Lazarus Come Forth

Today, I'm going to talk to you about the importance of the difficulties, and there is a supreme reason for those things, and the supreme reason is the glory of God. There is no higher goal or desire. It ought to be in man's heart, certainly in the Lord's heart, is that His glory is supreme.

And so the Lord here, He allows this sickness and death for the glory of God. And there's a good lesson in that. You know, salvation, God's great work is for the glory of God.

It's not anything about the glory of man. And so salvation is by grace through faith. It is not of ourselves.

And so we learn these lessons. And I shared a little bit also from Numbers chapter 14, and I'm just going to read here in Numbers 14. When God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt, He definitely glorified Himself amongst the Egyptians with all the great plagues and His mighty hand bring Him through the Red Sea.

But in Numbers chapter 14, we learn about what God is trying to do, what He was trying to do with the great Exodus. And He had brought them out of Egypt. He had taken them through the wilderness there, and they were not responding by faith.

And they were responding with doubt and complaining and murmuring. And in Numbers chapter 14, verse 20, it says, the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word, Moses is pleading for the people. But as truthfully as I am, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord.

Because all these men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these 10 times and have not hearkened to my voice, surely they shall not see the land. You see there the heart that the Lord has. When He brought them out of Egypt and into the wilderness, His heart was that the earth would see the glory of the Lord.

And as the people would respond to Him by faith, like putting the blood on the doorposts and those things, that brought glory to God. And He was able to magnify Himself through their faith. And so that's the heart of God, to glorify Himself through our faith and trust in Him.

And so this sickness, Jesus says, is for the glory of God. And that was the first lesson we've learned here in this story. The second lesson is something I focused on over in verse 25.

And Jesus makes this statement after Martha says to Jesus, you know, I know that my brother Lazarus will rise from the dead in the future. But Jesus in verse 25 says to Martha, I am the resurrection and the life. Jesus Christ is, present tense, the resurrection.

No, it's not a future thing, Martha. Yes, your brother is going to rise from the dead in the future. But you're looking at someone who is the resurrection, who presently is the resurrection.

And I spent some time, and this is so important, you know, we need to be connected to Him who is the resurrection. And that is why when you put faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, faith in the gospel, you become connected to Him who is the resurrection. It's not a future resurrection.

It's not a past resurrection. He is the resurrection. That's why when people truly get converted, and they're connected to the resurrection, their life is dramatically raised.

They are changed because they are connecting into He who is the resurrection. And we don't have to wait for a future resurrection. We can have a resurrection in our own life on a day-to-day basis because we're connected to Him who is the resurrection.

And I use the outlet over here, the electric outlet here in our building as an example, the power that's in that outlet. But as soon as you connect the cord into that outlet, you then become part of that power. That power automatically flows into you.

And you see that illustration of the vine in John 15. We'll look at that later. How that Jesus says, I am the vine, and you, my people, are the branches.

And that branch is connected to the vine. It's a part of the vine. And so all the nutrients and energy that is in that vine is flowing into the branches.

And so we've come that far now. And so I want to come down with some new thoughts here. I know we're going to finish up this story.

It goes on until chapter, or excuse me, verse 44, 45. We're going to cover a large section here, but I want to bring out two lessons this morning from the rest of this story. I want to start reading in verse number 28.

Martha has given this wonderful profession in verse 27. Yea, Lord, I believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. And then verse 28, and when she had so said, she went her way and called Mary her sister, secretly saying, the Master is come and calleth for thee.

As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came unto him. Now we could spend time on this. Mary just seems to be that type of a person that has a very quiet, restful spirit, and she's waiting for Jesus.

You know, Martha has run ahead to meet Jesus. Mary is sitting still in the house. And then when Mary hears Martha say, the Master calls for you, she jumps to her feet and comes to the Master.

You can get an idea of what kind of a person Mary was. Very calm, someone waiting, and patient, waiting for the Master to call. Verse 30, now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but was in the place where Martha met him.

The Jews then, which were with her in the house, and comforted her when they saw Mary, that she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, she goeth unto the grave to weep there. And I want to comment on something. This is not one of our lessons, but just briefly, we could spend a lot of time on this.

But this is now the fourth day since Lazarus has passed away. And it seems like Martha and Mary are still very much in a mode of sorrow, and grieving, and weeping. And you know, sometimes when I go to funerals, sometimes I wonder if we're missing something.

