Amen.
Okay, so John chapter 11, we'll be going through the Gospel of John as our Bible study.
We're obviously up to chapter 11 now.
And it starts in verse number 1.
Now a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha.
Okay, if we just have a quick word of prayer.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for this great book of the Bible.
Please help us to have open ears now and open hearts as we listen to your word being preached.
Help me to just preach it clearly and help us to be able to apply it to our lives as well
and ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
Okay, so verse 2.
It was at Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair,
whose brother Lazarus was sick.
Now we're going to see this in the next chapter in chapter 12.
Verse 3.
Therefore his sister sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God,
that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
When he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days to them in the same place where he was.
Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judea again.
Okay, now there are some great truths in that passage there and, you know,
probably something which I find really interesting is if you look at verse 3 where it says,
Therefore his sister sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
And in verse 5 it said, Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
Now, you know, that's not an accident there that it's put in there because there are levels of love, aren't there?
There are levels of love.
Turn to chapter 15, John chapter 15.
We know obviously that God loves the whole world.
God loved the world.
John 3.16, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
God loves his children, doesn't he?
You don't have to turn there, but Hebrews 12.6 says, For whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
So there's a love for the whole world.
There's a different level of love for his children.
And obviously there are people that God hates.
There are those that David says, Do not I hate them that hate thee, Lord?
I hate them with perfect hatred.
And he's speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit there.
But to abide or stay in God's love, that's the next level of love, isn't it?
That's beyond just being a child of God because there are many believers here
and we're seeing many, many believe, but he's singling out these people to say that he loved them.
Now, you're in John chapter 15, verse 10 says, Jesus speaking,
If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love,
even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love.
See, many people love to just say, Jesus, you know, just loves everyone.
Everyone's just loved the same.
Jesus loves the whole world.
It doesn't matter, you know, the most wicked, reprobate, you know, child murderer.
You know, Jesus just loves everyone.
But that's not the case, is it?
And especially when it comes to believers, there's a level there.
There are people, because we see as well, there's this extra love emphasized for certain people,
in particular, the writer of this Gospel, John.
And in, you know, in John 20, verse 2, you can turn there if you like quickly,
the Apostle John here, and he's described in other places as a disciple whom Jesus loved.
John chapter 20, verse 2, talking about the resurrection here,
Then she runneth and cometh to Simon Peter to the other disciple whom Jesus loved,
and saith unto them, They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre,
and we know not where they have laid him.
Now, don't you think that Jesus loves Simon Peter?
Jesus loves Simon Peter, but in particular here, the other disciple whom Jesus loved,
there's an extra level of love there.
And I believe that Mary, Martha and Lazarus are in this category too,
from what we can see here in the chapter that we're in, in chapter 11.
Now, why do you think it is? Is it because they make him laugh, do you think?
Maybe they've just, you know, got a really good sense of humour?
I don't think it's that. Maybe they're just so intelligent.
Jesus loves them because they've just got some really long words,
and, you know, they've got a dizzying intellect,
or maybe it's because they're just so full of flattery.
Maybe they just flatter Jesus.
I don't think it's any of those reasons.
I think it's because they try their best to keep his commandments.
I think it's because they're doing their utmost to keep Jesus' commandments.
They're not sinless, okay? No one's sinless, are they?
But I believe that they try their utmost.
See, we all make mistakes, don't we?
Every single person here makes mistakes, has made mistakes,
will continue to make mistakes, but do we strive to keep his commandments?
Does everyone here strive their utmost to keep his commandments,
or is it just on a Sunday?
Or is it just when we have people over, when we're in front of people?
Is it just after we've read the Bible?
Because we should be striving to keep his commandments
every single minute of every single day, shouldn't we?
We should be doing our best, we should want to do it, we should have that will there.
And look, for some people, they might be battling against different sins to other people,
and for some people, they might have some sins that they're still trying to get over,
but are you trying to get over them?
Are you trying to get through them? Are we trying to improve?
Are we listening to God's word and changing,
or are we listening to God's word and going,
you know, how about that, I'm just not perfect?
No, we're not perfect, but we should be trying our best, shouldn't we?
Now turn to chapter 14, John 14, verse 21.
Jesus said in John 14, 21,
He that hath my commandments and keepeth them,
he it is that loveth me,
and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father,
and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
What was the condition there?
Having his commandments and keeping them.
So, obviously, there is a striving, we should be striving our best,
and look, we're not going to be sinless, like I said,
but, you know, for those that actually are winning that battle,
winning that battle on maybe a daily basis, on a weekly basis,
you know, minimizing at least those blatant sins,
that sinfulness where we're choosing a sin,
those people, he that hath my commandments and keepeth them,
he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father,
and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.
I want to be described as someone that Jesus loved.
I want to be described as one of those,
one of his followers that he actually loved,
not just someone that, yeah, he loved,
but someone who he, I want to be someone who he really loved, you know,
one of those like he described Mary, Martha, Lazarus,
like he described the Apostle John,
because there is a different level there, isn't there?
The disciple whom Jesus loved, yeah?
Okay, on to verse four there, back in John 11,
and hopefully everyone here feels the same, yeah?
Hopefully, you know, this is our saviour,
this is, you know, he purchased us with his blood,
we should want him to love us like that.
Verse four, when Jesus heard that, he said,
This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God,
that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
So, you know, this is similar, isn't it,
to the blind man in chapter nine,
where it's for the glory of God,
and of course we can look at these stories and think,
oh, that's a bit harsh, but no,
because it's for the greater good, and ultimately,
they're going to benefit from this as well,
but they have to go through a rough time.
