Turn back, if you will, to the
Gospel of Saint John, chapter 11. The Gospel of John, chapter
11. I want us to read the 39th and
40th verses. John 11, verse 39 and 40. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha,
the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this
time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days. Jesus saith
unto her, said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe,
thou shouldest see the glory of God. This portion of the Word of God
was a real challenge to my heart this week, and I felt this morning
compelled of the Lord to bring to you some thoughts that have
been impressed upon my heart concerning this subject of unbelief. We mentioned it some last week
in our message, and I felt this morning that we should tackle
this subject again, and I hope that the Lord will use our time
together today for the edification of our hearts. Our Lord is standing
here before the tomb of Lazarus with Martha and Mary, Lazarus'
sisters, and it appears that Martha, by what I read in this
chapter, had questioned the providence had questioned the goodness and
the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now she questioned the wisdom
and the goodness of the Lord's providence because he had not
come sooner to prevent her brother's death. Now I hope this morning
that the Lord will enable us to put ourselves into Martha's
position. And we read over here in verse
21, then said Martha unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here,
my brother had not died. Now I recognize, and there's
some things here that we need to see, that Martha did not have
the benefit, and I just want to kind of focus on Martha this
morning. I do not condemn Martha. I do not find fault with her. I recognize she had a fault,
and we'll talk about that fault as we'll talk about our own fault,
but the thing that I want to impress upon you is that she
did not have the benefit of the of the uh... conversation she
didn't have the benefit of the council that had gone on between
the lord jesus and the disciples earlier you'll notice back in
verse four of this eleventh chapter now hear this when jesus heard
that he said this sickness is not unto death now he he got
a word the sister sent unto him saying lord behold uh... he whom
thou lovest is sick now when jesus heard that lazarus was
sick He made this statement in the presence of the disciples
that were with him. He said, this sickness is not
unto death, but for the glory of God. This sickness is for
the glory of God that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now wouldn't it have been wonderful
if Martha had heard that statement? if she had known what the Lord
Jesus had said to his disciples before he ever came. But then
we get over here to this 21st verse and she said, Lord, if
thou hadst been here, my brother had not died. And then there's
another scripture here too that where Jesus says here in verse
14 and 15 he said unto them plainly Lazarus is dead and I'm glad
for your sakes that I was not there. I'm glad that I was not
there to the intent that you may believe nevertheless let
us go unto him. And so Martha didn't have the
benefit of these statements which our Lord had made therefore she
seems to find fault with him that he was not there and said
if you'd have been here then this wouldn't have happened.
My brother wouldn't have died if you'd have been here. If you
could have just been here, if somehow or other you could have
just been here, my brother would not now be in the grave. So she questioned, I think, the
power and the ability also of the Lord Jesus Christ to raise
Lazarus from the dead. Because look in verse 39 again
here, in verse 39 where Jesus said, take you away the stone. And Martha, the sister of him
that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time, I mean it's
too late. It's too late to do anything
now. It's too late for anything to come of this. I mean the situation
is hopeless. The situation is beyond repair. There isn't anything now that
can be done. There is no need to remove the
stone because by now decay is set in. Now instinctively, I
mean it's too late. If you'd have been here earlier,
if you'd have been here four days ago, this would have never
happened and our brother would not now be in this condition.
And so she seems to me to be questioning the wisdom of God
and the goodness of God and the power of God to raise here her
brother from the dead. Now then, I believe that Martha
without question was a child of God. I believe she was a believer.
I think she knows the Lord. I think she was chosen of God
just like I believe that we're chosen of God. I believe she
was redeemed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. She was
born again by the almighty grace of God, but she had a problem.
She had a problem. She had a fault. She had a weakness
of the flesh that kept her in a state of mind that would rob
her from seeing the glory of God in this impossible situation. Now the Lord Jesus said, now
this is not unto death. This sickness of Lazarus, this
situation is not unto permanent death. It is for the glory of
God. I'm going to reveal myself. I'm
going to reveal my deity. I'm going to reveal my power.
I'm going to reveal my love for Lazarus. I'm going to reveal
my love for you, disciples. I'm going to do that. I'm going
to so manifest my power that you're going to believe more
strongly in me than ever before. But Martha was not aware of this.
