So we would see Jesus the answer
the answers if you're going to see him you read John chapter
12 And if you've seen him You will have seen him the way all
of God's children We see him because the Blessed
Holy Spirit gives eyes to see and gives ears to hear, and we
see him in his Word, which is why all of God's children see
the same Lord Jesus Christ, and they rejoice in the same Lord
Jesus Christ, and they find the character of the Lord Jesus Christ
as described in the Scriptures the most glorious and endearing
object of this whole universe. It is well with my soul. If you've seen him, It is well with my soul. But here in John chapter 12 we
find the Lord Jesus Christ with his soul troubled. Verse 27 of
John chapter 12. He says, Now is my soul troubled. He has, as you see, in answer
to the question, He has again and again and again. You can
go and read them again, but you'll find over and over again when
people say, Can we see Jesus? Can we see the Lord Jesus Christ?
I don't like using His name and His humanity. The Gospel writers
only ever describe Him as Jesus. in terms of his incarnation.
When they were actually personally with him, they never called him
that. They always called him Lord and Master, and in the New
Testament he's always given his titles. He is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is God Almighty. He is the
Christ, man and God together. He is the real man. Jesus at
Nazareth, but he has his titles and he paid dearly for his titles
and God the Father gave it to him. So I find it disturbing.
It was one of the disturbing things about going to India was
that everyone talked about Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. No one talked about
Jesus Christ or the Lord Jesus Christ and it was disturbing
to the point where I wrote a paper on it and I spoke to a number
of people about it in my final time there. is to be honored
for all of his attributes and in his name we're gonna see him
we'll see him glorified but we're gonna see him especially in what
caused his soul to be troubled What caused the soul of the Lord
Jesus Christ to be troubled? It's wonderful, isn't it, that
we see this glorious humanity in the Lord Jesus Christ. He
is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He's not so
above us that He can't sympathise with us and empathise with us.
And you cannot go through an experience in this world and
a feeling in this world without Him being fully, fully and completely
aware of it. And so it's just lovely, isn't
it? We see the reality of his humanity. He wept. He wept with
Martha and the others at the tomb of Lazarus. We see the glory of his humanity,
the reality of his humanity. We see, of course, what troubled
his soul he'd been talking about. This grain of wheat, this grain
of corn must fall into the ground and it must die. The hour has
come that the Son of Man should be glorified. He's speaking of
the cause that he came, that he came to die. And so we see
in the troubling of his soul the sinfulness of sin. Only God
can make us to see ourselves as sinners. Until God does a
work in the heart of one of Adam's children, they'll never ever
see themselves as sinners. You will see sin in light of
who the Lord Jesus Christ is, and you'll see sin in light of
what happened on the cross. And he looked ahead this matter
of days, here we are before the cross, and it was like the trouble
that he felt in the Garden of Gethsemane And he was troubled
in the next chapter of John's gospel when Judas was left to
betray him. He says, now my soul is troubled.
He's troubled. He's troubled by what he is to
endure, the sinfulness of sin. the sinfulness of sin and in
the Lord Jesus Christ we see the sinfulness of sin and we
see the depth of the love of God for his people. We see the
height of the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ. But most
of all, what troubled his soul was that he was actually going
to be separated from his father and he was going to bear the
wrath of his father on the cross of Calvary. If we do not see
the cross of Calvary in light of the extraordinary transaction
between God the Father and God the Son. If we just see it from
a human perspective, we have no idea what's going on there.
And we haven't seen Him. To see Him is to see Him in this
state. My soul is troubled. And what
shall I say? Father save me from this hour,
but for this cause came I unto this hour. It's very similar
to his prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane. He was given a cup
by his father. He was given a cup and he took
the cup from his father. And that cup can't be taken away
unless he drinks it. And the Lord Jesus Christ looked
into that cup and his heart broke and his capillaries burst and
he shed the precious blood of God on the ground of the Garden
of Gethsemane. What was in the cup? There is only one thing that
the Bible ever says is in the cup. And in the cup were all
of the sins of all of the elect children of God, because they
were the ones who were in union with him. They were the ones
that the Father gave him. They were the ones for whom he
was responsible before God for all of their sin and for all
of their righteousness. He looked into that cup and he
saw the sins of Angus Fisher. He saw the sins that I committed.