Verse five says, Now Jesus loved Martha,
and her sister, and Lazarus.
When he had heard, therefore, he was sick,
he abode two days, still in the same place where he was.
Now, he loved them, but he didn't rush to them, did he?
He loved them, but he abode there two days.
He didn't rush and end their tribulation early, did he?
He didn't go, well, Jesus loved them,
so as soon as he heard they were sick, he just kind of,
you know, went as quick as he could there and dealt with it.
He abode there two days, still,
after he heard they were going through what was an almighty tribulation, wasn't it?
Now, I believe they were good people.
I don't believe that this is chastisement.
I don't believe that they were getting punished for something.
I don't think there's anything to indicate that in this passage,
and look, sometimes we know, don't we?
We have to go through hard times in life, don't we?
We have to go through hard times.
It doesn't mean necessarily that we're out of God's will, does it?
Okay, because it's easy to look.
It's easy for ourselves to think,
oh, I must have done something wrong because I'm going through a hard time.
Or look at other Christians and go,
you must have done something wrong.
You must be getting chastised.
But often the tough times result in God being glorified, don't they?
That's what happens.
When we're in tough times, God gets glorified.
And look, it's not always just miraculously like in this time here
when people obviously see that raising from the dead,
as we're going to see in a minute,
but what about the positive effect that tribulation has on us?
And God is ultimately glorified in the end, isn't he?
When we go through a hard time and we improve
and we become better people,
God ultimately will get glorified at some point through that, won't He?
When we end up living more for God,
when we end up more in prayer,
when we end up more in the Word of God,
when we end up trying to do the will of God more,
God gets glorified, doesn't He?
And the truth is it comes often from tribulation, from hard times.
How do we know when it's chastisement?
How do you know when it's chastisement?
Well, it's pretty easy.
Make sure you're right with God.
Make sure you're doing your utmost to follow God.
Make sure you're doing your utmost to be in the will of God.
And if you're doing that, you don't have to be,
well, I must have done something.
Look, then look, you've got a clean conscience.
Yeah, look.
And on top of that as well, on top of that as well,
when you do sin, because we do all sin, yeah,
and when you know clearly you've sinned, yeah,
when you've made, when you've slipped up
or maybe when you've done something on purpose,
regardless, we should be praying for forgiveness, shouldn't we?
Because we don't want that chastisement,
because any of you with kids or any of you when you were kids,
if you remember that as well,
you know there's a big difference between catching your child out
and your child coming to you and saying,
I'm sorry, I messed up, yeah?
And when you catch your kid in the act of something,
they're going to get much more of a whooping
than if they actually come to you and say,
look, I want to own up to something that I've done.
And sometimes it's actually hard to punish them.
They do that, don't they, isn't it?
Because they come up, you're like, man, you're being so honest here.
It's quite difficult, and you're going to have to anyway,
because I don't want to, but the truth is,
it's going to be less of a chastisement,
and that's something we should do as Christians as well
with our Heavenly Father, shouldn't we?
Make sure that when you do make those mistakes,
that you're repentant for those mistakes.
Now, verse 7, it says,
Then after that saith he to his disciples,
let us go into Judea again.
Okay, so this is after those couple of days.
His disciples say unto him,
Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee
and goest thou thither again.
Now, so Bethany is in Judea, okay.
It's basically just under two miles from Jerusalem,
so that's pretty close.
You think you walk two miles in half an hour at a normal pace.
Yeah, okay, so it's really close to Jerusalem.
Okay, and remember what happened at the end of chapter 10.
So chapter 10 from verse 39 said,
Therefore they sought again to take him,
but he escaped out of their hand.
Talking about the Jews here.
And went away again beyond Jordan
into the place where John at first baptized
and there he abode.
And many resorted unto him and said,
John did no miracle,
but all things that John spake of this man were true
and many believed on him there.
So at this point, he's in a safer place, isn't he?
He's basically come away because they're wanting to kill him
and it's not the time for him to die yet.
So he's in a safe place and now he's saying,
right, we're going to go into Judea
and his disciples are thinking, whoa, okay.
Verse 9, Jesus answered,
Are there not twelve hours in the day?
If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not,
because he seeth the light of this world.
Now, this is a picture of walking in the light
in the will of God, yeah?
Okay, it's a picture of that.
We don't have to fear when we're in the light of the word
and the will of God, do we?
Yeah?
When we walk in the light,
we don't have to have that fear.
We don't have to worry.
Look, I mean, some of us here,
if you think about some of the places we go soul winning,
okay, and we go to some rough places sometimes, don't we?
And I'll tell you what, you know,
when I was unsaved and even after when I was saved
but not walking in the will of God,
I would have had second thoughts
about going to quite a lot of those areas, you know?
I'd go there and take my family to those areas,
taking young children when you're just walking around
some pretty rough estates,
places which people would say are a no-go area
and I bet many people here don't even think twice nowadays
and maybe you do, maybe you do think twice
but you still go there, don't you?
And we still go and because we're walking in the light,
because we're going there to preach the gospel
and we don't have to fear, do we?
We don't have to fear.
But we should fear if we're going there purposely
to look brave, yeah?
If we're going there and on our mind is,
oh no, I can tell everyone that I went to this place,
you know, and I've been there and I can show off about it
when we're showing off and that's our motivation
and we're not walking in the light, are we?
So obviously when we're in the will of God,
our motivation is go and get people,
say we're going to that place
because we know it's going to be receptive.
