Well, we'd like to turn to John chapter 11, which we kind of hinted at this morning. Good to see each one has come back this afternoon. We'd like to deal with the subject of, seems kind of contradictory at first, sickness for the glory of the Savior. Sickness for the glory of the Savior. But it's not really a contradiction as we look at the sovereignty of God who works all things after the counsel of His own will and for the good of those who are called according to His purpose. The glory of God has been rightly identified as the most important theme in the universe. It's the foundation upon which God's works of creation, God's works of redemption, God's works of judgment, and the revelation of God's greatness throughout all eternity is founded upon in heaven and throughout all eternity in the universe. Now, the word glory is an interesting word. It is in this particular, in the New Testament, it is the Greek word doxia, and we get the word doxology from that. Some of you may have come from churches that would sing that at the beginning or at the end of a service. Every single service, which is fine as long as it doesn't become vain repetition. You know, praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise him all creatures here below. You know, that's what the doxology is. It's giving praise to God, giving him the glory. So the word means honor and praise and dignity and resulting in worship and and praise and honor and expressing his splendor, his magnificence, his excellence, his kingly majesty, especially of the kingly Messiah in Jesus Christ. And it's his inward absolute perfections and his brightness and his glory in the most exalted state possible belonging to God himself. So God's glory is inherent or intrinsic to His nature. And so the Word of God says that He is the God of glory. Psalms chapter 29 verse 3, the voice of the Lord is upon the waters. The glory, God of glory thundereth. And the Lord is upon many waters. In the New Testament, it says in Acts chapter 7 verse 2, and he said, men brethren and fathers hearken, the God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he could see that that is his very nature. In fact, he's called many times in the Bible that he is the God of glory, but also in verses 7 through 10, we see him called the King of Glory. He's the King of all glory. And because he is the God of all glory, the Father, it says in Ephesians 1.17, is the Father of glory. The Son is called in 1 Corinthians 2.8, the Lord, called in 1 Peter 4.14, the Spirit of glory. So God's glory is so high and so exalted that no mere creature, no mere human being can attain unto it. So therefore it is uniquely God's glory, so He cannot and will not share it with another. As Isaiah 52, 8 says, I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. But God's glory is, however, reflected in His creation. It's reflected in His creation. We see the heavens there in Psalms 19, one, declare the glory of God and the firmament shows its handiwork. There in Isaiah 6, three, it says, the whole earth is full of his glory. And a lot of times I just love camping and being in nature and hiking and all that kind of stuff. I just love that, always have growing up. But we see the wonder of creation. And as I mentioned this day, earlier this morning, about those who thank the earth and thank the animals and all this other stuff. It's like, it just makes good sense. We don't want to be guilty as those there in Romans 1, 22 and there. But continually extols the greatness and glory of God. Psalms 57, 11 says, be thou exalted by glory. Be above all the earth. And then Psalm 72, 19, and blessed be His glorious name forever. And let the whole earth be filled with His glory. Amen and amen. We see the glory of God in redemption. As noted in Romans 9, 23, the New Testament, that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of merchant which He had aforeprepared under glory. And then 2 Corinthians 4, 4, in the whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them that which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, whose image of God should shine unto them. And so, why do I say all this? Because Jesus was speaking of Lazarus and that his sickness was to glorify the Son. And everything associated with that, of course, the resurrection as well. So the glory of God is critical. It should be our goal in life is to glorify God. Because after all, everything we are that's good and everything we have that's good is because of Him. And so He's deserving of our worship and giving Him glory. We see that God had, in the Old Testament even, had manifested His glory in various ways. No one can live and see the full-blown glory of God. That's why that when Moses wanted to see God's glory, there in Exodus chapter 33 through 18 through 23, that God had to show his glory by putting Moses in the cleft of the rock and then putting his hand to cover him and then he only saw the backward parts of God's glory because it is so great and so magnificent and so great that we would be consumed by it. And then we see God manifesting his glory to the children of Israel in the wilderness. where he showed his glory in the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. as he led the children through the wilderness into the promised land. Isaiah received a revelation of God's glory, and he was in total awe and in reverence there in Isaiah chapter six, verses one through five, and said, woe is me, I'm undone, and I dwell among a people with, I have