Let's open our Bibles to John
chapter 11. John chapter 11. When we get to John chapter 11
on Sunday morning, which will be a while, I'll probably just
bring one message from the whole story of Lazarus. We've had the
blessing of being here on Wednesday nights and going through it verse
by verse. What a blessing it's been. I've titled this message, Believing
is Seeing. Believing is Seeing. Back in September, I think it
was, we went out to Missouri to preach for the church there
in Springfield. And on the license tags of all
the vehicles in the state of Missouri, it says the Show Me
State. I'll believe it when I see it.
Isn't that the way the world is? Show me, then I'll believe
it. In John chapter 6, the people
that saw the miracle that the Lord performed and benefited
from that miracle, later on in that chapter asked the Lord,
what sign will you show us that we might believe? They had just
seen the miracle. And the Lord told him, he said,
I've shown you, and yet you still won't believe. Seeing, men see what they want
to see. Those people saw the benefits
that the miracle provided them in the flesh, but they didn't
see who it was that had performed the miracle. And here's the greatest
miracle of all, that the Lord has enabled us to see. He's enabled
us to see. But that seeing comes as a result
of believing. Our faith is not the result of
something we saw. What we see is the result of
the miracle of faith. Our Lord says to Martha in verse
40 of John chapter 11, said I not unto thee, Martha." She just
objected to the Lord commanding the men to remove the stone from
the tomb of Lazarus. Lord, he stinketh. He's been
dead four days. Surely, you're not going to add
insult to shame and expose the corrupting body of my brother.
And then the Lord says, Martha, did I not say unto thee, if thou
wouldst believe, thou wouldst see the glory of God. Believing is seeing. God's ways are just the opposite
of our ways. Faith is believing what the eye
of flesh cannot see. Faith is not blind because when
the Lord does a work of grace in our hearts and gives us the
gift of faith, what that faith sees is more sure to the believer
than what they observe with their physical eyes. The eye of faith
is more than 20-20. The eye of faith just bows and
believes and rejoices in everything that God says. Proof of that. Would you rest... the eternal destiny of your immortal
soul on something that you saw with your physical eye. Plenty of eyewitnesses have been
proven to be wrong in a court of law. Maybe you mistook, maybe you
thought you saw, maybe you convinced yourself that you saw it so many
times that now you really believe you saw it even though you didn't.
Would you risk the eternal destiny of your immortal soul on something
that you saw with your physical eyes? I wouldn't and I don't
believe you would either, would you? And yet you are resting
the destiny of your immortal soul on something that your physical
eyes have never seen. And yet the eye of faith sees
it and believes it. Martha, did I not say unto thee,
if thou would believe, then you would see. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1, faith
is the substance. And that word means the ground
of things hoped for. And if faith is the substance
or the ground of things hoped for, then what is the substance
of our faith? What is the ground upon which
we rest what we believe. Many say that faith itself is
the ground on which faith stands. Faith in faith. If I believe
something strong enough then I can make it be, I can make
it happen. You hear it with preachers Preachers will tell you that
if you believe then you can make your salvation happen through
your faith and if you're not saved it's just because your
faith is not strong enough, it's faith in faith. The false prophets will tell
us that if you believe strong enough you can you can make something
happen in your life whether it be salvation or whether it be
a miracle or whether it be a blessing of some sort and if it doesn't
happen it's just simply because you didn't believe it enough.
