of believing the miracle of believing
the miracle of the gospel being sent to us and The longer you
go on and witness people hearing and not believing, or hearing
what is said from the Word of God and then filtering it through
the lens of what they believe is right in their own minds,
there is a precious faith. There is a precious faith and
it is a precious gift. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the Great
Shepherd of the Sheep, is so wonderfully typified in John's
Gospel. I want us to turn to John Chapter
11. There are two reasons the Lord Jesus gives for all of his
work. in the hearts of his people,
in his witness of himself to his people. He says in verse
4 of John chapter 11, this sickness is not under death, but for the
glory of God, that the son of God might be glorified thereby. And down to verse 15, which is
what I want to spend a little bit of time looking at with you
this morning as the Lord might teach us. He says, Lazarus is
dead, verse 14, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not
there to the intent ye may believe. Now that was spoken to the apostles. He was writing to believers.
They had been now at this stage walking with the Lord Jesus Christ
for three years. Judas looked like a believer
all of that time, but the others were genuine believers. They
were genuine children of God, weren't they? They not only had
believed, but they had borne witness to what it is to believe,
isn't it? Faith is declaring who the Lord
Jesus Christ is. It's saying God's words. Confessing
is saying God's words after you. What you are as a sinner and
what he is as a glorious saviour. He's writing these people to
the intent that you might believe. Mary and Martha were believers. This is done to the intent and
he says, I'm glad. The challenge in this verse,
of course, is that he is revealing the fact that believers' faith
is, as Paul said to the Thessalonians, lacking faith. Believers' faith,
and you remember the Lord's words to the disciples, so often ye
of little faith. And he talks about people of
weak faith. And so here are these disciples
being taken through this and they were unaware of the circumstances
that were going on back in Bethany but the Lord Jesus Christ knew
every single one of them and he ordained them and he controlled
them and he ruled them and he the intent to the intent that
you might believe. I love what the Lord said. He said, you go into all the
world. I am Lord of all creation, Matthew 28. Famous verses, aren't
they? He says, you go out into this
world and you make disciples. I've got all power. I've got
all power. I'm all powerful in heaven and earth. I'm sending
you out. You go therefore and make disciples. Make disciples. See, what's a disciple? The word just simply means a
learner. Are you still a learner? Are
you still a learner? A disciple of the Lord Jesus
Christ is someone who can be taught. They can be taught about
life, they can be taught about doctrine, they can be taught
about Word. To be a learner is to be humble, isn't it? The proud never learn, do they?
The proud never learn. It is to be humble. It is to
be enabled by the grace of God to make you weak, that you can
have your false views and your false views of practice and doctrine
and life, you can have them challenged. You can be made of God to love
the truth and hate every false way and the Lord must show you
both. You must know the truth to know all the false ways. And
learners are able to be rebuked. He's saying to these people,
I'm doing this so that your faith, to the intent that you may believe. The Lord is going to chasten
those he loves. He says in Revelation 3.19, he
says, as many as I love, I rebuke and I chasten. Don't forget the
Lord Jesus' last questions to one of these apostles was, do
you love me? Do you love me? Do you love me? And I love Peter's reply. He
can't say anything about himself. He says, you know, Lord, you
know. It's what you know that matters,
isn't it? You know that I love you. So the question that sort
of should be before us as part of this is what's our response
when the Lord challenges us and rebukes us and chastens us and
says that he's doing something which is a cause for our faith
to be exercised. I'm doing this to the intent
that you may believe. That's the question, isn't it? What's the response when the
Lord rebukes me? He says he's going to rebuke
me, isn't he? As many as I love, I rebuke. What's my response
to the Lord's chastening of me? What's my response to the Lord
saying to me, O ye of little faith? Well, Lord, increase our
faith. Increase our faith. Do you love
me? Do you believe? If you have a
