(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Well, I know him as Brother Matthew and the new guy, if you see something called a mat Okay, well, welcome everybody to Sure Foundation Baptist Church Seattle. If you'd please grab a hymnal and turn to page number 88. We'll sing our first hymn this evening. Number 88 in your hymnals please. Sometime we'll understand. Number 88. Not now, but in the coming years, it may be in the better land. We'll read the meaning of our tears. And then sometime we'll understand. Then trust in God through all the days. Fear not for he doth hold thy hand. Though dark thy ways still sing and praise. Sometime, sometime we'll understand. We'll catch the broken thread again and finish what we here began. Heaven will the mysteries explained. And then we'll understand. Then trust in God through all the days. Fear not for he doth hold thy hand. Though dark thy ways still sing and praise. Sometime, sometime we'll understand. We'll know why clouds instead of sun were over many cherished plans. Why song has these windscares begun? Tis there sometime we'll understand. Then trust in God through all the days. Fear not for he doth hold thy hand. Though dark thy ways still sing and praise. Sometime, sometime we'll understand. Number last. God knows the way he holds the key. He guides us with unerring hand. Sometime with tears his eyes will see. Yes, there up there we'll understand. Then trust in God through all the days. Fear not for he doth hold thy hand. Though dark thy ways still sing and praise. Sometime, sometime we'll understand. Amen. Wonderful singing. Brother Josh, will you please open us a word of prayer, sir? Dear Lord, thank you for this evening and thank you for this church. Thank you for everybody that showed up here today and just bless us all. Let us have a wonderful sermon tonight and Jesus, I'm afraid. Amen. Amen. Let's go ahead and turn all the way in the back of your hymnals to page 355. Number 355, please. What a friend we have in Jesus. What a friend we have in Jesus. All our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear. Oh, because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Happy trials and temptations. Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful? Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Are we weak and heavy laden? Cumbered with a load of care. Precious Savior, still our refuge. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Do thy friends despise, forsake thee? Take it to the Lord in prayer. In his arms he'll take and shield thee. Thou will find his solace fair. Amen. Wonderful singing. Welcome to Church Foundation Baptist Church Seattle. We're going to go ahead and go over our announcements, take a look at our bulletins. We do not have any extras, so if you don't have one, just bear with us and just kind of follow along the best you can. There will not be a quiz afterwards, so you don't have to worry about remembering anything. But we will take a look at the front covers of our bulletins, take a look at the verse of the week, which is 2 Corinthians 13 verse 11. Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace shall be with you. And that's 2 Corinthians 13 verse 11. On the inside of our bulletins, on the right-hand side of the upper right-hand corner is our church schedule. On Sunday mornings, we have church at 11 a.m., our morning service, and we have our evening service at 4 p.m. We are currently in the 6 30 p.m. Wednesday evening service. Also, soul winning times are listed here as well. On Sundays, we have soul winning at 1 30 p.m. Wednesdays, we have soul winning at 5 p.m. And Saturdays, we have soul winning at 11 a.m. And as far as soul winning went today, we didn't have any salvations, but we do appreciate the folks that did show up and everyone who prays for it. So I know you guys are prayer warriors. We appreciate the prayers for when we go out soul winning. The preaching schedule here, you can peruse at your leisure, but folks should note this evening, Pastor Thompson is preaching for us. You probably see him back there in the corner. You get a chance after the service, say hi. He is providing pizza to the church. So if you like the fellowship and stay for some, again, Little Caesars as usual. So Little Caesars and some fellowship, please feel free to stay. Usually a lot of pizza left over, so gobble up. And I believe that he's going to be trying to make a comeback on the 31st. So we get him two times this month. So be in prayer for that. Let's see here. Upcoming events, July 26th to 28th, the Sure Foundation Baptist Church, Vancouver, sixth year anniversary. It's gonna be a whole weekend of preaching and fellowship and everything like that. And as far as I know, close down here. You still want to know the biggest, the biggest group is going to be heading down south. Okay, so we will be closed on that weekend of the 28th. So there'll be no services here, but definitely if you are somehow still stuck up here, like most people I talk to are going down there, tune in for the preaching on Rumble or on YouTube. Let's see here. Let's see other upcoming events. September 13th to the 15th, Sure Foundation Baptist Church North, sixth year anniversary weekend. That should be a super fun time. October 6th to the 7th is the family and friends weekend at the Vancouver location. Saturday at 11 a.m. will be the annual pumpkin patch. And Pastor Roger Jimenez will be preaching that Sunday in the evening. November 6th to the 10th is the Faithful Word Baptist Church missions conference. And December 15th, Dr. Phil Stringer, a very notable King James Bible expert, will be preaching at the Vancouver location. Is that a Wednesday? Or Sunday? Oh, okay. Preaching both services and a Q and A. So that's probably a really neat time to go and hear some really solid preaching about the preservation of King James Bible. That's awesome. That will take care of our announcements. Just about the building. Please leave the lights off. The doors open in the bathrooms as a courtesy for the next folks going in. We do have a makeshift mother baby room around the corner to the right. Please feel free to use the baby gate if you need to. Otherwise you kind of gently close the door. Take care of parental duties. We are family integrated, so please bring your children back into the service if you have to take them out so they can hear the preaching of God's word. Please no running in the building. We do have a large trash can in the back. I like to throw away stuff that we're not going to keep around so we can keep our area clean. Oh, we got a new refrigerator. So praise God for that. So we can keep lunches and things like that in the refrigerator over here on Sunday. Maybe we're going to start getting like a thing where we can put our drinks in there, keep them cool. Excuse me. So we can make use of that thing. So it's not just like a stinky cupboard in there anymore. Excuse me. I think that's pretty much it for the announcements. I got a scratch in my throat. Good night. That will be all for the announcements. We'll go ahead and say one more song and then we'll go ahead and receive the offering. Good night. Let's see if you would please. Turn to number 220 in your hymnals. Jesus is all the world to me. Number 220 on the first. Jesus is all the world to me. My life, my joy, my all. He is my strength from day to day. Without Him, I would fall. When I am sad to Him, I go. No other one can cheer me so. When I am sad, He makes me glad. He's my friend. Jesus is all the world to me. My friend in trial store. I go to Him for blessings and He gives them o'er and o'er. He sends the sunshine and the rain. He sends the harvest golden grain. Sunshine and rain, harvest of grain, He's my friend. Jesus is all the world to me and true to Him I'll be. Oh, how could I, His friend in eye, when He's so true to me. Following Him, I know I'm right. He watches o'er me day and night. Following Him by day and night, He's my friend at last. Jesus is all the world to me, I want no better friend. I trust Him now, I'll trust Him when life's fleeting days shall end. Beautiful life with such a friend, beautiful life that has no end. Has no end, eternal life, eternal joy, He's my friend. Amen. Wonderful singing. Brother Neb, will you please come up and bless the offering, sir? All right, dear Heavenly Father, thank you for everything that you've done for us, Lord. Pray that you bless the gift and the giver, Heavenly Father, and pray that you Pastor Thompson, with your spirit, we preach a wonderful prayer that He always does, Lord. Pray that you would guide us and keep us safe that are all here. And for those that couldn't make it, we honor the weather, Lord. Pray that you heal them and bring them up to 100%. Lord, we love you and we cherish you, Heavenly Father. And in Jesus' mighty name we pray, our Lord. Amen. Amen. Amen. All right, everyone please turn in their Bibles to John chapter 11, the Gospel of John chapter 11, please. Whoo. Gospel of John chapter 11. As is our custom, we will read the entire chapter and the Bible reads, Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 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 till still in the same place where He was. Then after that saith He to His disciples, Let us go into Judea again. His disciples say unto Him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again? 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. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. These things said he, and after that he saith unto them, Our 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 spake of his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest and sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes, that I was not there, to the intent that ye may believe. Nevertheless, let us go unto him. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him. Then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already. Now Bethany was nigh unto Jerusalem about fifteen furlongs off, 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 wilt give it thee. Jesus said unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection of the last day. 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 whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? She saith unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. When she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary, her sister secretly, saying, The Master has come, and calleth for thee. As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came unto him. Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in that place where Martha met him. The Jews then, which were with her, rose 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. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. Then Jesus therefore, when Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also, 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. 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? Jesus therefore, again groaning in himself, cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, sayeth 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. 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 when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound with a napkin. Jesus saith unto him, 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. But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees, and told them what things Jesus had done. Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a counsel, 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. 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, but being high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad. From that day forth they took counsel together, for to put him to death. 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. And the Jews' Passover was nigh at hand, and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the Passover, to purify themselves. 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 priest and the Pharisees had given a commandment, that if any man knew where he were, that he should show it, that they might take him. And Will the mat be fixed for sure? All right, well it's great to be back here, and it started to take me so long to get back. I've been traveling a lot, as you probably all well know, but I'm glad to be here now, and I'm trying to do a little makeup session, be back here again in a couple weeks. So I'll be traveling to Tempe on Saturday, so and then that'll be my last trip for a little while, and so I'm hoping to be here a lot more through the next several months here. So yeah, so anyway, didn't mean to be gone this long, but I'm back now and trying to be back more often. So anyway, it's been a long time since we've been in the book of John, but this is my 11th, probably 12th or maybe 13th sermon out of the book of John, because I think there's a couple that I didn't get through the whole chapter, and had to do second sermons out of. But I'm going to finish this whole sermon tonight, and it is 57 verses, so it took Stephen a little while to read that whole chapter, but now we've got the context, and now we're going to get through the whole chapter anyway again. But if you remember last time, and you probably don't, so I'm just going to recap it really quickly. Last time I preached out of John 10, I preached about Jesus being the door. He says, I am the door of the sheepfold, and he's the only way to heaven. I preached about that, and how he made the way to heaven. So not only is he the door, but he also made the way, and he leads us through that door, if you remember me preaching about that. And there's that picture of the tabernacle, how there's only one gate to get into that door, and that gate was colored with all these different reds, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twine linen, and so that gate represents Jesus. And he is the good shepherd, and he leads us to heaven. And then I closed on the topic of eternal security of the believer, the fact that he holds us in his hand, and we're eternally secure in his hand. Once we put our faith in him, he'll never let us go. And not only that, he has us in his hand, but God the father has his hand over his hand. So we can't escape salvation even if we want to. We can't give it back. We can't put it back on the proverbial shelf that the Pentecostals like to say there is. There is no shelf that's not in scripture. That is a made-up construct of the unsaved mind. So let's get right into it. My first point here is the death of Lazarus. This is pretty much taking up the topic of the whole sermon here, and how Jesus deals with this death of his friend Lazarus. Verse number one, the Bible says, Now a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary, and her sister Martha. Now this is the first time that this has been mentioned. This is the first time Bethany's mentioned in the book of John. This is the first time that Mary and Martha are mentioned in the book of John. But if you've read the other gospels, which I'm sure you have, Mary and Martha are mentioned in other gospels. Remember, Martha's the one that's saying, Make my sister help me. She's doing all the work. She's slave laboring and helping out. She's being a good hostess or whatever, and Mary's just sitting there not doing anything. She's listening to Jesus, and Jesus said, I'm not going to make her stop listening to me. She's chosen that good thing, and she said, Martha, you're troubled with many different troubles, right? But Bethany's a place. It's a town that is near Jerusalem. It's at the foot of the Mount of Olives, and it's tied with this place called Bethphage. And what they think the meaning is, is that it's the place of unripe figs. Now, if you remember when Jesus curses that fig tree, he curses it, and because the figs were not yet ripe on it. So that is, when I looked up what Bethphage means, that's what it means. And that the place of figs is what Bethany is supposed to mean. So that's what I read on the internet. So I mean, take that for what it is. Abraham Lincoln said it, so no, I'm just kidding. But that's kind of what I looked into. Obviously, Beth always means house of something, right? So house of figs or something like that. So anyhow, but this is a place where Jesus would go to on a regular basis. He actually stayed in a house of a man named Simon the leper, which that wouldn't necessarily be the house that I would probably choose to stay at. But I don't know, Jesus probably didn't worry about it. He could heal himself or heal whoever was there, I guess. But if someone was named Simon the leper, I probably would maybe skip that. I don't know. Maybe I'm just being mean. But he stayed there, and he obviously became very good friends with this man named Lazarus and Mary and Martha. And so look at verse number two, it says, it was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. So it gives us a little point in parentheses. And then this act doesn't happen in the book of John until the next chapter. Look in chapter 12, verse number three. So it's funny how it's pointing us to something that... It's almost like it's pointing us to something in another gospel because of course this story is in the other gospels and it gives us more detail about it. But look at verse three in John chapter 12, it says, Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. But then I think it's in Matthew where it talks about the fact that this would be a memorial to her for all generations, the great works that she did because she did it for his burial. And this of course is when Judas kind of freaks out because he realizes that this costly spikenard, the money could have gone in his pockets. He brings up this could have been sold for the poor and all this other stuff, but really he's a thief. And we're going to get to that into the next chapter. I don't want to get too deep into that, but this is that same Mary. And I think in Luke, I'm not sure exactly what book it is, but I'm just going off of the memory of seeing these stories in the other gospels. I didn't really look at which chapter or book it was in, but a Pharisee is the one who invited Jesus over to his house and then she does that at his house, I think. That's where she does it. So you have a bunch of different stories in the gospels that help us get the whole detail of the story. But nonetheless, this is that same Mary. So she loves Jesus a lot. She's weeping, wiping his feet with her tears. But I just thought it was interesting how it says that the chapter before as if it's trying to draw your attention to another gospel that's already been written, right? So John 11 three says, Therefore, his sister sent unto him saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. So they sent unto him wherever they knew where he was, apparently, but, you know, they didn't have text messaging, email, FedEx, Western Express or anything like that. So they probably had to send a runner or a writer to send this message. And I'm sure it probably was costly as well. I mean, the average person back then probably didn't have the ability to just send messages to people like this. I mean, your text messages were write this down and run or write this down and ride this horse to get this message. So they sent unto him and it says, 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. Now, I