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Bob Davis: True faith relies on God's promises. Jesus is not teaching Mary and Martha and Lazarus; He's teaching all of us. And here's what He's saying: You have to believe it to see it. The whole world of my life, the world told me "See it and you'll believe it." People say seeing is believing. Come and see the two-headed something and you pay your quarter and you're going to go "Seeing is believing," right? That's the way of the world. What did Jesus say? Believe what I say and you will see it.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Apply Within, a verse-by-verse study at the Word of God with Pastor Bob Davis of North Country Chapel. We invite you to join with us as we by the power of God's Holy Spirit apply His Word within our own hearts as we study line upon line, precept upon precept, verse by verse through the Bible. Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead as our study of John continues in chapter 11, verse 33. Here's Pastor Bob.

Bob Davis: We'll take up in verse 30. John chapter 11, verse 30. I don't know if I need to remind you, but Martha said to Jesus, and He's outside of town, He's not in Bethany, He's waiting right outside town. Martha went to Him and said, "Lord, if You would have been here, my brother would not have died." That's faith. That's a powerful statement of faith, and she is right. Jesus would not have let Lazarus die had He been here. But Jesus did let Lazarus die, didn't He? He did. He did, and there's a reason for it. Lazarus is all ears practically wanting to know why.

So let's look at verse 30. "Now Jesus was not yet come into the town, but he was in the place where Martha met him." In other words, He didn't come into the city limits. You recall why? Because the Jews have told everybody "If you see Him, tell us; we're going to arrest Him. We want to put Him to death." And so Jesus is staying sort of out of town there.

So verse 32: "Then when Mary got to Jesus, when Mary came where Jesus was and she saw him, she fell down at his feet." Remember, Martha came out and just talked with him. Mary though, two different personalities. One of them right, one of them wrong? No. We're looking at two different ladies. We are not all puppets and supposed to do all the same thing. No. She fell down at His feet and she said to Him the identical words: "Lord, if You had been here, my brother had not died. If You would have been here, my brother would not have died."

Now her sister said the same thing. That's the heart. They're broken-hearted that their brother's gone. And they know, that's a statement of faith. We make them all the time. I hope we do, I hope you do. You'll say "I don't know what's happening, but I know that God is in control of this, and so I will wait. I will trust Him. Lord, if You would have been here though, I know what You would have done; You would have healed my brother. He wouldn't be dead right now."

"When Jesus therefore saw her weeping." Now she's at His feet here, and He looks and He sees that she's weeping, just like Martha was. "And the Jews also that came with her, they were weeping." Right along with her. "He groaned in the spirit and was troubled." People, I think, really get these few verses confused. So maybe you could underline and look up "groaned in the spirit" and was troubled in His heart, in His spirit.

And He said, "Where have you laid him?" In other words, where is he buried? They said to Him, "Lord, come and see." They're going to show Him now; they take Him to the tomb. "And Jesus wept." Then the Jews said, "Behold how he loved him." They see Jesus, there are tears. The word here is not convulsively out of control, but there are tears rolling down Jesus' cheeks. It's a different word.

When Mary got to Jesus, she fell down at His feet. We see her, and knowing that it's Mary, only three times in the scriptures in the New Testament. And all three times, she is at the feet of Jesus. We see Martha a few times and she's not at the feet of Jesus ever. Is Mary a better girl? No, Mary's just a girl. They're two different people. They both love the Lord, they both serve the Lord, they both have that faith. And Mary made the same statement of faith as her sister Martha did: "If You had been here, my brother would not have died." That is faith, knowing Jesus would have healed him from whatever was wrong with him.

In John chapter 12, that's the next chapter coming up if we ever get there, listen to verses one through three. "Then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany where Lazarus which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. That's where Lazarus was. They made a supper for him, and Martha served. But Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then Mary took a pound of ointment of spikenard very costly and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odor, with the beautiful smell of that ointment." See there? She's at His feet when she's crying about her brother. She's at His feet when Jesus comes to the home and she anoints His feet.

And Luke chapter 10, I'm going to read verses 38 through 42. "Now it came to pass as they went, they entered into a certain village." We know it's Bethany, but he doesn't say. "A certain village and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house." So now we know whose house it is. "And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet and listened to him talk."

Verse 40: "Martha was cumbered about with much serving." She was cumbered, she was overloaded. You've got Jesus, you've got Lazarus, you've got the 12, and you've got a few other people squeezing into the room also because they want to listen and they want to see Jesus. So you've got a crowd going on, and Martha is overloaded about much serving. And she came to Jesus and said, "Lord, dost thou not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? You want to tell Mary to get up off the floor and help? She's left me to do everything alone. Bid her therefore that she help me. Tell her she has to help me."

And Jesus, and He had to have smiled, in verse 41: "Jesus answered and said to her, 'Martha, Martha.'" When He says your name twice, get ready for a loving rebuke. "You are careful and troubled about a lot of things." He's not saying she's doing anything wrong. He's just saying "You're so busy." "Mary, one thing is important, one thing is needful, and Mary has chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her. No, I won't ask her to help you. If you'd like, Martha, sit down yourself."

"I've got to do this, I've got to make more baking pies, we're doing it, I've got a lot of things we've got to get, I'm lighting some candles, would someone else help me, would you blow this candle out?" You can see it now, you've seen it before in your lives. And there's nothing wrong with it. But there's something important that He just said, and that is Jesus Christ, God Almighty in human flesh, is sitting in your living room. Where do you think you ought to be?