unclean lips, and I dwell amongst a people who have unclean lips. It's meant to humble us. It's meant to show us how great He is, how small we are, and then how great He is. They would even allow us to worship Him and to serve Him and enjoy Him. But the most gracious and complete manifestation of God's glory is when Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, came into this world. We notice there it says in John, in chapter one, in verse 14, it says, the word was made flesh, speaking of Jesus, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory, now notice what kind of glory this is. As of the only begotten of the Father. That's putting him on equal ground with the Father. full of grace and truth. And we know that even though Christ has the same glory as the Father, His being in human flesh veiled a measure of His glory. We see a little unveiling of that glory when on the Mount of Transfiguration in Matthew chapter 17, where they beheld Jesus Christ and He was so bright and so white that they saw a glimpse of His glory at that time. But the text that we're dealing with John chapter 11, and we're only going to get to part of it, is it blazes, if you will, in the dark backdrop, if you recall last time, of the hatred and rejection of the Jewish leaders who were opposing him. As you remember, Jesus had left Solomon's porch after the Jewish authorities tried to take him by force, but they weren't able to because it wasn't his time. And he left Jerusalem, in fact, left Judea and went over toward Jordan where John the Baptist had baptized. And actually, according to the other Synoptic Gospels, in the Harmony of the Gospels, you see it's been about two months that he was gone when he left there. When we come to this narrative in John chapter 11. And this particular passage in verses 1-16 that we'll be dealing with is just an introduction to the event that would highly exalt and glorify Christ as the resurrection and the life in this chapter. So first we want to look at the situation's seriousness. Second, we want to look at the sister's sensibleness. And then third and last, we want to see the Savior's selflessness. So those three things. Number one, the situation's seriousness. Notice in verse one, now a certain man, now we notice first of all it starts out by saying that. So the focus is not on Lazarus, even though he's named later. It begins as a certain man. The focus is to be on Jesus, not on Lazarus. And that's where our focus ought to be always anyway. But now a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. Lazarus is actually a shortened form of the Hebrew name Eliezer. And it was a common name, and so we have the description of Bethany and his sisters Mary and Martha. And of course, they're all also mentioned in Luke chapter 10, verse 38 through 42. Remember where Mary sat at the feet of Jesus and Martha was careful and troubled about many things. In verse 2 it says, it was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointments and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. Now, even though the anointing of Jesus by Mary is not mentioned in this Gospel account until the next chapter, It was known by the readers that they would be, of course, familiar with the Synoptic Gospels and Matthew and Mark of this account of Mary anointing the feet of Jesus. But it's apparent by Luke's account, these accounts are in Matthew and Mark, that Jesus had a close relationship with this family. And it's expected that if he met the needs of others miraculously, that he would be willing to do so for those that he was close to and spent much time with. But this was a serious sickness. This wasn't like some common cold, or it wouldn't have a messenger. Now understand with me, this messenger, it would take them a day to get where Jesus was. So, they wouldn't send a messenger all that while, number one. Number two, they wouldn't send a messenger of just a common cold. Because a messenger meant they're going to get there faster than if Mary and Martha went themselves. So it was a serious kind of sickness. And we'll see a little bit further about their sensibleness a little bit later. But anyway, the Centist messenger is the fastest way to relay this message to Christ in those days. Now, our sinful condition is such that it is serious, even a deadly condition. By nature, we are, well, James said we can't be sick, but there is a sense in which we are sick, and that we are, we have, we're fatally sick, if you could use that terminology. And I point to a passage that's often referred to when dealing with total depravity, that's found in Isaiah chapter 1. He just starts out like that. What a way to start out a message, right? But he says, in verse 4, a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel into anger. They're gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? Ye would revolt more and more. The whole head is sick. And the whole heart faints from the sole of the foot even to the head. There is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, nor neither mollified with ointment. That describes our spiritual condition. We are, as I've mentioned before, the living dead, if you will. So now, there's a seriousness of the situation. Now we move to the sensibleness of these sisters. It says in verse three, therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. J.C. Ryle's got a tract about that. I think Brother Packett shared that once before. But it's a very good tract to read. But they were sensible. Go to