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Lessons from God's Seeming Inactivity By Robert Fisher

16/04/1995

John chapter 11. The elders did not give me an assignment for this evening's message.
And so as I prayed and tried to think what would be good to bring to you and tried to examine my own heart as to what seemed to be most upon my heart,
I believe that it was the Lord. I trust it was not just an inclination. I hope that it was the Lord that led me to settle upon this passage.
And as I heard Pastor Elliott praying over this passage, I found my own heart freshly stirred with some of the very things that he was bringing to the Lord in his prayer.
I sincerely hope and have prayed that God would make this very familiar passage helpful and living to us this very night.
As was announced, the general theme of the sermon is to deal with lessons concerning God's seeming inactivity or God's seeming inattentiveness to his people.
Perhaps it could have been entitled Lessons Concerning God's Seeming Indifference to the Needs of His People.
What I would like to do is to draw your minds to two broad points from this passage and then to ask us to look at three applications of those points to ourselves.
So the first broad point then is to note an apparent contradiction illustrated in this passage, an apparent contradiction.
You have two things that are illustrated in this passage. On the one hand, you have Christ's stated love to his people.
And I would like us to look at that Christ's stated love for Lazarus. Just look quickly at these passages that were already read.
Look in chapter 11, verse 5, where there is this plain statement,
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.
According to verse 3, the sisters very much knew how much Jesus loved them.
It says in verse 3, the sisters therefore sent unto him saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick.
As a plain statement, the Lord loved them.
He loved them in such an expressed way that they were convinced and confident of his love for their brother, Lazarus.
Later on in verse 11, Jesus refers to Lazarus as our friend when he addresses his disciples.
I think the point is right that it was not only Jesus who loved them, but also the disciples who loved Lazarus and the sisters.
Apparently Jesus and his disciples were frequently in their home, had meals in their home.
There was a closeness that was proven and demonstrated with Lazarus and the sisters.
And because there was such an expressed affection,
these sisters felt very comfortable and very confident to come to Jesus in their time of need and to make requests to him for Lazarus.
Notice that Jesus' love for them is expressed by this assurance and promise in verse 4 that he would not die.
Look at what he says in verse 4, but when Jesus heard it, he said, this sickness is not unto death,
but for the glory of God and that the Son of God may be glorified thereby.
So on the one hand, you have this stated love of the Lord Jesus to Lazarus and to his sisters,
this expressed love and this promise that he would not die because they had sought him.
Now on the other hand, you have what seems to be a contradiction.
You have Christ's apparent inattention to the needs of these two women.
Christ's apparent inattention to the needs of these two sisters and indeed to their brother Lazarus.
Now that inattention is shown in several ways.
It is seen in the first place in the very fact that Lazarus is sick unto death.
Many people who profess to be Christian, when they see someone in their circle sick, nigh unto death,
they immediately assume that the Lord is not giving them sufficient attention.
Well, that was the case here.
Lazarus was sick, nigh unto death.
But more to the point, according to this passage, when Jesus is sought for help,
when the sisters come to him and lay the need before him
and explain to him the condition with their brother Lazarus,
when Jesus is sought for help, in fact, he does nothing.
He does nothing.
He purposefully delays his going to their home.
He knew what was happening.
He knew the trust which these sisters had in him.
But even though they sought him and even though they pled his affection for their brother, Jesus, in fact, did nothing.
He did nothing all the time knowing that his delay would cause intense mental, emotional suffering and pain in that family.
Jesus knew that by doing nothing, remaining in that other place,
that Lazarus would face the agony of dying.
And we ought not to read more into the passage than is actually stated in the passage.
There's no record of how Lazarus died.
You don't know whether he died with great pain or whether he died in his sleep.
But no doubt there was some measure of anxiety for Lazarus in his body weakening and weakening and weakening.
And then his finally dying.
If you have ever been in the presence of a dying person, even for a Christian,
where there is that certainty of passing through death and awakening to behold the face of Jesus,
there is nonetheless something that is very painful about going through death.
Jesus knew that would happen to Lazarus.
When he remained and did nothing, he knew that would happen.
If you have ever been in the position of having someone die whom you loved,
or if you have ever observed someone in that position,
you know there's a great deal of anguish even for the people of God
in the context of somebody actually passing out of this life.
Jesus knew that those sisters and probably Lazarus' parents would pass in some measure
through that very anguish of watching their brother and son die.
He knew that.
But he did nothing.
He was aware of the anguish of soul and the various types of suffering
and the perplexity and the suspense and the grief that his absence would cause.
But nonetheless, knowing that, he did nothing.
He did not seem to keep the very promise which he had made.
They came to him.
He said, it's not unto death.
Can you imagine that that must have been very comforting to the sisters?
