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Peter, chapter one.
First Peter chapter one.
In verse 17.
And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons, judges according to every man's work past the time of your sojourning here in fear. For as much as you know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your Father's, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot, who was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest.
In these last times for you, should we ask Lorde Blessing?
John's Gospel, Chapter 11.
The chapter comes before my soul in connection with the reading meeting or the prayer meeting that we had.
In which we prayed for a number who are going through trials in their lives.
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And the verse that particularly came before my heart in the prayer meeting was He whom thou lovest is sick.
It's a great thing when a person is in a trial to have the sense in the soul that the Lord is with them in it. And we have in John 11 an instance, a wonderful instance in the Word, where the Lord draws near to those who were in a trial, if you will, and enters into the trial with them and in sympathy with them in it. And I believe we, it's well for our souls to see the Lord in that way.
Reading the whole chapter.
You stop when you.
We should at least get to Lazarus being raised I think.
John's Gospel.
Chapter 11.
Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus of Bethany.
The town of Mary and her sister Martha. It was that Mary.
Which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair. Whose brother Lazarus was sick. Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, him whom thou lovest is sick. 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 thereby.
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister.
And Lazarus and he had heard therefore that he was sick. He abode 2 days still in the same place where He was. Then after that, saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judea again. His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee, and go as thou thither. Again Jesus answered, Are there not 12 hours in the day?
If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, but he seeth the light of this world.
But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. These things said He, And after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. Then set his disciples Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. Howbeit Jesus spake of his death. But they thought that he had spoken off ticking up rest in sleep.
Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead.
And I am glad, for your sakes that I was not there to be intent.
You may believe. Nevertheless let us go unto him Then said Thomas, which is called Idamus unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him. Then when Jesus came, he found that he had laid in the grave four days already. Now Bethany was was 9 unto Jerusalem, about 15 furlongs of.
And many of the Jews came to Martha and Mary to comfort them concerning their brother. Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met him. But Mary sat still in the house. Then set Martha unto Jesus. Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. But I know that even now, whatsoever thou wilt ask of God, God will give it thee.
Jesus saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. 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. Believeth thou this she saith unto him, Lord, I believe.
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That thou art the Christ, the Son of God, which should come into the world.
And when she had so said, she went her way, and called Mary her sister, secretly, saying, The Master is come, and calleth for thee. As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly, and came unto him. Now Jesus was not yet coming to the town, but was in the place where Martha met him. The Jews then, which were with her in the house, and comforted her when they saw Mary.
That she rose up hastily and went out, followed her, saying, She goeth unto the grave to weep there. And then when Mary was come where Jesus was, and saw him, she fell down at his feet, saying unto him, Lord, if thou hast been here, my brother had not died. When Jesus therefore saw her weeping, and the Jews also weeping, which came with her.
He groaned in the Spirit, and was troubled, and said, Where have ye laid him? Then said unto him, Lord, come and see. And Jesus wept, and then set the Jews. Behold how he loved them. And some of them said, Could not this man which opened the eyes of the blind have caused that even this man should not have died? Jesus therefore again.
Groaning in himself cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone laid upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone Martha, the sister of him that was dead, sayeth unto him, Lord, By this time he stinketh, for he had been dead 4 days. Jesus said unto her, and say, said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou shouldst see the glory, glory of God.
Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father, I thank Thee that Thou hast heard me, and I knew that Thou hearest me always, But because of the people which stand by, I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus.
Come forth, and he that was dead came forth abound, hand and foot, with grave clothes, and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Lose him, and let him go. Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed on him, but some of them went their ways to the Pharisees.
And told them what things Jesus hath done. Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a counsel, and said, What do we? For this man doeth many miracles. If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and nation. And one of them named Caiaphas, being the high priest the same year, said unto them.
Ye know nothing at all, nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perished not. And this speak he not of himself, but being high priest that year he prophesized that Jesus should die for that nation and not for the nation only, but that also he should gather together in one.
The children of God that were scattered abroad, then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put him to death. Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews, but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Ephraim, and there continue with his disciples. And the Jews pass over was night at hand, and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem.
Before the Passover to purify themselves, then sought they for Jesus, and speak among themselves as they stood in the temple. What think ye that he will not come to the feast? Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment that if any man knew where he were, he should show it, that they might take him.
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That when this trial comes into the life of.
Martha and Mary.
That prior to the trial there had been.
A personal, close relationship between their own souls and the Lord.
