This evening, John 11, we have
been dealing with this wonderful scripture for several weeks. We know that everything in John
chapter 11 revolves around the resurrection of Lazarus. Lazarus and Martha and Mary lived
in Bethany. But very little is known about
them. But this much we do know. As I read this over again today,
this is what absolutely stands out to me. Look at verse 5. Jesus, now Jesus, loved Martha
and her sister and Lazarus. Of this much we know, it was
an everlasting love. If our Lord Jesus loved them
then, He had always loved them, and He would always love them. It's a love that will endure
forever. Go over to John 13. Look at John
chapter 13. and verse 1. And we'll be getting
to this in a few weeks. And I'll go into this in more
depth. But look now at John 13 verse
1. Now before the feast of the Passover
when Jesus knew that His hour was come, that He should depart
out of this world unto the Father. Now watch these next words. Having
loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the
end, having loved his own. The objects of his love are identified. Who did he love? His own, that's
what he said, his own. By whom are meant, not everybody
in the world, Though all are His by virtue of creation, not
the Jews who were His own nation and His own countrymen according
to the flesh, but those that are meant here are all the elect
of God. Those are His own in a special
way, a special way. for He elected them to be His
own. They are His own by the Father's
gift. They are His own because He has
bought these with His bloody death. They are His own by the
effectual call of grace. How long will He love His own?
To the end. That's what it says, having loved
his own which were in the world, even when we're in the world.
He loved them unto the end. To the end of what? Well, not
to the end of our Lord's life. For though he died out of love
for all of his own, his love did not die with his death. To the end of what? Well, not
to the end of the lives of these men, or to the end of our lives,
because the Lord's love for His own doesn't end when we die. By the words, having loved His
own, which were in the world, He loved them unto the end, means
that He loves them to the end of the world and on beyond, to
the end of whatever time is and on beyond that. When the heavens
melt with fervent heat, when our Lord renovates everything
by fire, the love that He has for His own will still endure. So we know this about these three
people over here in John 11. They are loved of the Lord Jesus. And we read in Ephesians chapter
5 that the Lord Jesus loved His bride of whom these are three
of His people And he loved him to the extent that he gave his
life a ransom for. He laid down his life. Christ
loved the church. And therefore, what did he do?
It was the evidence of his love. He gave himself for her. Our Lord Jesus, therefore, he
laid down his life for Martha and Mary and Lazarus. So this is what I know about
these three people. Don't know much about them individually,
don't know much about where they lived, except that they lived
in Bethany, and we know that they often hosted our Lord Jesus
and His disciples. But all of the other things,
they're not nearly as important as this. The Lord Jesus loved
them. He loved them. Oh, to rest assured
that Christ Jesus loves you, makes whatever difficulties you
face in this world okay. Whatever sickness, whatever trouble,
whatever trial, even the trial of death, the death of a loved
one, it makes everything okay if you have some great confidence
that the Lord Jesus loves you, that He loves you. with an everlasting
love. These were believed of the Lord,
beloved of the Lord, and they believed the Lord themselves.
They believed that He was the One who came down from heaven.
Look in John 11 and 25. Look at John 11 and verse 25.
You remember this? Jesus said unto Martha, 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?" And I want
you to listen to her confession of faith. And I'll tell you,
I know Peter made a great confession of faith over in Matthew chapter
16 when the Lord Jesus said, Who do men say that I, the Son
of Man, am? They said, well, some say you're
Jeremiah, one of the prophets. He said, who do you say that
I am? Peter said, thou art Christ, the Son of the living God. In
John chapter 6, you'll remember that many of our Lord's disciples
left Him and didn't follow Him anymore. And our Lord Jesus,
He turned to the 12 and He said, will you also go away? And Peter
spoke up and said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words
of eternal life. We believe and are sure. We believe
and are sure. Thou art the Christ. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God. But I'll tell you what, all of
those confessions of faith, they're no better nor more powerful than
this confession of faith that Martha made in verse 27. Here's what she said. He saith
unto him, Yes, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of God, which should come into the world. I've been looking
for you. We've been looking for you. All
of your people have been anticipating your arrival in this world. We
believe. We believe. You're the Christ. You are the Messiah. You are
the Son of God. You are God in the flesh. The one who should come into
this world to save his people from their sins. We believe you're
the Savior. We believe you're the Redeemer.
