I love that hymn, and I'm reminded
every time we sing it at church that this is the hour that we
need him the most, that he would meet with us and speak to our
hearts. That's always our hope. John
chapter 11, if you would turn with me there in your Bibles,
we're going to be looking at one verse in John chapter 11.
What a blessing it's been, the last few weeks in looking at
our Lord's going back to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead. He tarried where he was for four
days so that when he got to Bethany where Lazarus was he would not
be just sick as the report was that came to him. but that he
would be dead and in the tomb and his body would be decaying,
glorifying the miracle all the more. And so in verse 15 of John chapter
11, the Lord finally tells the disciples in verse 14 what he
means when he spoke of him being asleep. We looked at that last
Wednesday night. What a blessing it is to think
of the death of a believer being like sleep. And then he goes
on to tell them, because they were confused, they said, well,
if he's asleep, then he'll be fine. And so he spoke to them
in a way they could understand and said, Lazarus is dead. and I am glad for your sakes
that I was not there, to the intent that you may believe. Nevertheless, let us go unto
him. Not let us go unto his body,
let us go unto him. When would we refer to a corpse
as a him? We wouldn't do that normally. We would say this is the body
of so-and-so, but not that that's them. We know that they have
departed. But in the presence of Christ, no place in the scriptures, no
place in the New Testament did anyone die in the presence of
the Lord Jesus. The thieves on the cross, were
still alive when they came to break their legs and found that
the Lord was already dead. He died before them. We have a couple of experiences
where the Lord goes to a home and raises a person from the
dead. or the widow of Nain where he
actually attends a funeral procession and puts his hand on the casket
and raises him. But never did anyone ever die
in his presence. That's such a comfort to me. He's going to go on to tell us
in a few more verses, I am the resurrection and the life, he
that believeth in me. Though he were dead, yet shall
he live. And he that liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. In the presence of Christ, there's
no death. He conquered the grave. And so
he says, let us go unto him, knowing that he was going to
raise him from the dead. But the thing that I want us
to look at tonight And I've titled this God's Purpose in All Things. Because what the Lord tells us
in verse 15, when he says to these disciples, I was glad for
your sakes that I was not there to the intent that you might
believe. God's purpose in the lives of
his children in everything that he takes them through is to the
intent that they may believe. And that, in another place, it
speaks of that we might believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. This
is not, this is not, you know, maybe you will or maybe you won't.
This is the assurance of the possibility, the assurance of
the ability to believe is that the Lord was glad that he was
not with them. It's a, when the Lord says that
you may believe, I'm doing these things in order that you may
believe. You're not gonna be able to believe unless I do these
things. And so here's God's purpose in
everything in your life and my life and in everything in this
world to the intent that you may believe. The Lord's going
to see to it that his children believe and he knows what's required
to bring them to that place. Now I wanna back up just a little
bit from that and ask the question, what is God's purpose in us believing? And the answer to that question
is that we might behold his glory, that we might behold his glory. What greater thing could God
do than to reveal his glory? What greater need do we have
and what greater blessing could we possibly receive than to behold
the glory of God? God's glory, our greatest need. There's no greater thing that
God can do and there's no higher place than man can be brought
to. than to see the glory of God. It's what Moses prayed for
at the mountain of the law. All of the demonstrations of
God's mercy and grace that he had seen up until that time,
bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt, he says to the
Lord, Lord, I beseech thee, show me thy glory, show me thy glory. We know that the heavens declare
the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. And yet
men look at creation and they don't by nature see the glory
of God. Turn with me to Romans chapter
one, let me show you that. Romans chapter one. Psalm 19 verse one, the heavens
declare his glory. And yet the Lord tells us in
Romans chapter one and verse 20, for the invisible things
of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen being
understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power
and Godhead, so that they're without excuse. God has demonstrated
his power and his glory in his creation. Because that when they knew God,
they glorified him not as God. So the natural man is going to
look at creation and he's not gonna glorify God. Neither were
thankful but became vain in their imagination and their foolish
hearts were darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools and changed the glory of God. They changed the glory of
God. That's what the natural man does. with the demonstration of God's
glory in creation. Apart from faith, to the intent
that they might believe. You see, if the Lord doesn't
give us faith to believe, we'll not see his glory. We'll be just
like all these that the Lord's describing here in Romans chapter
1. We'll see the handiwork of God,
but will not glorify him. In Providence, the scripture
says that the wrath of man shall praise him. And so in all the
events of this world, God glorifies himself in everything that he's
doing. Everything that happens in time
is by his power and for his glory. And yet men won't see it, and
we can't see it. We can't see it unless the Lord
gives us faith to believe, to the intent that they might believe. The greatest demonstration of
the glory of God is the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When God, in the fullness of his glory, came in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ, And we beheld his glory as the only
begotten of the Father, the one who is full of grace and full
of truth and all that he did. He says in John 17 in his high
priestly prayer before he ascends back into glory, before he's
crucified, Father, I have glorified thee on the earth. So the Lord
Jesus came to demonstrate the glory of God. But just like we
cannot see the glory of God in creation, we won't see it in
providence, we won't see it in Christ, apart from to the intent
that they might believe. The blessing of faith that can
only come from God is that the demonstration of his glory might
be revealed to our hearts. culmination of the glory of God
and all the attributes of God are on full display at the end
of our Lord's life on Calvary's cross. We see the glory of God
in fulfilling His righteousness, satisfying His justice, demonstrating
His love, pouring out His wrath. We see the glory of God in every
part of His holiness, God, when he saw sin on his son, the scripture
says in Isaiah chapter 53, it pleased the Lord to bruise him.