And as a result of that, they had some knowledge in their hearts of who He was and what He meant to them and what they meant to him. And consequently, when the trial comes, immediately their thoughts and their hearts turn to Himself concerning that trial. And so they call for him. And so it is in our lives when trials come.
If there has been prior to the trial, The Walking with the Lord in a relationship with Himself, whether the trial is upon our own person or someone we love, then immediately the heart and the thoughts turn to the Lord with a sense of Himself caring about it.
And sometimes we hear the expression nobody cares. They didn't say that at all. They immediately thought about. And in fact, they send a message to make known the news of the trial to the one that.
They knew cared more than cared he loved.
Lord Jesus was here and walked amongst men. There were very few homes really where the Lord Jesus was welcome.
It tells us the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head. We read later on in this very gospel every man went to his own house. Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. And so there were very few homes where the Lord Jesus was really welcome. But there was at least one home where on a number of occasions we read that he delighted to turn his footsteps, perhaps weary in the pathway as a man.
And sit down in the company of those who refreshed His spirit. You know we think.
I think it's interesting to think of it in that light because so often we think of the blessing that was received by these three individuals in having the Lord Jesus in their homes. And certainly if we have in our homes the Lord Jesus as that unseen guest welcome in our homes from day-to-day, we receive a blessing in our souls, our own souls, and for our families and for those that are under our roof.
But to think of how the Lord Jesus valued it, His heart was often refreshed, I say, in the presence of those that loved Him in a world where for the most part, he was rejected and cast out from the very beginning.
And so to think of his portion, I believe really encourages our hearts and brethren, I might just say as we embark on this chapter and we get a little glimpse into this home and the sorrow that came in on this occasion, is the Lord Jesus really a welcome guest in our homes? It's the delight of his heart to have that proper place in our hearts and in our in our homes. And so how good to be exercised.
We're here to enjoy these meetings. We've come from our homes. We've left difficulties and sorrows behind for the moment perhaps. But when we go back, if the Lord leaves us here, is the Lord Jesus going to have his heart refreshed by being that welcome guest in our home, in every situation and every day?
Very striking here. I've enjoyed in my own soul that it doesn't say where the Lord Jesus was. It just says here that they sent for him. They sent in verse three. Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold whom thou lovest is sick. And so when there was that communion in there with the Lord, that occupation with himself has already been said. They thought immediately of their blessed Lord, that one who.
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Had that place in their hearts and the place in the home, and they knew where he was. And so it's lovely for us to just have that sense in our own souls of where the Lord is and to come into His presence and to seek to be there.
I'll just mention too that I've enjoyed this. Is that in Bethany? Here it means the House of affliction and Lazarus means the help of God. And so you might think that why is it that a man called Lazarus the help of God?
Would be ill, but he's a picture, I believe, of Israel and how.
There was that sickness, it was sin and needed to be dealt with and there was, it had brought in death and sorrow. And but the Lord Jesus here sees Lazarus as a man beloved, and he identifies the town of Bethany with the household of faith. It wasn't identified as some sort of a merchant city or something like that. But he sees this town of Lazarus and Mary and Martha. He identifies the town as being that town that had that household in it.
With those that he loved, who knew where he was, that had a conscious sense of where he was.
Trial The first word out of Martha's mouth that she sends to him is the word Lord.
It's very significant, brethren, she doesn't say Jesus, he whom thou lovest is sick.
But she says, Lord, to whom thou lovest is sick, and when there's a trial, comes into the life.
It's extremely important that the first sense in the soul when redressing the Lord about it is His authority in it.
Lord, it's acknowledgment that He has the absolute and supreme rights.
In connection with every trial. And so she immediately submits herself.
To that authority in the manner in which she addresses him and introduces him into the trial that he is going to share with her and go through with her the sorrow of it. As she weeps, so he will weep in it. But Even so, the first point of addressing it has to be because if it's otherwise, then the relationship isn't on the right footing.
To be with the Lord in it. It could be on some other basis that.
You ought to do it, or this is the right thing, or whatever it is, it doesn't matter. The 1St and important point is that in such we come and we say Lord.
I think it's lovely too, that it says very plainly that Lord Jesus loved. He whom thou lovest is sick. Then we are all loved of the Lord. But it's important to see that even though we're loved of the Lord, the Lord may allow us to become sick, but there's a reason for it. We find a very lovely reason here. Why?
Lazarus was allowed to be sick.
