In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the immense love of God and how it is His intention to lead each person to experience this love. He highlights that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and that knowing Him is essential to knowing the Father. The preacher mentions the disappointment Jesus expressed when His disciples asked Him to show them the Father, despite being with Him for three and a half years. The sermon concludes by referencing the resurrection of Jesus and how Mary Magdalene discovered the empty tomb, leading to the disciples realizing that the Lord had been taken away.

This recording was taken on Saturday afternoon, May the 17th, 1969. The Eleventh Chapter of the Gospel According to John. Familiar Truths. This is all that I want to bring to your heart in a new way this afternoon. Verse 35 of John 11. The shortest verse in the Bible. Jesus wept. And why? The Jews said it was because he loved Lazarus. But they were wrong. They were always wrong. Jesus has always been the most misunderstood person that's ever lived. And when he wept, they said, behold how he loved him. Could not this man, who opened the eyes of the blind, have caused that this man should not have died? And they just didn't understand. But Jesus wasn't weeping because of that. He knew positively well that within a few moments Lazarus was going to be out of that too. He knew what he was going to do. It wasn't for that that he was weeping. He wept, beloved, just because of Mary's unbelief. Mary was the one that sat at his feet. And the one whom he expected to see, wanted to see. Some of the great understanding returned for his love. That she at least seemed to grasp. Leaving Martha to serve alone and sit at his feet. She herself sat at Jesus' feet. But when the test came, she failed. You see, people are always failing Jesus. Always. I know, I'm sure that you've noticed this. In the beginning of the chapter, it says that the certain man was sick, whose name was Lazarus of Bethany. The child of Mary and her sister Martha. And then the parenthesis, this is always one of the great wonders of my heart when I read this section. It was that Mary had anointed his head with oil. That anointed the Lord with ointment. And wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. And you saw before, the Holy Ghost was going to reveal Mary's failure. He speaks the things that compliments her. That's always a wonderful way of the Spirit. He told the lovely thing about her first. If you always did that, there'd be a little less trouble in the world. This is the message of the Holy Ghost. Before in his truth, in the unfolding of the narrative of the love and life and glory of Jesus. He was going to tell of Mary's failure. That she apparently couldn't get over her grief. Couldn't get beyond, Lord, it's been here, my brother has not died. But made Jesus weep. He says, now this is that Mary, speaking of the beyond. How that afterwards, you find in the twelfth chapter. She came and she anointed the Lord. Saying, well she came through it afterwards. She reached an end afterwards. But in process of getting there, she made Jesus weep. She made him weep. And as we know, this was not a new thing. For you see, if you turn on with me in the fourteenth chapter. Not a new thing that people should so treat Jesus. You remember as you read down the fourth chapter. Thomas is speaking. First in verse five. And he says, we don't know where you're going, Lord. We, how can we know the way? Jesus says unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. If he'd known me, you should have known my Father also. And from henceforth you know him, you've seen him. Philip said, Lord, show us the Father, and there's a fight in this. And now listen, as you can only picture the disappointment in the voice of Jesus. Nobody's learned to read the Bible correctly until they've got into the heart of the Lord. Listen, think of it. Three and a half years nearly he'd been with these men. But he says, have I been so long time with you? And yet, hast thou not known me, Philip? Three and a half years he'd been with him. How sayest thou, show us the Father? How can you say it? This is the way that the Lord was always treated. I don't know if you would say, well, if I'd have been one of those disciples, I wouldn't talk like that. I, I don't know. What would you have done? Do you think you would have known? What would you have done if you'd have been Mary? What would you have said if, if had you been Philip? I wonder. You go on. You find it again. Let's read it again a little later in the same book. You get to the great 20th chapter. This is in resurrection. First day of the week, cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, out of the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Then she runneth, and cometh to Simon Peter and to the other disciples whom Jesus loved, and seeth unto them they have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre. And we know not where they have laid him. Then all that transpired, but come to verse nine, verse ten, the disciples went away again unto their own home. But Mary, this is Mary Magdalene at this time, stood without at the sepulchre, weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white, sitting the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had done that, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the God, saith unto him, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him. And I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary, if you can imagine all that was in that tomb, you'll understand. You'll understand. There it is again. She didn't know. She didn't understand. She's a woman that had devils cast out of her truth. She was a woman who'd followed Jesus and ministered to him of her substance. You can read about it in Luke chapter 8. She closely associated with Jesus, if ever a woman had, more than Mary of Bethany. But she didn't know. Mary. She knew this. She said, I'll take him away. Poor Mary. The best of human intentions just do not reach unto this great revelation of God. The highest of human love cannot aspire unto it. She just didn't understand. She was in another realm altogether. I wonder, beloved, if you'd have been Mary Magdalene, what you would have done and said under those circumstances. But this I do know, that it's love that grieves and breaks its heart. He loved Mary of Bethany. That's why he wept. I suppose she thought she loved him. But her idealism crashed when he didn't do what she wanted. When, as it turned out, he was going to do better for her than she'd ever dreamed, she didn't know and didn't understand. Beloved, look, God wants us all just to trust him. The Lord Jesus Christ really wants us to believe it, beloved, if only we would, that what he is doing is right. Absolutely perfect. What he's doing in your case, what he's doing in your circumstances, is absolutely right. Absolutely. It cannot be bettered, improved. It cannot be. What Jesus is doing is the only truth. Amen. Don't weep then. It's better for you not to have your own way. It's better for you not to have your own desires realized. Jesus will give you something better than