faith that comes from God, it's going to be a tried and a tested
faith, and that trying and that testing is more precious than
gold. more precious than gold. The reason the scriptures are
written according to John chapter 20, and we read this verse in
John 20, 30 and 31 so often, it's written so that you believers
might be keeping on believers, is what it really says, that
you will just keep on believing, you'll keep on believing, you'll
keep on believing what God says about himself, what God says
in his word, what God says about you. The reason for gospel preaching,
isn't it, is so that people will believe. Faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the word, and that word word there means the
preached word. By the preached word. This is
the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. The word
of God is only preached when the gospel is preached, when
there is no gospel, no declaration of who the Lord Jesus Christ
is as God Almighty and the successful sovereign saviour of sinners,
Wherever the true gospel is not preached and some other gospel
that puts man's hand to their works and causes them to have
faith in that, it's not. The gospel, the word of God,
is not there. This word is by the gospel preached. So what is faith? He's doing this work, this work
that seems so incongruous to the natural mind, isn't it? So
much pain for Mary and Martha to be put through. So much anguish
as you'll read later on in the story of those people who gathered
around those two men who were in that house with the weeping
and mourning. Ladies, what is faith? What is
faith? What's the Bible's definition
of faith? What is faith? Well, Hebrews 11.1 is just a
glorious verse. Just turn there with me for a
little moment. Hebrews 11.1 tells us what faith is. is the substance, that means
the foundation, something that is firm. Faith is the substance
of things hoped for. And what's hope? Hope is a confident
expectation about the future. isn't it? It's a confident expectation
about the future. The full assurance of hope is
one of the blessings of the work of God in the lives of people.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things
not seen. While you're there in Hebrews
11, turn over the page. I just love what it says of Moses.
Moses saw him who is invisible. I love that verse. Moses saw
him who is invisible. Isn't that lovely? We see through
the eyes of faith he who is invisible. have a hope resting in him who
through natural eyes is invisible. We see him who's invisible. Hope
of faith is the substance, it's the ground, it's the firm foundation
of things hopeful, it's the evidence of things not seen. We see Jesus. We see Jesus through the eyes
of faith according to the word of God. We see through faith
what is not seen to the natural eye. To the natural eye these
men were in a desperate situation. Why go back there and get yourself
killed? How on earth can you raise the dead? Why put Mary
and Martha and all of us through all of this? To the intent you
will do two things. The intent of all this is that
you will see the power of God and you will believe. God does
everything intentionally. Intentionally. I quoted that
verse out of Matthew, Mark chapter five about the Lord Jesus saying
to Jairus, his daughter was dead. He says, believe only. Believe
only, don't be afraid. He said, believe only. Unbelief
brings fear. Unbelief brings fear, doesn't
it, of all the circumstances. Believe only His word, believe
only His promises. See, true faith is a person,
isn't it? Our faithful one is a person.
Life I live in the flesh, I live by the faithfulness of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. That's faith.
That's His faith, isn't it? I know whom I have believed. And faith puts a deposit. I know
whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to
keep. That word to keep is like to
deposit in a bank. If you have your money in banks
these days, you have every reason to be fearful. But that's what
it means. It means to be in a perfectly secure place, isn't it? A firm
place. The scriptures speak of great
faith. centurion had great faith. He said to the Lord Jesus Christ,
he just laid out his case before him, he didn't come to him telling
him to do anything and then he said, you can read the story
in Matthew chapter 8, I don't have time for them at this to
expound the need, but he just said, Lord I'm not worthy I'm
not worthy to have you come to my house. You just say the word
only and everything will be fine. And God called that great faith. The Syro-Phoenician woman in
Matthew chapter 15, you can read her story, she had great faith.
