[0:01] I haven't even quit sweating about the ficking and grinning yet. I want to do everything I can for the Lord.
[0:19] I don't really want to hog away from anybody, but any opportunity I get to serve the Lord or force you to do it. Amen. I will do it.
[0:34] I want to preach today on the subject of the resurrection of Lazarus. That's a good story. It's found in the 11th chapter of the Gospel of St. John.
[0:45] The resurrection of Lazarus. St. John chapter 11. And I'll start reading there at verse 39. We'll just pick up there.
[0:57] Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stink.
[1:11] Now if you've got a new version that says he's odiferous, of course, you know, they put that in there to help you because you don't know what stink means. Yeah. Yeah. Amen.
[1:27] That's what they, that's their excuse, isn't it? They're trying to help you understand it. Yeah. I know what stink means. Yeah. But then again, you know, I'm just a country boy.
[1:39] Now, Lord, this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
[1:53] 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 past him.
[2:06] You already heard me for a kind. And I knew that thou hearest me always, not for my sake, but because of the people which stand by.
[2:17] Amen. 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. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin.
[2:36] And Jesus saith unto them, loose him, and let him go. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, today I thank you, Lord, for your love and grace.
[2:48] I thank you, our Father, for your book, your word, that when we hide in our heart, has the ability to stop us from sinning against God. Father, I pray that we could look into this story.
[3:02] Lord, we could glean something from there, that would be a blessing to believers wherever they are. And Lord, that that word of God would convict the lost, our Father, that they might be saved.
[3:15] God, it's our prayer that believers be strengthened, lost be saved, the church be edified, and we'll be happy. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.
[3:26] Now, the raising of Lazarus is, I think, the last public miracle that the Lord Jesus did. In John chapter 5, Jesus healed the paralytic man, and in John chapter 9, He healed the blind man.
[3:45] But in John chapter 11, He raised the dead man. So I don't know that we've got a case that's too hard for the Lord.
[3:56] You might be blind, you might be helpless, you might be lame, you might be sick, you might be dead. But thank God, Jesus is able to resurrect from the dead.
[4:09] Now, as far as man goes, there's no cure for the dead. The wages of sin claim everyone that comes into this world sooner or later.
[4:21] Hebrews chapter 9, it's appointed unto a man once to die, and after this, the judgment. Now, when they had told Jesus that Lazarus was sick, I think there are at least four possible reasons for sickness.
[4:39] Probably number one reason for sickness is no precaution. That is, when you go out in the wintertime, you don't wear a coat.
[4:50] You're asking to get sick. Thank you. The preacher's trying to help you tonight. Carelessness on our part will cause us to be sick. And then, I think that to be overworked can cause you to be sick.
[5:06] Overworked and underfed, and that will cause sickness to come in your life. And then many of us are afflicted with some malady or disease that befalls us.
[5:18] And we're sick just because we came into contact with that contagious disease. Can I tell you today that stress will make you sick.
[5:29] Worry will make you sick. Some people stressed out and worried over their job, worried about the economy, worried about what's going to happen tomorrow, or what happened yesterday.
[5:42] Hey, hey, listen, friend, there's a God in the glory land that's in control of all of it. And there ain't no point in me worrying. If he feeds the birds, he can feed me.
[5:54] And then, the final reason that I give today for sickness, and that's the one I like, according to verse four of this same chapter, some people are sick for the glory of God.
[6:08] Amen. Lazarus was sick for the glory of God. Put that in your charismatic pipe and smoke it, pal. Some people are sick for the glory of God.
[6:21] Raised in Lazarus was, I think, the last public miracle that Jesus did. And there's a twofold story that we have here tonight. We have the amazing, miraculous resurrection of Lazarus, and then we have the astonishing reaction of people to seeing somebody raised from the dead.
[6:42] You would think, you would think that when people saw somebody raised from the dead, they would believe. That's what the rich man in hell said. He said, if you'll go back, if you'll cause this Lazarus to be raised from the dead, they'll hear.
[6:58] They've got Moses and the prophets. If they will not hear them, they will not hear, though one be raised from the dead. There's a miracle here of gladness, and a miracle that counteracts death's sadness.
[7:13] Jesus is not only Lord of creation, but He's Lord of resurrection. And one of these days, thank God, the graveyards around here are going to have to give up the dead that are in them.
[7:27] Now, I think that His first miracle, if you remember, was turning the water into wine. And that demonstrates His power over His creation. And His last miracle here, turning death into life, that gives Him power over everything there is.
[7:45] I guess sin's best shot is to kill you. Isn't it? Sin's best shot. And Jesus conquered the best the devil could put out.
[7:58] Jesus conquered death and brought life and immortality, the Bible said, to light. So, I mean, there isn't much worse you could get than to be in the grave four days.