when I sinned in Adam in the garden. He saw the sins that
I committed when I came forth from among my mother's worm-speaking
lies. He saw the sins of the thoughts
of my heart. He saw the sin that I'm committing
now because what I'm doing is falling short of the glory of
God. And he saw the sins that every... He is omniscient, our
God. He sees everything. The knowledge
of God is infinite. He saw the sins that I'm going
to commit until my last breath is breathed on this earth and
this body goes back to the earth from which it came. He saw all
of those sins and he saw the horror of those sins and he saw
the just wrath of God upon all of those sins. What have you done? Father, save
me from this hour. No, this is the cause. There
is a cause, brothers and sisters. If you're a Christian and if
you've seen the Lord Jesus Christ, there is a cause. And the cause
is a simple cause, isn't it? It's the glory of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified and what happened on the cross.
And if you take up that cross in this world, you will find
yourself with plenty of exercise to fill you for the rest of your
days here. in service and worship of your
God. And you will find out what it
is for the natural man to hate God in a way that you cannot
in any other way. You stand up for the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him crucified and you will, as He did at this time
and during His earthly ministry, you will see man's religion for
what it is. You will see its morality exposed. You will see its self-righteousness
exposed. You will see its attempts, as
it says, to get close to God as nothing other than absolute
enmity against God. Most people don't ask the questions.
If you've seen the Lord Jesus Christ and you are forced, as
we were forced, to stand for His glory and Him crucified and
what really happened according to God on the cross, you will
find the religious world a completely different world to what you've
experienced in the past. But I love how the Lord responds. He says, in the midst of this
hour, Father, glorify thy name. And there came a voice from heaven
saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. People might say, don't we have
an egocentric God? He just wants his own glory. His son wants his own glory,
wants the glory of the father and the father glorifies the
son and the son glorifies the father. Should not God glorify
what is holy? Should not God glorify what is
just? Should not God glorify what is
the truth about himself? Should not God glorify what is
the truth about man? Should not God glorify what is
the truth about this creation and why this creation exists?
Of course God should glorify himself. One of the problems
of so much of our modern thinking and so much of our modern religion
is it's all about us. I'm sorry, you're not the big
issue. I'm not the big issue. The glory of God is the big issue. That's the big issue, isn't it?
If you listen to Christian songs these days, I happen to listen
to a bunch of them during the week. Anyway, I don't know why
I burden myself with, but I listen to one where every verse started
with, I will. I will, I will, I will. Every
time you hear man say I will, all you have to do is open your
Bible and every single time they sing a song that says I will,
you know immediately they're lying. Because they don't. They
never do. That's what Peter said, didn't
he? All the apostles, 11 of them, said in that last supper, I will,
I will, I will. Every time you read in the scriptures
a man saying I will, you know God says you won't. You're about
to see a man humbled. You're about to see a man's pride
put in the dust. And what a good thing it is for
the pride of men to be put in the dust. It's not about us,
brothers and sisters. We are the recipients of a union
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, glorify your name. What
a great prayer for a troubled soul in this world. You're going
to have troubles. You're either in them now, you've
been in them, or you're going to be in them again. But what
a glorious prayer. What a glorious prayer to practice
now, isn't it? Father, glorify your name. Glorify
your name. Glorify all of your attributes. Glorify your holiness. Glorify
your justice. Glorify your sovereignty. Glorify
your power. Glorify every single attribute. Glorify your faithfulness and
your truthfulness. Glorify their name. Glorify their
name. Then there came a voice from
heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. I want us to go and have a look
at the other two instances in the scriptures where God the
Father speaks. These are the last words recorded for us of
God the Father. In Hebrews chapter 1 he makes
it abundantly clear his last words to all of humanity is Jesus
Christ and him crucified. He doesn't have anything else
to say. He's finished speaking. These people who think that they've
heard voices from God are just completely and utterly deceived.
According to God they are deceived. These are the last audible words. No doubt there was extraordinary
communication between the Lord Jesus Christ and his Father in
the Garden and these other events of this week. But this is recorded
for us. This is recorded for us. And
the people, therefore, verse 29, that stood by, they heard
it and said that it had thundered, and others said an angel spoke
to him. Natural man always looks for an earthly reason for heavenly
events. Always. It's the first part of
Paulism. Let's find some natural reason
for this. Jesus answered, this voice came
not because of me, but for you. So this is a voice from God. for us, for our sakes. And he goes on in verse 31 to
talk about the fact that now is the judgment of the world.