The Lord said to her, it's not fit to take this special food
and cast it to dogs. You're a dog. She just clung,
didn't she? She just stayed there. Lord,
help me. Lord, help me. The Gospels are written so that
we would see that the Lord Jesus Christ is God Almighty. The circumstances
that he took his people through were to show us that he is a
glorious God and a glorious Saviour. And the purpose of all of these
scriptures, as John writes, is that you would believe, that
you would believe and you would keep on believing no matter what
the circumstances are and no matter what you see about the
things of this world. But they, like us, are pictured
here as people whose faith was lacking. whose faith, the eyes of their
faith, needed adjusting. Does that speak to you? It certainly
speaks to me. I need my faith. I need to find
the Lord loving me and chastening me and rebuking me for my little
faith. So what was wrong with their
faith? I just have five things that I'll deal with briefly here
that just are the cause of us being afraid and not believing,
really, isn't it? Listen to the first of them. Listen to what Martha and Mary
said. Martha said, Lord, verse 21, if you had been here, my
brother had not died. Mary said the same thing in verse
32. If you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. What
was the problem with that? To the intent that you might
believe, what was the problem with those statements? Does he have
to be physically present to do what he's doing? The problem
is, of course, as much as they loved him and as much as he loved
them, they just had too low a view of the Lord Jesus Christ, didn't
they? It is absolutely impossible for
you to have too high a view of the Lord Jesus Christ. When he
declares himself to be the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity,
we don't have a clue what any of those words are saying. And
if you do have a clue what any of them are saying, you'll be
like Isaiah. You'll say immediately, woe is me. The only possible
hope I have of being in the presence of the High and Holy One that's
lifted up and inhabits eternity is if He comes and does everything
for me completely and utterly, isn't it? I'm weak. He has to
do it all. The Lord Jesus Christ cannot
be exalted too highly ever. And that's what heaven's about,
isn't it? It's the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. You don't
need faith any longer and you don't need hope any longer when
you're in his presence because he just fills it all, doesn't
he? But he fills it with his glory and he fills it with his
love. There's one thing left, isn't
there? On that great day there is just love. high and lifted
up. It's impossible and that was
the problem. Mary and Martha said, well if you'd been here
you had to walk those miles to get here and if you'd actually
physically been here things would be right. Too low a view of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let's turn to verse 16 and there's
another thing that goes alongside that, isn't it? If there's too
low a view of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's a far too high a view
of man, isn't it? Listen to what Thomas said. He
said, let us go with him that we may die with him. What a lovely
sentiment. I can go with him. You remember
what happened at the Last Supper, didn't you? They all sat around
there, all 11 of them, saying, well, we're all going to go with
you. We're not going to leave you,
and we're all going to die with you. And Peter was the bravest
one of all, who was thinking what all the others were, and
he said, I know what those other 10 are like. I know what they're like. They're as weak as water, but
I'll be there. I'll be there. Every time in the scriptures
man says, I will, there's an immediate humbling coming. Brothers
and sisters, what a blessed thing to be humbled in the presence
of God Almighty. There's too low a view of Christ
that always accompanies a too high a view of man. But number
three, Weak faith and lacking faith
has too low a view of God's will and purpose. The disciples said in verse 8,
Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and why are you
going there again? No one takes the Lord Jesus Christ's
life from him, except as he does, he lays his life down for his
people. The Jews can't pick up a stone
unless he gives them permission to. He can walk through, and
he did, so many times in the Gospel accounts, he walked through
a crowd of people. He will achieve his will and
his purpose. That's the intent, isn't it?
For the purpose. It's purposeful faith that he's exercising here,
isn't it? And part of that purpose is that
God has a sovereign will and a purpose and God has a sovereign
time and he cannot possibly die a moment before that time and
he cannot possibly die outside of Jerusalem. He must do all.
Everything about the Lord Jesus Christ is a must, isn't it? He
must. He must. He must. So, lacking faith has
too low a view of Christ, it's too high a view of man, it's
too low a view of God's will and purpose and absolute sovereignty.
