I asked my wife what Todd just
said, and she said nothing. I'm glad I don't hear well. Last time I preached for Donnie
Bell, it was at the end of the meeting like this, and he said,
well, we've had a good meeting so far, as he was introducing
me. Boy, that was just the encouragement
I needed. It is a great blessing to be here with you all. I was
just thinking about where Paul told Timothy to preach the word
in season and out of season, when it's convenient, when the
audience is wanting to hear the gospel, and when they're not.
What a blessing it is to be able to preach in season. with brethren
that want to hear about Christ. Tim, thank you. I don't know
where you went, but thank you for that clear declaration of
the gospel. Our Lord's sacrificial and substitutionary
death. I was blessed by that. I want
to ask you if you'll turn with me to the book of Mark, chapter
2. When John read this passage last
night, I got a little nervous. But actually, these verses in
Mark chapter 2, I want to read by way of introduction and then
move to John chapter 11. So, Mark chapter 2 verse 15,
And it came to pass that as Jesus sat at meat in his house, I pray that's what's happening
right now. That the Lord is here with us. This is His house. We're sitting
at His feet and we'll be blessed to hear His voice. Many publicans
and sinners sat also together with Jesus and His disciples,
for there were many and they followed Him. And when the scribes
and the Pharisees saw him eat with publicans and sinners, they
said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh
with publicans and sinners? And when Jesus heard it, he saith
unto them, They that are whole have no need of a physician,
but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous,
but sinners. to repentance. My question to you and to me
and the title of this message is, do you need a physician? Are you in need of a doctor?
Will you open your Bibles with me now to John chapter 11. Are you sick? Don't be like me when it comes
to needing to go to the doctor. My first reaction is, I'm okay.
You know, kind of like that self-help book, I'm okay, you're okay.
Well, I'm not okay, and neither are you. My next reaction often
is, well, it's too expensive. I can't afford it. You can't
afford not to. Plus, the bill's already been
paid, as we just heard. Already been paid in full. Well,
one of the things I do when I get sick is I try self-medicating and sometimes that actually aggravates
the symptoms and makes things worse. What are the symptoms of being
sick? What are the symptoms? We're always encouraged when
a person's been sick for an extended time and I talked to Todd A couple
of weeks ago, when Lynn was in the hospital, and he said, well,
she's getting her appetite back. I thought, that's a good thing.
When a person's sick, they lose their appetite. I have to ask
myself, why is it that I don't hunger and thirst after righteousness
as I ought? Why is it that I don't crave
the sincere milk of the Word of God as I ought? Why don't
I have the appetite that I ought to have?" And God says, my hand's
not short that it cannot save, nor is my ear heavy that I cannot
hear. Your sin has separated you from
your God. That's what causes our lack of
appetite, our sin. Another symptom of being sick
is weakness. Weakness. I can relate so much
better with a man who said, Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief,
than I can with what's said about Abraham who staggered not in
unbelief, but was strong in faith, believing God was able to perform
that which He had promised. My faith is weak. Not what it
ought to be. And the reason for that is sin. Sin. Another symptom of being
sick is that our senses become dull. We don't see as clearly
as we ought to see. The sweetness of taste is not
as it ought to be. The smells of the aroma of the
gospel are not as they ought to be. All because of sin. Do you have the symptoms of sickness? Do you need a physician? One
of the most devastating things about sin is that it's contagious. I fear that my sin will affect
others. And it always does. It always
does. We never sinned ourselves. Sin
is contagious, just like leprosy. It's a contagious disease. I would ask you and ask myself
this morning, are you a sinner? Do you need a doctor? The Lord
said I came righteous. I came not the well don't need
a physician. I didn't come to save the righteous. Are you a
sinner? You ask somebody that and they
say, well, yeah, I'm a sinner. Oh, so you're a God-hater. Well, no, I'm not that bad of
a sinner. while we were at enmity with
God. Say, well, you're a murderer
then. No, no, I'm not quite that bad of a sinner. We just heard about what our
sin did in the lowest form of murder that ever took place on
the face of the earth. So you're an idolater, a blasphemer. Oh, no, no, I'm not that bad
of a sinner. Well, then you're not a sinner. You're not a sinner. You say, well, I don't have those
symptoms. Well, you know, the worst kind of sickness of all
is the one that has no symptoms. Truth is, dead people have no
symptoms of sin. None whatsoever. See, in order
to sense the symptoms of sins, you have to be made alive. And in fact, the most tragic
thing of all is when we hear the stories of a seemingly healthy
young athlete who collapses and dies suddenly on the field of
play only to discover that he had a congenital heart defect
that was never detected by symptoms. Now there's your and I problem.