There is, in the Old Testament, a period of time for weeping, and sorrow, and the mourning of an individual who we've lost. And you see here, even four days, there is still an ongoing sorrow, an ongoing weeping. And I wonder sometimes if we take the time to really minister to our own heart and our own need, and just truly take time to sorrow over the death of a loved one.

Most funerals I go to, it seems rather awkward, but most funerals I go to, there seems to be laughter and frivolity, and there's almost a feeling like people don't want to go down into that sorrowing state. Maybe the family, the close family, are struggling with that. But I wonder sometimes, maybe we can just check our own hearts, whether or not we're willing to just sorrow, and spend the time to weep, and to really sorrow, and minister, or heal our hearts, maybe is a good word.

Sometimes I think we don't want to face the loss. Sometimes we don't want to sorrow, and to grieve. But they were still grieving, and they were still sorrowing after four days.

Now, let's keep reading here. I want to bring out our first lesson about Jesus Christ, and His willingness to take upon Himself humanity. In verse number 32, it says, Then when Mary was come, where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.

That's another statement of faith there. Lord, if you would have been here, my brother had not died. Remember, Martha went on to say, But I know that even now, Lord, whatsoever thou would ask of God, God will give it thee.

And Martha's faith was great. Verse 33, When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping which came with her, he groaned in the spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have you laid him? They say unto him, Lord, come and see. Jesus wept.

I understand that's the shortest verse in the Bible. Verse 35, Jesus wept. What a scene that must have been.

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.

Now there's three times there where the Bible mentions how that Jesus, in verse 33, groaned in his spirit. Verse 35 says, Jesus wept. And then in 38, Jesus therefore again groaning in himself cometh to the grave.

Now stop and think about this for a minute. Jesus knew, I mean, he knew that he was going to raise up Lazarus from the dead. So why, if he knows that Lazarus is coming out of the grave, and that Martha and Mary and all these people are going to rejoice that Lazarus is alive again.

I mean, if I'm in Jesus' position, I'm going to come and say, Hey, don't worry about this. Why are we so upset? This thing is going to change here in a minute. I'm going to raise him up from the dead.

Let's stop weeping. But the Lord actually comes, and he actually starts to weep and groan with the people who are there, even though he knows that Lazarus in the next 10 or 15 minutes is going to come up out of that grave. Now there's two titles that are very common titles in the New Testament about the Lord Jesus.

One is the Son of God, and that title means that Jesus is the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He is fully God. There's another title, and that title is the Son of Man.

And this is the idea that Jesus is also fully man. He is a human, God and man in one body. The Bible says he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh.

And I think sometimes it's hard for us to grasp that when we look at Jesus, we tend to think of him as, but he is God. He does things as God would do them. Yes, that's true, but he also is fully human.

And even as we understood when he was a child, he grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and with man. So in his humanness, and there's a reason why this is, and we'll look at it here in just a minute, but in his humanness, Jesus allows himself to experience human suffering, human grief. And that experience is seen here in the death of a loved one.

And so the Lord voluntarily, just like Philippians 2 said, he voluntarily came down. Though he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, he made himself like us, a human being. And here he enters into suffering.

He enters into weeping. He enters into groaning for the loss of Lazarus because Jesus here is showing us that he is fully human. And so he sorrows just like the other humans.

You see Lazarus was his friend of Jesus. And when your friend dies, if you're a human, you grieve over your friend. Now, from the perspective of God and Jesus being God in a human body, yes, God was looking at this thing and saying, well, Lazarus is going to come out of the grave, but Jesus is also a human.

And so throughout the Bible, you see how the Lord actually sorrowed. He was weary in John chapter four. Remember, he sat upon the well being weary of his journey.

This is his humanity. He was hungry. He was thirsty.

Hey, here's something. He was tempted. You know, James says that God cannot be tempted with evil, but Jesus was fully a human being.

And therefore he was tempted with evil. He felt condemnation. And Jesus cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Jesus actually like us felt condemnation.

He became sin for us who knew no sin. So not only is Jesus fully God, but he's also fully a man. He is human.

He felt betrayed. You know, sometimes we feel betrayed, but Jesus himself felt betrayed when Judas betrayed him. And he said to Judas, betray us now the son of man.

Notice the son of man with a kiss. I'm a man, Judas. I feel betrayed.

