beginning. He knew what we don't know. Hold
on now. He's told us, hasn't He? Hasn't
He told us? He told, I tell you these things so that when they
come to pass, you'll know. But we forget, don't we? But He knows
that. He knows that, so He keeps reminding
us. But I want you to think about this. Though our Lord knew all
things from the beginning, He purposed all things, but from
the beginning, our Lord knew He was going to go and endure
to come to this earth and suffer and endure all this that we endure. Hunger and thirst and weariness
and hardships and pain and grief. Would you do that if you... Knew
it was coming. Would you do that? Would you
go somewhere where you know all you're going to have is nothing
but grief and pain and sorrow? Would you do that? Would you
go there? He did. He who knew no time, who was
not subject to time, made himself subject to time. He endured,
like us, we're subject to time. These pains and sufferings and
hunger and thirst, You ever been so thirsty, you thought, I'm
going to die if I don't get something to drink. I'm going to hunger
if I don't. Our Lord endured all that. Endured all that. And ultimately, facing Calvary's
tree, he knew from the beginning, he was facing Calvary's tree,
his hardest, toughest trial of all that God's going to forsake
him. And he's going to go through hell, literally go through hell
on Calvary's tree. But Scripture says he'd set his
face like a flint. He had to. I'm sure glad this
is a captain of our salvation. This is my captain. Firm, resolute,
strong. He's like David. He's the one
that came and said, Is there not a cause? Well, all these
brothers are back there worried and scared to death and fearful.
Oh, we're the strongest of men. Saul, who was head and shoulders
above everybody, tall and dark and handsome. David was a nothing
and a nobody. Is there not a cause? What's
wrong with you all? Won't anybody go? He saw there
was no man. Isn't that what Scripture said?
The Lord looked and saw that there's no man. So he, by himself,
David said, there's a cause and I'm here for it. And he went
out and faced that adversary and said, I'm going to take your
head off. Resolute. Set his face like a
plan. Nevertheless, it was real. What he went through was real,
real pain, real suffering, real sorrow. He was really forsaken
of God. So much so that when he was in
the garden, he said, I'm going to die right here if the Lord
doesn't sustain me. He sweat blood. We have not resisted
striving against blood, striving against sin. Oh, no. We've never
sweat blood. He groaned in the Spirit, as
Scripture said. Now is my soul exceeding. He
said exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. He said, Behold,
and see if there is any sorrow like unto my sorrow, wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me. He knew that. John, he knew he
was going to face that. And for him, God, the Eternal
God, not subject to time, to subject himself to that time,
and it was... Do you know how long it seemed
to him to be away from the Father? For 30 seconds? Amazing, isn't it? Amazing love,
amazing grace. Luke 21, He told His disciples
all that would befall them. Right? He told them, this is
what you should expect now. Verse 16, He said, You'll be
betrayed by your parents and your brethren, your kinsfolk
and your friends, and some of you shall they cause to be put
to death. They're going to kill you. Verse 17, You shall be hated
of all men for My name's sake. But, He said, and shall not an
hair of your head perish. Oh, my. who numbers the hairs
of our head and not one of them, like the sparrows, not one hair
will fall from your head unless he deems it necessary. My, my,
what about everything else? These little insignificant...
He's showing us that and telling us that to show us that if these
little things we think are insignificant, that he's in control of them. What about the big thing that
happened to us? And in verse 19, here it is.
He said, in your patience, in your patience, possess ye
your souls. Or as we might say, get a hold
of yourself. Trial of your faith. Work with patience, James said. Patience. All right, back to John 11. So
this one he loved was sick. He sent the sickness. But Mary
and Martha were distraught. It was urgent for them. But our
Lord was not in a hurry. He was not in a hurry. And He
waited. He kept them waiting. You know,
those whom the Lord loves, He keeps waiting. He keeps them
waiting. You know, waiting is the hardest
part, isn't it? Isn't it always the hardest part? Some of you
older believers, up in your 70s and 80s, 90s, isn't it still
hard to wait on the Lord? To wait. But waiting Waiting
means you're submitting to anything that the Lord sends, and you're
patiently enduring it, and you're just waiting on the Lord to do
what He has purposed to do. You're waiting. But that's the
hardest part. The hardest part. Now remember, those He loves,
He makes sick. And they have to go through this
waiting period. Sickness, trials, troubles. Wait. We've got to wait on the Lord
and see. The waiting glorifies the Lord. How many times does
it tell us to wait in the Scripture? Are not some of your favorite
Psalms, like Psalm 27, wait? He said, I would have fainted
had I not believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land
of the living. David said, I'm not going to
be able to live if the Lord doesn't give me some comfort here. And
he tells himself, he tells us, wait on the Lord. Again, I say,
wait. You'll see. Wait and you'll see. Then after he waited, verse 2,
two days in the same place, verse 7, he said, let's go into Judea
again. Go back into Judea. And one of
them said unto him, verse 8, or some of his disciples, Lord,
the Jews sought the stone there. You going to go there? They'll
kill you. Didn't he say, no man taketh
my life from me? Didn't he? What about you? Huh? Who kills? The Lord say, I kill. Who wounds? Didn't the Lord say, I wound? What are you afraid of? Huh? They're going to kill you
there. Oh, no. No, no. You know how many Battles
David fought hand-to-hand. For about 50 or 60 years, he
fought hand-to-hand combat with swords and spears. Blood was
shed all around him. And he died an old man. And our Lord waited two days. He waited. And as I quoted from
James, we know this, the trying of our faith work with patience.