We've been looking for you. We've been longing for you. We
believe you're the seed of the woman. We believe you're the
Lamb of God. You're the sacrifice. You are
the sin offering. We believe, we believe you to
be who you say you are. You're the Son of God. You're
the Son of God. That's a very powerful confession
of faith. And you won't find any confession
of faith any stronger in the Gospel of John than that which
Martha said here. And I feel very confident that
what she said, Mary would echo these words as well as Lazarus
during his lifetime. Well, as we have studied, Lazarus
died. Our Lord delayed in coming to
visit with Martha and Mary so that when He did arrive, Lazarus
had been dead four days and his body was already beginning to
decompose. He was beginning to stink. When the Savior arrived at the
tomb of Lazarus, there was Martha, there was Mary, and lots of other
people. Look at verse 19. Look at verse
19. Many of the Jews, many of the
Jews that came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning
their brother. And our Lord Jesus, he stepped
right into the middle of this situation. Here's a great grieving
group of people. Here are two sisters. They're
weeping. Here are the professional weepers.
We've talked about the fact they had professional weepers, professional
mourners. If you were the very poorest
of the poor, you at least had two flute players and you had
one professional weeper. And the weeper would get, you
know, weeping crying. It's contagious. Just like laughing
is. I tell you, some of you ought
to sit in on our breakfast on Tuesday morning. Especially when
James and Ken are together, their laughter is absolutely contagious,
isn't it? It's contagious. And we'll all
get to laughing. And it may be over the littlest
nothing, but it's contagious. And so is weeping. It's weeping. And that's why they'd bring in
professional weepers. And they'd begin to cry and mourn
and lament, and then others would as well. And into this situation,
all these people crying, all of the sadness, all of the grief,
all of the sorrow. And our Lord Jesus, He steps
right in the midst of that situation. So much so that it even says,
Jesus wept. Jesus wept. And we know that he ordered the
stone to be rolled away. And Martha objected. Martha,
she said, he's been dead four days. By now he stinketh. But she didn't want to smell
the odor of her brother's decomposing body. How morbid would that be? She doesn't want to see his lifeless
body. Lord, he's been dead four days. Roll the stone away, is what
the Savior said. We said last week, Three things
about Lazarus. He was dead, he was stinking,
and he was bound. Remember? That's what we talked
about last week. Those three things. Dead, stinking,
bound. Rolled the stone away. And our
Lord, our Lord, here's what he said in verse 43. When he had
spoken, he cried with a loud voice. so everybody could hear
that he was the one doing the speaking. He didn't have to speak
to Lazarus in a loud voice before Lazarus would come back from
the dead. In fact, he didn't even have to use his voice at
all. He could have willed it, right? He could have willed it.
But he spoke in a loud voice. Lazarus, come forth. The day
of death gave up its victim. It came back. And that natural
stench of death, after four days, just dissipated. It's gone. And then I feel sure, of course,
they would have anointed him and put some spices and so forth. And you know, when he came back
to life, you know what you smelled then? The spices. It was a good
smell. It wasn't the smell of death
at all. And then our Lord said, concerning
him being bound, he said, loose him and let him go. Freedom,
freedom. And that's what the Lord does
for us. He comes to us. He finds us in our deadness.
He finds us as spiritual corpses. Dead in trespasses and sins. And He uses the Word of Life.
The Spirit of God uses the Word of Life. The incorruptible seed
that liveth and abideth forever. And in a miraculous, mysterious
way, we're born again. And spiritual death gives up
its victim. Who does it give up the victim
to? To Him who is the life. Chuck read to us back in the
office, John chapter 14. Jesus said unto them, I am the
way, I am the truth, I am the life. And the life, the light
spoke and said, Lazarus, come forth. And death, what can death
do then? When death meets this one who
is himself life, he just releases his prey. And Lazarus comes back. And that's what happens to us.
We come back. We're born again. We died in
Adam. We're regenerated. We're quickened.
We're born again by the Spirit of God. And we come back from
the dead. And all of a sudden, that stench
of death is gone. Here's the aroma then. It's the
aroma of the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, which is a sweet smell
unto God. That's what God smells. He smells
the sweetness of the offering of Christ Jesus. And then we're
released. Released. Released from the bondage
of Satan. We're being released from the
bondage of self-righteousness and sin. Still being released
from the legalities The gray clothes that stick to us. And you know, I was thinking
about this today, too. Lazarus never spoke about his
death. In fact, I read every verse that
has to do with Lazarus. I don't find he ever spoke at
all. I don't find he ever said anything.