That's our problem. We have a congenital heart defect. The problem is that open heart
surgery is not the solution. The Lord's not going to take
our hearts and fix them. He's got to give us a new heart.
He's got to take out. We've got to have a heart transplant.
That's our condition before God. If you don't see yourself that
way, then I guess there won't be anything of real relevance
or encouragement in this passage from John chapter 11 for you. Here we have the story of two
sisters and a brother who lived in Bethany, just a bedroom community
to Jerusalem where our Lord often stayed when He was in Jerusalem.
very, very dear friends of our Lord, whom he had spent much
time with. Scripture tells us where our
Lord was. He was in the place where John had been baptizing,
and he receives a message from Martha and Mary. The message is very simple. Lord,
behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. Now, there's two words
in the word of God for sickness. One of them has to do with the
illness itself, and the other one has to do with the consequence
of that illness. And this is the strengthened
form of the latter word, which just simply means that, literally
translated, what this message said was, Lord, behold, he whom
thou lovest is dying. He's dying. In fact, he was already
dead when the message got to our Lord. Say, how do you know
that? Well, like I said, Scripture tells us where the Lord was and
where Bethany was in relationship to that. It's a one-day journey.
And the Lord remained where he was after having received this
message for three days. And then when he got back to
Bethany, What did he find out? Lazarus had been dead for four
days. Matter of fact, the Lord responds
to the messenger to the disciples by telling them, Lazarus is asleep. And they said, well Lord, if
he sleepeth, he'll rise again, he'll be okay. And then he spoke
plainly to them and told them, Lazarus is dead. When the message of Lazarus'
sickness came to the Lord, Lazarus is already dead. Already dead. Our Lord said, this sickness
is not unto death. I'm so thankful for that. He
said, it's not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the
Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now in this one verse
of Scripture, look with me in John chapter 11 verse 4, when
Jesus heard that, He said, This sickness is not unto death, but
for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified.
And the previous verse, Lord behold, he whom thou lovest is
sick. We discover four things that
are of great encouragement to sick folk. The first thing is
it tells us where to go for help. Where to go for help if you're
sick. A physician that can help you. You know, if you get sick
seriously, you want to find out who the best physician is that
can tend to your illness. This physician has never lost
a patient, not one. It's the Lord. This passage of scripture tells
us what to say when we get to Him, when we come before Him.
Have you ever gone to a doctor and you had a list of things
you wanted to talk about but you didn't write them all down
and you get home and your spouse says, well, did you ask about
something? No, I forgot. Forgot. What do we say? Sometimes it's
a little unnerving to discuss things with a physician. What
do we say when we go before the great physician, the Lord? One
word. Behold. Behold. On what grounds do we have the
sure evidence that he'll see us? He whom thou lovest is sick. And what's the result of having
gone to Him for help? His glory. His glory. Now, two things I want to say
about physical sickness before I apply this portion of Scripture
to the more serious problem of spiritual sickness, sin sickness. The first one is that physical
sickness is no sign of God's displeasure or evidence of His
judgment any more than health and prosperity is proof of His
blessing. He whom thou lovest is sick. Listen to what Solomon said in
Ecclesiastes chapter 9, No man knoweth either love or hatred
by all that is before him. For all things come alike to
all, to the just, to the unjust, to the righteous, to the wicked,
to the clean, to the unclean. Some people live in prosperity
and some live in poverty. Some live weak and sickly and
some live strong and healthy. You cannot tell by our outward
circumstances whether or not God is being gracious and merciful,
whether we're vessels of wrath, fitted for destruction, or vessels
of mercy for his glory. You cannot tell that by your
outward circumstances. Paul said, I have learned that
whatever state I am in to be content. Whether I base or whether
I bound, I know that all things are possible through Christ who
strengthened me. The preacher who says that sickness,
or anybody for that matter, that says that sickness is a sign
of unbelief, well, To put it kindly, they have no clue what
they're talking about. They're ignorant of the scriptures
and of the power of God, for there's no evidence in the Word
of God that that is true. The second thing I would say
about physical sickness is that if you're not sick and dying
now, and I assume that most of us are not, you will be soon. Lazarus isn't here today. Lazarus
got sick again, not long after this, and he died. He died. You and I are mortal sinners
headed toward an eternal destination at a breakneck speed. At a breakneck
speed. My granddaughter, when she was
little, on her first airplane flight, oh, she was so thrilled
of the sensation of taking off and watching the land, the speed
of that plane as it took off. Little thing. She got up to 30,000
feet and she looked over to my daughter and she said, Mommy?