We know it's poor, we know those people
are much more likely to be humble
and much more likely to be receptive to the gospel
and that's why we're going there.
That's our motivation.
We have nothing to fear, do we?
We have nothing to fear.
Verse 10, but if a man walk in the night,
he stumbleth because there is no light in him.
That's when we stumble when we're walking in sin, isn't it?
That's when we stumble, stumble and fall.
Now, it's not talking about,
oh, well, that's when hard times happen.
That's when we stumble.
That's when we fall and we fall out of God's will.
When we're walking in the night,
when we're walking out of his will,
things are going to get worse, aren't they?
We're going to have bad times with that.
Okay, verse 11, these things said he
and after that he saith unto them,
My friend Lazarus sleepeth,
but I go that I may awake him out of sleep.
Then said his disciples,
Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well.
Howbeit Jesus spoke of his death,
but they thought that he had spoken
of taking a rest in sleep.
Okay, now there's a good principle to start there, isn't there?
And it's a pretty simple principle.
It's just about sleeping, helping us, isn't it?
Because a lot of people do burn the candle at both ends, don't they?
A lot of people, you start to feel a bit run down,
but you just don't want to take your foot off the gas.
You want to keep working hard or whatever it is,
keep doing more in the evening.
You know, that's a good time to maybe get an early night
because sleeping is such a great recovery, isn't it?
I don't think that's any pseudoscience.
That's pretty obvious, isn't it?
But Jesus said that he sleepeth
because although he physically dies spiritually, he doesn't.
Okay, so that's what he's talking about here.
He's physically died, but I'm not in any doubt.
Lazarus didn't go to heaven or hell here.
Okay, Lazarus basically is sleepy at this point,
but that doesn't mean that we all soul sleep, okay?
The Bible's clear, isn't it?
Obviously, Luke 16 is a great example.
And he lifted up his eyes in hell being in torments, didn't he?
Straight away the second that he died.
And seeing Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, doesn't he?
It's immediate.
There's none of this kind of weird paradise place
or soul sleep or anything else.
It's immediate, but obviously there's a bodily resurrection
to come in the future.
Okay, but Jesus said that he sleepeth, okay, here.
Verse 14, then said Jesus unto them plainly,
Lazarus is dead.
Okay, and he's talking physically here
to make it clear to them.
And I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there
to the intent ye may believe.
Nevertheless, let us go unto him.
Okay, now remember many had resorted to unto him
and of those many had believed on him.
But that means that there are some there
of those there that didn't, yeah?
Yeah.
Okay, didn't say all of them.
So there of those many, many believed,
but that means there are people remaining there
that hadn't believed on him,
that had resorted to him in the kind of safer place
where he was, where John had been baptized.
Now verse 16, then said Thomas, which is called Didymus,
or doubting Thomas if you remember,
unto his fellow disciples,
let us also go that we may die with him.
Now, Thomas here, he's talking a big talk here, isn't he?
He's up for taking on the Jews in Judea.
He's saying he's talking about dying with Jesus Christ here.
He's saying let us go that we die with him.
But don't forget that it's not just Peter that denied him.
That's a famous denial, isn't it?
But they all forsook him, didn't they?
Every single one of them fled.
Now, look, I'm not saying we would have done any better, okay?
I'm guessing that probably every single one here
probably would have forsaken him as well.
I hope not, but the truth is
that must have been some scary stuff going on there, yeah?
They're watching out what happened to Jesus Christ.
But look, he did have some big words, Thomas,
and I think it's better not to have the big words first
and then fail.
And look, you know, and when we do have the big words,
we should be trying our utmost to follow through with that, shouldn't we?
Because it's easy for us to have,
I'm going to be, I'm going to do this,
and we talked obviously this morning.
We got these goals for this church.
We got these short-term goals.
We got these long-term goals,
but you've got to really mean it, don't you?
We want to be part of that.
We want to be on board with that.
We want to really mean that.
We want to mean that in our life as well.
Every single goal we have,
we want to really mean it and try our best
because otherwise we do look a little bit foolish
because you read stuff like this.
You read obviously Peter as well with his denials
and you're just thinking, man, you messed up there, didn't you?
We don't want to be like that, do we?
We don't want to be Thomas here.
He's going, let us go that we may die with him
and then sure enough, when it comes to the crunch, he legs it.
Verse 17, then when Jesus came,
he found that he had lain in the grave four days already.
Just think about that.
That must have been a hard time for Mary and Martha,
don't you think?
Four days, but he's been dead.
Like we just saw, he waited two days.
At that point, obviously, I don't know how long the journey was,
but he couldn't have made it in time, could he?
Because he only had it on two days.
But four days, he's been dead.
They've been through a hard time,
but that doesn't mean that Jesus doesn't love them, does it?
Look, we can all go through hard times
and go through tribulation, go through times
when you're just thinking, why, why, why?
Help me out of this.
It doesn't mean he doesn't love you.
It doesn't mean you're out of his will, does it?
It means that something good will come from that.
It means that he will help you.
It means that you do sometimes have to go through stuff here.
It's for the glory of God, isn't it?
Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem about 15 furlongs off,
that's just under two miles,
and many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary
to comfort them concerning their brother.
Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming,
went and met him, but Mary sat still in the house.
Then said Martha unto Jesus,
Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died,
but I know that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God,
God will give it thee.
That's some strong faith, isn't it?
Okay, whatsoever, that's some strong faith.
Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again.
Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again
in the resurrection at the last day.
This is referring to the rapture.
Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live.
And here is the fifth I am of John's gospel.
Remember we had I am the bread of life in John chapter six.
We had I am the light of the world in John chapter eight.
We had I am the door of the sheep,
and then I am the good shepherd in John chapter 10.
Here in chapter 11, Jesus says,
I am the resurrection and the life.
The resurrection which is the life
through Jesus Christ, isn't it?
Therefore he is the resurrection and the life
because it's all through Jesus Christ.
He continues, he that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live.
And look, remember that we were all dead in our sins
before we put our faith in Jesus Christ, weren't we?
Every single person here,
we don't want to get puffed up like we're some sort of special people.
No, we were dead men walking.
Every single person here was a dead man walking.
The only difference is we're now saved.
And praise God for that.
And what an amazing truth there, though, as well,
that I am the resurrection and the life.
He that believeth in me, though he were dead,
yet shall he live.
It's simple, isn't it?
And then he goes on to say,
and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
Believeth thou this.
I'm assuming everyone in this room is living.
I know it's late on a Sunday evening
after a long day of soul winning,
and there might be a few that are kind of starting to nod off a bit.
But we are still alive.
OK, we are all still alive.
And if you're alive and you believe in Jesus Christ,
you shall never die.
What a truth, eh?
That's all it takes.
It's that faith in Jesus Christ,
that faith in his death, burial and resurrection.
Believeth thou this.
Amen. I believe that.
I hope everyone else believes that.
There are no ifs or buts, are there?
There are no whosoever liveth and believeth in me
and turns from every single one of his sins
or turns from certain ones of his sins
or whosoever lives and believes in me
but promises to ask for forgiveness every time he sins afterwards.
And it is unbelievable.
How many people claim to believe this, don't they?
I had it again yesterday.
I had a lady from some wicked group called Winner's Chapel.
Anyone heard of this?
Not in Dartford?
OK, so this is one of these many Pentecostal groups.
Wicked bunch. Winner's Chapel.
Two doors in a row.
Stickers on the door.
Ask the lady.
You know, start saying all the right stuff.
Oh, OK, is there any way you can live that salvation?
Well, if I didn't ask for forgiveness.
For which sins?
Well, for when I sin.
So every sin you've got.
And then we get into this stupid debate
where you're trying to show her and you're saying to her,
so what are you saying?
You're not trying to tell me that you can still have salvation
and not have to work to keep it.
I said, works, yes?
You believe you've got to work.
No, no, I'm not saying you've got to work.
You just said you've got to work.
It's not work and then they're just cutting in.
No, no, no.
And it just goes on and on.
And in the end you just have to say, look,
you know, this conversation's done really
because what can you do with something like that?
And you're showing them verse after verse.
And they won't have it.
And it's so frustrating, isn't it?
Because it is so clear.
There is no risk.
They love to add their little make him Lord of your life
and all that sort of stuff.
You know, and what I tried to give her was this one.
I said, well, what about the alcoholic then?
And she kept cutting me off.
She didn't want to hear that.
I said, say I knocked on your door
and you were a raging alcoholic.
Yeah, you were unsaved.
Yeah.
Got you saved.
So are you not going to heaven if you die tomorrow?
So at what point do you have to,
so you're saying you've got to give up the alcohol
to get saved?
No.
So what time do you have to give up?
At what point?
There is no point, is there?
You either live and believe or you don't.
Yeah, it's got nothing to do with your sin.
Yeah, we should.
We shouldn't sin.
But to get to heaven it's based on faith alone, isn't it?
Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
Believest thou this?
What is she sounding?
Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ,
the Son of God, which should come into the world.
Notice how it's synonymous with believing
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, okay?
It's synonymous, isn't it?
Because they go hand in hand.
If you're really believing that Jesus is who he is, yeah?
It's not, oh, I believe, yeah, I believe in that Jesus.
No, you don't really believe, do you?
She believes that thou art the Christ,
the Son of God, which should come into the world.
Now turn to Acts 8.
I know we're here this morning
because we see exactly the same in Acts chapter 8.
And Acts 8 verse 37.
So Philip was preaching to the Ethiopian eunuch
and he said, What doth hinder me to be baptised?
In verse 37.
And Philip said, If thou believeth with all thine heart thou mayest,
and he answered and said,
I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
Because truly believing that Jesus is the Christ,
the Son of God, is believing that whosoever liveth
and believeth in him shall never die, isn't it?
That's what you're really believing.
So obviously we're not looking at that and going,
right, we just need to go out and get people to just admit
that Jesus is, and just say lip service,
he's the Christ, Son of God.
No, when you're believing that,
when you really understand that and believe that,
you're believing that he died for your sins, aren't you?
Believing that he died, was buried, that he rose again,
that's paid for all your sins.
Okay, because truly believing that Jesus is the Christ,
the Messiah, the one that was coming to take away your sins,
the one that you had to believe on.
Verse 28, And when she had so said,
she went her way and called Mary her sister secretly,
saying, The Master is come and calleth for thee.
Verse 29, As soon as she heard that,
she arose quickly and came unto him.
When Jesus calls you, you come to him straight away,
don't you, morning or not.
Okay, you should come to him straight away, morning or not.
See, many people in hard times, they do resist the call,
don't they?
They resist that call to read the Word, to pray,
to come to church.
That's when we need him most, isn't it?
And that's when often Jesus is calling you.
He's saying, look, like, you know, my yoke is easy,
you know, my burden is light.