He had to pour out his wrath. But we can't see that apart from
the intent of God that we may believe. Apart from faith, the glory of
God will go unseen. We live in a fallen world and by
nature we walk by sight. We believe what we see, we know
what we experience. And the only way that we're gonna
see the glory of God, which is hidden behind creation. The glory of God is hidden in
Providence. The glory of God is hidden in
Christ. It's hidden at the cross. And
the only way that we can, faith is the eye that's able to behold
the glory of God. To the intent that you might
believe. I'm glad that we weren't there.
Mary and Martha are grieving, the disciples are confused, the
Lord is staging, creating all these events. He's got a perfect
purpose. And that is to the intent that
you might believe. Had the Lord been in Bethany
and healed Lazarus before he died? That would have been a
demonstration of his glory and I'm sure Mary and Martha would
have been very thankful. But what more glory is revealed
in the way he did it? And here's the hope, brethren.
We think, well, Lord, you could stop this now. You could do this
or do that and make this a lot easier. I'm glad, for your sakes, that
I was not there to the intent that you may believe. Faith is not only the eye that
sees the glory of God, it is the heart that believes and rejoices
in His glory. Faith is the only place of true
rest in Christ Without faith, it is impossible to please God. He that cometh to him must believe
that he is. This faith is a gift from God.
It's not something we can come up with. Not something we create
or decide to do. It's not a decision that we're
gonna believe. God has to give it to us. And
he's so perfect. He's so perfect in knowing exactly
what is required to the intent that you might believe. And we can add that to everything
that God's doing in our lives. Everything he's doing is to the
intent that you might believe. For us to be blessed with God's
glory, the greatest blessing that God could give to us for
him to reveal himself to our hearts. How oftentimes I've experienced
it myself and I've talked to believers who are going through
the greatest trials and the greatest trouble and their testimony is
I've never experienced God's grace and God's peace and God's
love like I am right now. Think about it. What is the greatest
evidence of faith in our lives? Is it not prayer? You don't pray to a God you don't
believe in. And is the lack of prayer not
the greatest evidence of unbelief? And when do we find ourselves
more zealous in prayer than when the Lord brings trouble into
our lives. I mean, we do, we pray and we
thank him, but we're so presumptuous when it comes to the blessings
and the good things that the Lord gives us every day. And
then when trouble comes, what do we do? We find ourselves crying
out, crying out. Prayer. Faith is a supernatural
work of grace in the heart. Believing God's not a natural
thing. The Lord has to do this. I'm glad, for your sakes, that
I was not there. And as much more trouble has
come because I wasn't there, the purpose of it all was to
the intent that you may believe. Everything that God's doing for
us, brethren, is to the intent that we may believe. Because
we won't believe if he doesn't make us to believe. We won't
do it. By nature, we're not gonna believe
God. By nature, I... You know, the
older I get, the more people I talk to and the more people
I see fall away from the gospel, the more convinced I am that
it's not men's sin that keeps them from Christ. It is their
righteousness. It's their righteousness. You
know, people get in trouble, even unbelievers, when they get
in trouble, find themselves praying. But then when the trouble goes
away, they move on to something else. But when it comes to believing
that Jesus Christ is all of my righteousness before God, you've
seen it, I've watched it over the years, religious people get
an interest in the gospel, they come, and and they soon find out from the
content of the message that they have no righteousness and that
all their righteousnesses are as filthy rags before God and
they're offended by the gospel and then they're offended by
us because we don't do for them what they are used to having
in their experience in religion. In religion, everybody affirms
them and assures them of their salvation and, you know, commends
them for their good deeds. And when they don't get that,
they fall away. Men are not interested in the
gospel that robs them of their righteousness. That is a miraculous
work of grace. If you find a sinner, a person
who has no righteousness, you found a miracle because only
God can do that. And to believe God for all of my
righteousness before him, that's to the intent that you might
believe. How many times we find the ugly head of our own self-righteousness
rearing itself up and what does the Lord do? To the intent that
you might believe, God knows how to humble his children, doesn't
he? To the intent that you might believe that I'm all your salvation,
that I'm all of your righteousness, And again and again and again
he brings us to the end of ourselves. He brings us to where we have
nothing but Christ. And what a blessing it is to
be brought to that place where Christ is everything and we're
nothing. And the Lord does all these things
to the intent that you might believe. He said, I'll not share my glory
with, what are we believing? We're believing that we might
see his glory. We're not going to see his glory
if we're holding on to our own righteousness. God said, I'll not share my glory
with another. I'm not going to do it. In the gospel of God's free grace,
in the glorious person and accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
he gets all the glory. All the glory. And we love it
that way. We love it that way. Oh, men are desirous of vainglory. They love the praise of God more
than the praise of man. What a blessing it is when the
Lord shuts us up to Christ for all of our righteousness before
God and does whatever he sees fit
to the intent that we might believe. In burning off the dross, we
can all say with that Father, Lord, I believe, help thou mine
unbelief. What mercy. The Lord only does
this for his children. He doesn't say, to the intent
that you might believe, to the reprobate. He just leaves them to themselves.