The Bible says he was despised and rejected of men. And so sometimes I think we read the Bible and we think, well, Jesus is God. He can handle all these things.

And he's not like me. He doesn't understand what I go through as a human being. But in truth, Jesus was fully a human being, just like you and I. And he willingly, he willingly embraced the things that we also go through and suffer with.

And I'd like you to turn if you could hold your finger there. If you have a Bible, those of you who are listening to Hebrews chapter number two, Hebrews chapter number two talks about this. The book of Hebrews mentions the high priest ministry of the Lord Jesus.

In Hebrews chapter two, verse 14, it says, for as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, that's humanity. He also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death, he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily, he took not on him the nature of angels.

He did not take upon him the nature of an angel. Angels are different than humans. But he took on him the seed of Abraham, humanity.

Now here is why he did it. Verse 17, wherefore, in all things, it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to succor or help them that are tempted.

And so here's the reason why Jesus was made of the seed of Abraham, was made the son of man, so that he could be a merciful and faithful high priest. You think of that idea of being a merciful high priest. You know, aren't we glad here today that that our high priest has been tempted like as we are tempted? Aren't we glad today that our high priest has faced sorrow, has faced weariness, has faced hunger, has faced thirst, has faced the feeling of condemnation.

All the things that we go through and struggle with, our high priest has also gone through. And therefore, he can be merciful. Some people say, well, Jesus doesn't understand my situation.

Here I am standing beside the grave site of one of my dearest friends or maybe a family member. And how can Jesus understand me and what I'm going through right now? Well, Jesus went through that too. As a matter of fact, most of the things that we go through in life, maybe everything we go through in life, we can find that Jesus, our merciful and faithful high priest, has already been through.

Now, one thing I know from life is this, that if I'm having trouble in an area, maybe I'm grieving or maybe I'm tempted or maybe I'm struggling, I am blessed with another brother or sister who has gone down that same road and can come to me and can communicate with me on a level that no one else can communicate because they've been down that road already. I know in my life, I've dealt with fear and anxiety in my life. And I know that when I see people struggling with fear, I can immediately connect with them because I've been there.

I've been down that road. And I can have a lot of compassion and mercy on people who struggle with fear because I've been there. And so here we have the Lord Jesus, our merciful high priest, faithful, who has been there.

He doesn't come to you and say, well, listen, I don't know anything about fear. I don't know anything about struggles with temptation. You know, I don't know anything about sorrow and grieving over lost loved ones.

I don't know anything about being betrayed. I don't know anything about hungering and thirsting. I know nothing about that.

No. He can say, I've been there. I've experienced some of these things that you're experiencing.

And so, for example, at the Garden of Gethsemane, when Jesus is praying and he's facing great temptation and he's sweating great drops of blood, as it were, sweat from his brow. And then he has his disciples falling asleep. And he asked them to pray and they're falling asleep.

And he says to his disciples, these words, the spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak. You know, that's not some deity who doesn't have any human struggle saying those words. Here he is.

He acknowledges in his own struggle that my spirit is willing, but my flesh is weak and I need to cry out and pray and cry out to God for grace. And of course, those angels came and ministered unto him. But when he says the spirit truly is willing, but the flesh is weak, you know, he experienced that very thing.

You know, Jesus could actually say, my flesh is weak. And he had the same flesh you and I had. You know, that is why when Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted to sin, he prepared himself and spent 40 days fasting before he actually went in to be tempted, because you know what he knew? The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.

And so, you know, when Jesus was tempted of the devil there in the wilderness, he was not some deity. Well, this is not a problem for me. You know, the devil's nothing to me.

I'm God. No, he was there as you and I, as the son of man. And he needed to fast and pray to overcome temptation.

And so, you know, we have a high priest that can understand that the spirit is truly willing, but the flesh is weak. And so when you come to the Lord, you say, Lord, I failed. And he can say, I know how you felt.

I know what it's like to be tempted. And we have a merciful and a faithful high priest. Jesus was 40 days tempted with three specific temptations.

And by the way, I don't think those 40 days, there was only three simple tests. I believe those 40 days were filled with temptations and filled with tests. We're not given all the tests.

We're given examples of some of the tests. And when Jesus was tempted to turn those stones into bread, that was a temptation to fulfill the lust of his flesh. When Jesus was tempted to look at all the kings of the world and to bow down, that was the temptation of the lust of the eyes.