[8:13] Then Jesus walked out there and said to Lazarus, He said, get up out of there. And he that was dead came forth. Now, the teachings of the Bible, especially in the Gospels, they need to be dispensationally considered.
[8:28] And then they need to be devotionally considered. And they need to be doctrinally considered. So, if you'll help me today, we'll look at dispensationally considered. This is a picture of Israel.
[8:40] Israel is dead. Amen. He first taught them Israel is lame. Then he taught them that Israel is blind. And here he teaches them that Israel is dead.
[8:52] And their bones are dried up. And they have no hope. And Ezekiel chapter 37, he actually taught that God would be the one, not Harry Truman, God would be the one to raise Israel from the dead.
[9:08] Actually, Lazarus was dead. And it'll take a miracle of God to raise either one of them. To get Israel back where they're supposed to be.
[9:19] And to get Lazarus back from the dead, it's going to take a miracle of Almighty God. In verse 5, the Bible said that Jesus loved this family.
[9:29] And would you agree that God loves Israel? But because of the circumstances, he abode in verse 6 where he was for two days.
[9:42] Amen. That preached good before the year 2000. It's still good. Our calendars are the ones that are off, not God's. Turn with me to Hosea chapter 6.
[9:53] And we'll talk then a little bit about Israel being raised from the dead. Hosea chapter 6. I've got written down there verse 2, but let me start at verse 1.
[10:05] Come and let us return unto the Lord. For he hath torn, and he will heal us. He hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
[10:16] After two days will he revive us. In the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Amen. Life comes from resurrection.
[10:31] You know, that's why you, that's why that you can't save yourself. Because you can't resurrect yourself. Now, you might take oatmeal and help your health while you're alive, but there don't no point in cramming oatmeal down your throat after you're dead.
[10:51] Amen. There's no help for you. If you're dead, you're dead. Your efforts are useless in saving ourselves. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1 says, You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sin.
[11:13] Hallelujah. Amen. Quit trying to save yourself and avail yourself to God and let him save you by his effort. Somebody said, Oh, preacher, don't you believe in a divine spark in everybody?
[11:29] No. Amen. I don't believe there's a divine spark. I don't believe everybody's good at heart. I believe everybody's bad at heart. Everybody's lost.
[11:39] Everybody's sinners. There's no little bit of godliness. You're wrecked from the crown of your head and the sole of your foot. These days are days of weeping because nobody has the power to raise you from the dead.
[11:54] What I'm preaching today is there is one that's got resurrection power. These days were days of weeping for the family of Lazarus, for Mary and Martha as they went there.
[12:08] I think Israel's good at weeping. Israel's good at mourning. You know, it upsets me the way they handle funerals anymore. You're supposed to cry.
[12:21] Are you listening to me? It's not supposed to be a party. You go sometimes to wakes, amen, and everybody's just laughing and joking and carrying on. I think we need to show a little reverence.
[12:34] That's why I think we need to have funerals. I'm opposed to cremation. I'm not saying that cremation will stop the resurrection, but I am saying that it's not Christian.
[12:46] Christians bury their people. Now, if you've got somebody that's cremated, that's fine. I'm not jumping on you, but I'm saying we need to have a little respect for the body of the diseased people.
[12:58] Listen, Israel was good at mourning. When Aaron died, they mourned for 30 days. When Moses died, they mourned for him for 30 days before they turned a wheel to go any further.
[13:12] Of course, our companies are real lenient. They'll give us, if you've got a good company, about three days, then they expect you to go back to work and act like nothing ever happened. Amen. Now, this story took place in a little hamlet called Bethany.
[13:30] And that little hamlet is important to God. The great cities of Egypt like Memphis and Thebes and Cairo, they mourn unnoticed.
[13:42] But God took notice of this family that lived in Bethany. You know what that tells me? That tells me that San Francisco and New Orleans and New York, they're not a whole lot of concern to God.
[13:57] But whenever I've got a problem, whenever a little place like Witcher Creek, because God's people live there, because God's people are in mourning, God takes notice of Bethany and writes Bethany's name in the book of God.
[14:15] Men are born in darkness and they're like lads just they're not able to walk, not able to hobble, they're not able to crawl, they're not able to get out of the grave.
[14:26] There must be a source from without. If they're going to raise, there's going to have to be a power greater than themselves to get out of there. That force was a day's journey away.
[14:38] And he stayed two more. And everybody began to weep that he wasn't there. Delay. Delay. God ever delayed to answer your prayer?
[14:51] Mary and Martha, they did not have the information that we have. The Gospel of John was not written yet. Did you ever pray and get no answer?