They would have gone back believing the Lord had promised.
This would not be to Lazarus' death.
And he does nothing.
He does nothing and Lazarus dies.
Now I say there's an apparent contradiction.
On the one hand, these statements of love, this promise that he would not die.
And then on the other hand, when Jesus is sought, he does nothing.
It's completely inactive in reference to their request.
Now I think that we find this kind of apparent contradiction
arising in our experience very frequently.
It may be that you're in a situation where you or someone you love faces ongoing sickness.
And you pray and you scour the word of God for promises that you can plead
on behalf of this sick brother or sick sister.
And you find promises.
And there seems to be a sense of confidence and assurance and faith.
God loves this one.
I am praying for this one.
There are these promises that I can bring to bear in these prayers.
And there's just this sense that God will do something.
And then nothing happens.
Nothing happens.
Time passes and time passes and time passes and nothing happens.
Just as it was for them, nothing happened.
Jesus said he wouldn't die.
Jesus expressed his love, but nothing happened.
Perhaps there are men in the assembly who are converted at a point in life
where they've squandered their opportunities to prepare well for a vocation.
And you find yourself in that point of your life where you're too old to go back to school,
too old to go back to training institute, too many mouths to feed to go back to an apprentice-type job.
And there are serious vocational dilemmas.
And so you pray and you scour the word for promises.
And you find promises that you think you can actually bring to the Lord.
And on the basis of the things that he's promised and the things that he's said,
that you have a basis to plead with him to give you some proper vocation
that will allow you to provide for the needs of your wife and your children.
And nothing happens. Nothing happens.
And you pray and your hopes are raised and nothing happens.
Perhaps you're single and you're finding it very, very difficult to live the life of singleness.
And so you're pleading with God to either give you the ability to be content as a single
or to give you the husband or wife that you could love and from whom you could receive love.
And again, you search the scriptures and you're confident on the basis of the statements of the Bible
of God's love to you and of his determination to do for you only what is good.
And you find promises that seem so appropriate to your situation and you pray and faith is stirred.
And nothing happens. Nothing happens.
It seems that God is just inattentive. It seems that God is not interested in your situation.
Well, that's what we have in this passage.
Thankfully, this is not always true.
Perhaps it's correct to say this is not usually true, that God seems to be inattentive.
But nonetheless, there are times and especially in reference to some of the more significant things in our lives.
Nonetheless, there are times when we are built up in faith, when we are convinced of God's love,
when we find promises that are appropriate to plead and we plead them in faith and nothing happens.
There is an apparent contradiction in that.
Now, the second thing I would like you to notice is the different perspectives concerning this apparent contradiction,
which are illustrated in this passage.
The different perspectives concerning this apparent contradiction, which are illustrated in this passage.
You have a record here of the perspective of the sisters, the perspective of the Jews and the perspective of the Lord Jesus.
And I would like us to look at these three different perspectives from which this apparent contradiction is viewed.
In the first place, the sisters perspective.
And I think that we could properly label that disappointed trust.
What was their perspective? How did they react to all of this?
With disappointed trust.
In verses 17 through 21, you read of Jesus finally coming to Bethany, to their home.
Lazarus has been dead four days already.
There are lots of people gathered at the house.
There are many people who have come to comfort Mary and Martha and her family.
Jesus and the disciples come and no doubt it would have been assumed that he was coming,
just like all the others, to be one of the comforters.
That he and his disciples had known about Lazarus' death.
They were moved by it and they came to comfort.
That's how it must have looked.
And notice the verses that were emphasized in Pastor Elliot's prayer.
Verses 21 and 32, where you have the responses first of Martha and then of Mary.
Verse 21, it says,
Because Martha therefore said unto Jesus, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
That was her perspective.
Lord, you could have healed him.
You could have made him well.
You could have done just what was necessary to raise him up.
If you had been here, he would not have died.
And a little bit later, Mary comes to Jesus and says almost the same words.
She says them perhaps with a different attitude, but almost the same words.
In verse 32, Mary therefore, when she came where Jesus was and saw him, fell down at his feet,
saying unto him, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.
Now, when you read the context of Martha's statement in the previous verses,
Martha seems to still be full of a measure of faith because she says if you had been here, he wouldn't have died.
And then she goes on to say that still whatever you'd want to do, you can do.
Mary is in a different posture.
Mary is weeping, sobbing.
The word that is translated weeping is a word that connotes large tears, sobbing, wailing, grief stricken.
She's falling at Jesus' feet, weeping and wailing, saying to him, oh, if you had been here,
surely our brother Lazarus would have lived.
Well, you remember when the sisters came and came to Jesus initially, they did not demand anything from Jesus.
They simply laid their case before him.