He wants to go on and talk about the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. Satan will
do his level best with all of his powers assailed against the
Lord Jesus Christ. He'll even have Judas. And he'll
have those men that the Lord Jesus Christ describes in John
chapter 8 as children of the devil. He'll have them and all
of their power and all of their religion and pile up in all of
his weakness, inherit in all of his duplicity, and the prince
of this world will be cast out. And a high fire be lifted up
from the earth will draw all men unto me. This he said signifying
the death that he should die. Okay, so let's go back and look
at some of these remarkable instances of the Lord God speaking from
heaven. He spoke from heaven at his baptism
and we have a glorious picture of his baptism of the Holy Spirit
coming, descending as a dove, in the form of a dove and remaining
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's start in Matthew chapter
3 verse 13. Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade him,
saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me. Jesus answered and said to him,
Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh us to fulfil all
righteousness. Then he suffered him. And Jesus,
when he was baptized, went straightway up, straightway out of the water. And lo, the heavens were opened,
and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting
upon him. And lo, a voice from heaven saying,
this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This is the
first time God the Father spoke. If you want to hear the voice
of God and understand what the voice of God is in the Old Testament,
when God spoke, he spoke through his word. He spoke through his
son when he spoke to Abraham and when he spoke to Moses. It
was always the Lord Jesus Christ speaking. But here God the Father
speaks. And here we have a glorious picture
of the Trinity. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. He was a man He was a man who
before the very sight of God was well-pleasing in everything
that he ever did. Everything he ever did. He was
well-pleasing in his love to his father. He was well-pleasing
in his obedience to his father. He was well-pleasing in his perfect
obedience to the law of God. He was well-pleasing in his love
for his neighbors. He loved them as himself. This man pleased God. Look at my son, says God. I'm well pleased with him. I'm satisfied with him. But listen to what the Lord Jesus
Christ said, he said, suffer it. John knew that he was unworthy
to even bend down and loosen one of his sandals. He said,
suffer it now for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness,
to accomplish all righteousness, to fulfill all righteousness. But who does it become? It's
an us. The Lord Jesus Christ did all
of that work of pleasing His Father in perfect obedience.
He did it all as an us. He always did it as an us. He
was always joined to His Bride. Flesh of His flesh and bone of
His bones we are. That was the us. When the Lord
Jesus Christ walked on this earth 2000 years ago and perfectly
loved God, I did. because everything he did, he
did as an us, and I did it, and I was in him. And the Lord Jesus
Christ loved his son. never stopped loving with all
of his heart, all of his soul, all of his mind. I love God. I fulfilled all righteousness.
That's what he's saying to John. You've never filled a single
thing of righteousness, John, but in me, with me. That's why
it's so glorious, isn't it? In whom, not with whom, but in
whom. All of the in whom have fulfilled
all righteousness. There are two words that sum
up biblical Christianity. Substitution and satisfaction. Perfect substitution and perfect
satisfaction. God is perfectly satisfied. All
his thoughts, all his actions, all his emotions were mine because
I'm one with him. I'm joined with him. Substitution,
satisfaction and a glorious eternal union. And all of my sins, all
of my emotions, they were his and they were laid on him. Substitution
and satisfaction. God's children are not only not
guilty, They're not only not guilty,
but they are robed in the perfect righteousness of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Let's fulfill, he says, fulfill all righteousness. If
I take a cup and I fill it to the brim, can you add any more
to it? It's full, that's what it is,
fulfilled. That's what fulfilled is, isn't
it? And the Lord Jesus Christ says to John, let's fulfill all
righteousness. He's speaking of this glorious
union. Let us fulfil, let us accomplish
all righteousness. All the righteousness that God
is pleased with. That's God the Father speaking. This is my beloved Son in whom
I'm well pleased. We have on the Mount of Transfiguration,
you can turn there in Luke chapter 9, but the Lord Jesus went up
to that mountain, he just took those three disciples with him,
and on that mountain his garment became whiter, the whitest thing
that this world has ever seen. No one could ever make a robe
as white as that robe. It was glorious. And the deity,
the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ Sean 3. And there was a conversation.
I just love the fact that there was Moses. Moses wasn't allowed
into the promised land because the law never gets anyone and
works never gets anyone into the promised land. Moses was
dead and buried on the other side of the Jordan. He wasn't
allowed in. No one, no one with any of their works is ever going
to get into heaven with their works. You get into heaven how?