And he said plainly, this, this sickness is not unto death. But another thing that very precious to me is that fifth verse where it says Jesus loved Martha. See, her name is put first. Remember, she's the one that the Lord Jesus chided a bit with because Martha said of her sister.
Are you going to leave me and me to serve alone?
Speak to Marian ever to help me, but here you would have thought perhaps after that.
Martha wasn't loved as much because of the fact that the Lord Jesus had to tide a bit with her as He loved Mary. But here we have her put first. He and Mary is not even named in that fifth verse. Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
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I've always thought that's wonderful that the Lord let us know that he he not only loved Mary because Mary was a wonderful sister, but he loved Martha too.
Important, distant, and helpful in the trials and difficulties of life to move again, as I say, beyond what things mean to us and to move beyond ourselves. Because so often when a trial arises in our lives, the initial reaction may be, well, I've tried to please the Lord, I love the Lord, and He's allowed this in my life. Why has God allowed this? Why has the Lord allowed this when I've tried to be faithful and I've tried to serve the Saints and so on?
Martha might have thought this. She had served the Lord. She had to have a rebuke. That's true. Martha had some lessons to learn which the Lord so graciously sought to teach her. But it's interesting that in the 10th of Luke, where you have that incident that brother, our brother alluded to, you find there that it was the House of Martha. A certain woman named Martha received her, him into her home. Seems to me that she was the one who was responsible for that household.
It was her house she Fano felt, no doubt felt responsible in connection with the Lord Jesus being a guest there and so on. And so she might have felt later on when this trial arose. Well, here I've tried to serve the Lord, I've entertained him in my home. I've tried to keep this household together and keep it going on for the Lord's glory and so on. But is that what Martha did? No, I know Martha had some lessons to learn, but I love to read the few references we have to Martha because to look beyond sometimes what she said and did and to see that she really was in the enjoyment of the love of the Lord Jesus for her.
She did appreciate that, she did understand that. And so she doesn't say to the Lord, well, Lord, I've tried to love you and serve you, and this is what you've allowed. No, she said, Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick. She had an understanding that the Lord Jesus loved her brother, that he loved her. And then as you say, it's confirmed to us by the Scripture itself. He loved Martha. And I'm sure as Martha came to him and she said these words that have been brought before us.
It touched his heart too. He appreciated Martha coming to him again. She had some lessons to learn. She didn't understand what was really going on here and so on. But just the fact that she came as Brother Dawn said, she addressed him as Lord. She claimed his love for her brother, how much it meant to her. He did indeed love Martha, he loved Lazarus. Why is Mary not mentioned by name? Well, I think it's so beautiful to see she's connected here as Martha's sister.
He loved that little household and she was part of it. You might say, well, no doubt he loved Mary. She sat at his feet. It's just as if the Spirit of God says I don't even have to name her in this in this portion, no doubt of his love for her, but I'm going to the Spirit of God connects her with one that we might say, well, did he really love Marthas deeply? Indeed he did.
You know, brethren, God doesn't have any favorites. Maybe there's a household here and you're going through a trial and you think, you know, God loves my brother or sister more than me. God's got a favorite in this family. God had no favorites in this little household in Bethany. He loved them and he loved them all equally. And though he allows trials in our homes and maybe it touches certain members of the family what seem more than others, yet he loves each one of us as intensely and deeply as the other.
He may act in certain ways and allow certain things with each one of us in a family to teach us and to draw out our hearts and so on. But I say, I say again, we need to just stop and consider not so much our response, but his, his love for us. That's what really gives solace in the trial.
The Lord was the perfect servant here. He abode there still two days when he heard about Lazarus being sick, and in the meantime my Lazarus died. But we would have thought that.
Naturally speaking, we would have thought he would have rushed straight there and raised Lazarus right up, but he didn't do that. He didn't have a word from the Father.
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And he was going to do a greater work than that. Sometimes we find that it seems like when we cry to the Lord, why nothing, nothing happens for a little bit. But God in his time had Lazarus.
Adam die and he was laid in the grave, so that would have seemed like naturally speaking.
Shame to just stay there and let Lazarus die, but the Lord had a much greater.
Purpose and.
The largest time is the right time.
That's one of the hardest lessons to learn in the trials and circumstances of life is that God has a perfect timetable and nothing frustrates the purposes of God or his timetable. And I suppose when we prayed about something in a difficulty or trial, the hardest thing to do is to learn to wait. And I've been impressed. Some of us were mentioning this this week.