want you to point, I just want to point this out here that, you know, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. He loved the whole world, right? It's not that he just loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. But what I do want to point out here is that this is showing how much he loved these individuals. He loved them. It wasn't just, it's not just like a broad, Oh, he loved the whole world. This is, he loved them. These were his dear friends. These were people he broke bread with. These are people he stayed with. These are people that helped him. These are people that supported him. And, you know, they, he, he actually loved these people. It's, you know, Jesus Christ isn't somebody that, that, you know, he's just, just, you know, some benign figure that just, he, he loves us, but he doesn't really know us. You know, we, we don't know him on a personal level where we're hanging out with him right now, but there will be a time when we will. But these people actually hung out with him and it says he loved them. And so it illustrates the personal love that Jesus does have for individuals. It's not just a general superficial love for just everyone, even though he does love everyone or he loved everyone. You know, sometimes he stops loving people, you know, and people are like, well, that's just not true. You know, Jesus never stops loving anybody. Well, how about when he throws them in hell? Does he stop loving them then? Yeah, he does. So, and you know, that's, that's pretty intimate knowledge of people when he says even the very hairs of your head are numbered. If he knows the number of hairs, like, you know, cause I'm, I'm starting to lose my hair. I've already done start gloss. I mean, I'm just in denial, but that's why I just shave it so close now. So it's like, can you really tell, you know, if I'm at a certain angle, you know, but he knows how many hairs I've lost. He knows how many hairs I currently have on my head now because he does have intimate knowledge of us. He cares for us as individuals. It's not just as a collective or as some kind of, you know, just thrown out comment. He loves us individually. He knows each and every single one of us. Every single person that's saved in this room, he knows you intimately. He knows everything about you. He knows you better than you know yourself. He knows you better than your spouse. He knows you better than your mom or dad. He knows you better than your children. He knows your children better than you do. He knows us very well because he knows everything. And so, and he loves us anyway. And that's the thing that I can't get over, that he still loves us anyway. Look at verse six, it says, when he had heard therefore that he was sick, he abode two days still in the same place where he was. So he gets this urgent letter that they obviously paid good money to send to him, to go get him, and he just stays there. So normally you send an urgent letter or a message and Jesus, knowing that Jesus can heal him, Jesus can heal the sickness. They no doubt have heard or seen the fact that he heals people. He raises people from the dead. He cures blind people. He cures lepers. I mean, he healed a blind man that was blind from his birth. I mean, we've already gone through that story. So they know what he can do. That's why they're sending for him, right? And so he doesn't make haste to go and heal him. He stays around for two days. And so look at verse seven, it says, then after that, sayeth he to his disciples, let us go into Judea again. His disciples say unto him, master the Jews of late sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again? So remember, they're already kind of, they're after him already. He can't really walk openly because they're always trying to capture him. And they're, you know, even his own brothers were trying to get him to go openly, remember? And his own brothers are trying to get him killed. You know, the brothers that the Catholics say he doesn't have those ones, the ones that they say, you know, they say Mary was a perpetual virgin or whatever. But even though it says that he has brothers and sisters, but here's what the Catholics say about that. They'll say, oh, you know, but it's brothers and sisters in Christ. It's like, no, his mother and his brethren and his sisters are outside. Like it's not taught, it's talking about his actual brothers and sisters, half brothers and sisters. Anyway, I can't dwell on that. I got too much to go through here. Look at verse nine, it says, Jesus answered, are there not 12 hours in a day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth because there is no light in him. These things said he, and after that he saith unto them, our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go that I may wake him out of sleep. So of course, Jesus uses parables a lot and he's trying to teach them spiritual truths here. But they're not getting what he's saying. And it says, then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. You know, if someone's sick and they're taking a nap, that's a good thing. Usually you're sleeping off some kind of fever or you're getting rest. That's a good thing if you're sick and you're getting some sleep. That makes sense, right? Howbeit Jesus spake of his death, but they thought that he had spoken of taking a rest in sleep. Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. So there's this thought in scripture and it's just a fact of scripture and you'll see it throughout the whole Bible where when a saved person dies, the Bible tends to say about them that they're sleeping. They're not dead. They're sleeping because if they were dead, as in really dead, they'd be in hell. Yeah, because death is hell. The true death is hell. And the second death is being cast into the lake of fire for all eternity. So there's the death of the body, the death of the soul. And so if someone is truly dead and unsaved person is dead, they really are dead. And the Bible, when the Bible says that Jesus died, he actually died and went to hell for three days and three nights, which of course people will say that we blaspheme when we say that and we're cheapening the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ by saying those things. It's just like, well, where do unsaved people go when they die? They go to hell, don't they? So if Jesus died for the sins of the whole world and all the sins of the whole world were placed upon him, did Jesus die the death of a sinful man or did he die the death of a saved man? He died the death of a sinful man, didn't he? He was crucified. He was tortured. You know, he was spit upon and then he died, was buried. And you know, if you're unsaved, then you go to hell. You know, it's not like we say, oh, Jesus stayed in hell. We don't believe that. You know, how is that blasphemous to say that he went to hell for three days and three nights? How is that blasphemous? It's not blasphemous. It's the truth. Because if he died and took our place, if he suffered everything that we would suffer if we died and went to hell, then wouldn't it make sense that he died and then went to hell also? And if he died for the sins of the worst human scum on the face of the planet, like Jeffrey Dahmer and Ted Bundy and Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong and all these other freaks that any other freak you could think of, he died for their sins too. I mean, no wonder why God the Father couldn't look upon him because he had the sins of all those freaks on his account at that point. And so when he died, the Bible, the Bible says, I think it's in Psalm chapter 88, that he went to the lowest hell. And so he suffered the worst wrath in hell for three days and three nights. And it was as if he suffered it for all eternity. And the reason why I'm bringing that up is because, you know, it's just like, it doesn't cheapen the gospel to me. It makes me think, well, Jesus really did suffer more. You know, because a lot of people have been tortured to death, haven't they? But nobody else has been tortured to death and went to hell, the worst kind of hell for three days and three nights for me. Nobody else did that. A lot of, you know, a lot of army military, you know, people have died for other people. Soldiers have died for other people and they're heroes, right? But did they die and go to hell, the lowest hell for three days and three nights? No, they didn't. But Jesus did. He paid the worst price. And it's not like there was some interruption in his torture. He went straight from dying on the cross after they give him some vinegar to quench his thirst, which who likes to have vinegar to quench your thirst. Anybody in here? You guys just like, Oh man, I'm so thirsty. Here's some vinegar. Oh, you know, I mean, are you craving apple cider vinegar? Like when you get really thirsty, nobody is. But that's what they give him. And then he gives up the ghost. And then what happens to the rich man when he opens his eyes? You know, there's the rich man and the other Lazarus that's talked about in the Bible. He lifts up his eyes in hell being in torments. So Jesus's suffering did not end on the cross. It just continued in a worse place. And it's like, and then, so to me, it's like that doesn't cheapen the gospel at all. It makes the gospel even greater to me, you know? And I remember when I took Acts chapter two, verse 31 to my pastor when I was pretty newly saved, and I was like, you know, is this saying that Jesus was in hell? He's like, well, if you go back to the Greek, it says, and it's just like, I was just like, okay, it says hell though. But that, this is what they do. They want to