And so look at this: three times we see her, three times she's at the feet of Jesus Christ. Martha fell at the feet of Jesus and said, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died." She truly believes what she's saying. But everyone, just like her sister, she does not understand the full power of God. Do we? We say we do, and then we're afraid when this happens and we're confused when that happens and then we start to worry about "Well, what if this happens or doesn't happen?" That's how we're built.

That's not faith. We know what God said, we need to be standing on the promises, not sitting on the premises as some people say. We need to be standing on those promises. Did He promise to take care of everything concerning you? Yes or no? Then will He? "Yeah, but what if I don't get what I want?" But you'll get what He wants, and that's always better. Get it?

So verse 40, we'll read it again. Jesus said to her, and just try to picture His face. He's so calm. He's got tears rolling down His face too. He said, "Did I not say to you that if you would believe you should see the glory of God?" Now, I don't know what she felt, but she gave permission for them to take the stone away, to take the cover away from that tomb. "Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laying, and Jesus lifted up his eyes and said," He prayed out loud. "Father, I thank thee that you have heard me. And I know that you hear me always."

Can you hear us praying the same thing? We should be. "I know that You're listening, and I know that You listen always. But because of the people which stand by, I'm saying this, that they may believe that You have sent me." When He had thus spoken that short prayer, He cried with a loud voice. He cried out, "Lazarus, come forth!" "And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with the graveclothes." You know, he's wrapped in graveclothes. "And his face was bound with that separate cloth around his face." And Jesus said to them, "Loose him, let him go."

First though, He has to remind Martha what He already told her. True faith doesn't just believe on God's promises; true faith relies on God's promises. Aren't you relying on the fact that He said "I'm going to prepare a place for you. And since I'm going, I'll come back and get you"? Aren't you counting on that? That's a promise. That's not just a "I sure hope that's true." That's a promise, and true faith relies on it. Are you relying on it, or is that just something that you read in the Bible? And I'm afraid for some of us, that's what it is.

For Martha, that's what it was there. She doesn't understand. "I don't even understand what's going on." Martha, didn't I tell you already? Trust Me then. "Okay, open it up." That took faith. And then Jesus prays out loud to the Father. Why did He pray out loud? He said, "I want them to hear this. I want them to know what's going on, and I want them to know whose power it is. I want them to know for sure You sent Me here to do this." So He prays out loud.

He says, He lifts His eyes, He looks to God, and He says, "Father, I thank You that You have heard Me." Notice in Jesus' heart, it's done. It is done. Lazarus is still dead, but it's done. Why? Because He's God Almighty in absolute control, all power and authority, it's done. "So I thank You that You have heard Me, and I know that You hear Me always. But because of the people that are standing by and listening, I said these things, that they may believe that You have sent Me. I want them to be saved. I want them to trust in Me as their Lord and Savior. I want them to realize what's going on."

Then He cried out with a loud voice, and He yelled, "Lazarus, come forth!" Can you imagine if He would have just yelled, "Come forth!" That would have been a mess of a graveyard would that day, people knocking on things going "Let me out of here! Hey, let me out of here! Wait!" He had to call Lazarus. Why? He's got the power of life and death. If He just yells "Come forth," everybody's coming out of there. That would have been a mess.

How do you explain that to people's families? But He didn't call everyone. But wait a minute, He's going to. The rapture of the church, He's going to call everyone that is His. "Come up here." And we're going to go. Not going to be "I don't know, I'm scared; is that really Jesus or is that Bill?" We're going to go, everybody. He yelled, "Lazarus, come forth!" and literally the language, "Come out!"

And Lazarus, still bound in the graveclothes, his hands and his feet are wrapped, so he comes hopping out because he can't walk, or either he's just kind of straight-edged forward. He's locked down, remember, they've got him wrapped tight, and the separate one for his face and his head, so the space between the wrapping here, you've got your little neck sticking out there. So his hands and feet are still wrapped tight and he had a cloth wrapped around his face. So he was dead in that tomb, because that was wrapped around your face you couldn't have breathed. Remember, they put ointment things on it to keep it from the best they can.

Jesus said, "Unbind him. The guy can't walk. Let him loose." He's alive. Lazarus came out of the grave completely alive. Not sick, probably a little frustrated being tied down so tight. Jesus said right away "Loose him." You come to Jesus Christ, He gives you eternal life and you're finally what? Free. You finally can walk with the Lord. Before your hands were tied, you were trying to hop along; it was a miserable existence.

He raised Lazarus from the dead. That is something Mary and Martha had never dreamed of. They know Jesus, they have faith, but they didn't even conceive of the idea that He would raise their brother from the dead. We know Jesus, we're learning to walk with Jesus, but imagine all the things we really have to learn about what He could do. We'll calm down. The more we grow, the closer you draw to Jesus, the more you know "I don't really like what's going on, but Jesus has got this, and so we'll just do it, we'll just keep on walking." Let's just see. I really wanted this to happen; I had hoped for this, and I really was hoping for a couple of those and none of them came through. But do you quit? Do you give up? No, you just keep walking. Why? Faith.

Guest (Male): Thank you for listening to Apply Within with Pastor Bob Davis. Apply Within is a radio outreach ministry of North Country Chapel. Our Sunday morning Bible studies are at 9:00 and 11:00 AM. We also have a Friday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM and a Monday evening Bible study at 7:00 PM. You can download today's message in its entirety at NorthCountryChapel.com/studies. That's NorthCountryChapel.com/studies.

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