 to talk about this evening. In John chapter 11 is a very famous story in the Bible. This is a story where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. We've been studying through the book of John for the last several weeks and I've kind of left this one, this point I want to make for this memorial service this evening. But in John chapter 11, I want to point something out that is relevant to us all this evening. Look down at verse number one in the Bible says, now a certain man was sick named Lazarus of Bethany the town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was Mary that anointed the Lord with ointment, this is what Brother Trevor just mentioned in his sermon, and wiped his feet with her hair whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sister sent unto him saying, Lord, behold, he who thou lovest is sick. And when Jesus heard that he said the sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God that the son of man might be glorified thereby. Look at verse number five now where it says, now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. And then we see something a little strange in verse number six where it says, when he heard therefore that he was sick he abode two days still in the same place where he was. So we're going to skip a few verses here for context of time, but I want to just point out here that Jesus loved Lazarus. He was very close to Mary, Martha, and Lazarus. These two sisters and this brother, he loved him very much. Now we see in John chapter 11 that not only did he love Lazarus, but he waited two days when he heard he was sick, which seems kind of strange as you would think Jesus would rush over there, but you notice that Jesus said he was going to be glorified through this event. Skip down to verse number 20 if you would. So Jesus finally gets to Lazarus. He gets to Mary and Martha. Lazarus at this point has physically died. In verse number 20 Martha comes to meet Jesus first and she says, and the Bible says, then Martha as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming went and met him, but Mary sat still in the house. Then Martha said unto Jesus, Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died. So at this point Lazarus is in the grave, but I know that even now whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee. And Jesus saith unto her, thy brother shall rise again. Skip down to verse number 32. Let's look at Mary's encounter with Jesus here. Then Mary was come where Jesus was, verse 32, and saw him. She fell down at his feet saying unto him, Lord if thou has been here my brother had not died. Very similar to what Martha said. 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 ye laid him? And they said unto him, Lord come and see. And now verse number 35 the shortest verse in the entire Bible. The Bible says Jesus wept. So here we have Mary and Martha crying. We have the Jews around Mary and Martha crying. Everybody is very sad that Lazarus has died. I mean obviously he was a very liked person. People were very sad that he was gone. But then we have something that is a little bit strange. And a lot of people sometimes when they read their Bible they don't understand why this is. But why Jesus already said at the beginning of John chapter 11 that he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead. That's why he waited two days was so he could, the glory of God could be shown through this great miracle. And this would be the greatest miracle that Jesus had done to date. So the question is why, since Jesus knew he would raise Lazarus from the dead, why did Jesus cry? Why did Jesus cry? And the first point I want to make to you tonight as we're here for the memorial of brother Scott Campbell, Miss Olivia's husband. And I look forward to meeting all of her family later on this evening after the memorial service. But look, the first point I have to say tonight is that even in cases where we know that people have died or are in heaven, it is still a natural human response to be sorrowful. It is still natural to be sad over someone's physical passing. Who was Jesus? Jesus was fully man and he was fully God. And here we see the human side of Jesus Christ. Being sad when somebody dies, especially somebody that we've grown up with, we've been married to, we've spent much time with in our lives, being sad and sorrowful and mourning that death is a natural involuntary human response. It is not a lack of faith to be sad over someone's passing. Especially in the cases where we know where that person is. So it's not a lack of faith because Jesus was God himself. Jesus did not have any lack of faith. Jesus was the perfect man God in man's form. We just see that being sad, being sorrowful is normal. It is a natural human response. And the second point I want to make tonight is this and this will be the longer point. I didn't know Scott as I call him brother Scott. I didn't know brother Scott nearly as well as a lot of the people here this evening. But here's what I do know about Scott. I'd like to share that with you this evening. I mentioned already that even in cases where we know people that have died or in heaven, so the question is how do I know where Scott is? How do I know that Scott is in heaven or not in heaven tonight? And I want to share that with you this evening. See, I did not know him nearly as well as his family that is here tonight and the people that gave the testimonials and read the letter from Miss Olivia. But here's what I do know. I know that three years ago I sat in the front of a Baptist church and I had a conversation with Scott. And that's what I want to share with you this evening. And I can tell you one thing, even though I didn't know him as well as many people, I know that as he looks down from heaven, I'm going to tell you how I know that he's in heaven from this conversation that I had with him. And I'm going to tell you that he would want you to know what I'm about to tell