They left the matter in his hands with the full confidence that he would do what was necessary, he would do what was best.
He told them it wouldn't be unto death.
They had every right to leave the whole matter in his hands full of confidence that he would not let their brother die.
But he did nothing.
And they suffered all the types of things that we've already referred to and now when Jesus is there, they have not stopped believing in him.
They didn't run to him with bitter statements of you failed us, you promised but you didn't come through.
There is no expression of bitterness.
There is no ugly disposition shown by the sisters in these expressions.
But it would be impossible to read these expressions without understanding something of a disappointed trust by these two women.
Now, again, appreciate they were not expressing the disposition of an unbeliever.
They were not expressing the disposition of a religious hypocrite.
They were not expressing the disposition of someone who believes they should be able to manipulate God and make God do whatever they want.
And then when he doesn't do what they want, that God should be blamed.
That was not their disposition.
But still, there was disappointment.
They had reason to believe Jesus would have done something and he didn't if you had only been here, Lord.
Disappointment in the context of their trust.
Now, notice in the second place, the Jews perspective and their perspective could be labeled that of doubt and even contempt.
Their perspective was that of unbelief and even contempt toward the Lord Jesus.
Look in verses 36 and 37.
After Mary had come to Jesus and as Jesus sees the scene, Mary is at his feet weeping.
All these comforters are around weeping and wailing over the death of Lazarus.
He sees all of that and Jesus responds to all of this crying in these verses.
Verse 36, it says in verse 34 that Jesus wept.
And then you have the Jews response to Jesus crying in verse 36.
The Jews therefore said, behold how he loved him.
But some of them said, could not this man who opened the eyes of him that was blind have caused this, that this man also should not die?
Notice the double response, the two responses that are in these words.
Some of the Jews apparently were moved with the immensity and sincerity of Jesus' love.
Apparently when some of them saw Jesus' tears, they were very much affected by that.
They said, behold how he loved him.
But notice the other Jews, they didn't respond with such a favorable response.
Their response according to verse 37 was, couldn't he have done it?
Couldn't this man who healed the blind, couldn't he have done something to have made sure that this man didn't die?
I believe that it's right to say that this is something of a contemptuous response to Jesus.
The remark may imply that they questioned whether or not Jesus ever really did heal.
Could he not have done it if he was the one that healed those blind men?
Couldn't he have done that?
It may have been.
It may have been that the remark was meant to question whether Jesus had ever done miracles.
And if he had, he surely could have done one here.
And since he didn't do one here, maybe he never did heal the blind man.
It might be that the remark was meant to question the extent of Jesus' power.
It might have been an attempt to say, well, he did heal a blind man, but this was a larger issue.
He didn't have enough power to perform this kind of miracle.
The remark might have been meant to imply that they questioned the sincerity of Jesus' love.
It might have implied that he did heal the blind man.
He didn't heal Lazarus.
Maybe he really didn't love Lazarus as much as he let on.
The point is that their response was a response of unbelief and even of contempt.
And the fact is that divine inactivity is often cause for unbelief and often cause for doubt.
Divine inactivity is often a cause for unbelief in God's power,
for disbelief in reference to God's love, of unbelief in reference to God's interest to help his people.
God's inactivity is often a cause for doubt.
And it does cause some to openly question God, to openly question whether God really loves,
to openly question whether God is really good, to openly question whether God is really all-powerful.
Divine activity is often a cause for unbelief and doubt and even contempt toward God.
Well, that was their perspective.
May we never have that perspective.
Not that we want to imitate the sisters in this case, but better to imitate the sisters
and to have a disappointed faith than to imitate this response of doubt and contempt.
But now in the third place, I'd like to draw your attention to Jesus' perspective.
The sisters' perspective was disappointed trust.
The Jews' perspective was disbelief and doubt and contempt.
But notice Jesus' perspective on this divine inactivity.
And I would like to draw your attention briefly to four things in reference to Jesus' perspective.
These four things are all obvious.
If I would ask some of you children to go through the passage and tell us what Jesus' perspective was,
I think you would come up with basically the same things.
And may the Lord take these basic things and make them real to us.
In the first place, Jesus knew the final outcome from the beginning.
Jesus knew the final outcome of this whole episode from the beginning.
Jesus knew that this whole episode would finally bring glory to God
and would finally be a part of all those things which would glorify Jesus
and demonstrate that he was the Messiah of Israel.
Notice the things that happened as a result of this episode.
In verse 45, it says that many believed because of Lazarus being allowed to die
and then being raised from the dead.
In verses 47 through 53, it teaches us that the final outcome of this was
that it gave the final incentive to the Jews to kill Jesus.
Look in chapter 11, verse 47.