Christ. In fact, that's what we all do before I take a pill, before I go to the doctor. Call on Jesus, the great physician. That's the most sensible thing we can do. Now, yes, sometimes he uses doctors, and yes, he'll use medicines. I agree, but I'd rather go to Jesus first, because sometimes doctors run, sometimes pills don't work, and sometimes they got bad side effects. So yeah, Jesus has no bad side effects, and he's never wrong. It's always for our good. So it makes sense to go to him first. Now, if he wants to use other means, that's his business, and I understand that and agree with that. But they went to Jesus. And so that's the most sensible thing they could do. They recognized, because Jesus loved them, and loved Lazarus, that he would want to do the best for them. Because that's what people who love each other do. They want to do what's best for the ones that they love. So it makes sense to go to the one that loves someone so much to get help. He is, as described in Psalms 103.3, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. So, God heals, whether it's indirectly through medicines and people or doctors, or whether it's directly through a miraculous intervention, God heals. So, due to the seriousness of Lazarus's sickness, likely, he died before the messenger actually reached Jesus. Now, as I said, it's a one day journey there. And Jesus delayed, as we'll see a little bit later, two days. And they took to Jesus another day. So that means four days. And it says in John 11, 17 and verse 39 that he'd been dead for four days. So Lazarus was likely already dead. But these sisters' message to Jesus, it's amazing when you look at this. These few words in this verse was full of tender, just simplicity. They didn't spell out the details of their brother's condition. And notice, they didn't ask him to do anything. That's what's amazing. They recognized, first of all, they were sensible and thinking not only of themselves, but thinking about Christ, that this was an extremely dangerous situation for Jesus to go back to where they tried to take his life. They didn't want anything bad to happen. Now, they knew, of course, God's sovereign and all this, but we would want to If we love Christ, want the best kind of situation possible, wouldn't likely put him in the face of an angry mob on purpose. That wouldn't be a very loving thing to do, so to speak. But anyway, not only that, but the Feast of the Passover is coming up. So the timing and the place and the kind of opposition that he experienced before. They didn't try to manipulate Jesus in any way by saying, you know, Lazarus loves you too. It wasn't nothing like that. They just simply appealed to the love of Christ for Lazarus. And this word, by the way, is phileo, which is the word in affection. So these sisters sensibly, simply, humbly, and trustingly brought the need to Christ, even though He knows all things. It's a beautiful picture of prayer, really. The humility and the trust and recognizing who Jesus is. And so now verse four says, when Jesus heard that, he said, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God. That's where we got our title. That the Son of God also here might be glorified thereby. So obviously Jesus didn't mean that Lazarus didn't die, but that death would not be the ultimate outcome of this. Like the blind man in John chapter 9 in verse 3, Lazarus' sickness, his death, his resurrection would be for the glory of God, the glory of Christ. Unlike the flawed theology of some, it is God's will sometimes that we are sick. You know, sometimes it's our own doing, you know, and it's chastisement or whatever, but It is God's will that we are sick at times. Sometimes it's Satan, the messenger of Satan, to buffet us. But again, God in His providence allows these things. So sometimes it's for chastisement, sometimes it's for trials, like in Job's case. Sometimes it's an example for others, or to be an example to others, for us to discover our remaining sin, or for us to realize the power of God when we are We are weak, we are strong, but Lazarus had already died when Jesus said this. But he knew the end result of this would be for the glory of God, not death. So now verse 5 says, Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. This is very important. It emphasizes, in light of the next verse when he delayed, that he was doing this for their good, like he does for all of God's people. Always for what's best for us. And that's what he would do. He had no doubt, as we mentioned before, spent a lot of time with their family, as the Gospels indicate, that we mentioned previously in other places. So, it says there in verse 6, when he had heard, therefore, that he was sick, he abode today. still in the same place where he was. This would have been puzzling if we had not seen that previous verse. Jesus did not delay so Lazarus would die because probably Lazarus was already dead. In John's Gospel, three times. This time, that in these other times where Jesus, when somebody near and dear to Jesus brings their knee before Christ, that they had to wait. There were his mother at Cana and his brothers on their way to Jerusalem. In each of these three cases, Jesus responded the same way. He had people wait. So he first refused to grant their request, then he fulfilled it after asserting that he does all things in his time, not ours. And it seems like he refused, he wasn't really refusing, he was just delaying. recognizing it and we have to understand that. And that's some