All right, look with me back
here in John 11. Go through a few verses here
and look what the Lord has said. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ,
John's gospel, sets him forth to be the eternal son of God
and to be the eternal God himself. That's the way He presents Him.
He presents Him as the Eternal Word. In the beginning was the
Word. The Word was with God. The Word
was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. And all things that was made,
made, created, was made by Him. And there was not anything that
was made that was not made by Him. That's the way John talks
about our Master. And then He turns around and
says this very Word was manifested in the flesh come with a body
so he's God God eternal God that came in on time and became a
man and yet he was you can see his God head and the things that
he does here in John and you can see his flesh you can see
his humanity and His perfect, sinless humanity. And I tell
you what, in His humanity, we'll see it so clearly here today,
how His humanity is. We'll see His mighty power as
God, and see His tenderness as a man, how tender our Savior
is. We will see His absolute authority,
over everything and then he turns around and shows his utter and
absolute dependency upon his father as being Jehovah's servant
being here to serve and I tell you he reveals to all the way
through this book that he's the great I Am equal with the Father
but he gives details of his humanity that aren't in any of the other
Gospels Talked about when he went to see the woman, meet the
woman at the well, the scripture says that he'd be wearied with
his journey. Wearied. He set out on the well,
weary with his journey. God don't get weary, but a man
does. And our Lord Jesus Christ did.
Groaning. You see him groaning here. And He sees the tears of His
own when they weep. And then you see Him thirsting
as He hung upon the cross. And I tell you, you see Him in
Gethsemane groaning, weeping, crying. So our things about Him, you
see Him as the great I Am and that you see Him in His humanity.
Blessed humanity, glorious humanity, identified with His people. And
our last thing we dealt with last week, Martha. Martha told the Lord Jesus Christ,
she said, Lord, if you would have been here, you'd not died.
And said, oh, He'll rise again. You'll rise again. Well, Martha
returns home. She returns back to the house,
and look what she says in verse 28. She just told Christ, and so
she went her way. Verse 28, she went her way, and
got to her sister Mary, and whispered in her ears, or called her into
another room, but anyway, she told her secretly. Told her secretly. Did nobody else in the house
hear what she had to say? Saying, the Master's come. Now
listen to this. And He's calling for you. Martha went out and met Him.
But the Master's come. And He's calling for you. Oh, thank God that He came. and
bless his holy name that he's still calling people. And he
calls for you, for you, Mary. He calls for you. Thank God he
called for me, for me. And he called her secretly, not
to attract the attentions of others. Most of those who came
to comfort Mary and comfort Martha, they didn't believe, they did
not believe. A lot of them were against Christ
and didn't believe. They saw Him open the blind men's
eyes and were upset about it. And she calls Him Master. Some
people think that she meant just that He's the Teacher and not
the Lord. But I think when she called Him
Master, see how it's capitalized? Master. He's our Master. He's the one who rules. He's
the one who reigns. And you know, you can't have
two masters. Our Lord says you can't have,
no man can have two masters. He said he'll either love the
one and hold to it, or he'll hate the other one. Or love it
and hold that. He can't have two. You gotta
have one. And the master comes calleth
for you. And look what it says in verse
29. As soon as she heard that, oh boy, Heard what? The master, the master's calling
for you, Mary. The master's calling for you.
She heard that. Watch what happened. She got up quick. Oh my. She didn't wait around. I just
don't believe I'll go now. I believe I'll wait a while.
I don't believe I need to go see him. No, no, she's not like
this outfit today, you know, that tries to convince people
to come arise and go to Jesus. When she heard that, she arose
quickly. When you hear the master call
for you, you're gonna arise quickly too. You're gonna arise quickly
too. And watch what he says here.