The chief priests, therefore, and the Pharisees gathered a council and said,
What do we? For this man doeth many signs.
If we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him,
and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.
But a certain one of them, Caiaphas, being high priest that year, said unto them,
You know nothing at all, nor do you take account that it is expedient for you
that one should die for the people and that the whole nation perish not.
Now this he said not of himself, but being high priest that year,
he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, and not for the nation only,
but that he might also gather together into one the children of God that are scattered abroad.
So from that day forth they took counsel that they might put him to death.
Jesus knew that this miracle of healing,
Lazarus, would be the final incentive to drive these Jewish leaders to kill him.
He knew that this miracle of raising Lazarus would be so beyond controversy.
It could not be denied now the greatness of Jesus' power.
It would be apparent to all that his claims to be Messiah had verifiable foundations.
They couldn't stop now.
He was driving them to the point where they must respond.
He knew that. He knew what he was doing.
He knew that many would believe.
He knew that he was accomplishing something here that would be the final straw for the leaders of the Jews,
that would force their hand, that would bring them to crucify him.
He knew that.
He knew that in just a few days, because Lazarus had been raised,
that when he went into the city of Jerusalem, the whole city would come out to see him
and to see Lazarus because of this great miracle.
He knew all of that.
What is Jesus' perspective on his inactivity?
Well, in the first place, he knew exactly what he was doing.
He knew exactly what the outcome of his seeming inactivity would actually be.
He knew that there were many ways in which his inactivity would finally result in much glory being brought to God
and in many people being converted.
In the second place, he was fully aware of the events that were unfolding in the household of Mary and Martha.
It's not that Jesus didn't understand what was going on and therefore did nothing.
It's not that Jesus was insensitive to the anguish that was going on in that household.
He wasn't ignorant.
His inactivity was not because he didn't know.
He did know whatever suffering Lazarus was enduring as he faced the pangs of death.
He did know the anguish of Mary and Martha and Lazarus' parents as they watched him expire.
He did understand all of that anguish.
He knew it all.
According to verses 11 through 14, he knew when Lazarus had died.
He knew it before he ever left and came to the city.
The anguish, the perplexity, all of those things that resulted from his inactivity, he knew them all together.
We'll come back and make application of these points.
Let me move on to the third point.
Not only did he know the final outcome, not only was he fully aware of the anguish which resulted from his inactivity,
in the third place, he actually did have control over the whole situation.
It's one thing to say he was inactive, but it's another thing to say that it was outside of his control.
When he walked on the scene, he immediately demonstrated the extent of his control.
He simply raised Lazarus from the dead.
There was nothing beyond his power.
If he had wanted to keep Lazarus from dying, it would have been nothing for him to do so.
He didn't even have to come as the sisters wanted him to come.
He could simply have willed it to be so as he had done on other occasions.
He did not need to be present in the household.
Jesus was in complete control of the whole situation during the whole time.
Was he inactive?
Well, from a certain perspective, he looked inactive.
Was he out of control?
Absolutely not.
He always had all power that was necessary to do whatever he wanted to do in that situation.
It's very important that we appreciate that.
What seems like inactivity is not inability.
What seems like inactivity is never indifference.
It's never unawareness.
Jesus knew and Jesus was able at any moment to do whatever he wanted to do in that situation.
The fourth thing I draw your attention to about Jesus' perspective.
The first was he knew the final outcome from the beginning.
The second was he was fully aware of the anguish that his inactivity was causing.
The third is he did actually have control over the situation even though it seemed like he was inactive.
And the fourth is he was deeply affected by the sorrow which his inactivity caused.
And I would like to spend a few minutes longer on this point than on the other three.
He was deeply affected by the sorrow which his inaction caused.
I'd like you to look briefly at three verses in chapter 11 that show the depth of his sorrow
and appreciate that it is sorrow that his inactivity caused.
Look please in verse 33.
When Jesus therefore saw her weeping and the Jews also weeping who came with her,
he groaned in the spirit and was troubled.
Now notice the word, the phrase he groaned in the spirit.
That's a very vigorous word, the word that's translated groaned.
Some of you may have Bible versions that have alternate translations in the margins.
You might note if you do what those translations may say.
This could have been translated that he snorted in his spirit.
It's an odd word to use in this connection but it could have been translated that way.
It's the idea that he was disgusted, that there was a snort of indignation.
Some commentators say that Jesus was indignant at the observed observation of the effects of sin.
That as he saw death and he saw the anguish that death was bringing,
that it created a sense of anger and disgust in his soul to watch that.
I'm not sure that that's completely the right understanding of the word.
I'd like to quote to you what J.C. Ryle says about the word.
He says the phrase simply expresses the highest and deepest kind of inward agitation of mind.