[15:03] Did you ever pray and get the wrong answer? Sorrow of sin was all too familiar with his family. And the assurances of the Savior seemed like idle tales.
[15:17] Seemed like dreams. And let me help you jump ahead of myself. The only purpose for death for God's people is the glory of God in resurrection morning.
[15:29] One of these days, thank God, though we were dead and though the skin worms devour my body, yet in my flesh shall I seek God. Our sicknesses are not unto death, but that's why that we sorrow not even as others which have no hope.
[15:48] For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them which sleep in Christ shall God bring with him. Though he wait long and though we wait, yet there is a marvelous answer to the faithful.
[16:03] The disciples might doubt, but Jesus is the light of the world and Jesus will bring them all, all of his people into resurrection glory someday.
[16:15] Now Thomas, he, Jesus said, well, we'll go back over there. And Thomas, he said, man, they gonna kill us. Yeah. Thomas would have made a good Baptist deacon, wouldn't he?
[16:27] Yeah. They gonna kill us sure as you're born. And he said, well, a sad, sad resignation. If he's gonna die, I just might well die too.
[16:39] And so he took off back into Judea. Now Jesus had said this about the resurrection in John chapter 2 and verse 19. Let me give you a little something for the Jehovah's Witnesses to feed on today.
[16:53] In John chapter 2 verse 19, Jesus said, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up. Amen. And in the book of Acts chapter 3 verse 15, it says, God raised him up.
[17:09] Now who raised him up? Amen. God raised him up. And Jesus is God. Can you understand what the preacher's saying today?
[17:21] Jesus of the New Testament is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. Luke 20, 38, he's not the God of the dead, but he's the God of the living.
[17:32] And my mama today is alive as she ever was. She's over in the glory land making laps around the throne and saying, my boy, he's done our preaching.
[17:44] Will you take care of him tonight? Amen. Now, mourners here are many, but there there are none.
[17:55] On this side of the river a lot of people cry, but on that side of the river they're not crying about it. But that old rock on the tomb, Lazarus was dead, the tomb was sealed.
[18:09] He'd gone down in corruption, but Jesus has the ability to correct corruption. It said they followed her to the tomb.
[18:21] Everybody, sooner or later, verse 31, goes to the grave either to weep over somebody that's gone or goes to the grave of himself to be whipped over.
[18:34] Lazarus is in the land where time stands still. You might fuss over him, but you never hear Lazarus fussing about him. You never hear Jairus' daughter complaining.
[18:47] You never hear the widow of Nain's son complaining. And if you heard anything from the apostle Paul, he'd say something like this, I have a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far better than what we, how'd he know?
[19:03] He'd been there. Whenever they stoned him outside the city and left him for dead, he probably did die because above 14 years ago, he told the Corinthian people, I know a man in Christ that was caught up to the paradise of God, to the third heaven, and he saw things that are unlawful for him to rock.
[19:25] I think he was suicidal from that time on. I think, you know, they'd come up there and say, Paul, we're going to chop your head off. He said, hallelujah. Not threaten me with heaven, amen.
[19:42] No fuss out of people that have gone there. The fuss is on this side of the river. Verse 25, the Bible says, Jesus said, I am the resurrection.
[19:55] 1 Thessalonians 4, 17, talks about those that live and do not see death. I believe in the rapture.
[20:08] I know you don't. I know that people out there watching by television, they've got all, I believe in the rapture. I believe one of these mornings, thank God, the trumpet of God is going to sound and the dead in Christ are going to rise first and we which are alive and remain are going to be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air.
[20:28] Now, no matter the physical corruption, no matter the moral corruption, the voice of the Son of Man is heard and all that hear that voice will live.
[20:40] there are sicknesses that can be corrected by medication. There are sicknesses and problems that be corrected by surgeries.
[20:52] They may be able to open your chest and fix your heart but there's nobody, listen to the preacher, there's nobody today after you've been four days in that grave and after you think they're all the best doctors in the world and none of them bring you out of that grave.
[21:12] Amen. Jesus who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and when he come up there one of the girls said in verse 21 if you would have been here that wouldn't have happened.
[21:26] You know, I've been preaching for almost 35 years and how many times that I've stood at a casket of somebody and they said well, if it just hadn't happened they'd have been okay.
[21:42] If they'd have just had this particular medicine they'd have been alright. My own sweet mother in 1949 she was dying with pneumonia.
[21:55] They started to the hospital with her in an ambulance and the ambulance blowed out a tire and they had to stop and change that tire and when they got my mother over to the hospital she was dead on arrival and they said they told us if we hadn't had that tire if we'd have had this particular drug if we'd have had a seat belt on if we'd have had let me tell you something you could be laying in the best hospital in this world you could have the smartest doctor Hebrews chapter 9 verse 27 it's appointed unto a man once to die and all the doctors in this world can't help you and there is no if it's the providence of almighty God.