Patience, experience. And experience what? Hope. Hope. The Lord purposely waited
for Lazarus to die. Sickness and sorrow are bad enough. Sickness is bad and wading through
a sickness is tough, isn't it? It's tough. Cancer or whatever
it may be, it's tough. One of the toughest things you'll
ever go through. And then they die. And that's the worst thing of
all of it. For us. For us. for us. Nearly everybody in this room
has gone through this sickness. Those whom He loves, He puts
through these things. Makes them wait. They were calling
on the Lord. Went to call on the Lord. It
was urgent for them, not Him. Made them wait. And then the
one they called on Him to heal died. died. So many in the Scriptures. David, that child of Bathsheba
and David, he wouldn't be comforted. He didn't get any sleep. He watered
his couch with his tears and begged, begged, begged the Lord
to save that child. And he didn't. Did he? Then what did he do? Then what
did David do? He got up, dried his face, said,
fix me breakfast. And they said, what? He said,
it's the Lord. He said, I can't bring Him back. He's not coming back to me, but
I'm going to Him. I'm just going to go on. The Lord did that. That's what we have to do. The
Lord purposely waited for Lazarus to die. And it's the worst thing
of all for those who are left behind, those who love the person
that's gone. We think it's the worst thing
that could possibly happen to us. But you know, the one who the
Lord took, if they know the Lord, if they're a believer, you know
it's the best thing that could possibly happen to them. Ecclesiastes 7 says, death is
better than birth. That's what it says. The day
of one's death is better than birth. We go through this vanity
of vanities, this life of vanity. A child's born, you think, oh,
there's so much hope and so much to look forward to. Trouble.
Yeah, there's some good things, but there's some bad things too.
If you live long enough, there'll be just trouble after trouble
and this and that and the other, and then you die. But if you're
a believer now, the day of death is not death at all. It's the
beginning of joy unspeakable and full of glory and no more
trouble, no more sorrow, no more pain, no more sickness, no more
suffering, no more death. Scripture says the last enemy
that's destroyed is death. That's the thing we fear the
most, God. Then, Brother Darwin, then we'll
never think about death. There's no more death. Nothing
to fear. Who wouldn't want that? But we
lose our loved ones, and we don't want to lose them. It's selfish,
but the Lord knows that. We love them. We don't want to
lose them. But have you ever thought about it this way, that
they belong to the Lord? He loved them before you did.
And he says, can I say it this way? I want them now. They're going to be with me from
now on. You're next. You're next. So you're just going
to have to wait for your time. Oh, it's the best. Spurgeon used
to say, he said, I don't know why we fear the best thing that
could possibly happen to us. Our Lord called it sleep. He said, our friend Lazarus sleepeth.
They said, well, he doeth well. No truer words spoken. If he's
sleeping, it's well. He giveth his beloved sleep. Those that fall asleep in Jesus.
That means rest. You know, we're young. It's a
funny thing. Life's a funny thing. Teenager,
if you don't wake them up, they'll just sleep on till the next day.
But they don't want to. When do you wake me up? Our little neighbor, oh, we love
this little guy. His name's Caleb. I hope he's a Caleb. But he misses
the bus all the time. He's 13, 14, 15, I guess. 15, he misses the bus all the
time. He calls me no matter where his
mother works, you know, broken home. Anyway, he calls me and
I miss the bus again. No matter where I am, pretty
much, I'll turn around and go pick him up. You know, you sleep. Isn't that us? We sleep. We're
sleeping the sleep of death. And our Lord comes to awaken.
See, I've come to awaken Lazarus out of his sleep. That's why
our Lord came into this world, to awaken those that are sleeping
the sleep of death. And then when you get older,
you know, you sleep, a teenager, you sleep and sleep and sleep.