That's nothing more than the power of positive thinking. That's
nothing more than what the motivational speakers call manifesting. That's a very popular term now,
I understand. Motivational speakers will tell
you that you can manifest something by your words and by your thoughts
and by your will. You can manifest it, you
can make it happen by the strength and resolve of your own power
of positive thinking. What is the substance of our
faith? What's the ground of it? The whole point of faith is that
it just believes God. It doesn't believe something
that might happen or doesn't put its hope in something that... It doesn't make something happen
because it believes it. It believes what God has said. And I... What the Lord has dealt
with me about in this one verse of scripture is to believe God. If I want to see the glory of
God, God's going to have to give me faith. And everything that
God requires, God provides. So when the Lord says, Martha,
did I not say unto thee, if you believe, you should see the glory
of God, are we not like the The man who said, Lord, I do believe,
I do believe, but help thou mine unbelief. It truly, the more we talk to
acquaintances and friends and family members, who don't believe
the gospel, the more we realize what a miracle it is that we
believe. Sometimes we might have the thought,
how could you not believe this? But the real miracle is, how
come I believe it? Nobody else seems to. Who maketh thee to differ? What
do you have that you've not received? A man can receive nothing. John
said this about the Lord Jesus in John chapter three. when his
disciples said, you know, they're following after Christ and John
made the point that that which is of the earth is earthy and
we receive earthly things but that which is from heaven, and
he's speaking of the Lord Jesus, he's seen things that we haven't
seen before. He's seen the full splendor of God's glory and A
man can receive nothing except to be given to him from heaven.
The one who came down from heaven is the one who has to give us
faith. And that's exactly what he does. The Lord admonished Thomas, doubting
Thomas. Thomas, you believe because you've
seen. But blessed are those who have
not seen yet belief. They've been blessed of God. I've done something for them
that is miraculous. It's miraculous, it's of God,
it's from heaven. when Moses spoke with the Lord
at the burning bush remember he objected to going into Egypt
and bringing the children of Israel out and said Lord I can't
speak and made all sorts of excuses and then he said he asked the
Lord this he said what proof do I have that this is going
to that this is going to be, as you said, that they're gonna
follow me and that we're gonna come, that they'll actually be
delivered. And you know what the Lord said
to Moses? He said, when you come back to this mountain and worship
me, that'll be the evidence. But between now and then, you're
gonna have to walk by faith, not by sight. That's our life. When we're able to worship God? That's the evidence that the
Lord's given us faith to believe Him. Where is the glory of God
seen in our experience more than in public and private prayer
and worship? And Moses went up on the mountain
and met with the Lord after he came back and the Lord showed him his glory.
He had to hide him in a rock in order to show him his glory
and that's what the Lord does for us but this is where the evidence that God's given
us faith to believe is seen right now in what we're doing and we're
declaring the truth as God's revealed it and we're believing
what God's revealed and we're asking the Lord to give us the
faith to believe him and to enable us to worship him. This is not
natural. It's not what the natural man
does. This is foolishness unto him. Oftentimes we're were tempted
in our difficult times to seek the hand of God only. And yet, the Lord said that these
things the Gentiles do seek after. What? What we should eat or what
we should drink or what we should wear or what we should live The
hand of God, from the very breath that all men draw to all the
provisions of life that God gives us, whether it be good health
or whether it be safety and provisions and protection, all men seek
those things. That's the hand of God. So men
are enjoying and being benefited by the hand of God, but they
don't seek his face. They don't seek his face. The Lord said, seek my face.
And my heart said, my face, Lord, do I seek, thy face, Lord. Here's the blessed truth, brethren.
The perfectly measured hand of God to meet whatever need we
have always comes with his face. If we seek the hand of God only,
we miss his glory. Martha, did I not say unto you
that if you could believe, you would see the glory of God? How oftentimes our unbelief is
revealed in difficult times, much like Much like Jacob, when
his sons came back from Egypt and they had met Joseph but didn't
know it, Joseph kept Simeon and now he wants them to bring Benjamin
back. And what did Jacob say? Jacob
said, Joseph is no more. He had already reconciled himself
to the fact that Joseph was dead. Joseph was the very one that
was providing for them. Simeon is no more. He's, if he,
I've lost Simeon too. And now you want to take Benjamin?
And then Jacob made this statement. All of these things are against
me. When just the opposite was true.
Just the opposite was true. But how often we feel that way?
And like Jacob, we forget the experience that Jacob had at
Bethel when he saw that ladder going up into heaven and the
Lord ascending and descending and rested his head on that rock.