go back to the Greek and say, you know, it means the Greek says Hades. It's like, yeah, that's the Greek word for hell. It still means, what do they think? What do they think Hades is? And what do Greeks think Hades is? They think it's the, they think it's hell. You know, it might not be exactly the hell that God describes it as, but that's the Greek word for what hell would be. Anyway, where am I at here? What verse was I at? Let's see. Yeah, so he says Lazarus is dead. So Lazarus was dead, but not in the same way that Jesus would have died because Jesus did die and go to hell for three days and three nights. And then he rose from the dead. But Lazarus is not dead in the same way. He says, I may, so in verse 11, it says, but I go that I may awake him out of sleep. So we don't believe in the doctrine of soul sleep either, by the way. His body, when he's saying his body, his body is asleep. But the Bible teaches to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. So the moment a saved person dies, they wake up in heaven. Yeah. So you're like, well, how's that work? Well, you still have a soul and spirit that leaves that body and goes up to heaven to be with God. So a safe person, when the unsaved die, they're truly dead. And when a safe person dies, their physical body dies, but they're not really dead. Their soul and spirit have been quickened and they will never actually die. Just like Jesus says, turn to Daniel chapter 12, verse two, Daniel chapter 12, verse two. I'll just give you a couple of verses here. About this concept here that the Bible teaches that Christians, when they die, their body is asleep. Daniel chapter 12, verse two, the Bible says, and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake. So they're asleep, right? Some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. So those that are dead and going to hell, their body is asleep also. And their soul and spirit are in hell though. And then when they get brought up to the final judgment, they get brought up in their body too, but they don't get to live again. They get cast like a fire and they're eternally dead after that. So turn to First Thessalonians, chapter four, verse 13, but it says they did sleep in the dust of the earth. So First Thessalonians, chapter four, verse 13, First Thessalonians 4, 13. This is a very famous passage, very comforting passage for those that have lost loved ones that have gone on to be with the Lord. It says in First Thessalonians 4, 13, it says, but I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them, which are, what's it say there? Asleep, that you sorrow not even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus, will God bring with him? So there it is again, that word sleep. And verse 15, for we say, for this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. So the people that die, their bodies has already died, those people that are dead in Christ, they're going to rise first. It says for the Lord of self shall descend from heaven with a shout, but the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first. So what's it saying? The ones that are asleep are dead in Christ. So they're not dead as in dead like the people that are dead and going to hell. Now turn back to John chapter 11 verse 15. John chapter 11 verse 15 where we're at in our text here. It says, and I'm glad for your sakes that I was not there to the intent that you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go on unto him. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him. What a bizarre thing to say. I mean, did anybody else think that that's kind of a bizarre thing to say? But it's almost hyper spiritual. You're like, let's go. We can die with him or whatever. I don't know. If I statement analyze that, I'm just like, that's a red flag. So I mean, it does seem pretty weird, right? And Thomas says some other weird stuff later on in the book of John. I'm not going to believe unless I can put my hand into his side and put my fingers into his wounds. It's like I would just have to, I would just be like, if I could just see that, I'd be good. But like to actually stick your fingers in the holes or whatever, that's what he says later on. And it's like, then once he's just seasoned though, I don't think he actually does put his fingers in there. Once he sees him, he's good. But like he does still, that's still a weird thing to say. So you know, and it just goes to show though that people can say weird things and off color things and it doesn't necessarily mean that they're a bad person. So sometimes people will say something odd or strange and it's just the human condition. Sometimes we just say stupid things. You know, Peter had a very big habit of doing this in the New Testament. Also, one minute he's, Jesus is saying, you know, blessed are you, Peter, because you know, he said that with the Christ and the next minute he's calling him Satan and rebuking him, right? So, and then he's restoring Peter after, you know, he's denied him three times and then he says, you know, he's like, and then, you know, you're going to be carried away and he tells them that he's going to be carried away. He's going to die a martyr's death, basically. And he goes, what about him though? You know, he's like, it's just like he just, he just can't stop. But, you know, Thomas, you know, when people just say weird things and say flaggy stuff to us, you just have to take those things with a grain of salt. You can't just automatically think, oh, this person's a bad person because they said something. And sometimes I think we have the tendency to just be like, well, you know, something's off color. It's, you know, there's something, maybe this person's weird, but it just doesn't, it doesn't mean they're bad because these guys are the apostles. You know, Thomas is an apostle. He saved, obviously. He just said something kind of weird. So, you know, even all the other, when Jesus is going to Jerusalem and they go through Samaria and they're like, do you want us to, you know, they're like, they're mad because Jesus didn't stop and visit them on their way through. And he goes, do you want us to call down Fire Lord so we can burn these guys up like Elijah did? And it's like, you know not what spirit you're of. You know, sometimes we can be like that too. But just because we get like that, it doesn't mean that we're super evil either. It's just sometimes we just, we take things too far too. And so we got to learn that, you know, we will, people will say weird things or say stupid things. So learn to cut people some slack. Number two tonight, Jesus is the resurrection of the life. Look at verse 17. It says, then when Jesus came, he found that he had lain in the grave four days already. Now Bethany was nigh into Jerusalem about 15 furlongs off. Does anybody remember what a furlong is? Remember the story where they're going over the lake and it matched up kind of exactly to the time of the post-trib rapture or whatever. I talked about it a while back, but anyway, so well, eight furlongs is one mile. So that's how many feet in a mile? Anybody know off the top of your head? 3,800 feet. No. Did somebody say, who said, did you say three? Yeah. It's 5,280 feet. 5,280. I only know that because I did a paint striper and like we'd always do by miles. So I just had it burned into my brain, but so eight. So Bethany is 15 furlongs off. So it's almost two miles to from Jerusalem to Bethany. So that's how close it is. It's a, you know, it's a, what? Maybe a 25-minute walk if you're walking briskly, right? Maybe 25, 30-minute walk. So basically, that's how far it is. So the furlong, if you think about this, a city block, most city blocks are 250 feet. So if you're ever just wondering how far you've walked, I think, what is it? Six blocks is a mile then, right? It's my math, right? Or it's somewhere close around there. So yeah, 250 feet is most city blocks. Now, if you get into these weird towns like Vancouver, you just never know what you're running into because it's like, they laid out that grid totally, totally weird. So, but anyway, verse 19, it says, and many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. So, you know, there's some, some Jews that still had some compassion and heart for these people. And you know, they obviously care about Mary and Martha. They cared enough to come to Lazarus's funeral. And I do want to just say this really quick. It's just a quick side note though. Funerals are a time to comfort people. You know, they might not have liked Jesus. They might not have liked what Mary and Martha were into, these Christian ideas that they had or whatever, but a funeral is not a time to come grind your acts over old family squabbles. When you go to a funeral, it's time to put all that stuff aside, you're there to honor whoever passed away or to be respectful to the family. And I've gone to funerals so many times where people that don't like each other from the other sides of the family, they're all just like, you know, it's like it becomes like the ghetto funeral or something. And it's like, what is this, Jerry Springer? Can't you just be respectful for five minutes over somebody, somebody's died here and you're coming to pay respect not to, you know, keep the family fights going or whatever. It's just so weird when people do that. So I would just say this as some good advice. Just don't fight with people at funerals. Be respectful and, you know, just walk up and give whoever a hug, even if you don't like them anymore, you don't like, whatever, just at least be nice. And if you can't be that way, then don't go, right? Verse 20. Then Martha, as soon as she had heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him, but Mary sat still at the house. So this is interesting because this is kind of a reversal of roles now. Now, Mary or Martha, excuse me, has run to Jesus first and Mary is sitting at the house. So before it was the opposite, right? And it just shows the change in how Martha has learned to put Christ first instead of worrying about everything else, instead of worrying about, you know, making sure that the toothpicks are in all the sandwiches or whatever she was doing, you know, but it kind of seems a little bit like Mary has her nose a little bit out of joint. You ever heard that saying before? It's like, you know, she's kind of, she's upset. And to me, it seems like she does kind of have a little bit of a right to feel this way. You know, if you think about it, like say Jesus is your friend. He's your Lord and Savior that you actually have hung out with. You've seen him do these miracles. You sent the note to him, but he doesn't come and your brother died. So I mean, you could probably put yourself in her shoes and maybe she's, you know, feeling a little bit upset about this. And I can probably, I can understand that. It's not that she doesn't love him though. Of course she still loves him, but you know, she is still just sitting at home and Jesus is coming and she's not running to him. Verse 21, then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. And Martha, you know, she doesn't have a bad attitude here, I don't think, but she is saying something that's true because he could have saved, he could have saved him from dying, right? But a lot of people do have a bad attitude when it comes to someone dying in their family. They don't worship God. They don't serve God. They don't go to church. They don't care about the things of God, but as soon as someone they love in their family dies, then they really have a reason to blame God and hate him even more than they already did. It's like, well, who, you know, God allowed my so and so to die, whatever family member it was. And then they just have this grudge against God, like it's his fault. Well, the Bible says that all die. It's a point in the man wants to die and after this the judgment. Nobody gets to escape that and we don't know when our day is going to be. So, you know, the fact that Jesus was there, yeah, he could have saved it, but was he supposed to the whole time he was on earth save every single person from dying and nobody else, nobody was supposed to die the whole time he was there? I mean, that's a pretty big responsibility given the fact that God said that everybody has to die, right? So, but you get these people and have you run in people at the door like that where they're just like, well, God allowed this person to die and I just, you know, it's just like, well, did you give God the glory when they were born? Did you give God the glory when they were alive? Did you give God the glory when you had time to spend with them? Probably not, but now you just want to give God, you know, your lift up your heel to God when they pass away. That's not right. That's a bad attitude and it's not God's fault that they died. It's, you know, the fact that we're just in a sinful world and, you know, people that have this attitude, it's like, it's hard to get through to people like that because they just have it stuck in their craw that, you know, God could have fixed it and if there really was a God, he would have came down and saved such and such family member, but everybody has to die. So that's not going to happen and maybe he would have saved that person or would have healed that person. Maybe if they were serving God like they should have been, maybe if they were actually got saved when they got the gospel preached to them at some point. I mean, how many times do you think we've actually knocked doors where people already had the gospel preached to them by somebody else? Probably lots of times or someone else's heart, you know, they're rejecting you, but they've already rejected it before multiple times and then you get the Karen, you know, level 10 tier Karens that answered the door, like last week with brother Jameson and this lady just, you know, she's calling, she called me like multiple times and left messages threatening to sue me and all this stuff and it's just like, well, because, you know, he said, is that is your, is that your care? Are you his caretaker? I mean, maybe next time don't say that, but I mean, lesson learned, but still like, it's not like he said it, like in a rude way, but they were just trying to like, there were false prophets is what they were and they just were mad about anything. You know, after I said, well, how many times did they apologize? You know, it's how many times do they actually have to apologize? Because from what I heard, you guys apologize quite a few times. So if you apologize multiple times, like, well, Jesus said it's 70 times seven, right? You know, how many, how many times does he got to apologize and you're supposed to forgive him every time? So what you're calling me threatened me to Sue after he's already apologized multiple times? Like this is weird. I don't know why I'm bringing this up, but maybe just because I'm still, you know, that lady was weird, man. She was weird. I finally told her she just needed to stop preaching because she's a woman and she needs to sit down, go bake her husband some cookies or something. But anyway, so let me move on here. I got too much to do. I can't, I can't keep going here, but it's just because these people have bad attitudes, you know, and they, they want God to come through for them in the clutch when they never, they don't care about him. They don't really love him. They never plan on serving him. They just want an excuse to hate him and that's the one that they'll, they'll come up with. Verse 22, but I know that even now, whatsoever thou will ask of God, God will give it thee. Jesus saith unto her, thy brother shall rise again. Martha said, saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. And this, this verse proves that they understood the resurrection. They knew that there was a resurrection coming. It wasn't a foreign concept to them. Jesus saith unto her, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. This is one of those great I am statements. And I preached a whole sermon about the I am statements. So I'm not going to dwell on this too long, but you know, he is the resurrection. He is the life. You don't have any resurrection or any life outside of Christ is what he's saying. But what is his prerequisite there? What's he, what's he say right there? What is the whole book of John? What's the theme of the book of John that you would believe on the name of the son of God, that you would believe on Jesus Christ for salvation. Not one time in the book of John does it say to repent of your sins or to repent at all. I'm not saying that the Bible doesn't say that. The Bible does say that, but I think that God didn't put the word repentance in there so that nobody could say that repentance of sins is part of salvation, because it's not. It doesn't say that anywhere in the King James Bible. Now you can get an ESV or some other stupid modern translation and you might have them say that in one of those translations, but you're not going to find that in the King James. And the King James uses the Greek and the Hebrew that's been passed down for centuries. It's the right text. And 54 of the greatest scholars living on the planet at that time translated the King James from the original tongues and put it into English. And we're here over 400 years later still preaching out of it, still getting people saved at the door out of it. And Jesus said, and he didn't stutter, he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. What's he talking about? If they're not saved and they put their faith in me, they believe in me, they trust in me, then they're going to be saved. Does he add anything to that? No, he doesn't, because that's the only thing required to be saved is to believe in him. And you'll have a lot of people and preachers twisting scripture to say otherwise, but over a hundred times in the book of John, the form of believe, believeth, believes, whatever you want to, you know, that form is in there. And this book is the only book in the whole Bible that says specifically that its intent is that people would believe so that they would be saved. And that's why Jesus is saying it here again. And then he says, believeth thou this? He's asking Martha basically, do you believe this? Do you believe on the resurrection? Do you believe I'm alive? Do you believe that if you do believe in me, do you believe this? And she saith unto him, Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God. So what does she just do? She confessed with her mouth the Lord Jesus, and it says, which should come into the world. Is Martha saved? Yeah. Yes, 100% she's saved. Oh, yes. Did she have to grovel and repent of all her sins right there before she said that? No, she didn't. Did she have to live a good life after that to make sure that she was still saved after that? No, she didn't, because once you're saved, you're saved forever. So if we had to keep living some perfect life after we already believed, then none of us would be saved ever. And you can't lose it and get it back. So if you think you can lose it and get it back, then you just don't believe what the Bible says, because the Bible doesn't teach that. You're born again, not born again and again and again and again and again. He loves me. He loves me not. He loves me. He loves me not. You're saved. You're not saved. You're saved. You're not