She was not aware of it and she had this problem of unbelief
and it kept her here from seeing the glory of God as it were in
her heart and believing that Jesus Christ could do this. Now
her problem was unbelief. That's what it was. Her problem
was unbelief. Now my friend, this morning,
let me say this because I believe it to be true that our problem,
probably this morning, the biggest problem that we have is a problem
of unbelief. Every time we face a situation,
a trying situation, make no difference whether it's an extremely difficult
situation or whether it's a situation that is pocket change, my friend,
we somehow or other are afflicted with this unbelief that causes
us not to be able to rest in the Lord and to believe so as
to see God manifest himself in our case and our situation and
deliver us so that we can glorify his name. We just somehow or
other cannot believe God. We just can't rest ourselves
in God's ability and goodness and love and believe that God
will undertake for our case. We have the same problem that
Martha had. She did not trust Christ in the
matter of her brother's death. Now just face it. She just simply
did not trust Christ in the matter of her brother's death. Now,
we recognize that this, as we said, was no small matter. That it was no small situation. We recognize that. We're mindful
of that. And once in a while, and I think
in every one of our lives, sooner or later there's going to be
some situations come that are not going to be small matters. They're going to be very, very
difficult and very testing situations. And we're going to have to deal
with them some way or the other. Well, of course, if we're believers,
if we're children of God, we're to believe God. Think of Abraham. And whenever he didn't have a
seed, and God had promised him one, and time was running out,
and it did run out. It ran out. Time ran out. I mean, the clock, the biological
clock, I mean, it ran clear out. And neither him or Sarah was
able to do anything about it. And God had to marvelously, miraculously
undertake in that case. God had to come and deliver.
But the scripture says against hope. He believed in hope. And my friend, there's going
to come a case. into your life like this tomb that was in Martha's
life. Here it was. It was a cave with
a rock in front of it. And her brother was in that cave.
And she did not trust the Lord with the death of her brother.
She didn't trust Christ with that. If you'd have been here,
he wouldn't be in there. If you'd have just been here.
Well, a person maybe could say that in a very kind way, in a
very loving way, maybe a person could say that in a very tender
way, but nevertheless it sprang, as far as my conviction is concerned,
it sprang from unbelief in her heart. She just simply did not
trust the Lord with her brother's death. What is it this morning
in your life that you're not trusting the Lord with? There's
something in each one of our lives probably this morning that
we just simply cannot trust the Lord with. It's a situation that
is just simply one that we just absolutely cannot turn away ourselves
from and just simply leave it with the Lord. We just got to
keep figuring it out. We just got to keep trying to
work with the situation ourselves and we just simply got to do
something about it ourselves. We can't leave it alone. We can't
trust that situation with the Lord. It's just a situation that
we just dare not leave with Him altogether. We've got to keep
on working with Him. Some way or another, we've got
to do something ourselves about it. We just simply can't rest
and leave it with the Lord. Well, this was Martha's situation.
This was exactly her situation. She did not trust Christ. She
looked at her present situation and circumstances and these told
her that Lazarus who had been dead for four days was beyond
hope. That the situation was beyond
hope. That there just wasn't anything
that could be done about it. And you know sometimes we get
in that hopeless kind of a state of mind. We look at things, and
boy, they look bad. And the longer we look, the worse
they get. And the situations just seem
to pile up in life. Impossible situations, difficult
situations. More and more, they're heaped
upon us, and we look at them, and we reason with them. And
my friend, we just come to the place where we say, well, it's
hopeless. It's hopeless. We can't do anything
about this. This is something we're doomed to live with. We
can't do a thing about it. It's hopeless. She had grace
enough to believe for the future. She had grace enough to believe
for the future because she said, I know that he shall rise again
in the resurrection at the last day. And you and I, we got enough
faith we can believe that somewhere down the road, that the crooked
way will be made straight, that some way, way off down the road
somewhere, the darkness will be light. And we got enough hope,
enough faith to believe that somehow or other, out yon eternity,
that every Every wound will be healed and every heal will be
wounded. We've got enough faith to believe
that and trust that God somehow or other sooner or later will
right all wrongs and everything will be right sooner or later.