And that experience that he had with the Lord Jesus himself when
he wrestled with him all night at the river Jabbok and the promises
that God made to not only to Jacob, but to his father, Isaac,
and to his grandfather, Abraham. Jacob was now in the midst of
a difficult trial and he forgets all of that. We do the same thing in the midst
of our trials. We think these things are against
me. It's not working out like I thought
it would. And the Lord says this, to you and to me, if thou would
believe, believe, thou would see the glory of God. When do we need faith most? In
those difficult times. Those times when we can't see,
we can't see how things are gonna work. And the Lord says, trust
me. Hey, this was such a difficult
time for Martha. It was such an impossible situation
for her. She'd been grieving for four
days over the loss of her brother. Surely she'd been praying for,
Many days before that, begging God to send Christ to heal her
brother before he died and now he's dead. Lord, he stinketh. Martha, Martha, said I not unto thee that if
thou would believe thou should see the glory of God. Believing is seeing. Believing what God has said.
I know you believe. I believe. But Lord, how easy
it is for me to lose sight of Christ. And Lord, cause me to
be reminded, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. Isn't that what
Eli said? When Samuel told him the judgment
of God and Eli said, it's the Lord, let him do what seems good
in his sight. Oh, that God would give us that
kind of faith in the most difficult times. Martha, did I not say
to you that if thou would believe, thou should see the glory of
God? If you would believe that I'm
working all things together for good for them that love me and
those that are the called according to my purpose. Believe. Everything's on schedule. How did Solomon say it in Ecclesiastes? He makes everything beautiful
in his time. In his time. thou wouldst believe." Noah didn't have any evidence that there was going
to be a flood, he'd never seen it rain. Rain had never fallen
from the sky in all of Noah's years and yet he spent a hundred
years building an ark because God told him to, as God told
him to. Abraham's called the father of
the faithful. What'd the Lord say to Abraham?
Get thee out of thy country and from among thy kindred and out
of that land and I will show you a land that I prepared for
you. I'll show you. And the Lord interprets Abraham's
faith, not only in Genesis, but also in Romans chapter four,
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. This is what the Lord's calling
us, brethren, to believe God, to just believe God. Gideon would
not see the glory of God until he trusted the Lord to defeat, I forgot how many, 250,000 Midianites? That was a bunch of them, 300
men, 300 men. And Gideon would not see the
glory of God in that battle and the victory that the Lord would
give until he trusted the Lord to go to battle with 300 men. And of course the clearest example
of all of this is that none of the circumstances surrounding
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ led anyone to believe that this
was going to be the greatest display of God's glory in all
time and in all eternity. The greatest demonstration of
the glory of God was gonna happen in a situation that seemed hopeless
to everybody except to the Lord Jesus. He believed God. He had perfect faith. The last words he spoke, Father
into thy hands I commend my spirit. Is this not where God's glory
is most clearly seen at the cross? The glory of God is seen in creation. The scripture says that the firmaments
show forth his glory. The more powerful our telescopes
become, I'm just amazed to see some of the pictures that these
telescopes are taking of the universe. It's incredible. And you look at the pictures
that some of these electron microscopes take and boy, you would never
know. You'd never know that that little
microscopic organism had so much detail to it and looked like
a monster in itself. Oh, these things where they demonstrate
the glory of God, the sunrise and the sunset and a terrible
storm. All these things demonstrate
God's glory. But the eye of flesh can see
that, can't it? The eye of flesh can look at
creation and be awed. in knowing that there must be
a creator behind all of that. There's no way these things could
have happened on their own. Only a fool that would think
that. But to know, to believe in, to
rest on, to look to that God, who has revealed himself in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of the attributes of
God most clearly on display at the cross. We say, well, heaven
demonstrates the glory of God. Yes, it does and I has not seen
Nor has ear heard, nor has it entered in to the thoughts of
man, the things that God has prepared for us. What a glorious
day that will be. Turn with me if you will, that
verse that we just quoted from 1 Corinthians chapter 2 comes
from Isaiah chapter 64. Isaiah 64. Because the next verse in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 says,
yet the Lord has revealed them unto us. Though we do look through a glass
darkly, we see glimpses of his glory. And that's where Isaiah,
look at Isaiah 64 verse one. Oh, that thou wouldst rent the
heavens, that thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might
flow down at thy presence. Lord, show us your glory. And when the melting fire burneth,
the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known
to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence. When did God rend the heavens?