And then you get older, you eat less sleep, less sleep. And if
you're out in the world, you don't want to ever sleep. Creature
of the night, darkness. And then the older you get, the
more you want to sleep and can't. Isn't it strange? You can't. Many of us look forward
to going to bed, to sleep. It escapes us though. You wake up
two or three times during the middle of the night. This whole life is a sermon telling
us that nothing's going to satisfy you. He will give his beloved
finally, someday, eternal rest and sleep. What's the fear about
sleep? The older you get, believer,
the older you get, the more you ought to look forward to going
to sleep. Because when you do, you're going
to wake up and go on. Wake up and go on. But death
is the most fearful and dreadful thing of all. It really is. It's
certain, it's inevitable, it's pointed, but nobody wants to
think about it, nobody wants to talk about it. Boy, you want
to hear a good message, listen to Henry Mahan preach on it.
Let's talk about dying. Let's talk about it. We do here,
don't we? All the time. Because it's our
greatest fear. And the Scripture says our Lord
came to deliver them who all their lifetime were subject to
this bondage, this fear of death. He came to deliver us from that.
Why? He's going to destroy death. And He said this to Mary and
Martha. He said, He that liveth and believeth
in Me shall never die. Do you believe this? I do. Don't you? Don't you love
Martha? Don't you love Martha? Don't
you love Mary? I love these ladies. We need both. We need one to
serve, one to sit. We need to be both. I love these
women. I feel like I know them. But
Mary said, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God. I do too. I do too. Lazarus died, and the Lord took
his life. He took him from those who loved
him and needed him. Did anybody need Lazarus? These
sisters, did they need Lazarus? Was Lazarus the one taking care
of them? You know, it was more of man's
world back then than it is even now. Women had a hard time, buddy. They couldn't own anything and
men were the care keepers and all that. Was Lazarus there?
Did they depend on Lazarus? Did they need Lazarus? No, they
didn't need Lazarus. Did Ruth need, did Naomi need
a limeleck? Huh? Madeline and Chalion, her
children, did she need them? No, she didn't. Well, who's going
to take care of her now that they're gone? Boaz. He's waiting. He's waiting on you. No, you don't need anyone but
him. And often he takes away from
us those things and those people we think we need. Why? Show us. There's one. There's one. There's one that
we need. Isn't that right? Isn't that right? You believe
that? There's no hope, no peace, no
comfort otherwise. Listen to the Lord's blessed
promises. He said concerning these fears, verse 9, He said,
If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, he seeth the light
of this world. You walk by faith. You look to
Christ. He'll alleviate most of your
fear. Yes, He will. You look to Him
enough. You call on Him enough. He'll
alleviate all your fears. A man walking at night, he's
going to stumble. He's going to fall. No light in him. He
said, Our friend Lazarus is asleep. They said, well, he sleeps, he
do well. He says he's dead. They didn't understand. He's
dead. Which is he? Is he sleeping or is he dead?
Huh? Is this a contradiction? Is he
alive or is he dead? Which is he? He can't be both.
Oh, yes, you can. You hear me? Yes, you can. You can be dead
and yet alive. You know that? Paul said, reckon
yourself to be what? Paul said, I'm crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I. Christ liveth in me. Reckon yourselves to be dead.
You know, he said, you're dead and your life is hid with Christ
in God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be. This worm is going to turn into
a butterfly. And that right son, the moment,
the twinkling of an eye, we're going to be chained. Well, is
he alive or dead, Lord, both? He's dead to this world. Wouldn't
that be a good way to be? Oh, my. Wouldn't you like to
truly be crucified to this world and the world to you? Wouldn't
you? Wouldn't you like to be dead to this world? Did you read that
article by John Calvin, that little short article? Isn't that
us? So what does the Lord do? He
sends this thing to show us that this is not your city. Well, look at what happened.
So here's our comfort. Here's our peace. Verse 18, Bethany
was near Jerusalem and so many Jews came. It tells us this. It was real close by and apparently
many of the Jews knew Lazarus and Mary and Martha. So many
came to comfort them concerning their brother. They were distraught.