that if you'll wait for him. If you'll just wait for him, praise God, or you'll take this great word of Philip's, being with you all this time, Philip, and yet you do not know me. Philip had not seen. He was as blind as the day when Jesus first called him. What a terrible tragedy. Oh, so long. So long. A dear heart was praying earlier, thanking God for his patience, his patience with us. So long. And yet, Jesus loved Philip. Loved him tremendously. Loved him beyond the words. How wonderful that he did it. And he said to him, just a little lower down, in company with all the others, he said, I'll come to you. I'll come to you. And when Jesus came to him, all his blindness vanished, and all his ignorance faded away, and all that distance, and that insensibility, and that complete inability to grasp the thing, vanished from Philip. Praise God, it all vanished. Jesus loved him. That's how he loves you, and that's how he loves me. If you don't understand, and if you can't see, then listen to Jesus. He says, I'll come to you. I'll come to you. As a matter of fact, he says, I'll pray for you. This is what he says he'll pray to. He says, I'll pray the Father, and the Father will give you another coming. You, Thomas, too. You're thinking, you don't know the where. You can't know the where. You'll miss it all. They'd already missed the way, for they didn't know that Jesus was the way. They'd missed it. They'd followed him for three years, and didn't know that Jesus was the way. Didn't know it. So he says, I'll pray for you. Bless his lovely heart. Glory to the name of Jesus. I'll pray for you. The Father will give you another comforter. I'll come to you. He says, at that day, you'll know. Wonderful. Has that ever happened to you? Or take Mary. She says, I'll take him away. I'll take him away. Well, what in the world was she going to do with him? Perhaps she'd got some ideas of her own. Of course, you know, it's a terrible thing when all your expectations and ideals are pricked overnight. When, as you think you've been disillusioned, because that's what she thought, she hadn't expected this of Jesus. Not this. All her idealism of making him almost God. He wasn't quite God to her, not yet. But she'd idolized him and loved him. There was the trouble with all of them, he wasn't God to them. You understood then that, don't you? Or whilst he was on the earth, he wasn't. They hadn't got it yet. And she was a disillusioned woman with a broken heart. Jesus just said, Mary, oh, I'd love to have been hiding behind that stone if I had it. I'd love to have done it. I wish I could have been there. But somehow, I know inside, I know all that he packed into that word. I know she was one of his own sheep, for he called her by name. That's what he said. He called his own sheep by name. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And we call our own shepherd by name, too. And we say, Jesus, Jesus, glory, glory. And you know, beloved, for her, life began again. Praise God. It was real resurrection for Mary. Amen. I don't know whether you've ever had a real resurrection or whether you just believe in it. I don't know whether you've come out of all your disillusionment and your idolizing of Jesus. That will always crash. Mary of Bethany idolized him. That was her love to him. But her idol didn't come, didn't answer to her needs. The living Christ came to do Father's will first. That's right. Most people are worshiping an idol, Jesus. Do you know the real one? That doesn't give in to your best and tenderest whims and fantasies. Or fit in to your idealizing religious emotions, emotions. It crashes everything about your ears and brings everything to naught so that you may come forth a new and a glorious and a wonderful person. Do you know that one? Do you know him? If you haven't met him, you've met the idol Jesus that most people are worshiping. You've got to come to know him as he is. And when you see him, there'll be nail holes in his hands. This Jesus will be a great gaping hole in his side. When you see him, all glorious, that's him. Renowned for smashing up all human mere sentimentals. Renowned in heaven for breaking down all these idol fences that we have. These notions, these pictures into which we grandly build ourselves up in our minds and hearts. He's not that kind of Jesus at all. He's better. He's greater. He's wonderful. Amen. He's come that you might lose your life in him as he unites his life with yours. He's come that you might be swallowed up in his immense love. He's come that you might pass out of yourself and your troubles, your tomb-like experiences, and these shatterings have come that you might pass on into that love and glory that cannot be shattered, that a cross cannot break it, and a crown of thorns so painful cannot penetrate unto its dissolution. You've got to know this great love of God, this immense, great, and eternal being that came down on this earth to redeem us into himself, that we might be as he, live as he lives, and love as he loves, and do as he does, and think as he thinks. That's what he's come for. And I tell you, my beloved, that it is the intention of the Spirit of God to lead each one of us through such paths till at last we say, Jesus is the way. Jesus is the way. Not my prayer life isn't the way. Not the things I ask him. Not the things I want. But him. He's the truth. He's the life. Yes, that's right. Are you there? I determined I'd speak to you for about twenty minutes. All right, I think I've done that. We're going to break for tea. But before we do, let's just hold these great things in our hearts in the presence of the Lord. Let him teach us, and lead us on into all the truth. Amen. Father, thou knowest that which words cannot explain, that which found not its birth in the human heart, even in its greatest woes, even sitting at the feet of Jesus, or following him in the way, as did those disciples, but began there in eternity. Glorious Lord, in thy heart, all this love that thou had come to reveal to us, blessed Holy Ghost, this love of the Father for the Son, and Jesus for his Father, this great and eternal love that broke out in terrible grief and pain, and came down and did this wonderful work for us all, that we might be emancipated from all the fraud and wrongs of our ideas and ideals, and may be shown that which cometh from heaven above, and led into the way of God, even Jesus. Father, praise thy wonderful name. Dear, dear Lord, oh, we thank thee for shattering everything, shaking everything that can be shaken, the things which cannot be shaken may remain, even the everlasting kingdom of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Oh, thou that reignest in life, over death, over sin, over Satan, over the world, over all our sentiments and emotions, over all our wrong thinking, over all our misunderstanding, over all our bitterness, thou who reignest above all, and reignest in perfect love, reign thou in every heart here this day, and evermore, and bring us all up into the perfections of thine everlasting kingdom, teach us, Lord, whilst we have this little while on earth, we would find the opportunity now, that we miss nothing, but live to thy glory, gracious Lord. Amen.