It also has too low a view of union with the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen to what is said. The Lord
Jesus said to her in verse 23, just read it with me. He said
to her, Martha said unto him, I know that he shall rise again
in the resurrection at the last day. So Martha knew about resurrection
and she thought resurrection was an event that happened. And
what's he go on to say? I am the resurrection. The resurrection
is a person and the resurrection is a person who is the Lord Jesus
Christ and the resurrection pictures not just an event and there's
not just a doctrine, but it's a picture of his union with his
people. And if people have too low a
view of union with the Lord Jesus Christ, they then have faith
that is deficient and lacking. We can't have too high a view
of the Lord Jesus Christ. as God in human flesh. The fullness of the deity dwells
in a body. I can't understand that. I'm
so thankful that it is because we need the fullness of deity
to save us. We can't have too high a view of Christ and we
can't have too high a view of his union with his people. That's
what it is for him to be the Christ, to be in union with his
people. The resurrection is a person. I'm running out of time and I'm
sad about that but anyway. In Hosea chapter 6 the Lord Jesus
Christ says, together with my dead body they shall arise. come let us return to the Lord
for he has torn and he will heal us he has smitten he will bind
us up after two days he will revive us and the third day he
will raise us us up. Everything that the Lord
Jesus Christ did in this world, he did as an us. Everything he
did, he was always the representative of his people. After two days
he will revive us. In the third day he will raise
us up and What's the result of resurrection? That's why he's
the resurrection, Hosea 6.2, and we shall live in his sight. We. The resurrection is a person,
the resurrection, he is the resurrection. He says in Isaiah 26 verse 19,
Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they
arise. On that resurrection morning
there was a resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ at Mary's door,
but there was a resurrection of every single child of God
from Adam to the last one born in this world. This is not the
final resting place of the children of God. And I don't have time,
but if you go and read Psalm 22 and Isaiah 53, you'll see
again and again that the Lord Jesus Christ goes through suffering
with his people and rises again. I'll just read a few verses out
of Isaiah 53, but it's just all through the Scriptures. For him
to be the Christ is for him to be in union with himself, and
that's what resurrection is. It's not an event in the future.
He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. God the Father will see the travail
of the Son's soul and be satisfied. God the Son will see the travail
of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge my righteous
servant shall justify many, which means that
they have never sinned because all of their sins were laid on
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what it is to be in union
with him. He owns his bride as his own and he suffered for her. for he shall bear their iniquities. If they're born by the Lord Jesus
Christ, brothers and sisters, they cannot possibly be born
by us. It's impossible for God to punish
the Lord Jesus Christ for sins and then punish his people. That's
just an act of injustice. We don't allow that in our wicked
justice system here in this world. Did God the Father punish an
innocent Christ on the cross? The answer is absolutely no way
in the world. It's an abomination for God to
punish the innocent. The Lord Jesus Christ bore my
sins, all of them. He bore the sins of all of his
people and that's what the glory of resurrection is, isn't it?
It's not an event in the future. It's union with him. I love what
he said to John the Baptist, imagine the Lord Jesus Christ
coming and get baptized by you. Dear oh dear. John didn't know
a whole lot of things but he knew that he was unworthy. He
said, I'm not even worthy to bend down and under your sandals. And the Lord Jesus turned to
him in Matthew 3 verse 15. He says, let's do it. It becometh
us to fulfill all righteousness. All of the righteousness before
God is fulfilled in us, in him. we need. If our faith is going
to be great and our faith is going to be strong, we're going
to have a faith that the Lord Jesus is going to challenge us
about it. He'll do things to the intent that you might believe.
And it's always going to be a good intention in the lives of these
people. Weak faith has too low a view
of Christ, too high a view of man, too low a view of union
with the Lord Jesus Christ, too low a view of God's will and
purpose in this world. Everything God does is for his
church. Everything that's going on in
this world is for the good of his people and his church. Turn
with me to Ephesians chapter 2 for a minute. I just want to
see these together. We can't have too high a view
of the union of God's people. With him in Ephesians chapter
2 verse 5 he says, Even when we were dead in sins
hath quickened us, has given us life together. with Christ. By grace you are
saved and has raised us up together and made us sit together. You see, you can't be separated
from him. Ben read it earlier out of Psalm 23. I'll be with
him forever. You can't be separated. You cannot separate a child of
God from the Saviour. That's what resurrection is.
So glorious, isn't it? made us sit together in heavenly
places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come ye might
show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward
us through Jesus Christ. Together. In verse 21 he's speaking
of this church and it's built on the foundation of the apostles
and the prophets and Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone
in whom all the building fitly framed. Together. See, the real Church of God has
always got the togetherness, hasn't it, of Him with His people.
Listen to what he goes on to say, unto a holy temple in the
Lord, the meeting place between God and His people, is the true
Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom you also are builded
together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. We have a lot to believe, brothers
and sisters. We've got a lot to believe and
rejoice in. That's why he talks about the joy and peace of believing.
The last one that I want to look at very briefly is what so often
troubles us in our faith. We have too low a view of the
Lord Jesus Christ. We have too high a view of man.