He's saying, come to me.
And people are just,
that's when they start sinking and turning away
and pulling away and not wanting to pray
and not wanting to read their Bible.
But that's when we need it most, isn't it?
In those hard times,
that's when we should follow that lead
and get up quickly and go to Jesus Christ
and make sure we're in church when times are hard.
Make sure that we're in the Word of God daily
and we go into it extra when times are hard.
That's when you want to open your Bible.
And that's probably the last thing
a lot of time you want to do, don't you?
When you're in a hard time,
but you should, you should just get open that Bible
and start reading, read some Psalms,
read something that's going to help you.
You know, so much the Word of God's going to help you,
isn't it?
But that's when we need,
that's when we need to arise quickly
and come to him in the hard times.
Verse 13,
Now Jesus was not yet come into the town,
but was in that place where Martha met him,
and 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 unto the grave to weep there.
See, she rose up hastily, very quickly, didn't she?
Okay, so it was quick, it was fast.
Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him,
she fell down at his feet, saying unto him,
Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping,
and the Jews also weeping which came with her,
he groaned in the spirit and was troubled,
and said, Where have ye laid him?
They said unto him, Lord, come and see.
Jesus wept.
Then said the Jews, behold how he loved him.
Okay, what a great passage
that shows Jesus' compassion for us,
isn't it?
What an amazing passage.
Now the Jews,
they think it's because of his love of Lazarus, yeah?
But verse 33 is the key, isn't it?
Verse 33,
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping,
and the Jews also weeping which came with her,
he groaned in the spirit and was troubled.
So it was Mary, and also the Jews, by the way.
Okay, it was Mary as one,
then also the Jews, the people,
that were with her weeping that caused Jesus to cry.
And that caused Jesus to cry.
What an amazing God we have that cares about us that much, eh?
What an amazing God that cares about us that much,
that it actually brings him to tears
when he sees how upset we are.
Psalm 145, verse 8 says,
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion,
slow to anger and of great mercy.
He's not just compassionate,
he's full of compassion.
And look, you know, we often at this church,
and for good reason,
because of the way the world paints things,
we often like to emphasize the manliness of Christ,
you know, the judge of who Christ is,
that righteous judge, and who he is,
and that he's not some sort of effeminate queer
running around with long hair and a dress
and shouting peace to everyone.
That's not what the Bible paints him as, is it?
That might be what Michelangelo paints him as,
but that's not what the Bible paints him as.
Okay, and we like to make a point of that here, don't we?
We like to make a point.
Jesus rebuking people because our modern liberal
so-called Christianity likes to make out
like you're some sort of heretic
if you dare to rebuke anyone or dare to preach on sin.
But Jesus did plenty of times, didn't he?
Jesus called Herod a fox.
Jesus called people vipers and parasites, didn't he?
Okay, that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
But, as well as that, he was full of compassion.
He was full of compassion.
Okay, and really, who's the benchmark?
Who is every single person here aiming to be like?
Like Jesus Christ, yeah?
And look, we should be bold like Jesus Christ.
We should preach as Jesus Christ wants us to preach,
and we should be true to the word.
We should stand up for the word of God as well.
We should be willing to cast the money changes
out of the temple, shouldn't we, with a whip, yeah?
We should be like that, but on the same hand,
we should also be full of compassion, shouldn't we?
We should be compassionate.
And if we're like that, we're gonna not only have compassion
for the unsaved, but compassion on each other as well, yeah?
And, you know, and that could be, you know,
sometimes that could be hard for us, can't it?
And sometimes we can, like we spoke about this morning,
there can be, like, petty squabbles and issues
between each other, but, you know,
ultimately we should be compassionate on each other.
Sometimes that is telling people the truth, though, isn't it?
So sometimes that is saying hard truths to people,
and that's more compassionate than not saying a thing.
Sometimes you do need to tell people,
and there's ways of doing that, obviously,
and sometimes that's not saying things,
when there's a time that things don't need to be said.
We don't need to just be constantly rebuking each other
for everything that we see, no?
But ultimately it's having compassion,
having compassion on the group as well.
Some people look at preachers and pastors and, you know,
and evangelists now, and the rest, and look at that,
and look at people preaching, see them preaching on sins
and think they're just so mean and everything else.
But ultimately, you know, you have to have compassion
on a group as a whole, don't you?
And you have to preach other things and protect the church,
you know, and protect people and preach things
that it's not just for your own benefit or anything else,
not because you just want to have a rant on stuff.
But it all goes hand in hand, but part of having that compassion
is actually feeling something for each other, isn't it?
Feeling something for other people and being upset,
and there's nothing wrong with, you know, with, okay,
as long as it's not every other day,
but there's nothing wrong with a man sometimes crying, isn't it?
Sometimes actually getting emotional.
Sometimes, okay?
Don't use this and start going over weeping to your wife every night, yeah?
But there's nothing wrong with that, is there?
There's nothing wrong with that.
Now and again, it's having some emotion, having some compassion,
you know, and that's something that is actually normal, okay?
It's probably a bit abnormal if it's literally impossible for you to ever cry, yeah?
Well, maybe you're not in touch with your emotions.
Okay, but we should, shouldn't we?
Because Jesus wept, didn't he?
Jesus wept, and when you see someone that you care about,
people you care about mourning and just in bits,
and look, death can do that, can't it?
Okay, and that can really, that could really hurt people,
and if that doesn't move you at all, then, you know,
maybe you need to start checking yourself a little bit there.