Martha had something to say. Mary had something to say. But
even when Lazarus came back from the grave, he never spoke. There's nothing recorded in the
word of God that he ever spoke. He never spoke about where he
went. And I'll tell you, if I'd been
living back then, I'd go see Lazarus, I'd say, tell me a story,
Lazarus. I want to hear, what happened
to you? Where'd you go? What'd you see? Wouldn't you
ask? I mean, that's just natural curiosity. And yet, maybe if somebody did ask him,
he would have said the same thing that another one would say. A few years later, that is, the
Apostle Paul, who said, I saw things too wonderful for me to
speak about. God has just sealed my lips. Because eyes have never seen,
ears have never heard, neither has it entered into the heart
of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him.
You just can't imagine how glorious heaven's going to be. What it's
going to be like to be in the presence of the Lord of heaven
and earth. To be there where all the angels
are and see them bowing as Joe read to us from Isaiah chapter
6 last Wednesday night. The angels bowing before the
Lord of glory at His throne. And there He is, our God on His
august throne. That throne of justice, that
throne of grace, that great white throne. Oh, what is it going
to be like to see all of that? And Lazarus never said a word.
Don't you believe anything that anybody says about seeing things
after death and then they come back to tell us about it. I don't
want to hear it. I read a book. One time about
a little boy that said he died, and I guess he was what they
call clinically dead. And he saw all these things,
and then they told his story as a movie made about it. My
doctor, our doctor up in Michigan, he was giving out copies of that
book. And he had it, and he said, have you read this? I said, no.
He said, you need to read it. I said, give me a copy. I'll
read it, and I'll give you a report on it. He said, OK. So I read
it. I wrote notes down, whereas contrary
to the word of God, gave it to him, never said a word about
it. Never said a word. Lazarus says nothing about what
he saw. But our Lord Jesus, He made two
statements. The first one's in verse 43,
which I've already read. Lazarus, come forth. The second
statement He made there at the tomb of Lazarus was this, in
the last of verse 44. Loose Him and let Him go. Loose Him and let Him go. And he that was dead came forth,
bound hand and foot with grave clothes. His face was bound about
with a napkin. I'm reading the whole verse now.
Jesus saith unto them, Loose him and let him go. And you know
what? Then the curtain falls, and we don't see that scene anymore.
We know what happened as a result of this. But we don't know anything
about the reunion of Martha and Mary with Lazarus. I bet you
there's more tears, don't you? Of joy this time. Of joy. And they're thanking the Savior.
The one who gave their brother life. He gave him physical life
to begin with. Then he gave him spiritual life,
and then Lazarus physically died, and then the Lord gave him physical
life again. By the way, tradition says he
lived 30 more years, and then died a natural death. That's
what tradition says. But this whole story revolves
around the resurrection of Lazarus. However, Lazarus is not the main
character in the story. The Lord Jesus is. And here's
the whole point of the story. Verse 4, and I've already pointed
this out to you, but it needs to be pointed out again. Here's
the whole purpose of the story. When Jesus heard that, when He
heard that Lazarus was sick, He said, this sickness is not
unto death, but it's for the glory of God, that the Son of
God might be glorified thereby. Here's the purpose for the whole
thing. God's glory. the glory of the Son of God.
That's why the Savior said to Martha, down in verse 40, Jesus
saith unto her, said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe,
thou shouldest see the glory of God? If you'd believe, at your leisure, read these two
passages I'm going to tell you about. First of all, Luke chapter
9. Our Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses and Elijah spoke with Him
about His decease and the redemption that He would accomplish. Moses
and Elijah, the Law and the Prophets. We know the Law and the Prophets,
they all spoke of Christ Jesus. And there they are, there's Moses
and there's Elijah. Moses representing the law, Elijah
representing the prophets. And then the scripture says there
in Luke chapter 9, they were kind of dull, but when they were
awake, you know what it says there? They saw His glory. They saw His glory. And if you
remember that passage of Scripture, just a very few verses before
that, He spoke of His own second coming. He said, when the Son
of Man shall come in His glory, in His glory. And then He gave
them a preview of that glory. And when they were awake, they
saw His glory. You know, we're so spiritually
dull, we get into spiritual sleep,
sleepiness and slumber, and we don't see His glory. And that's
what we ought to ask God for. Lord, wake us up that we see
Your glory, that we see Your glory. Martha, don't you see
my glory? Don't you see my perfections
of who I am? Don't you see my glory? If you'd
believe, you'd see my glory. Well, she didn't believe. But
He showed to her His glory anyhow. Mighty gracious of the Lord,
isn't it? And that's what He does for us. Why, we're all filled
with unbelief. You know that, Lord. And we say
often, Lord, we believe. Help our unbelief. Nevertheless,
every once in a while, He gives us a glimpse of His glory. The next passage that I would
suggest you read is in John 12, 37-40. In fact, you're very close
to that now. Look over John 12, 36 to 40.