That I've been impressed in going through the Psalms, particularly the Psalms of David, to notice how often David speaks of waiting for the Lord or on the Lord. Those are the hardest things you say. I prayed about that. I thought I learned the lesson. I enjoy the fact that the Lord loves me, but the hardest thing when we prayed about something is to wait His time. And yet I believe that often that's the great lesson that He's trying to teach us.
You know, this is the day when in the business world, the corporate world, and justice in general in life, in society, we find that nobody's willing to wait for anything. This is the day when everything is instantaneous. We want to press a button and have our coffee and lattes immediately. We want to be able to turn on the computer and immediately have high speed Internet. We get frustrated when we the speed dialed on the cell phone doesn't work properly.
We sit and Stew in the airport because there's a half hour delay in our flight and all this kind of thing. And I know that we live in an instantaneous world and to keep up, to survive in the work a day world, we have to keep up. But brother and I believe we need to learn, as brother Max says, that God doesn't work instantaneously or as quickly as we like. And tribulation worketh patience gone off and allows these things in our lives to teach us patience.
This is just a little aside, but I would say that one of the things you should never pay pray for is patients.
Pray for grace, but don't pray for patience. There's only one way to learn it. And never pray for patience and want it right away because the Lord may teach us, seek to teach us patience. We don't know our own hearts. And He may seek to teach us patience, but we may have to go through some real trials and difficulties to learn it. And so this is one of the things that the Lord was seeking to teach them. But before we pass on, I want to just notice a little expression in the fourth verse.
Where he says this sickness is not unto death, and someone else can comment on the difference between death and sleep and so on. What they didn't disciples didn't understand. But what I want to notice is but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.
Now I think this is important to understand because when a trial or a difficulty comes into our lives or into our homes, the initial reaction either of ourselves or those who know us, is that the Lord has laid His chastening hand upon us. And that may be true if the Lord allows something in my life or in my family, I need to be exercised as to why the Lord has allowed this and whether He's allowed it in His chastening or to correct me.
But brethren, it isn't all we saw. The Lord allows trials for different reasons. You know, again, if we were to go back to the 9th chapter, we find a man born blind from his birth. And the disciples said, and this again is the natural reaction of our hearts, who hath sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind. They figured there must have been some sin in this man's past or in his family, that he was allowed to be born blind like this. But the Lord again said neither this man nor his parents, but that the works of God might be manifest in him. And so there was going to be glory brought to.
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God and to the Lord Jesus through the healing of that man. And this was the same here with Lazarus.
This was the Lord had allowed this trial to come into this family so that there would be glory brought to God and to the Lord Jesus in the raising of this man. And this was another reason why he allowed him to die. He didn't come right away because there was going to be greater glory brought to the Lord Jesus and to God, not only in the family circle, but in that community as we read later on in the city of Bethany.
Through the Lord Jesus raising Him from the dead, this was something greater than just Him being healed while he was still sick. This was going to be something far, far greater and a far greater glory and blessing brought as a result. Well brethren, if we can just get ahold in our souls and I have to only point the finger at myself and leave it pointed there, but if we could just get a hold in our souls that what God is doing with us and through us and innocent in our families is right.
And if we are willing to submit and learn the lessons, it's going to be great glory brought to himself, to God, and blessing in our souls as well. Can we look at verse 40 together?
Verse 40 Jesus said unto her, said I not unto thee that.
If thou wouldest believe, thou shouldst see the glory of God.
Our brother has hit the key to this passage right there in verse four to bring glory to the God.
It's not an it's not a new thing in the New Testament. The sufferings of the Saints job.
There was suffering of a righteous man in the book of Job, wasn't it? It's an age-old question. It goes on and on and on. We have to realize that it is to bring glory unto God when John wrote the gospel. Look at chapter 20 and verse 31 together, chapter 20 and verse 31.
John 20 and 31 But these things are written. This is why he wrote the Gospel of John. But these things are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ. That's how he presents him in the Gospel. John, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through His name. Now go back to our passage and look at verse 25 together.
Verse 25 of 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.
Jesus had anticipation of his death and he put resurrection before.
Life I am the life, and resurrection is the way we normally would.
Think he would say it, but no, He said I am the resurrection and the life, Didn't He? In anticipation of His death? He knew what was taking place here and He wanted to show to Him that it was sleep and not death. He wanted them to know that it was to bring glory to Him because He is glorified and He brings glory to the Father. John tells us also in other passages. So therefore, if we can be glorified in the sufferings and the end results in our life.