We just, we somehow or other believe that. But my friend,
dealing though with our present situation and dealing with the
situation right now that's in our front yard and dealing with
the case in our own homes and in our own lives, we just simply
are not able to trust God with it now. We just cannot presently
trust Christ with our situation. We just can't do it. Now you
say, well, I don't have that problem. Well, you may not have
it right now, friend of mine, but if you're a believer in Christ,
some of these days, there's gonna be a situation across your path
by the design of Almighty God that is going to show you that
you're still plagued with this thing called unbelief, that you've
got a problem with it. Well, Martha had a problem with
it. She said, I know that he's gonna rise again in the resurrection
of the last day, in verse 24. But she did not trust Christ
in the present. She walked, I believe, by sight
and not by faith. She acted according to reason
and not according to revelation. She did not, she acted according
to reason. Now my friend, if you approach life's problems
as a child of God by reason, If you're trying to reason out
everything that happens to you as a child of God, you're in
trouble. You're in serious trouble. If you walk by what you see,
you've got a problem. You've got a serious problem.
You've got to walk by what you believe. You've got to walk by
faith. You must walk by conviction. And you cannot walk by sight.
And you cannot live by reason. You cannot figure out everything
that God is doing in your life. Well, then Jesus said unto her,
said I not unto thee that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst
see the glory of God. The only thing that kept Martha
from seeing the glory of God on this occasion was her unbelief. was the fact that she just didn't
trust the Lord. Now she had only trusted Christ
as he ought to have been trusted. Now my friend, regardless of
how much unbelief is in our hearts, every one of us this morning
will have to confess that Jesus Christ ought to be trusted. Is there anyone here that would
disagree with that? Has anyone here got any proof that they
can offer as to why that he ought not to be trusted? He ought to
be trusted and you and I ought to trust him. Now had she only
trusted Christ as he ought to be trusted, she would have seen
the glory of God in Lazarus' sickness and in his death. And in his resurrection, she
would have seen the glory of God in it all. And if she would
only believe, she would see the glory of God here revealed in
such a way that Christ himself would have been exalted and honored,
and the faith of all around would have been moved to a greater
height, and they would all have been strengthened in the Lord.
If thou wouldst believe. Now these words, I believe, were
spoken not only for Martha alone, I don't think they were written
only for Martha alone. They were not spoken just to
her. They were intended to reprove
and instruct those that are the children of God, not Martha alone.
They are recorded for our learning. This is what the Lord Jesus says
to you and me. If thou wouldest believe, thou
shouldest see the glory of God. If you would just believe in
Christ and His wisdom, goodness, and providence, if you would
just believe Him now, you would see the goodness of God and you
would see His glory in your situation in time. You would see it. You
would see Him at work. You would see Him doing something
in your life and you would see Him in the end receiving the
glory just like He did in the case of Abraham and Sarah. when
God so blessed them that they had a child and God received
all the glory and it was evident that the Lord did it. And that's
exactly the way God works in the lives of His children now.
God is going to so work in your situation that it's going to
be like that sealed tomb. And then God is going to, in
His time, come to you and manifest Himself in power and deliver
you and everybody will know that the Lord did it, that God was
in it. And Christ will be exalted. God will receive the glory and
the praise and the honor. Well, how much like Martha are
we? We profess that we trust Christ for our atonement, for
the atonement of our sin. We trust Christ for justification,
full justification. We profess that we trust Christ
for eternal life and acceptance with God. Most of us do. We make a profession of faith
that we believe that Jesus Christ is our Lord and that he died
in our room instead in place, that he answered to God for us,
and that he fulfilled all the law on our behalf, and that we
stand complete, accepted, and righteous in him, the beloved
one. But now, my friend, how quickly
we murmur, though against his providence. Now, if we can trust
him for the future, for the welfare of our immortal souls, shall
we not also trust him for the present, for the welfare of our
lives in this temporary Well, may the Lord give us grace
to trust as we ought to trust the Lord and to simply lay ourselves
at his feet and trust him with all of our hearts. Now, seeing
the glory of God, I want to talk a little bit about that. Seeing
the glory of God. Now, the glory of God is the
one thing that we desire. I believe as the people of God
we want to see the glory of God. We want to see God manifest Himself
and we want everybody's eyes to be on Him. And we want everybody
to see His marvelous power, His working. We want people to see
His grace. We want people to see God at
work. We want people's eyes on the
Lord. We long for this and in our hearts
there is something that just makes me say we must see it. We must see it. We live for it. We desire it. We anticipate it. We pray for it. The glory of
God. Now we who believe have dedicated
our hearts, our lives, and all that we possess to the glory
of our God. And we even eat. We're supposed
to eat to the glory of God. Now we may not always do that,
but in everything we seek the glory of Almighty God. We desire it. We long for it.