Looking out the window, she said, Mommy, we've stopped. Not knowing that she was flying
at over 500 miles an hour towards her destination and would be
there very soon. From her perspective, it seemed
as if she had stopped. Isn't that the way we are? We
think time's just creeping along when in fact we are traveling
at a supersonic speed toward eternity. If you're not sick
and dying now, you will be soon. You will be soon. I got an email from Janet about
a year ago. Never met Janet before. It was
the most unusual email I'd ever received. She said, Brother Greg,
would you consider preaching the gospel at my funeral? Of course, I called her right
away. Found out she lived about two and a half hours from us. And I drove to see her a couple
times within two or three months. She was in late stages of cancer
within two or three months. The Lord took her home. Last
thing she said to Jack, her husband, Janet was 57 years old, been
married since she was 17, 40 years her and Jack had been married.
Last thing she said to Jack was, Jack, honey, God's going to provide
for you. And you'll be coming behind me
real soon. Jack's been driving two and a
half hours and attending services for the last year in our church,
and I've just been so thankful. So thankful. You'll be following
me soon, honey. The Lord will provide. Look at verse 25 in John chapter
11. Jesus said unto her, I am the
resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. This sickness is not unto death,
not for the believer, but for the glory of God, that the Son
of God might be glorified thereby. You see those last three words?
That's for you and that's for me. Believest thou this? Do you believe this? Look what Martha said. Yay, Lord!
I believe. that thou art the Christ, the
Messiah, the Anointed One, the One promised of God from the
beginning of time that would come and bear the iniquity of
God's people, you are the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world. Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest
is sick, Where do we go when we're sick? When we're dying,
men, which you are, and I am, where do we go? The answer is
very simple. To the Lord. He's the only one
that can help us. The only one. To the Lord. And the truth is that no one
can call Jesus the Christ Lord with any understanding without
the Holy Spirit. People call Him Lord all the
time. Yeah, they honor Him with their lips, but their hearts
are far from Him. They call Him Lord, but they
strip Him of His deity. They deny Him of His glory. Turn
with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 12. Look at verse 3. Wherefore, I give you to understand. Calling Jesus Lord with understanding. When a person says they're going
to make Jesus Lord of their life, I know they have no understanding
of who He is. You can't make him something
that God Almighty has already made him to be. He is Lord over
the living and of the dead. So what is this? We call him
Lord with understanding that no man speaketh by the Spirit
of God calleth Jesus accursed. And that no man can say that
Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Ghost. If a person says that Jesus Christ
suffered on Calvary's cross the wrath of God's judgment for the
sins of men who will ultimately end up in hell, then what they are saying is
that God's not satisfied with what the Lord Jesus Christ did.
If God's not satisfied with what the Lord Jesus Christ did, then
there can be no resurrection. The resurrection is not a historical
event as we heard about the crucifixion. The resurrection is the proof
positive that God gives to His people that He's satisfied with
the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ for all the sins of all
of God's people. No other sign would be given
unto you. A wicked and perverse generation seeketh after a sign.
The sign of Jonah is the sign that God's given to his church
to prove that God Almighty is satisfied with the sacrifice
of Christ for all the sins of all of God's people. Not one
drop of his blood was wasted. People say Christ died for everybody.