An agitation in which grief, compassion and holy detestation of sin's work in the world were all mingled and combined.
As I was going over this this afternoon I couldn't help but think that perhaps we saw something
of an illustration of that this morning in the sermon that Pastor Hogg brought to us this morning.
You remember at that point, I think we could not help but remember,
you remember at the point that Pastor Hogg was making reference to the cruelty of evil men who would take a child's body and defile it.
Perhaps you remember the very way that he had trouble expressing that
and you may have sensed something in your own soul as you thought on such a cruel and horrible concept.
On the one hand the sense of broken heartedness that that could actually happen and mixed with that a sense of anger,
a sense of disgust that such things would go on in the world.
Well something of all of that was mixed into Jesus' heart as expressed by this word.
As he saw Mary at his feet wailing and he saw those others around weeping
and he knew that Lazarus was dead and in the tomb and all this anguish that was going on, he was affected by that.
Now he caused that.
His inactivity caused that.
His unwillingness to go and heal Lazarus as the sisters had asked, his inactivity caused that.
The fact that he caused it and the fact that he knew all these things and the fact that he knew the end,
those facts didn't negate the fact that he was deeply affected inwardly.
His emotions were stirred.
There was a sense of compassion and indignation that was stirred in the heart of the Lord Jesus.
Notice also the verse that not only says that he groaned in the spirit, it says he was troubled.
Or it could be translated he troubled himself.
He stirred himself to the deepest degree of sorrow and sympathy.
Which surrounded him but no doubt partly because of the great love that he did have for Mary and for Martha and for the family.
Jesus was troubled and stirred in his soul.
Notice the second verse. That was verse 33.
Notice verse 35.
That's that very famous passage that I fear is too often trivialized where it simply says that Jesus wept.
Again, the word refers to not just a little tear trickling down his face, but the word refers to anguish and wailing.
Jesus wept.
His grief and sympathy burst out in tears that everyone could see and the Jews did see it.
And you remember the varied responses that they made which we've already looked at.
Jesus was touched.
He groaned in his spirit.
He was stirred in his spirit.
His eyes broke forth with tears.
And in verse 38 the whole thing is reemphasized by saying again groaning within himself.
It's like John under the impulse of God's spirit is determined to underscore in these four words the deep emotional impact which all of this had upon the Son of God.
The whole picture is of the Lord Jesus being burdened and being saddened even though, now please appreciate what I'm trying to stress.
I'm not simply trying to make you appreciate that Jesus was touched with a compassionate understanding.
But I want you to appreciate that he was so filled with this emotional response even though he had planned the end from the beginning.
Even though he knew what the outcome would be.
Even though he knew that soon it would all be changed.
Even though he knew that soon Lazarus would be raised and happiness would reign.
Even knowing all that was to come, Jesus was nonetheless very much grieved and burdened over the whole situation that his plan and his purposes and his inactivity had caused to come to pass.
He's not grieved by his plan.
He was not rethinking his purposes.
But the point is that he is sympathetic with his people's sorrow even when that sorrow is the result of his plan and his purposes and his inactivity.
Jesus is touched by the feelings of our infirmities.
Jesus is moved with our sorrows even when it's his plan which have caused those sorrows.
Now with all of that behind us, I'd like to try to draw your attention to three applications of this passage.
The first is that we need to learn to trust both the wisdom and the timing of God.
We need to trust both the wisdom and the timing of God.
God always has a plan and purpose for all that he does and for all that he does not do.
Remember when we were talking before how in some cases God doesn't answer the anguished plea for healing.
Sometimes God doesn't answer the anguished plea for a husband or for a wife and all the other ways in which that can be applied.
But the point is in all those situations God has a plan and purpose for all that he does but to the point he has a plan and purpose for all that he does not do.
He has a plan and purpose for all the cries of anguish which he chooses not to answer.
When Mary and Martha and Lazarus and the family saw what Jesus was really doing, they would never have questioned his plan.
They would never have questioned his purpose. They would have never questioned his goodness or his providence toward them.
It became very obvious to them when it was all over how really wonderful Christ was.
It became obvious to them when it was all over how really wise the Lord was.
That he waited four days. The body was decaying. There was no doubt that Lazarus was dead.
No one could come along and say he was lying in a cold tomb and really was just in some semi-state of hibernation.
He was really dead. His body was decayed. Jesus was wise to wait that long.
They would have seen the wisdom after it was over.
But they should have known before it was over that the Lord Jesus was wise.
That the Lord Jesus had a plan. They had a purpose in all that he would do.
The Bible is full of illustrations of how God does have a plan.
He has a good purpose, even in all the things that seem to be a bum deal.
You remember the story in John chapter 9 of the man that was born blind?