Now every time we bow our heads and lift up our hearts in prayer,
either in public or in private, we ask God to glorify Himself. We want the Lord to do that.
And many times, though, when God sets out to do that, we immediately
hold up our hand and say, we'd rather you didn't do it in this
way. We'd rather you didn't do it
that way. Martha would say, well, Lord, I'd rather it not involve
my brother. I'd rather it not involve him
dying and being placed in a tomb and being there four days and
stinking. I'd rather it not involve that. And you can say, well,
Lord, I'd just rather you work some other way. Don't touch a
member of my family. Don't use a member of my family.
I should try my soul. Don't do this. Don't do that.
Don't do something else. We always got our own mind as
to how we would rather the Lord glorify himself. But my friend,
he pays no heed to that. The Lord sets out to glorify
himself in the way that is pleasing to him because he best knows
how to glorify himself. You say, well, I just think God
ought to have done things a little different in my life. Well, you
may think so, but that's unbelief, my friend. He's doing exactly
what he ought to do in your life. And if you wait on him long enough,
you'll see him glorify himself even in your life. You will see
it sooner or later. All right, now then. We ask God
to glorify himself. Every one of you prayed that
way, I'm sure. Lord, glorify yourself. The brother prayed
that way this morning in the service that the Lord receive
the glory in the meeting. And I hope this morning that
he will. Now, we want him to manifest his glory to us. Why
then do we see so very little of the glory of God? Why do we
see so very little of it? Well, let me just point out a
few things to you. There's about four things here I'd like to
say to you. One is this. I believe that it's God's purpose
to reveal His glory. I believe God wants to do that.
I believe God will do that. He intends to do it. He will.
This involves the purpose of God in creation and in redemption
and providence is to reveal himself and to show forth his glory.
Everything in God's creation is designed, it's ordained, and
it's ruled by God to glorify himself or to reveal his glory
to his creatures. Everything that God does. We
believe that God is pleased to, that he's even made the wicked
for the day of evil. We believe that God, as the scripture
says, that even the wrath of man God restrains. That measure
of wrath which will not serve to the end of God's purpose.
I believe that everything is designed by God, controlled by
God. Here's a tremendous verse, Romans 11 and verse 36. Listen
as I read this verse. For of Him, and through Him,
and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen. That's a tremendous verse.
And then I'd like to say this too, that it is the desire of
our Lord Jesus Christ that we see the glory of God. I believe
that he would have Martha to see the glory of God. He said
if you'd believe, you'd see the glory of God. And I think it's
his desire that we see it. Now sin has hidden the Father's
glory from us by nature. Now Christ came to unveil the
Father's face and to make known the Father's character and to
manifest the Father's glory. Now this was the errand upon
which Jesus Christ came when he came down from heaven into
this world. It is true, he came to save his
people from their sins, but his purpose in saving us is that
he might reveal the glory of God, that God might be glorified
in us and by us. And so it is the desire of the
Lord Jesus Christ that we see the glory of God. There's so
many good verses. this you could read the first
chapter of the gospel of John you can read the 17th chapter
of the gospel of John and certainly the 17th chapter and let me refer
you to that let me let's turn right there there's several others
but but I want to just read here maybe the first five verses of
the 17th chapter of John these words speak Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said father the hour has come glorify
thy son that thy son also may glorify thee as thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. And