That's the key to the answer.
If we're young, ones are sitting in our seat.
You look at your life and you said, did this part of it bring glory to God or not?
They're sweet and they're stubble and it's all going to be tried in the fire and the gold and the pure.
Is going to come forth, isn't it?
Did it bring glory to God? And sometimes these sufferings we don't understand why.
But when we come through them, in the end, we're a better Christian and those around us can see it. They saw the raising of Lazarus and Jesus had told her. Did I not tell you that? If you would believe, you would see.
The glory of God. And that's the key to the passage right there.
And with for this meeting raised a question.
The question was what is sweeter?
Than knowing that he is mine.
I don't know what the poet was thinking, particularly when they wrote that question, but there is something sweeter.
And that is to know that I am his.
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And there's a moral order to the trial that's brought out in this chapter, and the beginning of it all begins with the sense in the soul of the love.
That is in the heart of God toward us. Mary doesn't say I love him.
Lord, you have power. Do something about it.
But that's the natural kind of way that our hearts tend to work. And it's just the way we are. We know somebody, we love them, something of a trial happens to them. And the first thought in our hearts is, I love them and I don't want to see them in this trial. And so we say, Lord, you have power to do something about it.
Brethren, we need something more than that.
And Mary and Martha had it. Martha says, Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick.
That is, she had the sense in her soul that it wasn't the greatness of her own love for her brother.
That was to be drawn upon the problem or the need.
What was greater than her love for Him was the Lord's love for him. And she focuses on that. And so the going through a trial before there's a moral order, before it's a question of even of the glory of God or of the timing of a solution, or of the power to bring out an answer to the need, the first need in the soul.
In the trial is to make sure.
That there is a confidence in the love of God. And if it's not there, all is lost because the basis on which the soul seeks to go through it, it's going to be troubled in it. It's not going to have rest in it. There has to be in it the sense of the one who loves, and he loves supremely. He loves not. Our love is small.
For that soul, whoever it is, a husband, a wife, a child.
A family member or a brother or sister in the assembly. Our love is, by, relatively speaking, very small.
But if we can bring one into it whose love is supreme, then we can say you act according to the greatness of your love as you see it in this need. And there's rest in that. There's confidence in that because we can see in him a love that exceeds. And then we can. Then we can, as it were. We may as she did. She doubted his power.
She didn't realize that he had enough power to do a greater work than she imagined. She thought, Well, Lord, you could have helped if you'd been here, but you weren't here, so he died. But let us, brethren, not only recognize lordship in a trial, but rest in the greatness, not of our love, but the love of our God for the soul who is in the trial, be it ourselves or someone else.
You see that exhibited with Joseph too, don't you? Because when Joseph was in prison in Egypt, there was a point that came where perhaps he felt that he had received the answer and the remedy to his problem. Two men had a dream, the chief Baker and the chief Butler, and Joseph was able to interpret those dreams. And no doubt Joseph initially felt, well, this is my ticket out of here.
They're going to Remember Me. The chief Butler is going to Remember Me when he comes in and stands before Pharaoh again. And he's raised up. But that wasn't God's purpose. The timing wasn't right. It's true that God was going to deliver Joseph from the prison, but it wasn't the right timing. And again, God has a proper timing. And I think there's nothing more frustrating for human nature when we think we've pinpointed the remedy, but we we can't. It's not available.
We say, well Martha again she said, you know if Lord, if you'd been here, I know you could have helped as you say, but you weren't available. You weren't here at the right time. Your timing was off. That's really what she was saying Lord, why did you wait so long if you had only come to when we come when we 1St called for you?
And Joseph might have thought that, but I think it's so beautiful to see Joseph's spirit. He goes on quietly there in the prison for another two years. Because I suggest that Joseph had an understanding in his soul that the timing wasn't right. Yes, there would be God's answer in his own way and in his own time. And when we see the end of the story, don't we just marvel at the timing of God? Why God was going to raise up Joseph, not just bring him out of prison.
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But there was going to be great glory brought to God and blessing to the people of God and to the whole world as a result of God's timing. And so again, brethren, God has given us these stories, the story of Joseph, the story of Mary and Martha and Lazarus, to encourage our hearts in these very practical things. Again, to be in the sense of His love, but I say to be in the sense that what He is doing is on a timetable, that is.