saved. What a crazy way to live your spiritual life, never knowing whether you're saved or not, not knowing whether you're good enough or not. You're not good enough. Nobody's good enough. That's the whole point. Jesus had to be good enough for us so we could actually get there. You're not good enough. We never could be good enough. We can't even live a good day. We can't even live a good 15 minutes outside of the walls of this church. We probably sit inside the church from time to time, I'm sure. It's a lot easier not to do it while we're here, while we're doing spiritual things. But you know, when we get outside these walls, you know, it's a jungle out there. There's a lot of things that catch our eyes and catch our ears and defile our senses and if we have to be perfect outside these walls, in order to stay saved, we're doomed. So Jesus said, who's got the red letter edition? Anybody in here? Is this Jesus talking right here? Whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. That's what he says. Shall never die. You can't lose. Isn't that saying you can't lose it? And then he asked her if she's saved. Yes, she is. Salvation check passed. Number three tonight. Jesus wept. Look at verse 28. The Bible says, and when she had so said, she went on her way and called Mary, her sister secretly saying, the master has come and calleth for thee. I don't know if she's lying here, but I don't see Jesus saying that, but maybe he's just trying to get her right. She's trying to get her sister right with God or something. As soon as, so she lies right after she admits she's saved. Anyway, as soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came unto him. Now Jesus was not yet coming to the town, but was in that place where Martha met him. The Jews which came with her in the house and comforted her when they saw Mary and she rose up hastily and went forward, followed her saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. Then when Mary was come where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou has been here, my brother had not died. So she says basically the same thing that Martha said. And it says, when Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping. So the Jews are weeping also, which came with her. He groaned in the spirit and was troubled. This is Jesus having human emotions. He's God manifested in the flesh, but he's also man. But, you know, I don't want to take away from God also. It's not like God doesn't feel emotion either. Of course, God feels emotion. He's groaning within the spirit. Jesus is, you know, the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He's filled with the spirit. He's got the Father in him and he's also man. So God feels emotion here. Jesus Christ feels emotion. It's not just superficial, him walking through some kind of motions because he had to check off all these lists, being here. This is us seeing Jesus have an emotional response to seeing and hearing what she had to say to him. She's upset. She's visibly upset. She's verbally saying how she's upset. And then he sees her weeping and the Jews also weeping and he was troubled. And that's usually what you feel like when you're about to weep, when you're about to shed tears, right? And said, Where have you laid him? They said unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept. So this is the shortest verse in the whole Bible. So if you ever want that trivia question to be at hand, what's the shortest verse in the whole Bible? It's right here. Jesus wept in John 11, verse 35. It's short, but it's very powerful. And we see this humanity, we see this compassion for others and Jesus Christ, the son of God, God manifest in the flesh, weeping over the death of his friend, weeping over the heartbreak of his friends, weeping over the death of Lazarus. The Bible says that he bears our infirmities and our weaknesses in Hebrews chapter... Go ahead and turn to Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15. Hebrews 4, verse 15. You guys take that clock down? That was a bad mistake. No, I'm just kidding. Hebrews 4, verse 15, the Bible says, For we have not an high priest, which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. But what the Bible says here, he's touched with the feeling of our infirmities, our weaknesses. The weakness that we have, he feels that. He understands it. And obviously this is in the context of sin, but it says, Let us therefore come boldly into the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy. Yeah, when we sin, we need to go to the throne of grace and obtain mercy. But it says, And find grace to help in time of need. You know, sometimes we just need somebody to know that they care for us. Maybe nobody else cares, but you know who cares? Jesus cares. Jesus loves us. He feels what we feel. You see, he feels what she feels when he weeps for Lazarus at the tomb. Turn to 1 Peter 5, verse 7. Jesus truly cares for us. In Peter's epistle here, it says in 1 Peter 5, verse 7, it says, Casting all your care upon him. It's talking about Jesus. For he careth for you. This scripture was written by Peter under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. And what was that last word there? You. Is that plural or is that singular? That's plural. So that's written for you. Casting all of your care upon him, for he careth for you. So when we're going through a hard time, when we're going through troubles, he cares about us. So who do we cast all of our care upon? You know, we can share the wealth with our friends and our loved ones and our church family and things like that, but we can cast our care upon Jesus because he actually does care. You know those people that pretend to care or you just don't know, do they really care? They don't seem like they care. You know, I tell them my problems and they don't really seem to care. Jesus actually does care. Jesus actually does. The Bible says he cares. So if the Bible says he cares, he cares, doesn't he? He feels what we feel. He really did weep for the man. He really felt the pain. He really felt the pain of losing a friend. He felt the loss. He loved Lazarus. He loved Mary. He loved Martha. That's what it said at the beginning of the story, right? He loved them. And so he wept for Lazarus. He wept for his friends. He had compassion. And you know what compassion does? Compassion moves people to action. And Jesus was just that way. Every place he went. You know, when the apostles are ready to hang it up for the night, he's like, let's go to the next town. Let's go to the next house. I mean, he's getting up before the light shines on their faces. He's up praying in the mountain. He's working all day. He's doing all these great miracles and ministering to people all day, preaching. And he's the last one to go to bed at night. He's still preaching at dark in people's houses and people are just gathering in these huge throngs. He just doesn't want to stop working. You know why? Because he loved people. He had compassion upon them. He wanted to heal them. He wanted to raise their loved ones from the dead. And it moved him to tears. It moved him to use his power to bring a man back to life that had to die. He had to die. Lazarus still had to die. And you know what? When he came back to life, he's going to come back to life here. And you guys already heard the story earlier, so you already know. I don't want to spoil the ending if you weren't paying attention, but he does come back to life. But he still died again. His body is still sleeping in the dust of the earth. He might have come back to life, but he's right. He didn't live forever. Like in that body, he died again. Weeping is brought on by overwhelming feeling of emotion, of joy, or great sadness. He bore our grief. What struck us, struck him. What we feel, he feels. And he feels those infirmities. And that song, I Know He Cares, that hymn, I love that hymn because it just puts that song in our heart, that truth in our heart, that he is touched by our grief. And that we know our Savior cares for us. That hymn, Jesus is all the world to me. You know, heartache and pain, sorrow. You know, he's my friend. I love hymns like that because they bring forth those truths that no matter what's going on in our lives, no matter what pain we're going through, whether it's the loss of a loved one, or whatever we go through, because this life is hard. You know, there's a lot of painful things that we go through. We're going to lose everybody that we love at some point in our lives. And we don't know when that's going to be. We don't know what age it's going to be. We don't know when we're going to lose it all. We don't get to take anything with us. All the things we worked so hard for are all going to be gone someday. You know, naked, we came into this world and we're going to leave naked too. I mean, hopefully we're not displayed naked. You know, we're not dead. You know, we're going to have some clothes on when we get buried. You know, that'd be nice. But we don't get to take them with us. Those lie resting in the earth. So no matter how rough life gets or how alone you feel, just know that Jesus does really care. And He's with you. You're never alone. We have that comforter. Jesus said, I will not leave you comfortless. I will send the comforter. And that comforter, of course, we know is the Holy Spirit. We'll get to that chapter in a few in chapter 14. But Hebrews 13, 5 says, go ahead and turn to Isaiah 49. Hebrews 13, 5 says, Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have, for He has said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. He'll never leave us nor forsake us for anything. So we don't have to worry about