And came unto him. Oh, he's the one that called
her. Where else you gonna go? She gotta go to him. She rose
quickly and came unto him. And that's where we go. We come
unto him. And that's when we, and oh my,
ain't this something that you know there is times in our lives
where I was chiding myself yesterday. I said, Lord, if I had a spiritual
thought today, I don't know it. I don't remember it. And I was
chiding myself for it. But I tell you, there is times
when we are in such a state of mind, we arise quickly, quickly,
and we come to him. I mean, it's a necessary thing.
And it was necessary for her to come because he called her.
And she arose quickly and came unto him. And oh, and he was
still, and the scripture says there in verse 30 that he was
not yet come into town. He was in the same place where
Martha went and met him. Same place where Martha went
out and met Him. And this is the thing, beloved,
wherever Christ is at, wherever He's at, now here He's not out
in Bethany yet, but I do know where He's at at this minute.
He's sitting at the right hand of God on His throne. And beloved,
you know, they had to get up and go in a physical way to get
to Him. And he was in a physical place,
a geographical place. But now our Lord Jesus Christ
sits at the right hand of God and you can get to him without
moving a muscle. You don't have to get up and
go. You don't have to move from here to there or from there to
here. All you got to do to get to Christ is in your heart and
in your soul. Go up to Him. Cry out to Him. And you can get there. The minute
you start crying to Him, you're there. The minute you come to
Him, you're there. Just like that. Just like that. And He
was still in the same place where Martha met Him. And you know
what this shows us? This quote shows us the calmness
of our Lord Jesus Christ. The sureness of our Lord Jesus
Christ. He gets in no hurry. He gets
in no hurry. There's a time for everything
to happen. And there's a time for them to
come into town. There's a time for them to come
to Him. There's a time for the dead to live. There's a time
for people to die. There's a time for everything.
And Christ has a time before He does anything. And He goes
everything on time. And we're gonna go by His time,
not our time. We live by His time. Psalm, I
think it's Psalm 90, I believe it is, that our lives are as
a weaver's shuttle, a hand's breath, as a tale that's been
told. Make us to number our days, Lord. that we may know how frail
we are, how short our time is. Our time's always right, but
I tell you what, we're gonna live on His time, whether we
think we are or not, but we're gonna live on His time. And He's
gonna do things at His time, not our time. And oh my, oh, I tell you, He's
in no hurry. We get in a hurry, not Him. Not
Him. And this shows us that he never,
and then also she arose and went to him, and Martha went to him,
and she arose quickly and went to him. And he never hides himself
from his people. He hid himself from those who
sought to get him. He hid himself from those who
wanted to make him king. He hid himself from those who
wanted to harm him until his time came. But for his people,
For his people, they know where he is. Martha knew where he was. Mary knew where he was. And he
did not hide himself from them when they went out to sea. He don't hide himself from his
people. And oh my, she arose quickly to go to him. And you
know what he did? He waited for her to get there. He waited patiently for that
one whom he loved to come. to come. Now look what the Jews
said here. Verse 31, Then the Jews, then
which were with her in the house, and comforted her, when they
saw Mary, that she rose up hastily, and went out, followed her, saying,
She goeth under the grave to weep there. She goes under the
grave to weep there. Steve, go back there and turn
that thermostat down. That thing's up there way too
high. Turn it way down. For some reason, it's putting
heat in here. It's on the air conditioning,
but turn it way down. Turn it down to 72. Huh? 64. That'll work. Yeah. That'll work. How in the world
did that thing get on like that? An air-conditioning oven. Now,
but do you know, and here we go now to what the Jews says.