That was one of many. And then when Jesus was tempted to cast himself down, you know, hey, Jesus, you're special. You're special.

You can cast yourself down from this temple and God will take care of you. That was the pride of life. And so so there were many temptations.

But the Lord has has gone through probably more temptations. Maybe you and I have gone through. And so here we are at this grave site, and the Lord wants to experience as a human being the loss of a dear friend, his friend Lazarus.

And he he understands Martha and Mary, and he's actually grieving with them as they go through the difficulty that they're facing. Look over to Hebrews chapter four. You're there in the book of Hebrews, Hebrews chapter four, verse 14.

It says this, seeing then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of God. Let us hold fast our profession for we have not through this. We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

You know, the Lord has pity upon us. He has touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He understands the weakness of your flesh, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.

I think that's amazing that Jesus was tempted in all points. Now, I believe the Bible. He was tempted in all points like as we are.

And yet he overcome in all points. And therefore, seeing we have such a high priest who has felt the weakness and the infirmity of our flesh, who knows what it's like to be hungry, who knows what it's like to be weary, who knows what it's like to sorrow over a lost loved one, who knows what it's like to feel condemnation, who knows what it's like to feel betrayed and many other things. Verse 16 says, let us therefore, with that in mind, come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

Here's the encouragement. You know, we oftentimes say come boldly. Well, here's why you should come boldly, because you have someone there who understands the weakness and the infirmity of your flesh and all the struggles that you're going through.

And so when you think of Jesus there at the grave site and he knows he's going to raise Lazarus from the dead, but why does he groan in spirit? Why does he weep? I don't know how much he wept, how much he groaned. But why does he do that? Because as a human being, he takes part in the sorrow of losing a dear friend and a loved one. And he joins in Mary and Martha's sorrow.

So let's go back now to John chapter 11. Here we are seeing Jesus entering into what it feels like to lose a brother, a friend, a family member. I thought of Romans chapter 12, verse 15, probably some of you are thinking about this verse here.

Bible says to rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep. And that's exactly what the Lord is doing here. He is obeying his own word.

He is obeying the will of God to rejoice with them that rejoice and weep with them that weep. In other words, to take part in the suffering of your brothers and sisters, to weep with those that weep. And I know that I lack greatly in this area of my own life.

And just to take part in those who are suffering. Just recently we had a dear sister here who lost her father. And taking part in the suffering of those that suffer.

What an important aspect of Christianity. And you know, this is the concept of body life. Paul said it in first Corinthians chapter 12, I believe it is.

He says when one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. And so as a part of the body of Christ, we need to learn that when one of our members suffer, we can suffer and should suffer with that member. And so I've shared this with you before, but in the body, when the toe gets hurt, you know, when you stub your toe or when your finger gets hit with a hammer, the finger really, really hurts.

The toe really, really hurts. But the rest of the body also feels the pain. Do you agree with me on that? Yes.

The rest of the body feels the pain. You cannot separate the toe from the eye, from the heart, from the leg, because they're all connected. It's all intertwined.

And so this is the principle of the body of Christ. So I think it's good. You know, here we have brothers and sisters all over the world who are dying of this virus, and you're reading about things that are happening.

And can we enter into some of their grief? Can we enter into some of their suffering? I have a quote here I want to give you. I read here this morning in preparation for this. He who does not have this fellow feeling may suspect worthily that he is not a living member of Christ.

For his body is coupled and knit together throughout every joint wherewith one ministers to another. If therefore we do not bear one another's burdens and feel one another's misery, we are not knit together by the sinews of love. And if not knit to the body, no part of the body.

So here's this idea of if a member of your physical body suffers, then the whole body feels the pain. In the very same way, if we're a part of the body of Christ and our member is hurt, we ought to be grieving and taking part in that which is suffering in our body. I'd like you to look here at John chapter 11 and verse number 35 and verse 36.

It says, Jesus wept. And then verse 36, then said the Jews, behold how he loved him. Now something had happened.

Those who are watching this event, when they saw Jesus weeping, they saw his groaning, they saw his sorrow, what that meant to them was this. Boy, he really loved them. And you know, that is a beautiful picture of love one toward another.

And you know, when we love each other, when one member is hurting, then we hurt. And that's a picture of love. And that's something that I think I have a great need in.