you. 100% I know where he's at and I know he would want you to know about this conversation that I had with him. And look, there's nothing special about me. I just happen to be the one that had this conversation with Scott. There's nothing special about me. There's nothing special about anybody in this room. But there is something special about the Word of God and the promises there inside the Word of God. And I'm going to tell you why I know tonight that if the Bible's true, it's true that Scott Campbell is in heaven with Jesus Christ right now. And I'm going to tell you why I know. I sat down with Scott in the front of the church and I asked Scott. I asked Scott this question. Look, I'll ask you all tonight. I'll ask you all tonight. I asked him if he knew, if he died, because I don't care how old you are, I don't care how young you are, not a single person in this room, whether you're 85 or whether you're 12, knows how long you're going to have on this earth. And I asked Scott. I asked him, I said, do you know that if you died, do you know where you would go? And he, Scott, I mean, God bless him. He gave the answer most people give to that question. He said, well, I sure hope so. I sure hope I'll go to heaven. And I asked him, I said, Scott, what do you think, what do you think that it takes to get to heaven? What do you think that a man has to do to get to heaven? And he said, an answer that is similar to thousands of answers I've heard from thousands of people all across the world. And he said, you know, well, I think I'm trying to be the best that I can. And it sounds like there's a lot of people on this earth that loved him. And it sounds like he did a pretty good job in a lot of areas from what I'm hearing this evening. But his answer was very similar. And I told him, I said, Scott, it has nothing to do with any of those things. Whether or not you go to heaven or whether or not you go to hell has nothing to do with how good you are. You simply can't be good enough. And this is what I showed him. And look, if you don't know tonight, if you don't know where you would go, if you don't know that if you took your last breath tonight when you went to sleep, where you would end up, then I would like you to listen very closely because I guarantee you, I promise you that Scott would want you to hear this. And this is the conversation that I had with Scott. I showed him, I showed him everything from the Bible. This isn't my opinion. If you have a Bible you can turn to these verses, but I showed him, I showed him Romans chapter 3 where the Bible says as it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. I don't care how good you are, how nice you are, there's nobody that is righteous. There's nobody in this room of church going, people that's righteous, including the pastor himself, that is a righteous man. Righteous meaning you do write all the time you're perfect. The Bible says for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Everybody is a sinner. What does that mean? It means that everyone has broken God's law. We all know from, I know from Sunday school the Ten Commandments, don't steal, don't lie, be good to your parents, but there's hundreds of commandments in the Bible. We've all lied, we've all broken hundreds of commandments in the Bible. And the problem is this. The problem is this, well you may be a very nice person and I've met very nice people and Scott was a very nice man. You've sinned against God as everyone has. And the problem is God is love, thankfully, but God is also the perfect judge in righteousness. God is also a perfect judge, meaning he's a judge that never makes a mistake. And I always explain it to people like this, if I go out and I go on Fresno and I steal a car, I steal somebody's car and I take that car and I wreck that car and I get arrested by the Fresno PD and they bring me in front of a judge in Fresno and that judge says, Pastor Jared, did you steal Miss Olivia's car? And I say, well, judge, yeah I did, but I'm really nice. What are the odds that that judge is going to let me go? It's laughable. The problem that we all have is that our good deeds, no matter how many of them we have, cannot cover up the law that we've already broken. And Scott realized this and most people realized that they are sinners, that they have broken God's law because God, see, he wrote it in your heart. That's how you know when you do something wrong, like I just did something wrong. It doesn't matter, you don't even have to go to church to know that. He wrote it in your heart. He gave you that law up front. See, the problem is this though. We owe something for our sin. We owe a price. The Bible says in Romans 6.23 it says the wages of sin, meaning what we've earned for our sin is death. Now the Bible's not just talking about a physical death here because we're all going to die physically. Even the smallest child in this room will die physically one day. The Bible says what we owe for our sin is death and in Revelation chapter 20 the Bible says, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire, this is the second death. Being cast into the lake of fire, when we die the Bible is very clear that our soul will either go to heaven or it will go to hell. There is no in between. I was raised on a different belief but there is no in between. It's heaven or it's hell and they're both eternal. And the Bible says the second death, that death that we owe for our sins is that spiritual death of our soul being thrown into hell. The Bible says in Revelation 21 8 it gives us a list of sins that will get you to hell. The Bible says this, it says the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murderers. These are all pretty bad people and hormongers and sorcerers and adulterers but look at this one. And all liars shall have their part in the lake with Burneth, with fire and brimstone which is the second death. Notice how God throws in liars in there. He lists all these