Now she run to that place where Martha met him. Now the Lord
hadn't come into Bethany yet. The Jews then, which were in
their house, comforted her, and comforted her when they saw Mary,
that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying,
She goes unto the grave to weep there. And they followed her. She said, well, she's going out
to the grave. She's going to the grave. She's going there to sit and
cry. She's going there to weep over her brother. She's going
there to cry. She's going there to weep. She's
so grievous. She's so hurt. She's such a sad
state of mind. And Martha, when she come to
tell Mary secretly, And her secrecy didn't amount to nothing. You
know why? Because God had another reason for them people to follow
her. He had another reason for them
to follow her. She thought, well, she's going
to the grave. Well, our Lord's going to the grave. So He wants
these people, these Jews that didn't believe on Him, He wanted
them to come and be a witness when He raised Laddus. And He
wanted them to be witness there at that tomb. when he raised
Lazarus, and so they followed her. They followed her. And this is what shows us that
our Lord Jesus Christ, he works all things after the counsel
of the old will. Our Lord was the one who drew
these people out to the grave. Our Lord was the one who had
them follow Mary out of there hastily. And he called them to
the grave to be eyewitnesses of this miracle that he's gonna
perform, this great, great miracle that he's gonna perform. And
they went to comfort her. They said, we'll go out there
at the graveside with her. We'll go out to the grave and
we'll go out there to comfort her. But God intended something
else. You know, when a believer goes
to the grave and we go out there, you know, to put them in the
ground and we all gather around. And for a believer, we start
singing songs. We start singing hymns. We sang,
you know, it's well with my soul when peace like a river attendeth
my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll. And our Lord Jesus Christ, we'll
sing songs like that. We'll sing amazing grace and
tell them we'll see them later. And then we walk away and we
leave it. And then the family sometimes goes back later. And
they'll visit it and they'll look at the flowers on there
and make sure the flowers are okay. Then they go back later
and take all the flowers away. But they thought, you know, and
the people, they do this. They come out to comfort somebody.
They think, well, she's so sorrowful at the loss of her brother Lazarus.
She's going out there to sit down and weep for the Lord Jesus
Christ. And you know how many times,
I can tell you three times right off the top of my head that you
see Mary and she's weeping. When she come to the feet of
the Lord Jesus Christ to wash her feet with his tears, dry
them with the hairs of her head, and anoint his body for burying,
she wept then. She weeping here. And then when
our Lord Jesus Christ was risen from the dead, she was standing
weeping and the Lord Jesus said, woman, why weepest thou? Supposed
him to be the gardener. She said, show me where you've
laid him and I'll go get him. And then he said, just like here,
Mary. And you know, he dried her tears
every single time. Every single, and I tell you
what, and so the, Mary came where Jesus was. Oh, my. And these folks would come out
there to receive, and they're gonna receive a greater and greater
blessing than being a comfort to Mary and to being a comfort
to Martha. And these things are written
for our learning. Now, they come to comfort her
and even to weep with her. And that's what Ness tells us
about show sympathy, show kindness, bear one another's burdens, lighten
one another's load. When you get an opportunity to
lift somebody's burden, to lighten somebody's load, do that, do
that. Oh my, I tell you, it's a weep
with them that we comfort them. Show some sympathy when folks
are in trouble. Show some kindness. Show some
tenderness. Bear when you see somebody's
burden. Pray for them. Get under the burden with them.
Help them lift it. Lighten one another's loads.
You know, don't be one of them persons. Don't be one of them
people that make the burdens heavier. There's people that
make the burdens heavier. You know, they don't have no
sympathy, they don't have no kindness, don't have no tenderness.
They think, oh my, you know, grow up, act stronger, have more
faith. But beloved, when you get down
and you get in these situations, I'm telling you, you know, you
see somebody that's grieving, go up and say, oh, listen, I
don't, listen, what can I do to help you? You know somebody
that's sick, pray for them, call them, ask them what's up. Don't make their burden heavier. Don't say, well, grow up, get
over it. It's time for you to stop acting
that way. It's time for you to quit doing that. Don't be like
that. Oh listen, these folks come to
comfort her and do that. Now I tell you what, it'll not
make an atonement for sin. Comforting those that comfort
and helping those that are in trouble, helping those that have
a burden. It won't make one atonement for
sin. It will not gain you any entrance
into heaven. But yet God blessed it right
here. And that's the way we ought to be. That's the way we ought
to be. Oh, and I'll tell you the secret,
you know, the secret to being miserable, I'm gonna tell you
the secret to being miserable is to live only for yourself
and think only of yourself and what you go through. That's the quickest way for you
to be miserable. Just live for yourself and be
concerned with only what you feel, what you think, what you're
going through. And when somebody tells you what
they're going through, you say, oh, listen, you don't have a
clue. Oh, listen, let me tell you about
what I'm going through. I remember a woman, bless her
heart, every time somebody tell her that something was wrong
with her, she'd say, oh, listen, better let me tell you. She'd
do it every time. You say, oh, I've got a headache.