When did he come down with a fire that boils water and melts the
elements? When did that happen? You know
the answer to that question. Happened at Calvary, didn't it?
And so what the Lord's saying is, And look at verse three,
when thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, we didn't,
we weren't looking for the Lord to redeem us. No man seeketh
after God, he has to seek us. And that's exactly what he does.
Thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence. And here, I believe the mountain
is a picture of separation. Because the picture of our sin,
the Lord said if you have faith of a mustard seed you could say
into this mountain be thou removed and be cast into the sea. And
now these mountains flow down. The Lord Jesus at Calvary's cross
redeems us and atones for our sins with his precious blood.
All the things that would separate us from our God as a result of
our sin have flowed down to the sea. They melted away. The fire
of God has been quenched. For since the beginning of the
world, men have not heard nor perceived by the ear, nor hath
the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him
that waiteth for him. Now that's what Paul's quoting
in 1 Corinthians 2. Now let's go to that passage. 1 Corinthians chapter two. And look at verse nine. But as it is written, and that's
what we just read. As it is written, I have not
seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man
the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. And we
can take that verse out of its immediate context and fit it
into the whole context of scripture and apply it to what the Lord's
going to reveal to us in heaven. But in the context of what the
immediate context And this goes back to Isaiah as well because
Isaiah is saying exactly what Paul says in the next verse.
But God hath revealed them unto us. When did he reveal them? He revealed them through faith.
He enabled us to see those things that God did when the heavens
were rent and the mountains melted away and the fire of God fell,
through faith we look to that that work of redemption that
the Lord Jesus accomplished at Calvary's cross. And we see it. We see it because we believe
it. We believe it because God did a work of grace in our hearts
and gave us something that not every man has. Few have it. But God hath revealed them unto
us. by His Spirit, by the Spirit of God. Nicodemus,
except you be born of the Spirit, you can't see the kingdom of
God. It's the Spirit of God that opens the eyes of our understanding.
The seeing eye is of the Lord and God gives it by His Spirit. What a blessing, what a miracle. And so when the Lord says to
me and you, if thou would believe, You can't see it until you believe. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth
the things of a man except the spirit of a man which is in him? Nobody knows your mind and your
heart and aren't you glad? I know I am. Well, what a... The problem we'd have in this
world if we knew what each other was thinking all the time. No,
only the spirit of a man knows what's in a man. Even so, the things of God knoweth
no man but the spirit of God. It's the spirit of God that must
reveal the things of God and that's what he's done. And the
Lord's saying to me and you, if you believe, If you would
believe, you would see. Now we have received, not the
spirit of the world, but the spirit, which is of God, that
we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. These things were freely given
to us. We didn't, we deserve them. We didn't buy them. We
didn't earn them. He gave them to us freely. And
now as believers, we have to constantly be reminded, don't
we? We have to constantly be reminded
of what the Lord said to Martha. When you don't see clearly, there's
one reason for it. It's because of your unbelief. Oh Lord, help thou mine unbelief.
And, The ground of our faith is the
Word of God. It's amazing, it's a miracle
that we talk to people and we share things with people from
God's Word and they either object to it or they have no interest
in it and here we've been brought by the
Spirit of God to believe God. And yet as believers, as believers,
we're often reminded, as Martha was, oh, you can't see the glory
of God right now? Believe, believe me. The Lord had already asked Martha
that question when he said to her, if you believe in me, you
shall never die. And then he said, believest thou
this? Do you believe this? Yea, Lord, I believe that thou
art the Christ, the Son of God that should come into the world.