If Christ died for everybody, then God wasn't satisfied. If
God was not satisfied, there can be no resurrection. If there
is no resurrection, then the Lord Jesus Christ is accursed. Anathema. Read that verse again. No man speaking by the Spirit
of God calleth Jesus accursed. No child of God who has the Spirit
of God, apart from which you cannot know God, would even dare
suggest that the Lord Jesus Christ died on Calvary's cross for the
sins of all men, that's calling Him accursed. He's calling Him
accursed. And no man can call Him the Lord.
Not with understanding. Not with understanding. Not believing
that He really reigns sovereign over all the affairs of men.
that He does with the armies of heaven and with the inhabitants
of the earth whatsoever He wills. He always has His way. He does
what He wants, with whom He wants, however He wants, when He wants,
and He always does it right. He's Lord. I love that. He's God. Don't strip Him of
His deity. Don't make Him less than He is.
Don't honor Him with your lips and believe something that's
contrary to what He's revealed Himself to be. He's God. He's got the sovereign right
to choose a people according to His own will. Before the foundations
of the world, not looking down through the corridors of time,
determining who He'll choose based upon some decision they're
going to make. No. Apart from anything other than
the sacrifice of His dear Son, He chose a people. He dipped
His finger, if you will, in the blood of His own Son and wrote
the names of His elect indelibly in the Lamb's Book of Life. He's
Lord. He's got the right to do that. No man can stay his hand or say
unto him, what doest thou? He's the potter. We're the clay. He's got the right to make of
the same lump of clay some vessels of honor, some of dishonor. He's got the right to fashion
men from the dust of the earth and make them to be vessels of
destruction. Vessels of wrath. He's Lord. When He bowed His mighty head
on Calvary's cross and said, it is finished, He accomplished
everything He came to do. He cannot fail. He's not frustrated. He's Lord. He's Lord. When He went back into glory,
He took with Him the names of those for whom He lived and died,
presented them before the Father, and He ever lives to make intercession
for His elect. He's Lord. He's not going to
lose one of His sheep, not a single one of them. He's Lord. Lord. What did Martha and Mary know
about Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ. They knew He was the
Son of God. And they approached Him as Lord. Lord. Are you sick this morning? Do you need a physician? It's
who He is. It's who He is. Just go to Him and address Him
as Lord. Bow before Him and say, Lord,
You've got the sovereign right to do whatsoever You will. I
am completely dependent upon Your mercy and Your grace. You're
Lord. He makes His people willing in
the day of His power. He keeps them. He's Lord. He's Lord. Never, never has He
lost a patient. What do we say? When we come before the sovereign
Lord of glory, what do we say? How do we present our case? What do we say to Him? One word. All you have to say is one word.
If you're sick, go before the Lord and just say, Lord, behold. Lord, behold. Martha and Mary
didn't try to suggest. As we do, we go to the doctor,
well, I think you need to do this or that. I'm sure doctors
get frustrated with patients that think they know. We have just enough knowledge
to be dangerous most of the time, don't we? WebMD and all the other
stuff. I've talked to doctors. I know
they are. They're frustrated when people come, they think
they know all that they need. Don't try to self-diagnose. Don't
try to suggest to the physician what he needs to do. Just say, Lord, would you look
upon me? Strip off all your clothes. Stand before Him naked. And say,
Lord, behold. Behold. Lord, have mercy on me. Romans. Such a clear declaration of the
Gospel. The first 11 chapters of that book are, aren't they?
And then when the transition is made in chapter 12, verse
1, what does the Lord say? What's He say? I beseech you
therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present yourself
a living sacrifice, wholly acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable
service. Only then, only then will you
prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God. Lord, behold... Lord, remember
me. We read that passage earlier
in the service. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. Lord, you see me for what I am.
You know everything there is about me. One of the things I've learned
about children and teenagers, don't ask your kids why they
did what they did. They don't know why they did
what they did. But you know why they did what they did? Because
they wanted to and they could. And that's exactly why you do
what you do. You know, we try to figure everything
out, don't we? Lord, here I am. Lord, no excuses. We've been playing the blame
game ever since our father Adam pointed at his wife, didn't he? And pointed at God. Lord, behold. Lord, here I am, in all my uncleanness,
and all of my nakedness, and all of my need. Lord, I don't
know why I do what I do, I don't know why I think what I think. But if you'll take notice of
me, if you'll just look upon me with mercy, and with kindness,
and with grace, Lord, that'll be sufficient. If you'll just
remember me, This tells us where to go and
it tells us what to say, doesn't it? And this word, behold, is
a word of urgency and earnestness and sincerity, isn't it? We're
not playing games with God. God, this is life and death.