now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the
glory which I had with Thee before the world was." So the Lord Jesus
Christ has unveiled the Father's face and character and He glorified
the Father in finishing the work. Which the father had given him
to do which was the salvation the saving of his people and
the Lord Jesus Christ is now back in in heaven with the father
Enjoying the glory that he had with the father before the world
was now then the third thing I'd like to say is this That
it is our unbelief alone that keeps us from seeing the glory
of God and Now this is the reproof here of verse 39 of John chapter
11. This is the reproof of that verse.
That it is unbelief alone that keeps us from seeing the glory
of God. If thou wouldst believe, Jesus
said, thou shouldst see the glory of God. Now the thing about which
our Lord complained the most, even among his own disciples,
was unbelief. He talked about how slow of heart
they were to believe God. Unbelief hinders Christ from
working those works in our midst which would show us the glory
of God. You say, well I just wonder why
that is. Well, you turn with me to Mark chapter six. Mark
chapter six, and I want you to listen to something here as I
read it. Mark the sixth chapter, and we
can begin up here in the first verse. Just listen to these words. You say, well, I don't understand
that. Well, my friend, there's a lot of things I don't understand
either, but there's one thing I know that when the Bible says
something, then that's because that's what God would have us
to know about the matter. That's exactly what he would
have us to know about, and we shouldn't go beyond that as far
as question is concerned. He went out from thence and came
to his own country, Mark 6, and his disciples follow him, and
when the Sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue,
and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this
man these things, and what wisdom is this, which is given unto
him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is
not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James,
and Joseph, and Judah, and Simon? And are not his sisters here
with us? And they were offended at him. But Jesus said unto him,
A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among
his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty
work save that he lay his hands upon a few sick folks and healed
them. But listen further. And he marveled
because of their unbelief. And he went around about the
villages teaching. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
could not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief. It said spelled out clearly in
the Gospel of Matthew also that this is the case. He could not
do many mighty works. I think it's Matthew 13 and maybe
verse 58 where it says he could not do many mighty works there
because of their unbelief. Now John Trapp who was a Puritan
made this statement. He said unbelief is so vile and
venomous and evil as that it transfuses a kind of dead palsy
into the hand of omnipotency. Did you get that? Now you say,
well, I don't understand how that could be. Well, my friend,
you may not understand how it could be, but that's the way
it is. I want you to understand what I'm saying. He said, made
this statement, unbelief is so vile and venomous and evil that
it transfuses a kind of dead palsy into the hands of omnipotency. Now Christ who can do all things
by his absolute power can do little or nothing by his actual
power for those who will not believe. He cannot because he
will not. Now that's the reason he cannot
because he will not do it. God has purpose, Christ has purpose
to work where there's faith. And we cannot excuse ourselves
and say, well, God's sovereign. He can do whatever he wants to.
He is. And he can do whatever he wants to. But I don't want
him to go somewhere else and do it. I'd like to believe God
so he'll do it here in my life. I want to see the glory of God
in my own life. I want to see it, don't you? I want to see
it. I don't want him to go somewhere else. And he says, I'll do it
where faith is. Well, there's faith. If you'll believe, Martha,
that grave will open and you'll see the glory of God. You'll
see my power if you'll believe. Okay, now let's look a little
further here. In in in the gospel of Mark again
in the ninth chapter I want you to listen here the gospel of
Mark chapter 9 in verses 23 and 24 Well, maybe we should back
up just a little bit to kind of get the context here to these
verses Let's let's look at verse 17 and one of the multitude answered
and said master I have brought unto thee my son which hath a
dumb spirit and And wheresoever he taketh him, he careth him,
and he foameth and gnasheth with his teeth, and pineth away. And I spake to thy disciples
that they should cast him out, and they could not. He answered
him and saith, O faceless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you?