With all the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what baptism is, isn't it? Baptism. Baptism is a picture
of the gospel, isn't it? It's a picture of union with
the Lord Jesus Christ. When he walked on this earth
and fulfilled all righteousness, I was with him. When he was buried
under the wrath of God, Suffering all of the wrath of God, all
of my sins were buried with him. I was in union with him and when
he rose, I rose again. And so unless people have been
baptised with those things declared in the Gospel, they've just had
a lot of water pushed around. There's a bunch of water going
around these days, but baptism is a declaration of union with
the Lord Jesus Christ. But here in the Mount of Transfiguration,
we have Moses there. Moses and Elijah, isn't that
lovely to think? That when people leave this world,
they have a distinct reality that's recognizable reality. Moses was there, real Moses. The real Moses was there. His
body was buried on Mount Nebo, but the real Moses were there
and the real Elijah was there. And they had a conversation with
God. They had a conversation with
the Lord Jesus Christ. And what were they talking about?
Moses represents the law, of course. He represents the law
of God. And Elijah represents all the prophets of God. And God the Father speaks and
says, this is my beloved son. This
is my beloved son. You hear him. You hear what he
says. This is my beloved son. Hear
him. Verse 35. You hear him. What were they speaking about?
What was this extraordinary conversation where all of the Old Testament
is wrapped up in these two people on the Mount of Transfiguration
before the glory of God revealed? They were having a conversation.
Verse 31, they talk with him, verse 30, they talk with him,
the two men, which were Moses and Elias, Elijah, who appeared
in glory. spoke of his decease which he
should accomplish at Jerusalem. They spoke of his exodus that
he should accomplish. When I die I accomplish absolutely
nothing and you won't won't take too long and you'll have me put
away It'll be gone. But the Lord Jesus Christ has
a death that accomplishes something. In fact, the same word was used
at his baptism. Accomplish and fulfill are the
same word. And it's his departure. And that
word departure literally is the word exodus. The Lord Jesus Christ
came to this earth to carry out this glorious exodus where he
would go into this world and he would take every single one
of his people and in union with himself he'd take them to the
cross, he'd take them to the grave and he'd take them to glory.
And he's in the business now of doing exactly what he promised
to do. It's his death that he should accomplish. His death
that he should accomplish. To make full. To make full so
that there is nothing wanting. There is nothing lacking. It's
filled to the brim. You see what he's talking about
when God the Father speaks from heaven? He's talking about the
union of the Lord Jesus Christ with his people in baptism. He's
talking about his coming to this earth and his death and his resurrection
and his glorification. And on the Mount of Transfiguration
when God the Father says, this is my beloved son, you hear him,
they're talking about exactly the same things. Exactly the
same things. I love the Gospel writers' account
of it. They saw none after the cloud
had taken Moses and Elijah back and the voice had finished speaking.
They saw none but Jesus. If you've heard the voice of
God speaking, if you've seen the Lord Jesus Christ, you see
none but him. He's all I need. He's all I want
to see. Here in John chapter 12, Father,
glorify thy name. You glorify thy name. Glorified
by union, by substitution, and by satisfaction. And that's what
happened in baptism, and that's what happened at the Mount of
Transfiguration. And so glorious is the picture
of the exodus, isn't it? I love what Moses said, there's
not going to be a hoof left behind. Not even a tiny hoof on one of
my little sheep is gonna be left behind. When the Lord Jesus Christ
does an exodus, creates this glorious exodus for all of his
people, there's not a hoof left behind. And that's what he said,
isn't it? All that the Father gives me, not one, I'm not gonna
lose one. I cannot lose one of them. I cannot lose one of them
and still be God Almighty. Glorify your name, my Father. Glorify your name. And I love
what the Father says. He says, I have glorified it.
I have glorified your name and I'm going to glorify it again.
There are so many places we could go to in the scriptures to think
about the Father glorifying his name and the Son being glorified
in that. The glory of God in creation
is remarkable, isn't it? What a remarkable God we have.