We have too low a view of God's will and purpose. We have a too
low a view of union with the Lord Jesus Christ. And lastly,
number five, We have and we are caused to and it's natural in
our natural Adam flesh to do so. We look at the circumstances
rather than Christ. Verse 39 in our text in John
chapter 11. The Lord Jesus is at the tomb
now and he says, you take away the stone. And Martha said, don't
do it. It'll be embarrassing. It'll
be uncomfortable. It's impossible now. It's four
days. He's been rotting in that tomb
for four days. Is anything impossible for God
Almighty? Is anything impossible for our
God? The father of the faithful, Abraham,
was given a promise from God which was impossible in human
terms to fulfil. In fact, God made Abraham wait
from the time he was 85 until he was 100 before. He made him
wait an extra 15 years, didn't he? What's your name, Abram?
My name means father. Where are your children? I haven't
got any. Then he changed his name and he gave him the name
Abraham. What's Abraham mean? I'm the
father of many. How many children do you have,
Abraham? None. Sarah, an old woman, 90 years
old, long, long, long past any possibility of childbearing,
Abraham heard the promise and he laughed. And he laughed in
joy at the fact that God had said it, and when God said it,
it must be true. Sarah laughed in unbelief. She
laughed in unbelief, and immediately she had to deny what she'd said
and what she'd done, because she was laughing in unbelief.
They called his name laughing. We walk by faith and not by sight. We believe, we rely upon for
all our eternal salvation in things that we cannot see through
these eyes of flesh. That's why in Revelation 4, this
blessed are the dead that die in the law. Their works do follow
them. Their works don't go ahead of them to enhance their reason
for being there. Their works don't go alongside
them to give them evidence. Their works follow them. All
of these things are done, all of these circumstances of this
family that he loved immensely. If you are loved by the Lord,
you're going to have your faith tried, brothers and sisters. And if the Lord is purposefully
trying your faith, then the intent is that you might believe, that
you might believe and you might keep on believing. You might
find that you have more and more reason to trust him because he's
been with you in the darkness. He's been with you at times when
there was no circumstance you could see around you which would
give you cause for hope. Faith, faith is the hope. And so the intent is of course
that we wouldn't trust ourselves, we wouldn't trust our wisdom,
we wouldn't trust our learning. We are the children of God, are
those who grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
To grow in grace is to grow down. It's always to grow down. It's
to grow more and more weak, more and more needy, and for him to
be higher and higher and higher and more essential until eventually
just swallowed up in who he is. The prior father has promised,
the son has promised. And all of this is to the intent
that we learn not to trust ourselves but Christ who raises the dead. Roll away the stone, loose him
and let him go. Don't you love the declarations
of gospel preaching, isn't it? You roll away the stone, you
roll away that stony heart of flesh and you loose him and let
him go, you let him go free. Our faith needs daily nourishment
from heaven. In word and prayer and in fellowship,
I love what the Lord said. He says, let's go to him. As
far as the Lord was concerned, Lazarus was already alive. As
far as the Lord was concerned, Lazarus was already in heaven.
As far as the Lord was concerned, he dwells outside of eternity.
Lazarus is already living in the new creation. Wonder of wonders
and glory of glories. If we need, I'm glad. is gladness in the heart of the
Lord. The circumstances that brought
tears, genuine anguish, genuine anguish caused by genuine love
for him. And he says, I'm glad to the
intent that you may believe. Every believer will walk, will
walk in something of the shoes of Mary and Martha and Lazarus
and those disciples. May the Lord give us the joy
and peace of believing. May he cause us, may his grace
cause us to see his good intentions in the trials that he puts us
through. May he make us learners and disciples. May he remind
us again and again that our, like Jairus, believe only. Don't be afraid. Believe only. We have a great God. We have
the word made flesh. We have the word indwelling us. This, yes, God will enable us,
make sure that we, in our circumstances, for Christ's sake, we don't ever
have too low a view of Christ. For Christ's sake, that we will
have our view of man adjusted to be as low as possible. We'll
have a view, a high view of God's will and purpose. will have a
very high view of our union with the Lord Jesus Christ and that
we will take our focus off the circumstances which seem impossible
and look to the God who does the impossible. Precious faith,
precious faith, precious faith. Let's pray.