And the disciples, as soon as they thought about it, all they could think about was whose sin was it for?
Was it because of his parents' sin? Was it because of his sin?
Jesus said no, it was not because of anyone's sin. It was because God had a plan.
It was to take this man in his blindness and all the sorrows and sadness of a lifetime of being in blindness
and finally do something with this man that was for the great glory of God.
For the great glory of God, for the demonstration of Jesus' Messiahship,
for the salvation of some who would believe because of these great things.
Well, all the years of that man being blind, somebody might have said,
What a bum deal that guy got. How indifferent of God to leave him in that state of blindness.
How indifferent. God had a wise plan and a wise purpose which he finally chose to reveal and unveil in reference to him.
The same point is illustrated most dramatically in the life of the apostle Paul.
You all know the story of his having the thorn in the flesh, whatever that was.
It wasn't a wonderful thing.
You know, we often think romantically if we're not in the situation,
we think romantically of somebody else's trials about how noble it is for somebody else to suffer
and how God uses that suffering for much good. And it's all a romantic story unless you're in it.
The apostle Paul saw this thorn in the flesh as a messenger of Satan.
He didn't see it as some wonderful thing that God had kindly given to him.
He saw it as the messenger of Satan.
It was so distressing to him that he set himself to three times to pray.
And I don't think that that means that three times he knelt down beside his bed and said, Please take this away.
I think it's a reference to three concerted efforts, perhaps with fasting and labor to plead with God,
that God would please take this horrible thing away.
Well, God didn't. God was apparently inactive in reference to those cries.
But the purpose of God was to do much good through that.
The purpose of God was to keep the apostle Paul from pride.
The purpose of God was to keep the apostle Paul in a posture where he was dependent upon God and not upon his natural gifts,
to keep the apostle Paul in a posture where he needed to have faith and confidence in what the Lord could do.
And those very things were all accomplished in the life of the apostle Paul.
Illustrations could be multiplied, and I don't mean to weary you, but the point is that in all of God's ways,
God does have a plan and a purpose for the things that he does do and for the things that he does not do.
In Ephesians chapter one and verse 11, that well-known passage that says that God works all things according to what?
Not his whim of the moment, not some impulse that strikes him that he does.
He works all things according to the counsel of his will, to the deliberations of his mind.
God has a purpose. God has a plan. God has counseled with himself in reference to all the things that he does, and we must learn that.
What a wonderful thing it would have been for Mary and Martha if they could have had all that come to the front of their mind in the seeming inattention of the Lord Jesus to their cry.
There's a second application that I would like to make, and that is that we need to learn to quietly and expectantly wait upon God.
That we need to learn to quietly and expectantly wait. It's not only that we must convince ourselves that God has a good purpose.
There's a lot of help to us in doing that. But in the second place, we must also confidently and expectantly wait upon God.
Many of us are always demanding an immediate answer to our prayers. All of us, many of us are not able to wait.
We go to God. We expect that God should listen to us and that God should do something for us right away.
And if we have to wait a few weeks, we think that we are models of patience and virtue. We've waited and now God should do something.
Well, we must learn that it is frequently the way of God to call His people to wait and to wait and to wait very long periods of time during what seems to be His inactivity.
Now, Mary and Martha only had to wait four days in what seemed to be Jesus' inactivity.
But according to the scriptures and especially the Psalms, there are sometimes very painful and long periods during which God calls upon us to wait for Him.
Let me just draw your attention to four Psalms. I'm going to read two and I'd ask you to look two up.
Psalm 10, one says, Why standest thou afar off, O Lord? Why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?
Here's a need, trouble, a situation, a plea has been made to God and God doesn't respond apparent in it.
Why? Why? In the time of trouble, in the time of need, why are you distant from us?
A similar idea in Psalm 13, verses one and following. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord, and lighten my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death.
That's a cry of anguish. The Lord has been sought. His grace has been appealed to.
No response, seeming inactivity. How long will it go on?
Look in Psalm 77, Psalm 77.
Waiting upon God has also often been romanticized.
You read biographies of men or women who waited upon the Lord for some years for God to respond to their cries.
We read about their great faith and perseverance, and we admire their heroism, and we do have sort of a romantic view of it.
But in the Psalms, waiting upon God is often set forth as something very painful, very difficult to do.
Here's one of those passages, and we'll just break into the context. In Psalm 77, beginning to read in verse one.
I will cry unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice, and He will give ear unto me.
In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord. My hand was stretched out in the night and slacked not.
My soul refused to be comforted. I remember God and am disquieted. I complain, and my spirit is overwhelmed.
I just appreciate. You want to hear the psalmist say that when I remember God, my soul is revived.
That's what you want to hear. That when I remember the Lord and remember His goodness and remember all the wonderful things, that it cheers my heart.