coveting for all these things because He's always going to take care of us. And you might not have the Ferrari Testarossa that you want or whatever kind of vehicle is your favorite vehicle or whatever house is the house of your dreams, but He's still going to make sure that we're taken care of. But Isaiah chapter 49, I'm actually going to get there myself. Isaiah 49, verse 13. How do we know that Jesus is thinking about us? Look at verse 13, it says, Sing, O ye heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains, for the Lord hath comforted His people, and will have mercy upon His afflicted. But Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. You know, sometimes we think when we're going through a hard time, nobody cares. You know, we feel forsaken. We feel like maybe God's not even close to us. But look what it says in verse 15, Can a woman forget her suckling child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee? He's never, He's not going to forget about us. I mean, you know, and that's a pretty strong bond. A suckling child, you know, your mom's not going to forget. They need to get fed. They need to get taken care of. He's comparing that and He says, They might forget, but I'm never going to forget. I'm never going to forget you. I'm never going to quit thinking about you. Look at verse 16, Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. I've graven thee upon the palms of... What do you think that means? Well, Jesus Christ, He bears the marks forever in those hands. When He was resurrected, He still had those marks in His hands, didn't He? Yeah. And in His feet. And in His side, because when, you know, Thomas saw Him, He saw those marks, didn't He? And so those things will always be there as a reminder. And of course, this is the book of Isaiah before Christ was slain, but he was slain from the foundation of the earth. I mean, He always knew that that was going to be what He was going to do. But what a great verse there. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually forming. He doesn't forget about us. And all he has to do is just look down. And you know, He, the fact that He thought about us forever, the blood that He shed for us, what He did on the cross of Calvary, what He endured for us in hell for three days and three nights. He hasn't forgotten about us. We're constantly on His mind. And you know, He thinks about us. I can guarantee you more than we think about Him. A lot more. So look at verse 36, back in our text here in John chapter 11. Then said the Jews, behold how He loved Him. So even the Jews are going to give Him some credit here. Behold how He loved Him. I mean, even the Jews recognize how much Jesus loved. And they don't like to give Him credit for anything. Even the miracles, like they'll acknowledge that He did them, but they still try to find a fault in what He did. What day did you do that? Was that the Sabbath day? Verse 37, And some of them said, Could not this man which opened the eyes of the blind of cause that even this man should not have died? Of course the answer is yes. But this is all taking place for a specific purpose that we're about to see. Number four tonight, Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. Look at verse 38. Jesus therefore, again groaning in himself, cometh to the grave. It was a cave and a stone lay upon it. And it was interesting, I was kind of thinking about this on the way up here, but Lazarus does picture a little bit, it's kind of like almost a precursor of the burial of Christ because Jesus Christ was put into a cave also. And there was also a stone that laid over his tomb also. And when he comes out, he's bound head and he's got a napkin over his face and he's got his hands are bound, his feet are bound. And obviously the four days is longer than the three days, but let's look at what it says in verse 39. It says, 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. You know, like you don't want to pull that rock away. You know, he's probably a little, you know, I need some glade over here first, but he's about to not stink at all real quick here. But, you know, just thinking about this, the decomposition to the point of stinking and corruption, apparently is a four day thing. So, and Jesus was in the grave for how long? Three days, three nights and didn't corrupt. So, look at verse 40. Jesus saith unto her, said I not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God. 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 heardest me always. Hear'st me always, excuse me. But because of the people which stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. So he's talking to God out loud. God, the father. And he said, what does he say? Why did he say it audibly? Why did he say what he said? So that those people that are standing by would believe that God, the father had sent him. So this is clearly Jesus, the son, having a conversation with God, the father. Right. So Jesus is not the father. So we believe the Trinity at this church, God, the father, God, the son, God, the Holy Spirit. And we do believe that these three are one. So one God and three persons, the father, son, Holy Spirit. And Jesus is not the father. So he's obviously talking to his father. So he's not talking to himself. Right. So verse 43. And when he had, when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And then that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes. And his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, loose him and let him go. And this is, of course, is one of the greatest miracles that Jesus ever did in front of people. He did it in broad daylight in front of everybody. The Jews were all standing around and, you know, of course, great, great miracle. I mean, you know, to have him be four days dead, you know, when you think about like he raised the daughter of the centurion or, you know, he raised up different people and they would just die. But you don't really see where it's been someone that's been dead four days. And I think that the reason why he does this, because even someone that's corrupted, Jesus can bring back from the dead. Yeah. I think that's, that's the point there. So number five, we see the conspiracy to kill Jesus Christ, which of course the House of Representatives is trying to make that. They passed the law saying it's illegal to say that the Jews killed Jesus, but it didn't go through the Senate. Yet. So, and even if they, if does, I'm still going to preach what the Bible says, no matter what they say. So, but verse 45 says, then many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did believed on him. So what was the point? What was the other point of him raising Lazarus from the dead? That those ones that could still cry, shed tears. They're comforting people. They hadn't been converted yet, but here they do get converted. They believe in him. They trust in Christ and they get saved. So that's, you know, an immediate result and you know, the ones that they get saved. And then it's also, you know, for us to, to see the miracles of Christ, to see the power of Christ to raise the dead. Look at verse 46, but some of them went their ways to the Pharisees. That's where the, the, the bad music comes in, right? Dun dun dun. Some of them went to go snitch and say, Oh, he raised someone from the dead. He's so bad or whatever they, well, they just went to the report. You know, these guys are, you know, the Gestapo or something, and told them what things Jesus had done. Then gathered the chief priests of the Pharisees, a council and said, what do we for this man do with many miracles? So that here they are admitting what he, what he's done. He's done what many miracles, right? 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 let me just get this straight. You're upset because if we leave him alone, if they don't conspire to kill him, if they don't do something to stop him, if they don't murder him, then all men will believe on him. What does this tell you about the character of the people that are conspiring here? They're wicked beyond all imagination. And it's hard for us to wrap our minds around how evil they really are, but that's super evil, right? And what are they worried about? That the Romans would take away both our place and our nation. What's it all about? Our place, our land and our nation, Israel, isn't that what it's about today to take land grabbing, taking the land. This is our land. This is our nation. We have the right to stand up for who we are or whatever, which I wouldn't dispute that they don't, you know, everybody had every nation has the right to defend themselves. But you know, when you're bombing people that don't have any defense to fight back, I mean, that's not exactly, you know, a legitimate war. When you're bombing children and women that have no weapons in their hands, that's not war. That's that. I don't know about genocide or it probably is genocide. It's definitely evil to sit there and drone strike children to drone strike women. I mean, they're blowing up hospitals, Baptist hospitals, and people want to defend that. It's wicked, but that's what it's all about, folks. That's what they care about. That's what they cared about then. That's what they care about now. Someone's going to come away and take away our place. This is their mentality. Look at 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's expedient for us that one man should die for the people and the whole nation, that the whole nation perish not. And this spake he not for him of himself, but being high priest of that year, he prophesied that Jesus should die for that nation. So that he's prophesied. He preached this message