terrible sins and says oh by the way if you've told one lie, you deserve this punishment. It's eternal. It's the worst thing you could possibly think of. You're like Pastor Pazarnski this is depressing. This is a memorial service. Well let me continue the story because God does love you and he doesn't want you to go to hell. I told Brother Scott this. God does love you and he made a way out for you. There's nothing to do with how good you are. If we go back to Romans chapter 6 and verse number 23 where I said the wages of sin is death the Bible says. The Bible says this and this is the key that most people today miss. The wages of sin is death. Yes that's true. That's what we deserve but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's a couple things that you need to see there and I pointed this out to Scott. Well it says it's a gift. Now you don't pay for a gift. If I gave you a gift and I said okay now give me $5 is that a gift? If I gave you a gift and said okay you can have this gift all you have to do is wash my car once a week for the rest of your life. That's not a gift. But the Bible says the gift of God is eternal life meaning life that if you get that life you will never get the second death. Eternal life is the opposite of the second death. Eternal life is heaven. Eternal life with God. But it's a gift and it's provided by Jesus Christ the same person that we just read about in John chapter 11. So what God did for you, what God did for Scott is he became a man 2,000 years ago. He was born to the Virgin Mary. Jesus Christ was God and he was man we see here he was man as much as he was God. He was fully man, fully God. You see I don't understand that. Take it by faith that's what the Bible says. He was fully man and fully God. Jesus lived a perfect life unlike me and unlike you Jesus never sinned one time. The Bible says he was tempted like we are yet without sin. Jesus lived a perfect life. He did all sorts of miracles. He raised people from the dead. But the Bible says the most important thing Jesus did was when he was 33 years old he was arrested. He was beaten. He was tortured. The Bible says he was beaten to the point you couldn't even tell he was a man anymore. Put that in a Hollywood movie. He was beaten to the point you couldn't even tell he was a man. And the Bible says when he was on the cross the Bible says he bear our sins in his own body. It was like every sin you and me and Scott and anyone in this room anyone on this earth it was like any sin that we would ever commit Jesus paid for it. You say how could he do that? Because he had no sin. He was innocent. No matter how much I like you or how much you like me you cannot die for my sins because you are guilty. And I cannot die for your sins because I am guilty. Jesus Christ was innocent. That's why God had to come do it himself. He had to come down here and be that perfect sacrifice. So this is who the gift is through. Jesus was died. He was crucified. He was buried. And on the third day we're about to celebrate this coming up in a couple weeks. He rose again from the dead. This is what God did so none of us have to get what we deserve. But the question is how can we know that we get the gift? Is everyone going to go to heaven? Look I wish that was true. That everyone was going to go to heaven. The disciples actually asked Jesus this very question. They asked him are there a few that are that be saved? And Jesus said unfortunately to just paraphrase he basically said most people are not going to be saved. He said but it's a gift. Why is that? If it's a gift why are most people not going to get it? In Ephesians chapter 2 Ephesians chapter 2 the Bible says this says for by grace are ye saved through faith and not of yourselves it is the here's this word again the gift of God. And then look what the Bible says if you're looking at your Bible the Bible says not of works. So the Bible is clearly explaining that salvation this eternal life is free it's a gift and you can't earn it there's no way you can be good enough to get it. So at this point most people are like well how do I get it then? And the Bible is very clear on how to get it. In John chapter 3 John chapter 3 verse 16 the most famous verse in the whole Bible. The most famous verse in the whole Bible the Bible says this it says for God so loved the world that he gave there's that gift. He has only begotten son that whosoever that means anybody. Whosoever means anybody that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. The Bible says it doesn't say you have to go to church. It doesn't say you have to give money. It doesn't say be good on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It says believe. In John 3 36 maybe my most my favorite verse in the entire Bible the Bible puts it very clear this way it says he that believeth on the son hath everlasting life. That is a very clear statement believe on don't miss those two words because believe on does not mean believe Jesus existed. Believe on is defined in Ephesians chapter 1 as to trust. What the Bible is saying is that he that believeth on the son Jesus Christ hath everlasting life hath is an older word for have meaning when you put your trust on Jesus Christ you have it just like that in a moment. This is what I explained to Scott. In a moment when you decide to put your trust because if I think that I have to be pretty good to get to heaven if I think that I have to go to church and I have to listen to pastor Pozarnsky preach three times a week and I have to do all these things and whatever the list is to get myself to heaven who am I trusting in I'm trusting in myself. The Bible says very clearly that you have to take the trust off yourself and instead put it on Jesus Christ and the moment you do that you have everlasting life. The Bible says you're sealed by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. He seals you. He keeps you. And look how many times have I said everlasting eternal? You