Okay, verse 37, and some of them said,
could not this man which opened the eyes of the blind
have caused that even this man should not have died?
So obviously they think he's crying because Lazarus is dead,
but Jesus can do much more than preventing someone physically dying, can't he?
As we see, Jesus therefore again groaning in himself.
So he's moved here, isn't he? He's really moved.
Cometh to the grave, it was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
Now, obviously you can see the similarities to Jesus' coming resurrection here, can't you?
Verse 39, Jesus said, take ye away the stone.
Martha the sister of him that was dead saith unto him,
Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days.
Jesus saith unto her, said I not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe,
thou shouldst see the glory of God.
Now, maybe it was some previous preaching,
or maybe he's referencing what we saw in verses 25 to 26 here,
saying whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
That is the glory of God, that, I don't know.
But verse 41, then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid,
and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me,
and I knew that thou hearest me always,
but because of the people which stand by I said it,
that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
And this is obviously a theme throughout the Gospels.
Jesus did many things that people might believe, didn't he?
Verse 43, and when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice,
this isn't weeping here, this is crying in the Bible, that's shouting,
he shouted, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
Now, he's shouting this in front of all these morning people here, isn't he?
He's shouting it, saying, can you imagine what they must have thought for that split second?
What on earth? They must have thought, this guy is loopy.
He's been dead for four days.
But what happens? He comes forth, doesn't he?
But that is, you know, again, there's, again, the power of Jesus' words there, though, isn't it?
Because it's Jesus' words, he commands, he shouts, Lazarus, come forth.
Lazarus rises from the dead, and how are we all saved?
How do we, how have we all become eternally alive through Jesus' words, haven't we?
Through the words of Jesus. Not any person here has been saved
without the word of God being preached to them, OK?
It's impossible. The Bible's clear, that's how you get saved through the word of God.
And in English, that is the King James Bible, isn't it?
Now, I know people like to kind of, well, what if the verse wasn't changed too much and everything else?
Because, yeah, sure, it's the word of God, and if it's clearly saying the same thing, it's saying the same thing.
But I don't see any, any new Bible which isn't perverting the majority of nice, clear salvation verses.
So that's why we go out, when we preach the word of God, we go out with the King James Bible.
That's why we read the King James Bible, that's why we preach the King James Bible from the pulpit and out on the doors,
because people aren't getting saved without it, aren't they?
And they're not getting, really, the word of God without it either, are they?
And there, it's Jesus' words, and Jesus' words are clearly preserved like he promised he'd preserve them,
he promised throughout the Bible he'd preserve them, and we have them preserved in English in the King James Bible.
And that's why this church has nearly 800 salvations, and every single one of them has been with what Bible?
The King James Bible, the only Bible in English.
The tried and tested Bible, the Bible that was going out for over 400 years, getting people saved.
We don't need something new by a load of weird whatever you want to call them.
Let's be honest, they're perverts, they're Bible perverts, and they're probably perverts as well.
That's the truth.
Okay, then, so where were we? Sorry.
Jesus' words, in verse 44,
And he that was dead came forth, because Jesus' words say,
Bound hand and foot with graveclothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin,
Jesus saith unto them, Loose him and let him go.
Then many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him.
So, firstly, let's just cover this one yet again in the Gospel of John.
We've got many believing in him, haven't we?
Many believing on him, it says here in verse 45.
We've seen this through literally almost every chapter of the Gospel of John.
Many believed on him, many believed on him, many believed on him.
And I'm just going to ram home this point because it is an attack that we constantly hear,
that just because you believed on Jesus Christ, it doesn't mean you're going to be a disciple.
It doesn't mean that you're necessarily going to get baptised.
It doesn't mean that you're going to go to church, but at least you're not going to hell.
Okay, because in the upper room there are 126 people in Acts chapter 1.
But many, many, many throughout the Gospel of John,
and by the way, that's only part of Jesus' ministry.
In fact, it's only a small part of Jesus' ministry.
Says the end of the Gospel of John, there's only a few things that were listed there,
and all the books in the world could not contain everything that Jesus did.
I'm paraphrasing there.
Okay, so many believe, but unfortunately it doesn't mean they're going to be a disciple
because if you continue in my Word, then are you my disciples indeed.
You have to continue in the Word of God after salvation to be a disciple.
Okay, but again, so I'm going to preach it every time though,
because it really, it bugs me, it bugs me like crazy
because that's why you've got these wicked churches claiming,
well, no one's getting saved because they're not coming to church,
which means excuses us from going out and preaching the Gospel.
They might as well just sit there and preach a Gospel service every single week.
Week in, week out, it's easy to write, isn't it?
You just rewrite it with another verse, you know,
and then preach for 20 minutes or whatever they do.
And look, it's wicked, it's wicked.
Go out and get people saved, Jeff.
They come to church, bonus.
Okay, so anyway, we've got many believing on him,
but notice how it wasn't all the Jews which came to Mary
and had seen the things that Jesus did.
Because it says here, then many of the Jews which came to Mary
and had seen the things that Jesus did believed on him.
It didn't say all the Jews, did it?
So they've literally just seen Jesus Christ raise Lazarus from the dead,
yet they still don't believe.
Okay, many did, but I don't know how many, some didn't.
Okay, what is that about?
Verse 46, well, we know what that's about, don't we?
But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees
and told them what things Jesus had done.
So these other Jews, they believed what he had done,
so they believed what he had done, didn't they?
Okay, to go to the Pharisees and tell him.
They didn't go there and go, oh, something happened,
I'm not really sure what happened.