and not for that nation only, but that also he should gather together in one, the children of God that were scattered abroad. Then from the day that day forth, they took counsel together for to put him to death. Now you might think by looking at the Caiaphas, is, you know, he's, he's preaching something. What he's preaching is true, but it's not right. So he's not preaching it out of a right heart. Now I believe that the Holy Spirit, you know, can, can come up like he came upon Balaam and made Balaam preach things and prophesy things. But Balaam was not saved. I don't believe Caiaphas is saved for one second. You know, he's definitely wicked, but they're, they're wanting Jesus to die, not because they want him to save the world. They're wanting to die so that they don't lose their nation. They want them to not to die, to gather all the Jews together to, you know, to form up this big mega, this mega nation so they can fight, probably so they can fight to get back against the Romans, which is what they end up doing. And, you know, they're all worried about the Romans coming and taking away their place. Well, guess what happened? The Romans came and took away their place of nation because of what they did to Jesus. So like basically the devil just tricked them into getting killed and, you know, use them to kill Jesus, use the Romans to kill Jesus. And the Romans got destroyed later on. But the conspiracy of the Jews to put Jesus to death is a fact. It's what the Bible says. It's what the New Testament teaches. It's what Paul, you know, Paul loved the Jews. He loved his brethren according to the flesh, but multiple times he got fed up with them and said, Hey, I'm going to turn to the Gentiles. So the Jews today say that you can't blame them for what the Jews did back then. Like the Jews living today. And it's not really true though, because they feel the same way that the Jews felt back then. They still feel the same way. They don't believe on him. They spit on the ground three times when he mentioned his name. They teach their children at an early age, to hate Jesus. Sarah Silverman said that she would kill him again. You know that Jewish, you know, comedian or whatever. She said she would kill him. She'd kill him. Bring him up here. I'd kill him again. They hate Jesus. I mean, most Jews hate Jesus and obviously some can still be saved. I'm not saying that they can't, but the majority of them are blinded and they have been caught. They've been taken away from the tree. So he, you know, Ben Shapiro said he was a, he wasn't a prophet and he was a rebel that got what he deserved. He was killed for his trouble. He was just some Jew that rose up and tried to fight. And it's like, and Christians are listening to this bozo. Oh, Ben Shapiro. He's the conservative. First of all, he's annoying. Okay. The way he talks is annoying. And he, he does not like Jesus. It's very, the way he talks about Jesus is really just, I mean, yeah, he persecuted his own, one of his own talk show hosts or whatever. He says he wasn't a prophet. So one of the Baptists or one of the, excuse me, one of the rabbis on Marching to Zion said, so we killed someone. So what? Yeah. Remember that? Yep. You watch that film and Jesus himself put all the blood of, of all the prophets on the generation of this generation here that we're talking about that was, that he was currently in. So if Jesus can put all the blood of the prophets from the old Testament on the generation that he was in, then yes, the Jews of now current time can be blamed also in some way, shape or form. Look, they curse themselves. They said, our, his blood be upon us and on our children. And look today, it's the same thing. They're blinded by what? They're blinded by that veil. You know, the veil is almost his face is that picture of the fact that they just can't see. They can't understand because their minds have been blinded because they rejected Christ. And Jesus said from the blood of righteous, able to the blood of Zacharias, the son of Barakas, they were guilty of, did all those Jews kill all those people? No, but they are the sons. They were the sons of them that killed the prophets. So you know, they, and the U S Congress wants to tell us that we can't say that they conspired to kill Jesus. Why, why are they still fighting us then? If you know, if we say that the Jews back then killed Jesus, which is what we say, then why are they now saying that we can't say that because they're still in agreement with those Jews that killed Jesus back then. That's why. And they still don't want us to teach about Jesus. So that's what it is. So let me finish up here. Let's see. Yeah, let's see. Yeah, we're not into finishing here. So verse 54, Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews. Why? Because they conspired to kill him, but went thence onto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continued with his disciples. And the Jews Passover was nigh at hand, and many went out of the country, up to Jerusalem before the Passover to purify themselves. Then sought they for the, 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 the commandment that if any man knew where he were, he should show it that they might take him. So they just like put the word out. If you see Jesus, let us know so we can kill him. Let us know so we can capture him. So the conspiracy was strong. They had an open death warrant out on a righteous man. And what did he do in this chapter that was so bad? Well, what did they say? That he did so many miracles that they couldn't be denied anymore? Okay, that's number one. Number two, that all men would believe if they wouldn't leave him alone, and they would get saved. And that the Romans would take away their place and land and nation. And again, that happened anyway because of them anyway. And then, I'll just say this, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And sometimes we self deceive. Our own hearts deceive us. And this is kind of what the Pharisees allowed to happen. They allowed themselves to be deceived because in reality, the thing that they didn't want, they were deceived into allowing that to happen anyway. I mean, what they didn't want to happen is exactly what happened, because of their wicked devices. And so you reap what you sow, and their land was taken away. And guess what? It's going to be taken away from them again. No matter how many people they bomb, no matter what they do to the Gaza Strip now, when Jesus Christ comes back, he's going to separate the sheep from the goats. And he's going to bring them before him and slay them before him. Those that would not have me to rule over them. That's what the Bible says. So let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for the book of John, for this powerful chapter about Lazarus. Lord, I pray that you would just bless everybody for coming tonight. And I pray that you would just bless the food that we're about to partake in, and our fellowship as we fellowship together tonight. Pray that you would just continue to bless this church, Lord, as it continues to grow. And Lord, that you bless us all as we go our separate ways tonight. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right. Thank you, Pastor. And let's see, before we sing our last song, the pizza is here. And when we're finished singing and we pray, if I can have a man go back and around the corner and get like one of the large square yellow tables, I'd like to set up in this back corner here so we're not crowding that area. That way we can put all the church stuff away. So we don't have to worry about that thing being the last thing we put away. One big square table here that for the next we put the pizzas on. If I could have someone do that, I'd appreciate that. In the meantime, let's go ahead and turn to number 89. And we'll sing our last hymn. Does Jesus care? Does Jesus care when my heart is pained too deep for mirth and song? As the burdens press and the cares distress and the way grows weary and long. Oh, yes, He cares. I know He cares. His heart is touched with my grief when the days are weary and long. Nice dreary I know my Savior cares. Does Jesus care when my way is dark with the nameless dread and fear? As the daylight fades into deep night shades, does He care enough to be near? Oh, yes, He cares. I know He cares. His heart is touched with my grief when the days are weary and long. Nice dreary I know my Savior cares. Does Jesus care when I've tried and failed to resist some patient strong? When for my deep grief I find no relief, though my tears flow all the night long. Oh, yes, He cares. I know He cares. His heart is touched with my grief when the days are weary and long. Nice dreary I know my Savior cares. Oh, yes, He cares. Does Jesus care when I've said goodbye to the dearest on earth to me? And my sad heart aches till it nearly breaks. Is it off to Him? Does He see? Oh, yes, He cares. I know He cares. His heart is touched with my grief when the days are weary and long. Nice dreary I know my Savior cares. Amen. Wonderful singing. Thank you so much for coming out to your foundation back in Seattle this evening on a Wednesday. Please stay for tons of pizza and fellowship and talk with our pastor. So it's good to see him up here. Brother Tony, will you please close for a person? Father in heaven, thank you very much for a wonderful chapter of John chapter 11. Thank you very much, pastor, for teaching service for us. Thank you for our pizza. Thank you for this church. Thank you, dear Lord, for the wonderful gifts of the Holy Spirit. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith. Thank you. In the name of Jesus, we thank you. Amen. Amen.