Oh my goodness, you just would not believe how, what a headache
I've had. You know, they just can't help
it. But oh my, the secret to being miserable is to live for
yourself, concerned only for yourself. You want to be happy?
And then people, everybody says, are you happy? Are you happy?
To be happy, if you want to be happy, make somebody else happy. Do something for somebody else.
That'll make you happy. That'll make you happy. And then
look what it says in verse 32. Then when Mary was come, where
Jesus was, That's where we go, we go where
Jesus is. We go where he is. Oh boy. And I thank God we've come where
he is. And look what happens. And I
told you this, is every time she's in the Lord Jesus' presence,
you find him fallen as you find him. She did it in the garden.
She did it here. She did it the first time you
see her. And she fell down at his feet, saved. unto him Lord she's at his feet worshiping the proper place for
us to be down at his feet saying unto him Lord if you'd been here
said exactly what Martha said my brother had not died evidently
they sat and talked about this And they said among themselves,
and probably conversed about it between each one another,
if the Lord would get here, our brother wouldn't die. If our
Lord would come on, he wouldn't die. And oh, if the Lord was
here, and this isn't, this isn't, fine, she's not trying to cry.
She's not reproaching the Lord Jesus Christ. She's just expressing
her grief. She's expressing her perplexity.
This is the only way she knows how to express herself. Lord,
if you'd just come on over, if you'd have just been here, he
wouldn't have died. We would have had to have this
grief. I wouldn't be weeping now. But I love it. God's ways is
past finding out. But look what our master said
now. Look what our Lord, how he responded. When Jesus therefore
saw her weeping, saw her weeping. You know he
sees us weeping. He sees our tears. In fact the
scripture says he puts them in a bottle. Puts them in a bottle. When Jesus therefore saw her
weeping. She's still down at his feet.
She's weeping. Jesus saw her weeping and the
Jews were weeping with her. The Jews are sitting there crying
too. Everybody's crying. Everybody's
weeping. And this word weeping means more
than just tears. It means that there was making
some noise. They was crying out. They were
in grief. They were moaning. They were
crying. They was hurting. And how did our Lord respond
to that? When He saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping which
came with her, He groaned, groaned, groaned in His Spirit. Troubled
in his spirit. And you know what it says? That
he himself bore our infirmities and took our griefs. And that's
what he's doing here. He's carrying her griefs. He
was acquainted with her grief. He carried our griefs. Carried
our sorrows. And that's what he's doing here.
He's troubled with her trouble. Carried with her griefs. Sorrows
with her sorrows. And he knew the cause of it all.
He knew why she was weeping. He knew why the grief was there.
He knew why the sorrow was there. For the same reason we have grief
and sorrow, sin. Sin. The reason Lazarus died,
sin. The reason they're weeping and
grieving is sin. And he felt the burden of it
before he ever removed it from them. And He's the only one that can
undo the consequences of sin. We can't undo it. He restored
that which He took not away. And oh my, He felt the burden
before He removed it. He knew the cause of this everything
that was going on was sin. And He's going to go and deal
with it. He's gonna deal with him, look what he asks now. In
verse 34, where have you laid him? You think our Lord didn't
know where he was? Do you think for a second that
our Lord Jesus Christ didn't know where he was? Oh my. But you know why he said
this? You know why he said this? But he wasn't ostentatious, you
know, he just used his power and his ability just to impress
people. He said, where have you laid
him? Where have you laid him? You take me to where he is. And
I said, you know, the only way we can take dead people to our
Lord Jesus Christ is take them to him in prayer. Take them to
him in our hearts. Take them to him by name. By
name. I'll tell you, that's one thing
that I fell at, and we need to do that. If you got somebody
that you love, and they're unconverted, you know what y'all do for them?