No, they know what he did, but they haven't believed on him.
Okay, and he's been making it clear time and time again
what it takes to be saved.
Okay, we've seen that chapter after chapter here.
They know what it takes, they know what he's done,
they see the miracles, but they still refuse
to put their faith in them, or they cannot put their faith in them
because they're already too far gone.
Okay, and look, there is a difference between believing
and trusting him for salvation, isn't there?
And look, it's something we want to emphasise as well
when we're out preaching the gospel.
Just because they believe what you're telling you,
it doesn't mean they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.
Okay, so we go out and preach the gospel,
and there are people that go, yup, yup, yup, tick all the box,
tick all the box, agree everything, and you know,
you could have it, can't you, where you do all of that,
and then you say to them, so do you believe that
if you went out next week and you killed someone,
you'd still go to hell? Oh, well, no, it's not if I did that.
But at that point, you could have gotten to say a prayer with you.
They claim they believe it all, they believe that what you're saying
is in the Bible, but they're not in their heart
believing and trusting Jesus Christ, are they?
Okay, they have to believe it in their heart,
they have to trust, they have to put their faith in Jesus Christ,
not just believe that what you're saying is in the Bible, yeah?
I mean, the same way, these guys saw what he did,
but they haven't trusted Christ there.
Verse 47, then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council,
and said, what do we? For this man doeth many miracles.
If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him,
and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation.
So, can you see here, the chief priests and the Pharisees, yeah,
they come together, they gather a council.
Now, it's something I've been talking about a bit recently and we're all seeing,
the enemies of Christ will often yoke up together, won't they?
In fact, not often, they regularly yoke up together, don't they?
And obviously we've been seeing this a bit,
anyone who's been interested in some of the online stuff as well,
going on with some of our friendly churches,
and the churches that, you know, obviously that we follow
and that we love and respect, and the enemies of Christ yoke up.
Something which never ceases to amaze me,
is that you can have people that claim to be saved,
that claim to be, you know, Baptist, independent Baptist,
but I believe in Christians in a church, yeah,
that claim to, you know, believe in the Trinity,
claim to believe in many, you know, many of the other clear issues
which mean that you're not saved, and then as soon as they fall foul,
and they fall out, or they leave, or they get kicked out suddenly,
they're best friends with people that believe in stuff
that they claim to have hated.
Suddenly they just all gather together,
like the absolute, you know, just wicked bunch that they are,
and same here, you've got the chief priests and the Pharisees
just gathering this council, because it's just they're united
in the hatred of, really, of Jesus Christ.
That's what it is, isn't it? That's what it is.
And these people, you know, they don't fool you, do they?
Like when it comes, and they all try and be like holier than thou,
and oh, what are these evil, wicked people that, you know,
they're so mean and everything else, and we've just got, you know,
we're just so loving, and we're just so, like, you know,
kind of measured and somewhere in between.
But funny, because now your best mate's with a oneness heretic.
Now you're online, like, yoking up with anyone else that hates
soul-winning churches. They yoke up together.
And here, look at this. So, verse 46,
but some of them went their ways to the Pharisees
and told them what Jesus has done.
So you've got the stalkers reporting to the leaders.
You've got the stalkers that are hanging around to try and get some info,
then they're going off and reporting to the leaders, aren't they?
They're reporting to the, like, we see it in our world now
with the kind of online channel guys, you know,
the stalkers are like, well, this happened, and this happened,
and this happened, and it's always so dishonest
if you ever read any of that stuff as well.
They know, look, they know here that he's doing miracles,
so they're not just unbelievers here, are they?
At this point, these particular people we're talking about,
they're the enemy, aren't they?
They're the enemy. They're the sons of Belial.
They're the people that the Bible describes time and time again
as reprobate concerning the faith, aren't they?
These are the people, remember, that we've seen time and time again
telling Jesus that he has a devil, okay, saying this man has a devil, okay?
They have never forgiveness, okay?
And they're people that have crossed that line,
though they are people that are given up on by God, okay?
And as we, I think everyone here pretty much understands
that reprobate doctrine, which, again, just without it,
the Bible doesn't make sense.
It makes clear sense once you put everything together.
It has to be line upon line, precept upon precept.
Okay, so you've got these stalkers reporting to the leaders.
These are the enemy.
They know that all men will believe on him.
They know the truth here, don't they?
They're not saying, oh, well, this guy's just causing some trouble.
They're not saying, oh, they'll believe that what he's saying is true.
They're saying they will believe on him, okay?
They know deep down. These people are wicked.
If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him
and the Roman shall come and take away both our place and nation.
So they don't want to lose their positions in their false religion, do they?
Okay, they don't want to lose their positions.
They don't want to lose their livelihoods.
They don't want to lose, you know, their position of authority.
They don't want to lose that position where people are looking up to them.
And that's one reason, isn't it?
One reason why the false prophets won't leave us alone, okay?
Because they don't, do they? They won't leave us alone.
They won't stop attacking churches like ours.
They won't stop being so angry with grace through faith.
All these churches that are just so livid that they don't believe in repentance.
No, we do believe in repentance.
We don't believe in repenting of your sins, okay?
We do believe in repentance.
We believe in a change of mind and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ.
We don't believe that you have to repent of your sins to get saved.
It's nonsense.
But that's why they're so angry, aren't they?
They preach against this stuff, these people that claim to be Bible-believing Christians, okay?
And they won't leave us alone because if the true Gospel spread enough,
if it spreads enough, their lie, work, salvation would be under threat, wouldn't it?