Let me show you that. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter
40. Isaiah 40. All God has to do for any of
us to go to hell is nothing. That's all he has to do. Just
leave us to ourselves. Lord, you've offended the Pharisees,
leave them alone. Isn't that what the Lord said?
Just leave them alone. They're blind guides leading
the blind. They're all gonna fall into the ditch, just leave
them alone. That's what I'm doing, I'm just leaving them alone.
Well, one of the things we need to be afraid of is being left
alone, don't we? Lord, don't leave me to myself. Isaiah chapter 40, look at verse
15. Behold, the nations are as a
drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the aisles
as a very little thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor
the beasts thereof sufficient for a burn offerings. All nations
before him are as nothing, and they are counted to him less
than nothing and vanity. Now that's God's testimony of
his concern for the reprobate. What a contrast, what a mercy.
You know sometimes when we talk about God blessing us for Christ's
sake, we might err in thinking that the Lord just tolerates
us for Christ's sake because Christ has a particular people
and that we were placed in Christ in the covenant of grace and
that we were in Christ when he lived and died and rose from
the grave and our hope of salvation is to be found in him that perhaps
the Lord just puts up with me for Christ's sake. Nothing could
be farther from the truth. Father, I have loved them even
as thou hast loved me. You see, the contrast is between
our Lord saying about the nations, the nations are as nothing, they're
speck on the balance scale, they're dropping the bucket, they're
nothing to me. And you are everything to me. And everything that I'm
doing for you is to the intent that you might believe so that
I can show forth my glory to you. Because the greatest thing
that I can do for you is show you my glory. The greatest need
that you have is to see my glory. And the faith that I give you
is the eye to that end. It's the
empty hand that receives that gift. Look at Isaiah chapter 43. Well, to contrast, these verses
are in Isaiah 43 to the ones we just read in Isaiah chapter
40, beginning at verse one. But now, thus saith the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name, and thou art mine. You belong to me. Oh. When thou passeth through the
waters, I'll be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel,
thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
and Ethiopia and Saba for thee." Now, Egypt and Ethiopia and Saba,
this is talking about in chapter 40. Those are the nations that
are a speck on the balance scale. They're dropping the bucket,
they're vanity, they're nothing. And the Lord is contrasting his
great love for his children in doing what he does for them that
they may believe. I'm glad that I was not there to the intent that you may believe. Since thou was precious in my
sight, The Lord doesn't just tolerate us for Christ's sake.
That word precious means priceless. We were talking about prayer
a moment ago. If you read the Song of Solomon, the Lord Jesus
is speaking to his bride, to his beloved wife, his church,
and he says to her, one look from you ravishes my heart. One look, he's so in love with
his bride and she is so beautiful to him. He describes her beauty.
And he says, when you just glance over my way and give me one quick
look, it ravishes my heart. Now, what is the Lord telling
us? When I do these things to the intent that you might believe
in order to see my glory and you bow your head in prayer and
cry out to me, it ravishes my heart. Oh, you're precious to me. You're
precious in my sight. Thou has been honorable. I have
loved thee. Therefore, while I give men for
thee and people for thy life, Isaiah 43, verse five, fear not. Don't be afraid. I didn't bring
these things to you to hurt you. Don't be afraid. To the contrary. It's all, it's all for your good
that you might believe. Fear not, for I am with thee.