Call their name out before the Lord. Call their name. God knows who they are and where
they are. And that's why he calls people
by name. And oh, beloved, where have you laid him? Where have
you laid him? And they said, Lord, come on,
come on, we'll take you. You come on see. Come on, Lord
Jesus. We'll take you to where he's
at. We'll take you where he's at. And he was wanted. He was wanted
at the tomb. And when he got there, he got
to the tomb. He's outside this tomb. He's
outside this grave. He's outside it now. He'd come
up to it. And when the Lord Jesus got there, Mary's weeping, the
Jews are weeping, Martha's weeping, everybody's weeping. And then look what it said. Our
Lord wept too. You know what this tells us?
That our Lord Jesus Christ can really, really, really, really,
really, really be touched with our infirmities. He really feels with us and for
us. He really, really does. And he
wept. He wept. And oh, what? The Son of God weeping? That
holy man? That sinless man? That glorious
man? Oh, the Son of God weeping? I'm gonna give you a couple of
reasons why I think he's weeping. First of all, he's got to bring
Lazarus back into this world and let him go through it again. He's got to bring it, you know,
when the resurrection comes, everybody's gonna be raised and
they're changed in a moment in the twinkling of an eye and be
caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord Jesus in the air and
forever be with him. but here's a man that our Lord
Jesus Christ is going to raise from the dead and he's going
to live for a few more years and then he's going to go through
the same thing again going to go through the same
thing again and oh my he's weeping and three times we see our Lord
Jesus Christ weeping in the scriptures And when he looked over Jerusalem,
he wept when he looked over Jerusalem, said, how often would I have
gathered you as a hen gathers her chicks, but you would not.
Oh, if you just knew the peace that you could have had. And
then you find him weeping in Gethsemane. Three times our Savior
wept. Three times. And I tell you,
you just imagine. You just imagine, you've seen
people weep, and you just hear them groan and just make, I know
when I weep, when I cry, I make the awfulest noises. I mean,
it's awful. I can't help it, it's just the
way I, you know, and it's awful, but you imagine, when somebody's
weeping, and he's groaning, I mean, beloved, you're paying attention
to him. You hear him. And when he was weeping in the
garden, when he was weeping here, and he is weeping over Jerusalem,
every single time that he's weeping is connected with the effects
of sin or its consequences. Here he's weeping because he's
got to raise a dead man. Over Jerusalem, he wept because
they would not believe him and receive him. And in Gethsemane,
he was weeping because he was fixing to take the cup that the
father was gonna give him to drink. And he wept over that. And oh, beloved, his tears here
at Lazarus too showed the fullness, the grief he felt in his heart
and showed his love, showed his sympathy was perfect, not like
ours. And then look what the Jews said.
You remember this is the first thing they said when they sent
the message to the Lord Jesus Christ. But Lord, he whom thou
lovest is sick. And here the Lord Jesus Christ
is crying, and those Jews that went with him there, that they
had been weeping, then the Jews said, behold, how he loved him. How he loved him. And I'm gonna tell you something.
He loved Lazarus no more than he loves you or loves me. He loved Lazarus. Lazarus was
dead. He said, he's gonna die for my
glory. And I'm gonna raise him for my
glory. And beloved, I'm telling you, we was just as rotten and
as stinking and as corrupt as Lazarus was, but he loved us. He loved us. Ain't that wonderful
that I, Bruce and I was talking about the other day, the love
of Christ and our Lord Jesus Christ and everything about him
never ever changes. He's the same today, yesterday,
and forever. And I love, Lazarus could not
love him back at this time. Lazarus could not respond to
the love that our Lord Jesus had in his heart at this time.