And I don't like to go down that road of sorrow and grieving. But you know, it's something we need to take part in. And here Jesus, he weeps.

And the Jews, when they see him weeping, their thought was, he really loved Lazarus. And I think if we also take part in the sufferings of our brothers and sisters, people will say, hey, that brother loved him. That brother loved that sister.

That sister loved the other sister, because what weeping and what sorrow they feel for their brother or their sister. So here the Lord is entering into the sorrow of death to feel what Martha and Mary are feeling. So someday when you stand beside that casket of a loved one, and you can't look up to the Lord and say, Lord, you don't understand my feeling.

You don't understand how I feel. Yes, he does. He understands exactly how you feel, because he also entered in.

And he's our high priest. And so we can come to him boldly for mercy and for grace to help in time of need. Well, I'd like to move on to a second lesson here today.

And I think this is a beautiful type here that we see of the rest of our story here. I'm going to read down through the rest of the story and then come back and teach you what I believe is a type of the church here again. In verse 38, Jesus, therefore, again, groaning in himself, cometh to the grave.

It was a cave and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, take you away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, said unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he has been dead four days.

Remember, three days, body starts to corrupt after three days. And so Martha is thinking, well, he's starting to stink. Verse 40, Jesus saith unto her, said I not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God.

Verse 31, 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 had thus spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. Some of you have been in the Saturday morning Bible studies we've been having on the second coming of Christ.

That loud voice woke Lazarus up and Lazarus comes out of the grave. And we talk in our Bible studies how that when Jesus returns, he is going to come with a shout. And that shout is what's going to awaken the dead.

Back in John chapter five, John said it this way. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming in which all in the grave shall hear his voice.

So here is Lazarus laying in the grave. It's a picture here of the resurrection of the church. And here is Lazarus.

He hears his name, Lazarus, come forth. And it's a loud voice. It's a shout.

Verse 44, it says, and he that was dead came forth bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin. And Jesus said unto them, loose him and let him go. Now stop and think about this.

This is interesting. I want to ask you a question. Don't you think that if Jesus had the power to raise up Lazarus from the dead and bring him back to life, he would have also taken away the grave clothes? Now, if Jesus has the power to raise Lazarus up and have him walk out of that grave, don't you think that Jesus could have taken the clothes off too there and he could come out kind of dancing and jumping up and down and not in his grave clothes? So why, if you have such power to raise Jesus up from the dead, why not take off his grave clothes in the process? Why does he come out bound? Well, I believe there's a beautiful picture here of the Lord's desire to work with his church.

You know, the Bible says in the scriptures that we are to be co-laborers with the Lord. We are to be co-laborers. First Corinthians 3 verse 9 says this, for we are laborers together with God.

And you're going to see this in another place here. God does not want to do all the laboring. He wants us to enter into the labor of raising people up from the dead and taking part with him.

Jesus said it this way, take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Isn't that interesting that the Lord says, get in my yoke? Who do you think is doing most of the pulling? The Lord is, but he enjoys that we get in the yoke with him. Now, I believe this.

There's no doubt about it. The Lord can calm the winds. He can do anything, you know, but the Lord could have done all the work.

I mean, he could have just called Lazarus out of the grave and pulled the grave clothes to fall off. And Mary and Martha could have just sat back and others just sat back and did nothing. I'm going to get to this here in a minute.

But if you look over to verse 39, Jesus tells Martha, take away the stone. Now, let me ask you this. If someone can raise somebody from the dead, can he move the stone away too? I've got a small congregation.

I'm trying to preach to about five of them. Yes, he can take away the stone, but here he asks Martha and those that are there, take away the stone. Then after raising Lazarus, he says, now I want you to come and loose him and let him go.

Now, just I've been cutting down all these trees and oh, it's just so comical. Tommy, little Tommy, he's only two. Two, two years old.

He watches daddy split wood. So when I put the splitter down, he tries to pick that splitter up and he sets a piece of wood, little piece of wood up and it keeps falling over. He gets so frustrated.

It won't stand up for him. And finally he'll get it to be stood up. Then he'll reach over and get that big ball.

He can barely get it up above the wood and he just kind of drops it on the wood. And then he gets frustrated because the wood won't split. And so I go over there and he loves for me to go over there and I'll pick the splitter up and we'll hold it together and I'll lift it up and it's walnut.