of the hardest things to do. We want something so bad and it's even a good thing and it's like, Lord, why wouldn't you just answer that prayer right now? But he doesn't. God works things after the count of His own will and His timing, and that is best for us. It teaches us patience, or that's the design of it anyway. Sometimes we don't learn our lesson, be patient, but with tribulation work with patience. Eventually, it'll have its good work. But so, even though his actions, Jesus, Demonstrates his delays, they weren't denials, but they would bring greater glory to God. What did the delay do? Well, we mentioned some of them. But to strengthen the faith of the sisters, by forcing them to trust in him. You know what happens, don't you, the microwave mentality? I gotta have it now. And we kind of get spoiled, don't we, with that kind of thinking. And so, Jesus is keeping us from being spoiled, if you will. And then also, it brings glory to God, and it strengthened the faith of the disciples. And thirdly, the delay served to make it clear that Lazarus was indeed dead, four days. without question to validate his resurrection by Jesus Christ and to signify his deity to be able to do so. So now thirdly, we see the Savior's selfishness. Verse seven, then after that, saith he to his disciples, let us go to Judea again. Now the disciples probably did a double take like, What did he just say? Go back there? But Jesus was willing to go, and this is a key point. He is willing to go and minister in Judea, where his life would be in danger, if you will, humanly speaking, to minister to Lazarus and his family, even though it was dangerous and life-threatening for him to do that. He gives a wonderful example for us as well in giving glory to God and being a blessing to others. There's not many people that you meet that would be willing to lay down their life for you. And that's a sad testimony to the lack of love in our culture. So he gives us an example of selflessness of being sure and confident in what God would have him to do. We should glorify God and help others in the same way. It says in verse 8 of John 11, His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and goest thou thither again? Again, life-threatening. And, you know, they couldn't quite get it. Jesus could have done like he did before and just spoke the word like he did to the son of the nobleman and he was healed. What, Lord, can't you just do that? He could have raised him from a distance. But now in verse nine it says, Jesus answered, are there not, this is an interesting way in which he responded, are there not 12 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. Again, they were shocked about going there, because Jesus was a wanted man over there. But what Jesus is doing here is making it clear that He still has work to do while it is day. He still had work to do. His ministry wasn't over. The Jews, of course, they divided the day into two parts. The day, 12 hours, and the night, 12 hours. That's the way they did it. And it's unlike our day where it's varied depending on the seasons of the year. But the 12 hours symbolizes and refers to, of the day, to Christ allotted time by the Father for Jesus's earthly ministry. If anyone walks by the day, he doesn't stumble. Christ, there could no harm be done to him or even to his disciples that they must work for the night that when Jesus would be, what? Crucified. Just like no one, what Jesus is saying here, just like no one could lengthen the day, nor lengthen or shorten the night, So His disciples' concern could not extend the time that has already been appointed to Jesus, nor could the Jews' hostility shorten it either. Jesus and the disciples walked freely now, and there'd be a time in their future when the disciples would stumble and would all flee and forsake Christ. But Jesus stumbled in a different way. When he carried the cross, he stumbled. And so, this is what Jesus is saying. You can't change the length of time, and when my ministry is, and when I am going to the darkness of Calvary, it's already been on. So, it's not over yet. I still have work to do while it's day. So now in verse 11 it says, 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. Now, he's explaining why he's going to Judea. You know, sleep is often used in the Bible as a euphemism or synonymous for death. It makes sense, because when you think about it, We sleep in the sense that one day there's going to be a resurrection of the just and the unjust. So sleep is a wonderful symbolic way to represent what death is. It's not dead, you're over and you're just like an animal and just go into the ground. It's different. Being made in the image of God. So, of course, Paul says that in Acts 24 verse 15 about being there for the resurrection of the just and the unjust. So when Jesus said that he was going to awake him out of sleep, he was speaking symbolically or metaphorically, figuratively, of raising Lazarus from the dead. So now verse 12 says, Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Verse 13, How be it Jesus spake of his death? But they thought he had spoken of him taking a rest in sleep. Basically, they were thinking, well, I guess Lazarus is just going to rest and sleep and then recover. It would be well. That's what they got out of what Jesus was saying and thought that it didn't mean death. And Jesus, of course, explained in the next verse, in verse 14, then said, Jesus, unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. Now, this is a