I will bring thy seed from the East and gather thee from the
West. I will say to the North, give up, and to the South, keep
not back. Bring my sons from afar and my
daughters from the ends of the earth, even everyone that is called
by my name. For I have created him for my
glory, I have formed him, yea, I have made him. That's what the Lord's telling
the disciples. I'm glad I wasn't there. It's good for you that I wasn't
there to the intent that you may believe. There's
a couple more verses in Isaiah 43, look at verse 13. Yea, before
the day was, I am he and there is none that can deliver out
of my hand. I will work and who shall let it? Who's going to? Who's going to stop what God's
doing for his children? Who would want to stop that? Thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, for your sakes. Know what the Lord said
to the disciples? I'm glad for your sakes that
I was not there to the intent that you may believe. I'm gonna show you my glory. The Lord doesn't have to show
his glory for himself. He said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't
tell you. The cattle on a thousand hills
are mine. The hills are mine. Everything belongs to me. What
do you have that you can give me? The glory that I want to show
you is my gift to you. It's my gift to you. God showing forth his glory does
not increase his glory nor does withholding his glory diminish
his glory. The glory of God is what it is. And the Lord's just pleased.
He's just pleased out of love and grace and mercy to show it
forth to his people who he chose. And the greatest blessing that
you and I can ever have is to hear him say, I'm glad for your
sakes for your sakes that I was not there to the intent that you might
believe. We're not gonna believe unless
he does what he sees fit for us to believe. Our Lord delights in showing
mercy. I looked up this word in our
text where the Lord said, I am glad for your sakes that I wasn't
there. That word glad is the word rejoice
in the Bible. And I looked up the first place
where it's found in the New Testament. And it's in Matthew chapter two,
when the angels came and declared the birth of Christ. And the
scripture says that the wise men, in Matthew chapter two verse
10, the wise men, when they followed the star to Bethlehem, it says
they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. They rejoiced with
exceeding great joy. Now though what the Lord does
to the intent that we might believe, can be very difficult on our
end. We need to know. We need to know
that whatever he's doing, he's glad. He's glad for our sakes. He's delighting to show forth
his mercy. He's doing this out of his love
and out of his kindness. In John chapter 12, when there was a great voice
from heaven, the scripture says that many of the people thought
it was a thundering, the Lord Jesus said that it was the voice of God and that
he didn't speak for Christ's sake, he did it for their sake. The Lord doesn't have to thunder
from heaven For Christ's sake, he does everything he does for
the sake of his children. And when God speaks, this voice
came not for my sake, but for your sake. And what a blessing
it is when we hear the voice of God from his word and we say
amen, amen, truth, Lord. Sanctification, our holiness in Christ, is not
progressive in the sense that we become more holy. Revelation is progressive. Grace
is progressive. The knowledge of Christ is progressive. Peter says it like this, grow
in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. We
are birthed into the family of God as a babe. But just like
in the natural world, that babe is just as much a person and
just alive as a strong grown man. And yet that babe has to
grow. And it matures as it grows. And
here's the Lord's hand at work, maturing His children and growing
them in His grace and revealing more and more to them the knowledge
of His Son that they might believe. I remind you what Peter said
when He asked the Lord, how many times,
Lord, should I forgive my brother? Seven times? Peter was demonstrating
his self-righteousness. He was demonstrating his, you
know, Lord, I'm gonna forgive my brother seven times. And the
Lord said, not seven times, but seven times 70. You forgive your
brother. And the Lord didn't mean 490
times. He said, you just keep forgiving.
And what did Peter say? Peter said, Lord, increase our
faith. And we've often thought, Lord,
I need you to increase my faith. Well, how does the Lord increase
our faith? Because here's what the Lord responded to Peter with.
When Peter said, Lord, increase our faith, the Lord said to Peter,
If you had faith as a mustard seed, you could say unto this
mountain, be cast into the sea, and it would be removed. What's
the Lord telling us? It's not the amount of your faith,
it's the object of your faith. What you need is not more faith,
what you need is more of Christ. More of his glory. little bit of faith a mustard
seed faith can remove mountains yeah we think I need you know
I need this this virtue but no Christ is the object of our faith
and here's what the Lord's saying I'm glad for your sakes that
I was not there to the intent that you might believe You're
going to see my glory. You're going to become more convinced
of who I am and know that I raised the dead, that in me is life,
and the life is the light of men. And they did at the end
of this chapter. Oh, how. at the end of John chapter 11,
there were some Jews there in Bethany that saw the same thing
happen. Lazarus come forth and this corpse
comes out of the grave all wrapped up like a mummy. And the Lord
says, loose him and let him free. And there were Jews that saw
it. You read the rest of John chapter
11. And they ran back down to Jerusalem and reported it to
the Pharisees. And the Pharisees right then
said, we've got to do something. They saw it, they didn't believe. What a mercy, what a blessing
it is when our loving, sovereign, omnipotent
Lord knows exactly what we need to the intent that we might believe
to show forth His glory. Not everybody sees it. Now everybody
sees it. Our heavenly father, thank you.
Bless this word to our hearts, we ask it in Christ's name, amen. 224, let's stand together.