Bring him unto me. and they brought him unto him
and when he saw him straightway the spirit tear him and he fell
on the ground and walled foaming and he asked his father how long
is it ago since this child or this came into him and he said
of a child and oftentimes it has cast him into the fire and
into the waters to destroy him but if thou canst do anything
have compassion on us and help us And Jesus said unto him, if
thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. Now you get the question, or
you get the statement made by this father who had the afflicted
child, if you can do anything, if thou canst do anything, then
have compassion on us and help us. And Jesus said, if thou canst
believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway
the father of the child cried out, my soul, how often has this
been in our hearts? How often has this been the cry
of our soul? And said with tears, Lord, I
believe. Help thou mine unbelief. I do
believe you, but Lord, there's a lot of unbelief in me. Help
thou mine unbelief. And I'll tell you what, that's
the cry of my heart when I face those caves that are sealed with
the stone in my life. And that's the cry of every child
of God when they're up against, I mean not pocket change situations,
I'm talking about desperate trying situations, life and death situations,
like Mary and Martha. I mean when you're up against
great trials. Lord, I believe, but help my
unbelief. Because I want to say to you,
it's our unbelief alone that keeps us from seeing the glory
of God. Unbelief, my friend, is the thing
that we're dealing with here. Now, he cannot, I said, do any
great works because he will not do them where unbelief is. Now, unbelief lays hold of the
hand of Christ and says, work not here. Don't do anything here. That's what unbelief said. Don't
do it here. And unbelief keeps us from seeing the glory of God
that is in his works, even though they are wrought before our very
eyes many times. We're blind as to what God's
doing, and it's simply because our hearts are full of unbelief.
God's working, God's doing something, but we can't see it. And we're
running around saying we wish we could see the hand of God
sometime or other, and the hand of God is right there in our
very midst doing something, but we don't have anything. We can't
trust God with our lives, with our situations. Now the glory
that is wrapped up in God's works can be perceived only by faith.
And I believe that. I think that a generation of
faithless people will not see the hand of God, will not see
that God is working. And there are so many things
around here that, you know, the Lord Jesus, I thought about often
how that he was a root out of dry ground. and how that characterizes
everything that Jesus Christ does and that somehow or other
blinds people to the fact that God is at work and that He's
doing something. They said, well, He's just a
root out of dry ground where there's nothing about Him. That
ought to turn our head, but my friend, if you've got faith to
see it, God is doing some things. God is working. Faith honors
God by taking Him at His word, and God honors faith by revealing
His glory to it. God reveals His glory to faith.
You believe God. You may not be able to do anything
else, but you believe God, my friend. Now, our Lord then tells
us plainly that if we would believe, we would see the glory of God.
Just in proportion as we believe the Lord Jesus Christ, we will
see the glory of God in all things. In proportion to our believing. Can you believe God? Well now,
let me just say three things here and we'll close. But I want
to point out, we're going to see the glory of God in the salvation
of the sinner, in the salvation of God's elect by Jesus Christ,
if we believe God. If we believe God, if we believe
His Word, if we believe the testimony of Scripture, Holy Scripture,
that God has given us about His Son, we're going to see the glory
of God in the salvation by Christ, our substitute. Now, the glory
of God can be seen, as far as salvation is concerned, by those
who stand, I believe, upon the Mount of Sacrifice. Those who believe that God saves
sinners only by the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, they
see the glory of God in the death of Christ and in God's plan in
sending Him. Looking through the blood of
Christ, slaying upon the cursed tree to make atonement for sin. In the cross of Christ, in His
death as a sinner's substitute, the glory of God is revealed.
God has a way of saving sinners, and that's through the death
of His Son, that's through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And whenever you come to see
that, my friend, you see the glory of God in the death of
Jesus. Now there, I think only there,
mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have
kissed each other, Psalm 85 and verse 10, only at the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the glory of God shines forth
most brilliantly in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ because
there all the glorious attributes of God are plainly revealed. His sovereignty and His grace,
His righteousness and His goodness, His inflexible justice and His
pardoning mercy, His wrath and His everlasting love is all revealed
at the cross. The glory of God is revealed
in Jesus Christ being lifted up as a substitute for sinners. Now if you believe, you'll see
the glory of God in the sacrifice of His Son. If you believe not,
you never can see it. There isn't any way you'll ever
see the glory of God if you do not see it in the sacrifice of
God's only begotten Son on the behalf of His people. Because
there's where it begins, my friend. It's when the veil is taken away
and we see God's glory and God's wisdom and God's mercy in the
salvation of His people. Now isn't that a marvelous thing
that God has a way of saving sinners like you and sinners
like myself? God has a way of doing it. And
He only has one way of doing it. Regardless of what all the
religionists say, He has one way of doing it. And when you
see that, then you see the glory of God. You've seen it. Now reason
may see the doctrine of the cross, but only faith can see the glory
of the cross. Only faith can see the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Only faith, when a man looks
in the face of Jesus Christ, God's Son, God's sent one, God's
anointed one, that one who came into the world to rescue my sinful
soul from eternal everlasting burning only as we look in his
face by faith can we see God's glory in that alright the second
thing is this faith sees the glory of God in his wise and
good providence faith sees the glory of God in his wise and
good providence Well, my friend, Romans 8 and 28, everybody here
knows that verse. It says that, and we know that
all things work together for good to them that love God, to
them who are called according to his purpose. That's a tremendous
verse. Well, faith sees the glory of
God. A man gives his life to the Lord
as a young man. He turns it over to God. He lays
it down at the Lord's feet. He believes in his heart that
God takes his life, that God has taken it and that it's in
the Lord's hands and the outcome and the outworking of all things
in his life that it will be for his good and for the glory of
Almighty God. He believes that. And then all
hell breaks out. This trouble happens, that trouble
happens, this thing comes to pass, that thing comes to pass.