I do believe, Lord. Believing is seeing. How How neglectful we are in believing
as we ought. We are. The Lord said, as I said
earlier, is there any greater demonstration of believing God
than prayer and worship? And yet, how neglectful we can
be when it comes to prayer. And the Lord admonishes us again,
he said, you have not. You have not what? You have not
seen the glory of God. You have not because you've asked
not. Ask. There is no more greater demonstration
of faith than to come before the throne of grace and to plead
the Lord's mercy and to give him his praise and to worship
him privately and publicly. There's no more demonstration
of faith, no greater demonstration of faith. The Lord did not, the Lord say,
knock. And that word, that word in our
language has an ing on it. Keep knocking. and it will be
opened unto you. Keep asking and it will be given
unto you. Keep seeking and you will find. This is our life. This is our life to believe God,
to believe God. God's made us to be believers.
He's given us a miracle of faith. He's caused us to bow to his
word. And yet we believe so much more than
what we do, don't we? And we're often needing the Lord
to say, if you would believe, then you'd see. How the accuser of the brethren
can put us in bondage with our sin because we can't see. We can't see that we have a perfect
righteousness before God in the person of our Savior. He's seated
at the right hand of God. We're commanded to set our affections
on things above and to look to him. And that can only be done
with the eye of faith. I was talking to a man a few
years ago, sat under the gospel for many, many years, and he
finally just had enough and he was objecting and arguing and
very angry with me. And he says, all you keep saying
is look to Christ. And he threw his hands up in
the air and he looked up at the ceiling of his living room. I
was in his home. He said, I'm looking and I don't
see anything. So, so sad and so blasphemous. No, you're not gonna see like
that. The ground of our faith is the
Word of God. We believe what God has revealed. We believe that we have a perfect
righteousness before God because God said so. We believe that our sin's been
put away because God said so. We believe that there is now
no more condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus because
God said so. Let me remind you of a verse
over here in 2 Samuel that we looked at Sunday briefly. I think it was Sunday. 2 Samuel chapter 22. Look at verse
23. for all his judgments were before
me. And as for his statutes, I did
not depart from them. I was also upright before him
and have kept myself from mine iniquity. Therefore, the Lord
hath recompensed me according to my righteousness, according
to my cleanness in his eyes." I can't see this. In my eyes,
I'm a sinner. I look at myself, I can't see
that I, David couldn't boast about all the, we just read a
couple of verses, there's actually about 10 of them there where
David is declaring his innocence before God. How are we gonna stand before
a holy God and declare ourselves to be innocent? If thou believe. If you would
believe, Martha, you'd see. Believe what I've said, you can't
see it, you can't look for it in order to believe it, you have
to believe it because I said it, then you'll see it. Seeing
comes as a result of believing, not vice versa. We're held in bondage because
of our sin and Satan tempts us to think, well, if I could just
see some improvement in my life, I could get some encouragement.
If I could see some evidences of godliness in my life, then I
could have some assurance. Well, that's just believing because
you see. And if you see something on those
grounds, you haven't seen what God has. Now, in his sight, don't
you love that? David said, in his sight. You
know, we're all three different people. We are. We're the person that other people
see us to be. They don't see us like we see
ourselves, that's the second. I hope that people see us in
a good light. And I hope that if somebody doesn't
see us in a good light it's because of the gospel. I hope that's
true. But surely other people don't
see us like we see ourselves. We look at our own hearts and
we, like I said, we don't want people reading our minds and
reading our hearts and knowing our thoughts. We see the ugliness
and inconsistency. And then there's the person that
God sees. And that is the person who is. Because however God sees it is
the way it is. And what does the Lord say? What
did David say? In his sight. And the only way I can see it
is to believe it. because if I wait to see something
before I believe, it'll never happen. Believing is seeing. Martha, if woodest belief, then thou shouldest
see the glory of God. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for forgiving us of so much unbelief. Truly, it is the sin that doth
so easily beset us. Truly, we look aside from what
we know to be true and we're often found in a state of unbelief
like Martha. Lord, speak comfort and speak rebuke
to our hearts. as you did lovingly to Martha,
reminding us of our need to believe you, that we might see thy glory. And we ask it in Christ's name.
Amen. 234? 334. 334.