Well, verse 37, John 12, 37, but though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed
not on him, that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled,
which he spake in Isaiah 53, as you know, verse one. Lord,
who hath believed, I report, and to whom hath the arm of the
Lord been revealed? Therefore they could not believe,
because that Isaiah said again, he's blinded their eyes and hardened
their heart, that they shouldn't see with their eyes nor understand
with their heart and be converted. and I should heal them. You know,
there's a natural hardness of the heart. There's a natural
blindness. But there's also a judicial blindness
that God can send to people who've received one evidence after another
evidence that validates the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the
Son of God. But look at verse 41. These things
said Isaiah when he saw His glory and spake of Him. When was that? In that passage
you read last Wednesday night, Isaiah chapter 6 that I referred
to earlier. He saw the glory of Jehovah. He saw our Lord Jesus Christ
in a visionary way. He saw the glory of Messiah in
the temple. He saw the angels covering their
faces with their wings. And Isaiah said, mine eyes have
seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Isaiah saw His glory. Isaiah saw the glory of His majesty,
the glory of His person, the glory of His nature. And he said
His train, what is it? All of His divine perfections,
he saw them. It filled the temple. What's
the temple? His body is the temple. His body
is the temple. For in that body dwelt the nature
of God, the life of God, God in human flesh. And Isaiah said,
I saw His glory. I saw His glory. And back here in John chapter
11, this is all about the glory of God and the glory of Christ
Jesus. Now, gotta go quick. Look at verse 45, I said the
curtain comes down on that scene, except that we have two results. Two things happened immediately. We don't know anything about
the reunion of the family members and all that, but we do know
this. Number one, verse 45, then many of the Jews which came to
Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did believed on. They believed on Him. I know
that happened. They believed on Him. And you
know what? You get into the very next chapter,
they're still believing Him. Evidently, they're not like the
ones that our Lord made mention of back in the second chapter
of John where it says many people believed on Him. But He knew
their faith wasn't genuine because He didn't need anybody to tell
Him what was in man. He saw them. He saw their faith
was fake. But these people, these people,
look at John chapter 12. These same people, on the next
day, much people that were come to the feast, John 12, 12. That's
not what I want. Back to verse 10. Sorry. John
12, 10. But the chief priests consulted
that they might put Lazarus also to death, because that by reason
of him many of the Jews went away and believed on Jesus. And look at verse 17. The people
therefore that was with him when he called Lazarus out of his
grave and raised him from the dead, they bear record. It's
the Lord Jesus that did this. So that's one result. That's one result. See, our Savior
did not permit, He didn't permit this miracle to be done without
some fruit. Without some fruit. There's some
people who came to believe Him. But, there's another response
to this miracle. Verse 46. And let me read 46
and 47. John 11, 46. And some of them, but some of
them went their ways to the Pharisees and they told them what things
Jesus had done. Then gathered the chief priests
and the Pharisees a council, what was that called? The Sanhedrin. Remember the Sanhedrin. And they
said, what do we? What are we going to do? For
this man doeth many miracles. What are we going to do? For
this man doeth many miracles. Here are these eyewitnesses.
Because now we've got two groups of people. First of all, the
first group of people, of unbelievers, are those who are eyewitnesses
of the miracle. I mean, they've been through
the whole thing. They've seen everything. They've seen all
the tears. They've probably cried themselves. They saw Jesus of Nazareth come. They saw Mary talking to Him. They saw Him weeping. They heard
what He said, roll the stone away. And they heard what Martha
said, by this time He stinketh, He's been dead four days. They
heard Him pray to the Father. And they heard him announce with
a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. These people heard all of this.
And then they saw this man that they knew was dead. They saw him inching his way
out of the tomb. And the Lord Jesus said, loose
him and let him go. They saw all this. And those
evil rascals, Rather than believing, rather than embracing the Son
of God, rather than saying, bless the name of God, the Messiah
is here. He's come to redeem His people. He's come to save us from our
sins. They said, let's go tell His
enemies what's happened. And off they go. Oh, George,
you ever read about George Whitefield? He was a preacher years ago.