All kinds of serious difficulties in life and problems and what's
a man gonna do? What you gonna do? You gonna
say, well the Lord didn't take my life when I gave it to him.
He didn't do that. I gave it to him and felt he
did and trusted he would but he didn't take it. Therefore
I got all of these problems and all this trouble because God's
left me to myself and God's abandoned me. My friend, that's unbelief.
That's what that is. That's unbelief. I'm telling
you that's unbelief. It's what it is. Faith says that
God is wise and good and His providence is wise and good and
whatever God's gonna do, whatever He will do, whatever He purposes
to do, it'll be alright. You see, my friend, where we
got a problem is that we somehow or other are the, we're the judges
of what's good providence and what's bad providence when there
isn't but one kind of providence and that's good providence. It's
the only kind there is. You got a, maybe you heard this
morning that all these buildings fell
down this morning. They all fell down and were destroyed. This morning you'd say, praise
God, that's a wonderful providence, praise the Lord, okay? So then
next Sunday morning say you hear that all of the houses of worship,
every place where the people of God gather to worship all
over America has suddenly fallen to the ground and the buildings
are all demolished, they're all falling, what would you say?
Well you'd say, well that devil sure had his way this morning.
That's exactly what you'd say probably. But my friend, listen. God's providence is good. It's good. And we have a problem
with that. We got a problem with it. But
we wouldn't praise God for what we heard on the second Sunday,
but we would on the first Sunday. And my friend, what we must do
is come to see that faith will see the glory of God In the wise
and good providence of God, we'll see it in the providence of God.
Now if Martha had only believed, she would have seen the glory
of God in the sickness of her brother and his death as well
as in his resurrection. I read a little note this week.
There's a missionary over in Japan. Timothy Peach is his name. And
he was talking about his, I think it's his brother-in-law. that
he has cancer and he's in terrible shape here and ready to die.
And he was saying in his little paper, he said that his brother-in-law
had seen the glory of God in his sickness and in his death,
which is imminent. He'd seen the glory of God in
it all. And I thought to myself, what a wonderful thing if that
be true. What a wonderful thing. Do you think we'll ever be able
to see the glory of God when we get sick? Do you ever think
we'll be able to see the glory of God when we're on our deathbeds? To see the glory of God in all
of that? To see that and be able to submit ourselves to that and
not be complaining and carrying on and just simply being so miserable
that we won't be able to even give a good testimony or a witness
for the Lord? What do you think? Are we going
to be able to do that? Well, if Martha could have believed
God, well now, child of God, trust your Lord. If you do but
trust Him, you'll see the glory of God in all that He does, and
all that He's doing, and shall hereafter do. You'll see the
glory of God in it. But if you do not trust Him,
you will not see His glory in His providence that He performs
on your behalf. And God is working on your behalf.
Whatever you think, God is working on your behalf. God is for you. if you're his child. God's for
you. You say, boy, don't look that way the way it boils down.
Well, take a look at that tomb over there. It's been dead four
days. It's hopeless. And you say the
same thing. I've said the same thing over
and over again. It's hopeless. It's no use. But
my friend, I want you to know that God's working. Well, the
last thing is that I'll say here is that faith sees God working
and sees his glory in his work. Faith sees His glory in His work. Now the hand of God is not prevented
from working in our midst by our unworthiness. God's hand
is not kept from working in our midst by the multitude of our
sins and our failures. Now that's what you thought.