I am flying at a supersonic speed towards eternity. Lord, I'm a
sinner. I'm in need of a Savior. I'm
in need of a righteousness that I cannot provide for myself.
Lord, I'm sick unto death. Lord, behold me. Lord, take notice
of me now. Today is the day of salvation.
The Scripture never says, you know, you need to think about
this. You need to consider, go home and process this. No, when
God commands, He says, come right now. Right this very minute. Come. Right now. Behold, Lord, notice me right
here, right where I'm at. David put it like this in Psalm
69, Save me, O God, for the waters are come unto my soul. I sink
in deep mire where there is no standing. I am come into the
deep waters. The floods overflow me. I am
weary of my crying. Lord, just behold me. God is our refuge and our strength,
the very present help in time of trouble. Are you in
trouble? The Lord of glory is able. He's able. He's Lord. Yeah, I
know what the world says. The world says, well, He's willing
to save, but He's really not able unless you let Him do what
He wants to do. No. He's able. I'm persuaded
of that. He's able to keep that which
I've committed unto him against that day. I've got all my eggs
in one basket. The only hope I have is in the life, death,
resurrection, ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ as my advocate
before God. The only way I can be accepted
before Him, the only way my sins can be put away once and for
all, is by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Lord, behold me right now. When the people murmured and
rebelled against Moses, the scripture says, he cried unto the Lord. When Hezekiah was threatened
by those letters from the Assyrian king of annihilation, the Scripture
says that he took the letters and just spread them out before
the Lord. Lord, just look. Just look upon my case. Lord,
I don't know what to do. He's touched by the feelings
of our infirmities. He's full of a compassion. He's
acquainted with our griefs. Cast your burden upon him. Be
like blind Bartimaeus. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy
upon me. Lord, just look at me. Look at
me over here. In all my rags and all my inability,
Lord, I can't see, I can't do anything for myself. I'm just
a blind beggar. Lord, behold. On what grounds do we have assurance
that He'll hear us? You know, really good doctors
are hard to get in to see. I have a doctor, we contacted,
well, he's not taking any new patients. He's got all he can
handle. On what grounds do we have any
assurance from the Word of God that the great physician, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the lover of sinners, the healer of souls,
will take us in and see us? Did Martha and Mary say, Lord,
Lazarus, you remember Lazarus? Lord, he's such a faithful disciple. Lord, he loves you. Lord, we've
housed you in our home. Lord, we're here for you. Lord,
the one that loves you is sick. Is that the grounds upon which
they made their plea that the Lord Jesus Christ would come
and do something to help them? What are the grounds upon which
we cry? The severity of our sickness?
Truth is, you have no idea how sick you are. You say, well, you don't know.
My sin's too bad. It's worse than you think. It's
worse than you think. You have no idea how sick you
are. We're clueless. Do we approach the Lord based
on the severity of our sickness? What about the sincerity of our
plea? Lord, I mean it. I mean it. Lord, I promise you,
if you'll help me, I'll serve you. Is that the grounds upon
which we come? Can we expect God to respond
based on that? but about the guarantee of our
commitment, or the earnest of our love, the devotion of our
faith, or the extent of our sacrifice. If we're sincere, surely the Lord won't be able
to... They didn't say, Lord our brother,
Lord your disciple. The appeal for help was based
upon one thing. He whom thou lovest is sick. It's the first cause of our salvation. Those whom he foreknew, those
whom he sovereignly placed his love on, and he's loved his people
with an everlasting love. Never been a time when he didn't
love his people. Those that He did foreknew, He did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son, and them that He
predestinated, He called. He called. Having loved His own which were
in the world, He loved them to the end. To the end. The only hope that you and I
have, that God Almighty would have mercy upon us and put away
our sin, is His love for us. Herein is love. John describes
love, he defines it. He says, herein is love, not
that we loved God, but that He loved us and gave His Son as
a propitiation of our sins. The wrath of God was satisfied. Sin's been put away. Why? For God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son. It's the love of God upon which
we... Our love is so feeble. It's so
fickle. It is so far short of what it
ought to be. His love It's infinite. It's eternal. It's affectionate. And it's effectual. It is. Who do we go to if we're sick?