But he says, I remember God and am disquieted. There are things about God and about His situation that are coming together in His mind in such a way that cause Him disquietness.
Look further on in the passage in verse seven. Will the Lord cast off forever? Will He be favorable no more?
Is His loving kindness clean gone forever? Doth His promise fail forevermore?
Hath God forgotten to be gracious? Hath He in anger shut up His tender mercies?
I say there's a degree of anguish sometimes in God's inactivity. There's a degree of difficulty sometimes in waiting upon God.
Waiting upon God when you need His intervention is not always a matter of having pleasant quiet times and saying your prayers before you go to bed full of a bedrock faith that God will certainly do something tomorrow.
Sometimes there is a sense, how long? Why have you forsaken me? Why are you not listening? Have you decided to not be gracious ever again?
Sometimes there is that sense in the soul. Look, please, at one more passage in reference to waiting upon God. This is in Psalm number 130.
In the midst of all the times of anguish and all the times of being disquieted, it's Psalm 130 that we should come to again and again and again when we're forced to wait upon God.
In this psalm, David is very straightforward in writing about his circumstances. Verse one, out of the depths of I cried into the old Lord.
You have perhaps read John Owen's exposition of this psalm or you've perhaps heard sermons on this psalm.
And the point that I draw your attention to from that writing is that David doesn't state what his difficulty is, just out of the depths.
He doesn't say whether it's the depths of his sin. He doesn't say whether it's the depths of his enemies oppressing him. He doesn't say what just out of the depths.
And I think he's being purposely general so that we and whatever our discouragements are can plug our experience into this psalm out of the depths.
One of the first things that comes to his mind when he considers that he needs the intervention of God is his sins.
And so he says in verse three, if thou, Lord, shouldst marks iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
But he does have the perspective of faith, and he's able to say even in the face of the awesomeness of God considering our sins,
but there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared.
And on the basis of that confidence, that even though he's in a most distressing circumstance, even though his sins are many, but they are forgiven,
in that context, he speaks about waiting upon the Lord.
And he says in verse five, I wait for the Lord. My soul doth wait, and in his word do I hope.
My soul waits for the Lord more than watchmen wait for the morning. Yea, more than watchmen for the morning.
O Israel, hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is loving kindness. With him is plenteous redemption. He will redeem Israel from all his iniquities.
Have you ever thought about how a watchman watches? We're told in this passage that we are to wait upon the Lord more than the watchman waits for the morning.
Have you ever been a watchman at night? I had a security guard job once at night,
and there was something that was always true about the night watch, that there had come a point where you get very tired,
and you would know for certainty that the sun would rise. The night would be over even when you felt so tired.
And I really believe that that may be what the psalmist is drawing attention to.
He's drawing attention in the latter part in verse seven and eight about the certainty of what God will do.
He will redeem. He is full of loving kindness. It's worth waiting upon God because just like the night watchman anticipates the certainty that the sun will rise,
so God will be good to his people. He will redeem Israel. He is full of loving kindness. These things are as certain as the sun rising.
So we should wait with that confidence. There will be some waiting where we're disquieted.
There will be some waiting when faith wanes and we'll cry out like the seventy-seventh psalm,
will you ever be gracious again? But we should always come back to Psalm 130,
that even though our sins are real, he will forgive them. He will be gracious. He will redeem his people.
We should wait upon him with expectancy. There will be many times, like for Mary and Martha,
we will seek the Lord and the Lord for a period will do nothing. Not that he couldn't do something,
not that he isn't interested, not that he isn't sensitive, but he will do nothing.
In those times, we must expectantly wait upon the Lord.
And there's a third thing that I would like to draw to your attention,
and that is that we must draw comfort from Christ's disposition toward his people when his slowness causes grief.
We must draw comfort from Christ's disposition toward his people when his slowness causes grief.
In a weak moment, in a sinful moment, it may be easy for some to harbor bitterness toward the Lord,
because they know that if he would just exert himself, things could be made right.
Well, that's sinful. That kind of bitterness and dissatisfaction with the Lord's promise,
with the Lord's providence, that's sinful. What is the antidote?
What will keep us from that kind of bitterness? This is the antidote.
That we draw to our minds what his disposition is toward us, even when his slowness is causing us sorrow.
What was his disposition toward Mary and Martha when his slowness was causing them sorrow?
He loved them. When he came on the scene and saw the evidence of all the sorrows that his inactivity had caused them,
what was his attitude? It wasn't indifference. It wasn't in his mind,
well, in just a few moments I'm going to perform this miracle, in just a few moments they'll be happy, it'll all be over.
It wasn't like he was touched deeply. He was deeply affected by what his providence was taking them through.