You thought that if you just a little better that God would
be doing something more. If you just a little better.
If you're just a little better fella, if you're just a little
better woman, if you're just a little better, then God will
be doing something. And it's not by our inabilities
that God is kept from doing anything. It's just simply by our unbelief.
That's what it is, brother. That's exactly what it is. It's
our unbelief. That's the only thing that will keep God from
doing and showing his glory is the unbelief of the hearts of
his people. Well, What wonders God might
perform among us and in us and with us and for us if we only
believed Him, if we only trusted Him. And you know I was thinking
about the widow's barrel of meal, you remember in the Old Testament?
And the barrel was empty. And I thought about that widow
and how that she came day after day to that barrel, that empty
barrel, and would reach in And every time she reached in that
barrel, that empty barrel, there's something in there, and she saw
the glory of God every time she stuck her hand in that barrel,
she saw the glory of God. Just kept on being there. There
was something in that barrel every time she went to it. There
was something in it. And so she saw the glory of God
every time she stuck her hand in. And my friend, the same is
true with you and I if we just believe, just trust God. You
say, I can't figure out how that meal got in that barrel. Forget
that, my friend. That's the glory of God. You
say, I don't know how God ever worked that out. Well, that's
the glory of God. That's His glory that He does
that which is miraculous and unusual and so far and beyond
what we think and what we're able to pray or to ask for or
to think. God's able to do beyond that.
And you say, well, this situation in my life is impossible. Not
with God, it's not. God's got a hold of the situation.
If God gets a hold of the situation, it's not impossible. If God's
got it in his hand, it's not impossible. God can do something. And He will yet do something.
And the more difficult the situation, the more our hope ought to be
increased. Because the more difficult it
is, just that much more glory God's going to get when He does
it. When He straightens the mess out, when He works the situation
out, when He delivers, just that much more glory will God receive.
And so, my friend, this is where we come. This is where we come.
We come right there with Martha. We say, well, if you'd have been
here, it wouldn't have happened. And we say, well, he stinks now,
and there's no need to do anything. Well, my friend, just believe.
Just believe, like that widow did. And keep on sticking your
hand in the barrel. Just keep on going to prayer.
Just keep on believing God. Just keep on trusting Christ. Trust Him. He ought to be trusted. and I hope everyone of you will
say amen. I ought to trust him with my situation because I don't
know how anything could ever be worked out, but if God's involved
in it, then he's got all the wisdom there is. He knows how
to deal with it. There's a poem I ran across a
long time ago. Some of you might even remember
this, but if you don't, or if you do, whichever, I'm going
to read it anyway, and I hope that You'll get some good out
of it. And the title of it is, When is the Time to Trust? When is the time to trust? Listen
to this poem. Is it when all is calm? When
waves the victors psalm of joy and praise? Nay, but the time
to trust is when the waves beat high. When the storm clouds fill
the sky. And prayer is one long cry, O
help and save. When is the time to trust? Is
it when friends are true? Is it when comforts woo? And in all we say and do we meet? But praise? Nay, but the time
to trust is when we stand alone and summer's birds have flown
and every prop is gone all else but God. What is the time to
trust? Is it some future day when you
have tried your way and learned to trust and pray by bitter woe? Nay, but the time to trust is
in this moment's need. Poor, broken, bruised reed Poor
troubled soul, make speed to trust thy God. What is the time
to trust? Is it when hopes beat high, when
sunshine gills the sky, and joy and ecstasy fill all the heart? Nay, but the time to trust is
when our joy is fled, when sorrow bows the head, and all is cold
and dead. all else but God. That's the time to trust. So
Martha, it's time to trust. It's time to trust the Lord.
Father, we thank you for the privilege of preaching your word
this morning and we pray that all of us shall have profited
from this message and that we should all grow and that we should
all be able, our Father, to yield up our hearts and more faith,
more confidence to the, forgive us Lord, again we ask and beg
of all unbelief, and sin in our lives. Cleanse our hearts, we
pray, and strengthen us for your work. And grant us all to be
useful and grant us to be faithful, we pray, to what you've taught
us. We beg it in Jesus' name. Amen.