He caused a big storm one time when he told people, he said,
you're a little better than half beasts and half devils. That's
what he said. Well, I'll tell you what, maybe
he ought to apologize to the beasts because they never did anything
like this. This is devilish, isn't it? This is devilish what
they did. Go off, tell the Lord's enemies. That's the first group. And then
the second group, here's a big committee of hypocrites. And
they're all in their religious garments. And they look so holy. And they have a meeting. And they said, what are we going
to do? What are we going to do? Because watch this, the last
statement of verse 47. For this man doeth many miracles. And that's the title of the message.
I'm just now getting to the title. But this is the subject matter. This man doeth many miracles. They don't deny that He did them. But they don't believe Him. What are we going to do? For
this man doeth many miracles. Let me say four things in closing.
Stay with me. Number one, four things about
unbelief. Unbelief is stubborn. Think about it. this man doeth
many miracles." You would think the next thing, the next thing
out of their mouths would be, surely this is the promised Messiah. I mean, if this wasn't written
before us where they said, if we leave Him alone, all men will
believe on Him and the Romans will come and take away both
our place and our nation, If we didn't know they were going
to say that, we would think that when they made these words, this
man doeth many miracles, we would think, well, then they're going
to say, let's us believe him too. Let's us worship him too. Let's us follow him too. Because
we hear he's the way to God. He's the only mediator. He's
come to redeem. He's come to reconcile. This is the Savior we need. Oh,
surely, surely this is Messiah. But no, see the stubbornness
of unbelief. This man doeth many miracles,
therefore let's kill him. Isn't that something? This man
doeth many miracles, let's put him out of business and do it
on a permanent basis. They admitted the miracles, but
they denied the miracle worker. Oh, how vile, blind, and dead
in sin men are. Little wonder it takes the same
kind of power that raised Lazarus from the physical death to raise
us from spiritual death. Because unbelief is stubborn.
Number two, unbelief is senseless. It's really And these are alliterated. It all started with S. In fact,
I started to say unbelief is stupid. But I thought, well,
I'll take the rough edge off of it a little bit and say unbelief
is senseless. But it's really stupid. Think
about it. If a man is able to raise the
dead, as was witnessed by a bunch of people, so that they know
this wasn't a hoax. This was not a slight of a hand. This was a genuine miracle. If
somebody has been dead four days, wouldn't you think that the one
who raised him from the dead also had power to do some really
bad things? I mean, after all, if he's able
to make a person alive, wouldn't he also have the power to kill?
That make sense? If he's got the power to give
life, he must also have power to take life. If he could merely speak and
the grave gives up its victim, Couldn't he also speak and cause
another man to lose his life? Hey, if I'm gonna oppose somebody,
I'm not gonna oppose somebody who can raise the dead, are you?
My mama raised me with better sense than that. I'm not gonna oppose supernatural
power. Woe to him that contended with
his maker. No wonder the Lord said in Isaiah
45, let the potsherds of the earth, let the broken pieces
of the earth, let them struggle and oppose with one another,
but don't you oppose the Creator. Unbelief is stupid. It's senseless. Number three, unbelief is serious. Because it says in 1 John 5,
10, he that believeth not God hath made him a liar, because
he believeth not the record God gave of his son. This is serious
business. Because what they're doing, in
effect, they're calling God a liar. And I'm telling you tonight,
for anybody here, you're in unbelief. You don't believe Christ, you
don't believe like Martha. What a glorious confession of
faith she made. He's the Son of God. He's the
Christ. He's the Christ. He's the only
Savior. If you don't believe Him, your
unbelief is stubborn. God's going to have to break
it. It is senseless and it's serious. Because when you don't believe
the record God has given of His Son, you're calling God a liar. That's about as serious as you
can get right there. And fourthly, unbelief is suicide. John 3.36 says, He that believeth
not the Son shall not see life. Won't enter into it and won't
enjoy it. But the wrath of God, the sentence
of wrath, the sentence of death, the curse of the law abideth
on him." Unbelief is suicide. What are we going to do? For
this man doeth many miracles. And I ask you, what are we going
to do? What are you going to do? What are you going to do? By
the grace of God, I'm going to be a mercy beggar. And I'm going
to come to Him. And I'm going to fall at His
throne of grace. And say, oh God, show mercy to
this old vile sinner. I don't deserve anything good
from You. But I believe the record You gave concerning Your Son.
I believe He's the only Savior. And Lord, if you'd give me grace,
I believe Him with all my heart.