The Lord. What do we say? Lord, just behold
me. Don't try to explain to Him what
you did and why you did it and what you're going to do and how
you're going to be better. Just don't do any of that. Just,
Lord, behold me. Lord, here I am just stripped
naked before you. Here I am. No excuses, no... And Lord, based on your love
for me, based on your love for me, would you hear my case? The
only claim I have to access into your presence is that you would
love me. You would love me. What is the result of going before the Lord, saying,
Behold, and asking His mercy based solely upon His love for
us? What's the result? This sickness
is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of
God might be glorified thereby. Lord, why was this man born blind?
Was it because of his parents' sin or because of his sin? Oh, no. You err. But that the Son
of God might be glorified thereby. You see, in the final analysis,
everything is for the glory of God. And here's the glorious
truth. His greatest glory is our greatest
need and our greatest good. This sickness is not unto death,
it's for the glory of God. You see, the truth is that where
sin abounds, grace does much more abound. Adam. knew more about the glory
of God after the fall than he did before. So Adam walked with the Lord
in the cool of the day in the garden, and he had sweet fellowship
with the Lord. It wasn't until he tried to cover
his naked with his own hands, his own righteousness, his own
works, The Lord called him out. Can
you imagine the terror and the shock that gripped the heart
of Adam when he saw death for its first time? He saw the Lord
God take a hold of that sweet, innocent, spotless lamb that
he had obviously petted and loved and cared for and named and took
that lamb and drew the sword of his justice, and slaughtered
that lamb, and shed its blood right there before Adam, and
skinned that animal, and took the fleece of that animal, and
covered the nakedness of Adam." Adam knew nothing of the grace
of God until after sin. Now, I'm not justifying sin,
I'm just saying that this sickness is not unto death, but for the
glory of God. You see, the truth is that our
sin... Why did God allow sin? Why'd he do it? To show forth
his glory. Where sin abounds, grace does
much more abound. We don't know anything about
God's mercy. You know, you say, well Adam
knew about his love, but he didn't know about his grace. No, Adam
didn't even understand the fullness of his love until after he sinned.
Adam didn't know is much about any aspect of the nature of God
before He sinned as He did afterwards. We really don't understand the
glory of God. until He makes us to be sinners
in His presence and shows us what He did when He sheathed
the sword of His justice into the heart of His own Son and
shed His precious blood on Calvary's cross, demonstrating His love
and His grace and His glory and His mercy for sinners. What I'm saying to you is that
your sin is an opportunity for God's glory. This sickness is not on death,
but for the glory that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
You see that in verse 5 of our text, or verse 4? That the Son
of God might be glorified thereby. Exodus chapter 33, and I close. Would you turn with me there,
please? So Moses, by Exodus chapter 33,
had seen a lot of demonstrations of God's glory. And he had. He saw the bush that burned and
it wasn't consumed. He heard the audible voice of
God. He observed the plagues in Egypt. He saw the slaying of the Passover
lamb, and the blood on the door, and the death angel come through,
and he saw the firstborn of all the Egyptians slaughtered. He
saw the Red Sea divided, and the children of Israel safely
transported across, and Pharaoh and his army destroyed in that
same watery grave. He saw the mountain quake. He
had been already on the mountain by Exodus 33. He had received
the law of God. He saw the manna come down from
heaven every day. The water spring forth from the
rock. He saw the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud
by day. Moses had seen much of God's glory. But something happens
in Exodus chapter 32. Aaron, while Moses is on the
mountain, leads the children of Israel in idolatry. He leads them to fashion out
of their gold a golden calf. The children of Israel sin grievously
before God. And Moses comes down and God
commands Moses to lead the Levites to slaughter those who had sinned
There was a great sin in the camp for the first time. And
Moses goes back before the Lord. And he says, Lord, is there any
way we can find grace in your sight? Lord, if I found grace
in your sight, Lord, lead us. Lord, don't let us leave this
place unless you go with us. The first mention of grace. is found in Exodus chapter 33
in the life of Moses. There's no mention of grace. When was grace needed? When was
grace needed? When sin abounded. When sin abounded,
grace was needed. And the Lord assured Moses, I'll
be gracious to you, and I'll lead you. And Moses said, look
at verse 18 of Exodus chapter 33, and Moses said, I beseech
thee, Lord, Show me thy glory. Show me thy glory. You say, well,
Moses, you've seen the glory of God, surely. All these fantastic
miracles that God has demonstrated right before your eyes, surely
you've seen His glory. And Moses says, Lord, show me
Your glory. And the Lord said, I will make all my goodness pass
before Thee. That will be my glory. Why callest
thou me good, for there is none good but God? What is it to have the goodness
of God pass before you? It's to see the Lord Jesus Christ
for who He is as your Savior and as your Lord. I'll cause
my goodness to pass before you, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before you, and I will be gracious to whom I will be
gracious, and I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy.