It'd be under threat.
Their lie, work, salvation, their way of trying to, you know, get extra money in the offering plate
because you've sinned a bit too much this week.
You know, pay a bit of an extra tithe and you might get away with it or the rest of it.
It'd all be under threat, wouldn't it?
Wicked.
Their positions, their cushy lives.
Because a lot of them have got these cushy lives.
Whether or not they're the mega-millionaire with their private checks or they're not,
it's their cushy lives. They don't want to leave that.
They don't want the Romans to come away and take both their place and their nation here
and they don't want, in this life, they don't want to lose their following
because people will believe the truth, you would hope,
unless they brainwash them enough because they do, don't they?
They get brainwashed by false religions.
How hard is it to get a seasoned Pentecostal out of that repent of your sins?
How hard is it to get a seasoned Baptist out of that repent of your sins?
And when I say Baptist, they're not really like that.
It's wicked.
I knocked on the door today and the lady said, yup, yup, I'm a Christian.
I've been baptised.
Oh, word, it was some, I need to remember the name of it.
It was some wicked Baptist church down the road here.
What's a couple of Baptist churches here, brother?
Ferndale.
Ferndale was exactly it.
It was Ferndale, wasn't it?
OK, Ferndale Baptist Church.
She said, yeah, I'm a Christian.
Yeah, I got baptised.
Oh, where?
Ferndale Baptist Church.
Oh, OK.
Well, what have you got to do to go to heaven?
Bigger person.
What did you get back?
You know, but obviously I didn't say that.
But you feel like saying, ah, what are you talking about?
So I said to her, so then I tried to try to get the conversation going.
She was livid.
I mean, straight, I mean, why are you even knocking him?
I was like, well, I started trying to answer, why are you knocking him?
Well, Jesus did say to, you cut me off.
We've had a Jehovah's Witness knocking.
Why are you knocking?
Well, because, you know, and then she just shut the door in my face.
It's like, wow, she was livid that I knocked on her door,
even though she claimed to have been baptised.
But again, nice people, they're hard to get out of it, aren't they?
Really hard because they've been there for a while.
They believe I've been baptised.
I've go to church.
What on earth?
You know, how could I not be saved?
You know, and sadly, this is what these people do
and they're damning people to hell.
They're wicked.
And that's why they need preacher games.
Verse 49.
And one of them named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year,
said unto them, ye know nothing at all,
nor consider that it is expedient for us
that one man should die for the people
and that the whole nation perish not.
And this spake he not of himself.
So, just look at that there.
It sounds like God's using him there, isn't he?
Now, this guy's clearly unsaved.
I mean, if anything, I'd be amazed if he wasn't a reprobate.
But God can still use people, can't he?
God can, you know, he can change the mind of the king.
He can do anything, can't he?
He can make people say what he wants to say.
Now, it sounds like he's using him at this point, yeah?
He said, but being high priest that year,
he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation.
So maybe he had also previously prophesied that
or maybe it's talking about this point now.
God's using him for his purpose, regardless of who he is.
But maybe where he says he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation,
maybe he's alluding to passages like Isaiah 53, which we've recently done.
Maybe he's repeating part of what he'd already preached.
Some people do that, even though they don't really understand the word there.
Because it then goes on to say not for that nation only,
but that also he should gather together in one of the children of God
that were scattered abroad.
So I think that's some previous preaching.
That's how I see that.
Then from that day forth, they took counsel together to put him to death.
So as we said before, they're planning to kill God, yeah?
How wicked is that?
How wicked a group, how wicked a religion to plan to kill God.
And it is a wicked religion, Judaism.
There's nothing, oh, they've just got the father and no son.
No, it's a separate religion.
It's a wicked religion.
It's a wicked religion that has grown from this day where they're planning to kill God.
Verse 54, Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews,
but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness,
into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples.
Because remember, there's a set time for him to die.
Verse 55, and the Jews' Passover was nigh at hand.
This is the last one.
And many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves.
So this is to arrive early so they're not deemed unclean from their journey.
So they're going early so they're not unclean for the Passover.
And look, here we're coming up to the final Passover where Jesus is crucified,
and we're only at chapter 11.
We're just finishing chapter 11 in the Gospel of John.
So obviously this comes a lot quicker in the Gospel of John.
We've got to jump forward.
And we're now at this point where then we're going to have basically 10 chapters
that should deal with the final days.
And that's going to be some great stuff as we go through that.
Verse 56, then sought they for Jesus and spake among themselves as they stood in the temple.
What think ye that he will not come to the feast?
Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment,
that if any man knew where he were he should show it,
that they might take him.
And here they've yoked up, they've got this commandment,
and their goal ultimately is to destroy Jesus Christ.
And like we see nowadays, the goal of these people that yoke up together
is to destroy soul-winning churches and stop people getting saved.
On that, let's pray.
Father, I thank you for your word.
I thank you for just a great chapter of the Bible
and just showing the power of Jesus' words
and again just showing how easy salvation is,
what a great, you know, just what a free gift it is.
And I pray that you'll help us to go out this week
and proclaim that truth to people, to show people how it's a free gift,
how you paid it all, you know, all to you we owe.
And just help us to make that clear to people
and get people saved this week and to turn up to the soul-winning times
and if we can't, to try and get out ourselves anyway
and obviously to all get safely home
and manage to get petrol as well to be able to get it back here next week.
And in Jesus' name we pray all of these things. Amen.