Lazarus couldn't say, Lord, I so bless you that you love me. I
thank you that you love me. Bless your holy name that you
love me. Thank God you love me with an
everlasting love. But the love of our Lord Jesus
Christ, it's effectual love. It's gonna get something done.
If he loves you, you're gonna know it, and you're gonna experience
it. That's what's gonna happen. Oh my. Behold how he loved him. If anyone
doubted his love for his own, this would rebuke him. And oh
my. He wept. See the reality of his
human nature, a perfect, perfect heart in a man. And then look
what it says in verse 37, verse 37. And some of them said, Now I'm gonna tell you something,
this is kind of a sarcasm. This is kind of showing their
unbelief. Some of them said, could not
this man, that's all they saw him as, as a man, which opened
the eyes of the blind. They've seen him open the eyes
of the blind. Have caused that even this man should not have
died. You know what they're saying? If he could have stopped it,
why didn't he? That's what, that's exactly what unbelievers say
today. If God could have stopped this, why didn't he stop it?
Or why did God allow this? Why did God allow that? Why did
God do this to me? Why did God do that to me? If
this man is real, who really says he is, and he's got the
power, couldn't he have kept this fella from going through
this? That's the, it's an unbelief, it's a very sarcastic. People
say that at funerals all the time. God could have stopped
this if he wanted to. But I'm telling you something.
I remember, there's a message by Henry. Y'all need to get in
and listen to it one of these days. It's a message, you can
find it on why I preached my son's funeral. His son went off
to Vietnam, 1969, he got killed in Vietnam. They brought him
home. Couldn't open the casket. Henry
stood up and preached that son's funeral. Robbie was his name.
And he got a message, why I preached it. And a fella told him, he
said this. He said to him one time, said,
you know, making fun of Henry. They knew what Henry believed.
They knew that he believed in the sovereignty of God, the free
grace of God, and that God controls everything in this world. And
he said to him, he said, where was your God when your son died? He said, the same place he was
when his son died. And when God takes somebody, he's
the same place he was when he takes everybody. Where was he
at when Lazarus died? He said, that's for my glory. That's for my glory. I'm gonna
get glory out of this. That's what he done. And I'll
tell you what, why should God allow this? I'll tell you something,
Job said this, God, the Almighty, does not, does not answer to
anybody but himself. And that's all right with me.
Ain't it you? It's all right with me. Oh, he
said, you know what I do? You don't know right now. But
you know what? You'll find out hereafter. You
don't know why this happened. You don't know what I'm doing
right now. But I'll tell you what, after I do it, you're going to
know it. That's the way it is. We do not
know what's going to happen the rest of this day. We don't know
what's going to happen tomorrow. But we do know this. We'll know
hereafter. We'll know hereafter. And then
verse 38, look what it says. Here our Lord Jesus is again.
Jesus therefore again groaning in himself. Did you notice it
says in himself? These people couldn't hear him,
he done it in himself. In himself. Comes to the grave. He comes to that grave. Our Lord's gonna have a grave
of his own. But he comes to this grave. And it was a cave. They buried a lot. You know,
our Lord Jesus Christ was buried in a tomb like that. They'd hew out these rocks and
put them in the rocks. And then they'd put a stone over
it. And that's why our Lord Jesus Christ, when he's buried, they
had a big stone over his grave. And it was a cave and a stone
they put in front of it. Oh my! Grown him, he heard the
unbelief and the sarcasm. Here he was when they said this,
enduring the contradiction of sinners against himself. And
our Lord told Martha, He said, Jesus says, take away the stone.