statement that declares his deity, his omniscience. No one told him that Lazarus was dead. All he heard was that Lazarus was sick. This demonstrates once more the deity of Christ in knowing all things, as mentioned in John 21, verse 17, to know that Lazarus was already dead. In verse 15, Jesus says, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there to the intent ye may believe. Nevertheless, let us go unto him. Obviously, Jesus was not glad that his dear friend was dead. His point is that the resurrection of Lazarus would do so much more to strengthen the faith of the disciples than if he just healed him. So this he was looking out for their benefit but also for the glory of God, the glory of Christ himself. So Christ's time on earth, he said let's go, was rapidly coming to an end. And the darkness of the cross was looming in the future there, coming nearer and nearer, and his disciples needed a powerful, resurrecting truth to strengthen their faith in what was coming ahead. And then we have this closing verse that's interesting. I love this verse, the more I look at it. Then said Thomas, oh doubting Thomas, which is called Didymus, that's the Greek version of it, unto his fellow disciples. Let us also go, that we may die with him. Thomas is expressing what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. Even if it means dying with Christ. Thomas may not know at the time what all that meant, and what we know today, that he's gonna, you know, be raised himself and glorified with Christ and all this, all the details of that that we know. But Thomas, like the other disciples, didn't understand all that Jesus had said. But what he did know, he knew enough to make him willing to die with and for Jesus. D. Martin Luther King says, here is a sufficient rule to walk by, whether our faith be dim or clear, namely, sheer loyalty. We only often hear of doubting Thomas. Always, just like sometimes, all we hear about David and all we hear about Peter is the bad things they did. And yes, there are lessons to be learned there, but there are lessons to follow as well. I mean, I would hate it if somebody just looked and magnified everything I did wrong, you know? So I wouldn't want that to happen to me, neither should I do that to even those in Bible characters. But there is much more to Thomas, as we see in this text, of love and devotion and courage, in spite of his, it seems, his pessimistic outlook on life in some ways. Some people are more pessimistic, and other people are more optimistic just by nature. And so that can be good in a way, because you're not so quick to just trust somebody, because of course you need to trust a man. But you can be too skeptical, and too suspicious, and lose out on blessings. But anyway, his negativity. as we see, that he wouldn't believe until he could, you know, reach down to his finger and feel the wounds and all this, led him to believe that he would die if they went to Jerusalem. All right, well, I guess we're gonna die. Let's go. Let's get it over with. Let's just do it. But his love for Jesus was so strong, he was willing to die with it. That is commendable, that he would do that. Thomas, I didn't know this, but he is called the twin, also in church tradition. Thomas was called the twin because apparently he looked like Jesus. And so his life was put at a special risk of Persecution. Because of that. But Thomas was sincere. He slept in the garden of Gethsemane. He, like the other disciples, fled. And forsook Christ. But here, Thomas was inspired by the great example of Christ now. Moving it to the glory of Christ. He was inspired by his great example, as we should be, of selflessness, of a sureness and confidence in God and courage to glorify God and to help others. He's willing to risk his life to glorify God and to help others. Christ's example. And Thomas' example gave courage and strength to the other disciples who were wavering and followed their lead despite their maybe some doubts. And they all went to Bethany. See, the power of just one person that God uses that you can a better word, inspire others to follow as well. It's important. What am I going to do? We don't always know what we're doing. When I preach in open air, especially, I don't know what's going to happen. I don't see a lot of results. But God said preach. So preach. Preach the gospel to all the world. Living the life, you may not even know somebody's watching you and observing you, and they see Christ in you. And how you can be encouraged even years later. I think of, I go back to that show Alone, and you know, when these people, they have the camera, they have a camera that they use on themselves and they're recording everything. And you know, some of them really get real personal. They're kind of in a vulnerable position. They haven't eaten much. They can't sleep much and all this. And so they just open up. And it's amazing how many times you hear them talk about their dad. And they appreciate their dad and everything that he did for them or their mom. And you just never know what people are gleaning from our lives as we live for God and for the good by His power, by the Christ, by being willing to die for the sake of the glory of God and for the good and encouragement of others. And to know that even when we're sick, God's design is for His glory and for our good and even for the good and encouragement of others. And God add this blessing to his word, I pray. Brother James, if you would, go ahead and close with a word of prayer.