Here's who I am, Moses. I'm going to reveal myself to
you. I'm going to show you my glory in my salvation. And here's my glory in salvation.
Salvation's of the Lord. I'll have mercy upon whom I'll
have. I save in the manner in which I save. Here's my name,
Moses. Here's who I am. You ask for
my glory, I'm going to show you my glory. Look at verse 20. And he said,
Thou canst not see my face. For there shall no man see me
and live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place, there
is a place by me, and thou shalt stand upon a rock." Oh, the rock of ages. The rock. The rock that the builders
rejected that became a stumbling stone out in the yard has become
the head of the corner. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
said to the disciples upon this rock, what rock? That I am the
Christ, the Son of the living God. We believe that about you. Who do you say that I am, Peter?
Who do you say that I am? Not what other men say, who do
you say that I am? Thou art the Christ, the one
Son of God. the Son of the Living God. Blessed
art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood has not revealed
this unto you. My Father which is in heaven has made this known
unto you. And upon this rock, the rock of who I am and what
I've accomplished, I'll build my church. Moses, I've got a
rock for you to stand on. Stand right there. And when the
storms of life come, that house will stand. It'll stand. And when the storm of God's wrath
and judgment comes in the day of wrath upon this earth, when
all sin will be punished, those who are standing upon the rock
will be safe. And it shall come to pass, while
my glory passes by, the glory of God is seen in the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This sickness is not unto death.
It's for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified
thereby. Your sin's not unto death. Your physical illness is not
unto death. You believe in me, you shall never die. But it's
for my glory. It's for my glory. That I will
put thee in the cleft of the rock. I'm gonna hide you in Christ. Our only acceptance before God
is found in the beloved, in the beloved. I'm gonna hide you in
that rock, and I'm gonna cover you with my hand, my hand. Your
hand is not sufficient, but the right hand of God, that's a covering,
that's a covering that'll cover every sin. I'm going to take away my hand
for a moment. And Moses, you're going to see
my back parts, but my face shall not be seen. You know what that
means? To see the glory of God, we look
back to where he's been. And we don't know where he's
going. Truth is, you have no idea what
God's got ordained for you tomorrow. No idea. Next week, next day,
and don't want to know. Don't want to know. We walk by
faith, not by sight. We don't know what God's got
in store for us. But we know where He's been.
We know something of His back part. We can look back 2,000
years to that cruel cross where the Son of God was suspended
between heaven and earth as a sinner substitute and bore in his body
all the sins of all of God's people and suffered the full
wrath of God's judgment in order to satisfy divine justice once
and for all. We can look back to that. Moses,
I'm gonna let you see where I've been. And that's my glory. And that's
your hope of salvation. Are you sick unto death? Simple prayer from the heart
by the Spirit of God. Lord, that's who you go to. What do you say? Behold, just
look at me. On what grounds do you have hope
that he'll hear you and heal you? His love for you. What's the result of your sin,
sickness, your physical sickness, all of your maladies, all the
things to which He provides the only hope of salvation? What's
the solution? The glory of God. And His greatest
glory is our greatest good and our greatest need. Can you pray that prayer? Do
you need to pray that prayer? Pastor.