Martha being true to her own nature, being one of those that
always pays attention to what's going on. Our Lord said, take you away
the stone. God will, and I'm gonna preach
on that next week. Take away the stone. Take away the stone. You know, God's a God of means. God's a God of means, and He
uses means. All those folks standing around
there said, you all go take away that stone there. Take it away. If he can raise the dead, he
could have just told this stone, move. He could have done that. He did say one time, he says,
you know, if these bunch of Jews was finally fought with everybody
praising him, and he said, if these folks stopped the praise,
and he said, God will, of these stones, raise up children unto
Abraham. He'll take a stone and raise
up a child. And oh, beloved, there our Lord Jesus Christ.
And Martha, still careful about many things, she said, Lord, the sister of him that was dead.
You know how many times they said dead here? If we go to understand
that, a dead man's dead and nobody can give him life but Christ.
He wants us to understand that. And look what he says here now.
The sister of him that was dead saith unto him, Lord, oh my,
oh my, he's been dead four days. By this time, when you go up
and take that stone away, he'll stink, he'll stink, it'll be
awful, awful. Oh, oh, why do you want to view
the body? Why do you want to see the body
for? Oh my. Does she think that's what he's
only wanted to do is view the body? She said it's useless to
remove the stone. He stinks. He's been dead four
days. Oh what unbelief. Now look what our master said
unto her. Did I say to you Mary, or Martha, did I tell you that
if you'd believe, that if you believe, Well, look back up there in verse
25 and 26. Jesus said unto her, I am the
resurrection and I'm the life. I've told you that. I'm the resurrection. It's not a time, it's not a place,
it's a person. And we've already been raised
from the dead. And oh my. And he that believeth
in me, though he were dead. And Lazarus is dead. Though he
that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet he's gonna
live. And once he got that life and he believes in me, he shall
never die. Do you believe this? Oh Lord, I believe that thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And didn't I tell
you that I come here to bring glory to myself? Oh my. And that's what's needed here,
to see the glory of God. And that's what we need to see,
the glory of God. That's what I want to see, is
the glory of God. That's what we want to see. Because
He's the express image and the brightness of God's glory. And
you know what His glory is? It's to remove the wages of sin. It's death. And He does. To undo
the work we sin had done. Conquer the power of death. to
swallow up death into victory this is the glory of God said
I not unto thee that if you'd believe I believe and I see God's
glory in Jesus Christ don't you? oh my then what's what it says
verse 41 then they took away the stone where the dead was laid Oh, they listened to Martha.
And they listened to what she said to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And his replied to her before they started moving that stone
away. Oh, they took away the stone where the dead was laid. Now look what our master did.
You know, he did that in John 17. He lifted up his hands. And
I'll tell you what, in John 17, he lifted up his eyes and he
prayed. And you know, here he lifted up his eyes. Most folks,
sometimes when we pray, we bow our heads. Our Lord Jesus Christ
lifted up his eyes. You know why he lifted up his
eyes? Because he could actually see into glory itself. He could
see the Father. He could see into the presence
of God. He could see into the presence
of glory. He lifted up his eyes. and said I know Father and the first thing he
did and this is what we have to start our prayers with I've
said it a thousand times since I've been here I know I've said
that I thank thee that's the first thing out of our minds
I thank you I thank you I thank you what for? that you hear me that you hear
me and ain't you grateful that when you call on him and you
say thank you that he hears you and look what he is look what
else he said I thank you that you hear me that you've heard
me you've always heard me whenever I called you always hear everything
I say And look what it says, and I know that thou hearest
me every time. You hear me always. Every time
I call, you hear me always. But you know why I'm doing this
right now? I'm praying in your presence right now. Why I'm saying
this in your presence right now is not because I don't think
you hear me. Not because you don't do what
I ask you. But I'm saying this and doing
this because of all these people gathered around here. I want
everybody here to see. I want everybody here to know
that they may believe that you sent me here and I'm going to
do what you sent me to do. Oh my, and the son has given
the father honor for the miracle which is about to be performed.