can never lose it because it's everlasting. If I gave you a gift and then I took it back a week later was it everlasting? If I give you an everlasting gift or if you receive a gift that is eternal it lasts forever. God promises this and this is how we can know for sure that we're going to heaven because in Titus chapter 1 and verse 2 the Bible says in hope of eternal life meaning this is how you can know. The Bible literally says you can know that you may know that you have eternal life. The Bible says in hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie. The only thing in the Bible I don't know how many times I've read this thing cover to cover but it's a bunch and there's only one thing God says he can't do and it's lie. He literally can't. Once he gives eternal life to you he seals you you can't lose it. That's how you can know that you have everlasting life. So if you're here tonight this is what I explained to brother Scott three years ago and I asked him and I'll ask you tonight if you're hearing this message and you believe that you're a sinner. If you believe that you're a sinner and you believe that because of your sin as the Bible says that you deserve the punishment of hell look not a lot of churches talk about hell today. They're taking the mean parts out of the Bible but the whole Bible needs to be preached because if you don't believe that there's a condemnation of hell waiting for people why in the world would you need a savior? But Scott understood where he stood with God and he understood that he had a savior and that all he had to do was put his faith and trust in that savior Jesus Christ and then he would know that he was going to heaven and that's exactly what Scott did when he sat next to me in the church three years ago. And that's how I know where Scott is going because I read this final verse to him I read this final verse in Romans chapter 10 to him I said to Scott if he believed all those things that he was a sinner he deserved hell but God sent his son to pay the price for his sins and that all he had to do was take the trust off himself and put it on that savior Jesus Christ and he would be saved passed from death to life spiritually in a moment and he could never lose that salvation and I told him if you believe this then this is what the Bible says in Romans 10 verse number nine the Bible says that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved and I said Scott for how long? And he said forever eternity and then I let him in prayer because God in Romans chapter 10 verse number nine is simply saying if you believe it all you have to do is tell me and ask for it that's it and I let him in prayer and I'm going to pray that prayer right now and if you've listened to this message and it resonates in your heart you pray it in your heart with me but I prayed this with Scott and he repeated it straight to my flawed human ears but it was not a magical prayer it was Scott telling the Lord Jesus Christ himself this prayer was between Scott and Jesus Christ and I was just some conduit helping him form the words and I prayed I said Scott just repeat after me and I said Lord I know that I'm a sinner and I deserve to go to hell but I believe that you sent your son Jesus Christ to take the punishment for my sin and I am only trusting in you Jesus who died for my sins and who rose again on the third day Lord I'm not trusting in myself please take me to heaven when I die and Scott prayed that prayer three years ago as I sat right next to him so I can witness to you now that I know where Scott Campbell is today why because he's nice or not nice seems like he was nice but that has nothing to do with how I know that he's in heaven whether he was a good father a good grandfather sounds like he was also good husband sounds like he was but also nothing to do with whether or not he's in heaven he is in heaven because he trusted on the Lord Jesus Christ and I sat there when he did it and you can know that you're going to go to heaven too and all you have to do is trust on the Lord Jesus Christ and if Scott wanted you to know anything he wants you to know that this evening look if you have any questions about what I talked about this evening please ask me after church ask one of the ushers of hold fast Baptist church if you have any questions you have anything you want clarified but I know this is what I know he's in heaven and I know he wants you to know how he got there and I know you all loved him but he got there through Jesus Christ through Jesus's righteousness not his own because none of us are righteous so we're sorrowful it's okay you know you're in pain over an unexpected thing like this it's okay it's okay it's not look it's part of being a human being look at Ecclesiastes chapter 3 on the brochure all these things Ecclesiastes chapter 3 Miss Olivia picked it out what a great passage for a memorial like this Ecclesiastes chapter 3 is just talking about just being a human being Ecclesiastes chapter 3 says there's a time to be born and a time to die it says there's a time to weep and a time to laugh a time to love and a time to hate it's all pain sorrow good times bad times missing people it's all part of being a person it's natural it's not a lack of faith it's okay to miss somebody even in this case where you look I've always thought as a pastor and I've never given a funeral service where I know that the person was not saved and I dread the day and I know that maybe one day that will happen but today's not the day I know where Scott is but it's okay to be sad it's okay to mourn it's okay to be sorrowful but ultimately I hope that I just got across to you tonight that our hope our joy at the end of the day is in the gospel of Jesus Christ that's what it means to be a Christian to have that hope that is within us and it's our job to not only after we've trusted in Jesus but to share that hope with others that don't have it let's power heads and have a little prayer