Our Saviour spoke and this universe came into existence. Our God
spoke. He spoke, and he makes these
extraordinary promises from before the world began. He speaks, and
he speaks, and he makes his voice to be heard, and it's a voice
of power. As he says, Abraham, you come and follow me. Where
was he going? Abraham didn't know, and he didn't
need to know. You just need to know who called
him. It's exactly the same for us. We don't know where we're
going. We don't know what the future holds for us. But if you
know who holds your hand and who holds the reins of this universe,
then everything's fine, thank you very much. Everything, we
just sang it, didn't we? It is well with my soul. The
glory of our God. Moses said on that mount when
the law was given, he said, show me your glory. What's the glory
of God? The glory of God, he says, I'll be merciful. I'll
be merciful to him, I will be merciful, I will be merciful
to some of these people. And obviously the glory of God,
the angels spoke and sang from heaven in the incarnation of
the Lord Jesus Christ, donned human flesh and entered this
world as a baby. A glorified, a glorified God. glorified and he's glorified
in the words that he speaks he glorifies his father later on
in John chapter 12 he says the words that I'm speaking are just
the words that the father gives me there's all the words I need
to speak all that the father gives me he's glorified in his
word he's glorified in his written word he's obviously glorified
and this is the glory he's speaking of here he's glorified on the
cross glorified in the cross of the
Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to know what holiness
is, you go to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want
to know what love for his bride is, you go to the cross. If you
want to know what the justice of God is, our God is a just
God and a saviour. The name of God is all of his
character. You glorify your name. He's a
just God. He's a sovereign God. The wonderful
thing that is the comfort of all of those who have seen the
Lord Jesus Christ is that his character It is impossible for God to be
just and punish my sins in the Lord Jesus Christ and for him
to ever raise them up again. That's why he doesn't remember
them. They're gone. It's impossible for God to be
faithful and the Lord Jesus Christ not be a perfectly successful
saviour. It's impossible, isn't it, for
God to be absolutely sovereign and for Him to leave a hoof left
behind in this world. It's impossible for God to have
His glory, the glory of His name, and for Him not to be the perfectly
complete and successful Saviour. He'll glorify it again. When's
God going to glorify it again? He's going to glorify it in lifting
up His Son. He's going to glorify it again in pouring out the infinite
wrath of eternal, infinite hell for everyone that the Lord Jesus
Christ died for was poured out on him. No wonder the Lord's
soul was troubled when he looked into that cup and he saw sin.
He saw sin that we have never seen and he was horrified by
it. And yet he says, in response
to that trouble, your name. He's going to glorify
his name in the judgment of this world. The judgment of all of
God's people has finished. There is this stupid nonsense
that I used to hear all the time, isn't it, that on the Day of
Judgment God will actually have a great big movie screen up there
and there will be Angus Fisher's life. Have you heard that? Have
you heard people say that? I used to hear it all the time.
He used to shudder at the thought of it, and so we ought. It's
absolute rubbish, isn't it? They say, well, everyone would
be sort of standing around ogling and looking at what an evil,
wicked person it was, and these horrible thoughts that went through
his mind. What will be the movie? There won't be a movie. The judgment
is gone, brothers and sisters. What's the movie of my life?
What's the story of Angus Fisher's life? And the story of every
believer's life? Perfect holiness before God.
Perfect love for God. Perfect obedience to God in this
world. No wonder John says, as he is,
so are we in this world. for the father, is the father
smiling upon his son. It's exactly what he's doing
to all of his people, all that are in union with him. Satisfaction,
substitution, and union. He'll be lifted up, and the judgment
of this world is done. It's finished. The prince of
this world is cast out and now there is this glorious freedom
that God can come in his spirit and send his gospel to all of
this world. And we who have come from pagan
nations except Col, the gates are open, aren't they? The gates
of hell are open. And God can send his gospel and
he'll send his gospel where he will and he'll gather his people
and he'll cause the extraordinary providences of life to bring
his people to him through the preaching of the gospel. That's
why he's gonna do it. He's drawing. He's still drawing,
isn't he? He's still drawing. He's drawn us here. He's drawn
us to see the Lord Jesus Christ. He's drawn us to hear the voice
of God. May those words in John 6 be
our prayer and may they be the Lord's blessing upon our life. This is the will of him that
sent me that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on him
may have everlasting life. There's no doubt in the world
about that so don't think that may is a possibility if you do
something to make it happen. May have everlasting life and
I will raise him up at the last day. Heavenly Father, please
bless your word, cause your name to be glorified and your son
to be lifted up, Heavenly Father. And may we feel yet again his
drawing power. Heavenly Father, may we in our
times of trouble say and pray, Father, glorify, glorify thy
name. We pray in Jesus' name, in peace,
glory, amen. Thank you, let's have a break.