Walnut is very easy to split. And I get a nice little piece and we knock it and it splits and he just loves it. He loves to split wood with dad.

And I enjoy doing it too. You know, that's the way the Lord is. You know, the Lord could do all the splitting, but he loves to bring you into the yoke.

He loves to take us along with him. And there's a beautiful type here. And I think we can learn some things from this story.

You know, only the Lord can bring life. Only the Lord can raise the dead. Only the Lord can bring salvation.

The Bible says we are born of God. We're not born of men. We are born of God.

Only God can raise up a dead soul and bring life to a dead soul. That's a miracle of God. But you know what? We get to take part in it.

We get to roll away the stone and we get to loose him and let him go. There is an aspect that the Lord involves his people in. And that aspect is preaching the gospel and sanctification.

And I want to just talk about those here briefly. First of all, I want to talk about sanctification. Here this man, Lazarus, comes out of the grave.

He's got all these grave clothes on. His face is bound about with a napkin. And Jesus says to Mary, Martha, and those that are near, loose him and let him go.

Now, you know, when someone gets raised from the dead, someone gets born again, the church has a responsibility. Praise God. You know, God saved someone.

They're raised up from the dead. And now God says, OK, church, here he is. Loosen.

Let him go. Take off the grave clothes. He's lived in sin all his life.

He's got patterns of behavior. He's got habits. Now I want you to sanctify him.

I want you to work with him and I want you to loose his grave clothes. You know, that's what the church is supposed to do to be to be in discipleship and to work, to sanctify the believer who has been raised from the dead. You know, God could have raised us up from the dead and made us perfect.

You know, when you get born again, he could have said, you're not only given life, but you're made perfect. Very simple. But he didn't do that.

He said, I'm going to raise you from the dead and I want to put you in a body of believers and you're going to work with them and they're going to work with you and they're going to take all that grave clothes off and they're going to make you perfect in Christ Jesus with my help and my grace. So I want to read to you a passage here. You don't have to turn there, but one of my favorites on this subject, Jesus is raised up from the dead and he gives gifts to the church.

Here's what it says in Ephesians chapter four, verse 11. And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, the perfecting of the saints. Lazarus, I'm raising you up.

I'm giving you life, but I'm going to let your friends and your family do the perfecting. They're going to take part in this work. So we all come into unity of faith and the knowledge of the son of God into a perfect man, perfection.

And so he goes on there and talks about how the church is to be every joint supplying. And isn't it a wonderful thing to see how that God allows us to take part in this great work, not only of salvation and preaching the gospel, but also in discipling and helping people to come to the place of perfection. The Lord delights in this idea of co-laboring together.

I know we parents, we love that where our children work with us. And God enjoys, God enjoys working with his people. Great commission says, go into all the world, preach the gospel, teaching them to observe all things.

And lo, what's the next words? I am with you. We're going to work this thing together. And so not only does he ask those there to loose him and let him go.

So these people come and they start unwinding him. It's probably a process. And I don't know what's going on Lazarus, you know, on the inside of this thing, but Lazarus is very much alive, but he needs, he needs these bondages.

He needs these bad habits. He needs to be sanctified. So those people have the opportunity to be a co-labor with God.

But if you go back here in verse 39, there's another thing here I'd like you to see is Jesus said, take you away to stone. You know, Jesus could have moved that stone very easy, but he had his disciples do it. You know, someone says this, if God wants to raise somebody from the dead, he can do it by himself.

I totally agree with that. I mean, if God wanted to move the stone and raise Lazarus up, he could have done it, but he chose to have those that were there help him in the work. And he says to Martha, take away the stone.

And so I don't know how many of them had to move that stone. It's probably a pretty big stone, but certainly Jesus could have said stone move. But he didn't, he didn't say that.

So he chooses, God is choosing here to involve people in the work. I, someone said it this way, and I love this idea. Listen to this, tray like it all depends on God and work like it all depends on you.

Isn't that good philosophy there? Tray like it all depends on God and work like it all depends on you. Those two go hand in hand in the Bible, pray without ceasing, pray, pray, pray. God is the one that's going to do it.

But then God says, you get to work. I'm not going to do it unless you get to work, go into all the world, teach them to observe all things, baptize them. I'm not going to do that.