They were weeping and troubled. Where did Martha go to get comfort? Where'd she go? As soon as she
heard the Lord was in a certain place, It says in verse 20, 20,
20, as soon as she heard he was coming, she went and met him. Did she walk? She ran. Can you see that? She ran. She's
weak. She's troubled. She ran where
Christ was. Why? She needed help. She needed
comfort. Mary did the same thing. See,
He didn't come into town. He was outside the camp, wasn't
He? He was outside. He was in place. And this is
where Martha went to meet Him. And He told her these wonderful
words. I'm the resurrection. I'm the life. He that liveth
and believeth in Me shall never die. Do you believe that? Yes,
Lord, I do. She has all this comfort. And went running to
Mary and said, He's calling you now, Mary. And what does Mary
do? She runs. She runs where he was. He's not
in town. He's not everywhere. He's in
this place. This is where he said he'll be. Martha was there. So she ran where he was. You
know, Christ said, where two or three are gathered in my name,
I'll be there. Not theoretically. But actually,
right, where His people are, where He's promised to be, where
His gospel is, you're not going to find any comfort or peace
or rest or hope anywhere with anyone except where Christ is,
where the gospel is proclaimed. Martha ran and the Lord gave
her comfort. Mary ran. They both said the
same thing. If you'd been here, He hadn't
died. Well, He's here now. And He raised their hopes. In
a little while, He's going to raise Lazarus. Brethren, I'm telling you, there's
no comfort, there's no peace, there's no hope. There's nothing
to be found out there. There's everything to be found
where Christ is and His people are. Blessed hope. Comfort. Peace. Many of you know that. That's why you hang around after
it's over. You just loathe to leave, aren't you? Blessed hope, blessed promises,
blessed comfort. They both received it, Mary and
Martha. He ran. Now look at this. Down in verse
33. Our Lord saw her weeping and
the Jews weeping which came with her. He groaned in spirit. He was troubled. I'm way over my head now. God was troubled. God cried. God wept. He's God. He never ceased to be God. Just
as much God right there as He is now up in the Lord. Yes, He is. He never ceased to
be God until He was troubled. He said, Where have you laid
Him? They come and see. You know where
they laid Him? In a cave. In a dark, cold, damp
cave, shut off and sealed from everybody and everything. My, Lord, where sin lays us.
Sad, isn't it? And it says in verse 35, Jesus
wept. The man, our God, became a man,
the bone of our bones and the flesh of our flesh. Hebrews 2. Turn over there and
I'm going to close with this, okay? Hebrews chapter 2. I could have entitled this, The
Day God Wept, The Day God Cried. Amazing. A mystery. It's a marvel,
isn't it? The Scriptures, throughout the
Scriptures, speaks of Emotions that God shows. You know that? Throughout the
Scriptures, it pleases the Lord to make you His people. Some
think, please the Lord. When you're pleased, what do
you do? Smile. Smile. It says, he that sits
in the heavens laughs. Don't you love to hear laughter?
They say he that laughs last, laughs best. We're all going
to laugh. I'm going to go ahead and get
ahead of myself. This is my closing verse of Scripture. Psalm 126. When the Lord turned our captivity,
our mouths were filled with laughter. And we're never going to stop
laughing. Imagine that. Our Lord laughed. He laughed. Please, Lord. He smiled. He's angry. He's angry. You frown? Grieve not the Holy Spirit. Don't
grieve Him. He grieves. Isn't that something? Anything grieve you? You know
what ought to grieve us? Why did our Lord weep? Why was He troubled? Why did
He groan in the Spirit? What was it that grieved Him?
What was it that caused God to cry? Sin. Sin. Look where sin has laid
him. Look what sin has done to my
creature. Look what sin. Look what I'm
going to have to do to get him out of this sin. Get this sin
out of here. You know, that's what ought to
make us weep. Isn't it? When He was going to the cross,
the women were weeping and wailing. He turned to them and said, Weep
not for me. You ought to be thankful. You
ought to be shouting to high heaven, I'm going to the cross
to take away your sin. Burying your grief and your sorrows.
Burying your sin in my body on the tree. No, no, no, don't weep
for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. Weep,
cry, and pray to the God of heaven, the God of glory, that He will
reveal Christ to you and to them. The only one who can take away
this plague called sin that causes all this pain and suffering and
sickness and sorrow and eventually death. Only one that can take
away this death. And so he wept. God manifest
in the flesh. Hebrews 2, look at this, and
I close. Verse 14, it says, For as much
as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself
likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. Oh, he took not on, verily he
took not on him the nature of angels, but took on him the seed
of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God.
That is, to offer up himself, to offer up the blood, his own
precious blood, for reconciliation with the sins of his people.
And in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, being tried, being
troubled Being made sin, he's able to succor, to help, that
are tempted. Yes, we have a high priest, touched
with a feeling of our infirmity, in all points tempted like as
we are, yet without sin, who knows our frame, who knows our
troubles. He was troubled. And listen to
this. We have a God who's full of compassion. full of compassion. He hears. He answers. He's saved. Listen
to David. David said this, Be merciful
unto me, O God. I cry unto Thee daily. At the
day of my trouble I'll call. Please, O Lord. And David said,
He's a God full of compassion. He's gracious. He's long-suffering. He's plenteous in mercy and truth. And He'll answer you when you
call. And He'll come for you when you
ask for Him. And He'll save you. He's full
of compassion. You know, compassion means felt
weakness. Compassion means you feel, you
literally go through what that person is going through. You
know what they are suffering because you went through it. And so He came. Mary and Martha
were weeping. Scripture says, Rejoice with
them that rejoice, and weep with those that weep. And so he came
and he wept. Weeping endureth for a night.
But what? Joy cometh in the morning. One
long morning. The sun will never go down. Laughter. All right. Let's sing a closing
hymn.