[22:44] The word Lazarus is Greek for the Hebrew word Eleazar you remember Eleazar he was the high priest of Israel he's the one that went to his daddy's funeral and wore his daddy's clothes home if you remember that story and all of us have got our daddy's clothes on and just like our daddy Adam died every one of us are wearing clothes of death Lazarus is there and then then Jesus comes by and then of course I like that verse that these little kids around here pull on me is that verse 35 did you ever pull that on a Sunday school teacher quote a verse of scripture for me you know if I remember right there's three times in the scripture where it said that Jesus wept he wept at Gethsemane whenever his sweat became as it were great drops of blood fallen to the ground he wept over the city of Jerusalem when he looked out there and said
[24:01] Jerusalem Jerusalem thou that killest the prophets and stonest them I sent unto you how often would I gather you together as a chicken gathereth her hand or brood under her wings and you would not and then he wept here at Bethany over the grave of Lazarus and then he walked over there 1 Corinthians chapter 3 verse 9 says that that we are laborers together with God so in verse 39 Jesus says take away the stone he gave us something to do amen now they had practiced in New Testament times same day burials didn't embalm four days of decomposition but Jesus said take away the stone I used to tell them this in the in the minds whenever whenever Martha said or Mary said
[25:01] Lord you don't want to do that he stinks I used to tell them in the minds I'd say I want you to do such and such and they commissioned telling me well this here and that and I always told them don't you worry about the mule you just load the wagon amen don't you worry about what's going to happen after you do what I tell you I'll be in charge of what happens all you do is what I tell you to do and I told you take away the stone amen so they said alright he wants the stone taken away that's what we're going to do and whenever they rolled that stone away Jesus came out there and cried Lazarus come forth now you know the drill I ain't even going to tell you if you don't know it go listen to every Baptist preacher in this county they'll tell you why he said Lazarus a marvelous resurrection a marvelous resurrection but then there's a mixed reaction look if you will at verse 45 then many of the
[26:09] Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things what Jesus did believed on him then look at verse 46 but some of them went their ways to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done some of them believed and some of them didn't believe that's amazing to me again I call your attention to the rich man in hell he said Lord Abraham if you'll just send them back to warn my five brothers lest they come to this place of torment and Abraham said your brothers has got Moses and the prophets and if they won't hear them they won't hear though one rose from the dead right here is evidence John chapter 11 verse 46 we had a perfectly resurrected live Lazarus in front of them and some of them believed and some of them didn't believe
[27:14] I hear people say well if God would just do this I'd believe no you wouldn't no you wouldn't if you won't believe by faith the preaching of the book of God you ain't gonna believe he'd come down here and turn his pulpit 15 tons of salt amen reaction is according to the heart the rich man in hell was wrong look at verse 44 I'm just gonna preach about five more minutes but look at verse 44 I love that loose he and let him go amen you know a lot of our denominations today they get one resurrected and they want to bind him down they don't want to turn him loose amen they're afraid he give them a reputation of being charismatic or something in their church have loose related to Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 10 it's the preacher's job it's the pastor's job to put the doctrine out there to where we can get them conformed to the image of
[28:24] Christ where we can get them to where they're a perfect man in the image of God loose from all of their ideas about what they ought to do loose from their self righteousness loose from their false doctrines that everybody holds from birth loose from their superstition amen let me let me quote MLK free at last thank God almighty free at last I am loose today I am loose I'm not loose politically I'm not loose governmentally but thank God spiritually you're looking at a loose boy hallelujah for Jesus and the resurrection power let's bow for prayer heads bowed and eyes closed no one looking around for just a moment let me ask you today are you loose amen
[29:27] I got rid of the shackles that held me down I got rid of the chains that kept me bound as Mally said over and over broke that chain binder and I'm free if the son makes you free you're free indeed just a moment I'm going to pray I'd like to pray for you I pray for you all the time I'd like for you to say preacher I want you to pray for me thank you thank you thank you amen preacher I want you to pray for me I want to be what God would have me to be amen thank you thank you alright we're going to do that just before we sing I'll pray for you would you like to come and help me if you would just step out of your seat come here and kneel at this altar like these dear folks have already did and say Lord
[30:27] I can't save myself I can't help myself Lord I need the divine touch of God will you help me today our heavenly father Lord I pray that you would reach down from the glory land Lord that you would touch our people touch their hearts and their lives our father that they would be loose from all all of the false doctrines that we all hold all the heresy that's in all of us and needs to be corrected by the word of God father I pray that we'd be submissive to your will Lord we'd look to you as the author and the finisher of our faith help us this week in Jesus name amen amen