You need to get involved in the work. Now you take an example of this in the Old Testament, when Moses and Aaron and Hur went up to that top of that mountain, they were praying because there was a battle going on. You say, oh, I'm so glad that Moses and Aaron and Hur were up there and Aaron and Hur were lifting up Moses's hand and they were praying for the battle.

Yes, but I guarantee you this, if Joshua and the army was not willing to fight, there would have been no victory regardless of all the prayers that Moses would have brought. It not only took Moses and Aaron and Hur up there praying to God, but it took the armies of Joshua and the men who were down there fighting the battle. So we can be praying for souls and that's a wonderful thing.

And we ought to pray to God and lift up our voice for souls, but we also need to be in the work and going forth and doing the work. Now, I think there's another thing here to learn just briefly, and that is verse 39. Again, I want to read these verses and ask you a question.

Jesus said, take you away to stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh for he has been dead for days. And Jesus said unto her, said I not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe, notice this, if thou wouldst believe thou should see the glory of God.

Mary or Martha, are you going to believe me? And verse 41, then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. Now let me ask you this, if Martha and those who heard Jesus did not take away the stone, would Lazarus have ever been raised from the dead? What do you think, Dennis? Oh, you think he would have. Dennis thinks he would have.

If, and I don't know the answer to this, he might have been raised from the dead, but he'd have been stuck in a cave where he couldn't get out. So it's like the Lord saying, Martha, Mary, you all take away the stone. And then Martha says, wait a minute, Lord, he stinks.

Hey, Martha, listen, I told you if you'd believe things would happen. Okay, we'll take away the stone. They took away the stone and the Lord raised him from the dead.

Now here's something I think we ought to always remember. Faith without works is dead, James says. Faith without works is dead.

Martha, if you believe, take away the stone. Take away the stone. And you know, Martha, Mary, and those that were there, they took away the stone.

And I think it's just an example. You see this throughout the Bible that faith will produce a response. Faith will always produce responses.

Now I'm going to close here with what I think is just the type or the picture here of what the Lord is trying to convey for the church. And I'll add one or two things here to this type. I want to close with this.

First thing I see in this story here in the end here is how that Mary and Martha bring Jesus to Lazarus. You know what happened? Martha goes out and meets him. Jesus asked, where have you laid him? Of course, the Lord knew where he was laid.

But Bible says that Martha and Mary take Jesus to Lazarus. You know what that symbolizes to me? We bring Christ to the sinner by preaching the gospel. How is the sinner going to meet Jesus? Somebody's going to have to bring Jesus to the sinner like Martha and Mary brought Jesus to Lazarus.

Second thing, they removed the stone. Martha and Mary and those that were with him removed the stone. And I might think I'm stretching in here, but you know, our Bible memory time and all the things that we're memorizing, there are times that things need to be removed.

Let Jesus raise someone from the dead. And Martha and Mary were responsible to remove the stone, the impediments, you know, we have on our Bible memory, things that people stumble with, or maybe some arguments against the gospel. And we're learning these verses of how to reason, how to bring people through some of these difficulties.

Well, we have a responsibility to remove the stone. And then the Lord does a miracle. The next thing that happens is Jesus gives life to Lazarus.

He is born again. Lazarus come forth and Lazarus is raised up from the dead. I think Lazarus is one of the best pictures of the born again Christian because Lazarus was dead and now he's alive again.

It's like the Bible talks about being born again. We are dead and we're alive again. We're raised up.

And then after he is born again, after the resurrection, then the church, the Lord asks the church to help in the sanctification process. And it's a beautiful picture of how from start to finish, the soul is one and is perfected and sanctified. So we as a church, we have the responsibility of bringing people to Jesus or bringing Jesus to the people.

I should say it that way, removing the impediments and then taking off all the grave clothes and helping people find freedom in every area of life. You know, when I got converted, the Lord delivered me from a number of things, but it took years sometimes to see all the needs that I had and find deliverance in many areas. I'm still finding deliverance in areas of life.

And so, praise God. But I want to finish here just reading these last few verses. We've already discussed them already, but verse after seeing all this in verse 45, then many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus had believed on him, but some of them went their ways to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done.

So there are some who came in and believed the gospel and some who actually rejected the gospel and went their way, plotted against him. Well, we'll stop there and we'll pick up in verse number 47, hopefully finish the chapter next time. So anyone there who are listening, do you have...