And here he stands, he prays before this grave. There's no
sign of life whatsoever. And the stones rolled away. And
then when that stones rolled away, and he got through praying, got through praying, he cried. Wonder how loud our Lord spoke. I tell you what, he used a loud,
loud voice Lazarus! He's dead. He can't hear you.
Lazarus! He don't have to say it twice.
He don't have to just keep saying it over and over and over again.
Lazarus! Come forth. Watch what he says. And he that was dead. Every time
I read that, it blesses me like I can't tell you. It blesses
me to understand. And he that was dead. Oh, bless his name. He that was dead
came forth. Oh my, you remember hearing the
voice of the Son of God and you came forth too? And this is the way we come forth,
and it's just like he did. Bound hand and foot. Bound hand
and foot. Oh my. The word's the same today. He still calls the dead and they
have life. He's bound hand and foot with
grave clothes. And when God first calls us,
and let me tell you, this is what happens. When God first
begins to deal with us, all's we see is everything that's wrong
with us. And we're bound, we're bound
by tradition, superstition, and religion, and false beliefs,
and free willism, and our self rights, we're bound, oh my goodness,
we're bound hand and foot. We'll deal with that later. Oh,
and when a sinner's regenerated, that's just the beginning of
God's work in him. That's just the start. Oh, don't
give up, don't quit. Cause he knows how to take them
great clothes off. If you don't take them off all
at once, they come off a little bit at a time. First thing, he
had a napkin. Had a napkin over his face. He can't see. That's the first
thing that has to go is that napkin that's over his face.
That scale that's on the eyes. That thing that's before the
eyes. That's the first thing that's got to come off. That's
the first thing that's gotta come off. And oh my, and I'll
close with this, I do know this. And he's bound hand and foot
with grave clothes. And look what our Lord said.
Our Lord said unto him, Lucy, Lucy, take them grave clothes
off. You know, only dead folks wear
grave clothes. And I tell you what, beloved,
when Christ gives you life, them grave clothes is coming off. I tell you, beloved, when our
Lord Jesus Christ starts the work, those guys come off. They're gonna come off. They're
gonna come off. And you know what he uses to
bring them off with? He told them, he said, you loose
him. You loose him and let him go. And that's what the Word
of God does. That's what He says. When I'm
sent forth to preach, I told somebody this the other day,
you know, preachers chide believers, you know, that they don't, preachers
will get on and say, well, you know, you don't read your Bible
enough or you don't pray enough. But let me tell you this, that
that's what God called preachers for. is to tell you what he said. And that's why we go down through
the scriptures, verse by verse, to show you what the Lord said.
That's what God calls us for. And I mean, of course, read your
Bible. Look at the things, and you open them up, and you read
down, look down through there, and you see the things that the
Lord says. And that's exactly how he gives you life, calls
you from the dead, and that's how he gets them gray clothes
off of you. You know when faith cometh by hearing. You know what
that means? That means that he's gonna take
that veil off your face. Take that veil off your heart.
Huh? Ah. Mary, the master calls for you. Get up and go. Get up and go. Our Father, oh our Father, the
blessed, blessed name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you
for your abundant mercy and grace given us in Christ. Oh Lord,
thank you that your sheep hear your voice. That the dead, the
dead, the dead, dead, when you speak to them, you call them
out. And you call them by name. You
call them to their ears here. And their heart believes. And
they always come forth. And oh Lord, take off all these
old grave clothes that we wear so often. Put them back on sometimes. With our old superstitions. Oh God, and all our traditions.
Oh Lord, save us from them. God bless you people. Save you
people in this place. Add to the church those who should
be saved. Thank you and bless you for Christ's
sake. Amen. Every hour of every day, in every moment, and in every way. I'm leaning on Jesus. He's the rock of my soul. I'm singing His praises wherever
I go. All right. Lord willing, we'll
see you tonight. God willing.