Absolutely perfect if we are willing to submit to it.
Says, Commit thy way unto the Lord, trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.
It may not be to pass in the way or the timing that we thought it should be, but if we're willing to wait to let Him bring it to pass in his own time and in his own way, there will be fruit and glory brought that we never anticipated.
It's interesting that both of these women are exposed as being women of faith. One was active, perhaps energetic, you might say, and the other that says sat still in the home. And God, you know, he says that these two sisters, therefore his sisters sent unto him, and they joined together in their concern for Lazarus. And one as an individual is exposed as energetic. One is exposed as one who would just sit in the house.
And they had made a request to the Lord. They hadn't perhaps demanded it. I just want to turn to 1St John chapter 5. It's something that we need to bear in mind when it comes to the requests that we make in prayer. It says in verse chapter five of first John, verse 14. And this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to His will He hear us, heareth us, and if we know that He hear us.
Whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. And so there was that work that the Lord was doing with these dear sisters. That was an individual work. He was working in their lives to produce fruit for Himself and in Lazarus as well.
And they didn't even know their own hearts. And yet in grace he exposes them as those that are women of faith and justice send to him. They make this request. Perhaps I shouldn't say that they made the request. It says that they just simply said, he whom thou lovest is sick. And in grace they sent to him in confidence. Now he was going to test their confidence. He was going to test that faith, and he was going to bring forth that fruit for himself as a result.
After the two days.
The Lord says let's go to Judea, that's where Bethany is. And immediately the disciples object and they say, Lord, you don't want to go there.
Last time you were there, they tried to stone you and it wasn't very long ago. So they immediately raised a question or an objection to the very idea of going to Bethany in spite of the known need there, in spite of the the trial that was taking place in the House of of Martha and Mary. And the Lord answers them by saying well.
Man who walks in the day, he sees, if he walks in the night, he stumbles. And I believe the Lord is giving us to see in that, that God always acts in everything. Not only as we've just had in love, but God always acts in every trial in perfect light. And you have to have both to properly take care of a trial with God.
Oftentimes we're at least slightly in the dark, if not significantly in the dark in a trial. We don't see our way in it. We don't know how to go, if you will. We don't know what the outcome of it's going to be. We may be faced with a decision and we don't know which decision to make in in connection with it. But it is a comfort to the soul to say God's in the trial as well because he loves me. He has taken upon himself to enter into that trial.
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As the Lord Jesus took it upon himself to enter into this trial that Martha and Mary were going through.
But when he enters into it, he enters into it in the perfection of light, and he doesn't stumble. He knows exactly how to go.
And exactly the way to meet what the need is of it. And so even when it's, you might say darkness in us sometimes is that we it is we can look beyond ourselves and we can say God loves.
And God is light, and God in the perfection of his own ways.
Is going to do things that maintain and act in that and it gives again a comfort to the heart if there can be that submission and confidence in the love and the light in which God will act and deal with whatever it is that we call trial in life.
Principal is always followed by the Lord Jesus. He had a purpose always, and where He went, and why he went, and at the time that he went, and that it brought out, as you were saying, Brother Dawn, in these verses, it said plainly in the end of the seventh verse, let us go into Judea again, and his disciples say unto him, Master.
The Jews of late sought to stone thee and gross thou thither again. But if the Lord Jesus had the light of God doing the will of God to go into Judea at that particular time, he wasn't concerned because God was leading him according to the light, and he was walking in that light. And so there was no danger in going to Judea as long as he was going to fulfill the purpose of God and.
Going in God's time and so it is with us. You know, we we oftentimes very, I'd say almost thoughtlessly go places, but never was. So with the Lord Jesus, he every place that he went, there was a was in the light of God's leading, doing the Lord's will and accomplishing God's purpose. We could check up on ourselves a little more about where we go.
And say, are we like that? Are we going where we go because God is shamed by the light of God. We know he would have us to go there. There's something he wants us to do there. And or are we just going on, as they say, on a whim, just doing what pleased us without any purpose or at all. But if you are being guided of God and that's what the Lord Jesus meant.
Walking in the day, he had to.
The will, the mind, and the light of God. And going where he was going, He wasn't going to stumble. But if you don't have God's life and you're going in the night any place, you could very well get into great trouble.
Let's sing just verse 2 of 319.
Just verse 2 of 319.
Our souls breathing.
We have our dream is good.
And our man.