But we need to understand that. When we're in some anguish of soul,
when you're single and crying to God for a partner and he doesn't give one and he doesn't give one and he doesn't give one,
what is his real disposition toward you? When he sees the anguish that his inactivity causes,
what is his disposition toward you? It's just like it was toward these people as expressed in John chapter 11.
He's touched with your anguish. He's moved with what his inactivity is causing you to endure.
He's not insensitive to that. He's not indifferent to that. He doesn't look at that through the eyes of some abstract sovereignty.
He is truly touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
He cannot help but in the present state of his glorification be touched with the feelings of our infirmities
because he's experienced what we've experienced and part of what he's experienced is the anguish that his own providences causes people.
And that to me is one of the most encouraging parts of this whole passage.
That's one of the things that I believe John stresses the most in this passage that Jesus was touched with the sorrows which his own providences cause.
Now, some skeptic, some critic, some doubter, someone who has nothing of the faith of the Lord in his heart might stand back and say,
well, what a silly thing. If he really cared about his people, he'd never take them to the anguish.
If he really had any emotional sensitivity to them, he'd just do all the things that are necessary to keep them from the anguish.
Well, that's the statement of a fool. That's the statement of someone who really thinks he knows more than God.
That's the statement of someone who thinks he could run the world better than God can run. That's the statement of a fool.
We don't have the posture. We don't have the posture of eternity. We don't have the posture of wisdom to understand all that God intends to do in his providences.
It's not for us to determine what God ought to do, but God has revealed to us what his attitude is toward us when his providences cause anguish to our souls.
When someone is sick and sick month after month and they break in their hearts with discouragement, someone needs to go and remind them.
The Lord Jesus is grieved with the sorrows that his providence is bringing into your life. The Lord Jesus is not indifferent.
And what's the Lord Jesus doing about it? Well, again, the skeptics say he's not doing anything about it. No, the Lord Jesus is laboring night and day,
ever living to make intercessions for us that we might be saved to the uttermost.
When we come to the throne of grace, we are indeed approaching that one who wept with those sisters, who was indignant about what was going on.
He knew the effects of his own providence. When we go to him now at the throne of grace and we are broken with some anguish that is indeed the effect of his providence,
he has the same senses. He has the same sensitivity to us that he had in John Chapter 11. He is touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
It's for us to know that. It's for us to draw comfort from that. We don't understand always his providences.
We don't know when he's going to stir himself and give us the things that we plead for. We don't know those things, but we know this.
We know that he's deeply touched with our need. He is not an indifferent savior. What a cruel picture of God to think of him shrouded in his sovereignty,
shrouded in his omnipotence, shrouded in his vast and eternal decrees, coldly working out all things, believing that finally it will come to the good of his people.
That is not a biblical picture of God. He is deeply affected by the anguish of his people.
I have prayed for myself and for you that God would help us in the experiences of our lives to truly be able to draw comfort and succor
from this picture of the savior being sensitive to the anguish which his providence caused.
May the Lord be pleased to make that simple truth become a fountain of encouragement and refreshment to us in our sorrows. Let us pray.
Our Father, we are so thankful for the revelations of yourself in the Bible.
Lord, we would never dare to believe the things that are true about you if you had not caused them to be written.
Lord, you are so infinitely full of compassion. Surely your tender mercies are precious.
And we are ashamed that we so often fail to see your great tenderness and your great kindness.
We are ashamed that we so often have hard thoughts of you and question you.
We are ashamed, some of us are ashamed, Lord, that we are not more quickly drawn to remember all of these revelations that you have made of yourself in the Bible.
Oh, we pray that you would help us to not dishonor you by doubting and by hard thoughts of you.
Help us, we pray, to take great solace in these true statements about your son.
Help us, we pray, to remember that he is the same yesterday and today and forever.
That in the same way that he was so affected in this event in the life of Mary and Martha, that he is equally so affected in the anguishes of our life.
Help us, Lord, that we would truly come to the throne of grace seeing this great priest who cannot but be touched with the feelings of our sorrows and weaknesses and infirmities.
Help us, Lord, to wait upon you more faithfully.
Help us to be men and women who gladly bow our heads to your providences knowing that you do know the good end that you will perform and knowing that you do call upon us to wait.
That it is not a strange or unexpected thing in knowing that you are deeply affected with us.
Help us, oh God, help us that we might know more of Christ's succor and more of what it is to receive from him his sympathy and his ministry of succor.
We ask, oh God, we ask please that you would not allow this to be just so many words that fall to the ground but that you would make this very familiar passage wonderful to us.
That you would make the Lord Jesus more wonderful to us and that you would help us to be more full of love to him and trust in him.
We ask you in his holy name. Amen.
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