Well, turn with me in your Bibles
to John Chapter 12. We have been following our Lord
on His journey in this last week of his life, Mary anointed him
at the beginning of chapter 12. And as I relayed last week, it's
a picture of heaven's glories, isn't it, to be in a house where
the aroma of the Christ crucified Lord fills the whole house. And it's a glorious picture of
this one who came not to be served but to serve and give his life
a ransom for many, for him to be served in such a way and accept
that praise and honour of Mary and the people in that house
with Lazarus there who is raised from dead. And then the very
next day, Sunday morning of the week in which he was to be killed,
the Lord Jesus Christ has this remarkable entrance into Jerusalem. He who had shunned Shunned again and again and again.
The opportunities for him to be held up before all sorts of
people now marches into Jerusalem and draws this amazing crowd
and they're drawn out of Jerusalem to meet him. They come from Bethany
to follow him. And we have this remarkable story
in verse 13. They took branches of palm trees
and went forth to meet him and cried, Hosanna! Blessed is the
King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hazanah
simply means save me now. Just save now, Lord. It's a quotation from Psalm 118. And Jesus, when he had found
a young ass, he sat there on, as it is written, fear not, daughter
of Zion. Behold, thy king cometh, sitting
on an ass's colt. He's quoting there from Zechariah
9, so this is the God and Saviour of Psalm 118 and the God and
King of Zechariah's prophecies just 500 years beforehand. Then
verse 16, These things understood not his disciples at first, but
when Jesus was glorified, then remembered they that these things
were written of him. and that they had done these
things unto him. And I spoke last week about the
fact that it's only when the Lord Jesus Christ is glorified
that people understand what's going on in the scriptures and
going on in the life of the Lord Jesus and going on in our lives.
The people, therefore, that was with him when he called Lazarus
out of the graves and raised him from the dead bear record.
For this cause the people also met him, for they had heard that
he had done this miracle. The Pharisees, therefore, said
among themselves, Perceive ye how you prevail nothing. Behold, the world is gone after
him. And just for the record, anyone
that thinks that John 3.16, the world in John 3.16 means all
of humanity, did you go after him 2,000 years ago? The world needs to be read in
the context of the world, isn't it? Now I wanted to read the
rest of this this part of this chapter for us and then this
morning I'd like us to go back and consider some more about
Psalm 118 and some more of Zechariah so that we actually get something
of the glory of what is before us here because the Lord Jesus
Christ goes on to make some remarkable statements and some remarkable
scriptures are quoted. Let's read on. And there were
certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast. The same came therefore to Philip,
which was a besider of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir,
we would see Jesus. That's been on our pulpit for
the last 15 years. Sir, we would see Jesus. You
can see why John 12, I've been excited about getting to it.
And Philip cometh and telleth Andrew, and again Andrew and
Philip tell Jesus, and Jesus answered them saying, The hour
is come. All through the rest of John's
gospel, my hour is not yet, Mary, my hour hasn't come, my hour
hasn't come. All through the scriptures, there
is this from the old, from Genesis 1.1, there is an hour to come. And all of the Old Testament
scriptures are talking about this particular hour, this day,
20 times in Zechariah it says, that day, in that day, in that
day, and this is the day. And so this is so, so critical
for us in terms of honoring our Lord and in our comfort in his
words. And then he says, the hour has
come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily,
truly, truly, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat, a grain
of wheat, fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. He that loveth his life shall
lose it, and he that hateth his life in
this world shall keep it unto life eternal. Verse 26 is one of those verses
I've loved for so long and I just love the order of it. If any
man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am, there shall
also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will
my father honour. Now is my soul troubled, and
what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour,
but for this cause came I unto this hour. What's the cause? Father, glorify thy name. Father, glorify thy name. Then came a voice from heaven
saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. This is the third time that God
the Father spoke from heaven. He spoke at the baptism of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He spoke at his transfiguration. This is my beloved son. You hear
him. You hear him. And at his transfiguration there
was one topic of conversation that Moses and Elijah had, and
it was called the exodus that he should accomplish at Jerusalem. There was to be an accomplishment
at Jerusalem. All of the prophets, all of the
law and all of the prophets point forward to this one particular
day. If you want to understand the Old Testament you need to
understand what John 12 is saying, what the Lord is saying here.
Father, glorify thy name. Then came a voice from heaven
saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.
The people therefore that stood by and heard it said that it
thundered. Others said an angel spoke to
him. Jesus answered and said, this
voice came not because of me, but for your sake. Now is the
judgment, now is the crisis in the Greek, now is the crisis
of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world, Satan, be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all unto me. Man is in italics. Leave it out. Any time you find italicized
words, leave them out and read over them. If I be lifted up
from the earth, I will draw all unto me. This, he said, signifying
what death he should die. The people answered him, We have
heard out of the Lord that Christ abideth forever. How sayest thou
the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? Then Jesus said unto them, Yet
a little while is the light with you. Walk while you have the
light, lest darkness come upon you. For he that walketh in darkness
knoweth not whither he goeth. believe in the light, that you
may be children of the light. How precious is faith, brothers
and sisters. All these things are written
that you might believe and you might believe and keep on believing
and keep on believing until you find yourself in the very presence
of God Almighty. These things spake Jesus, and
departed, and did hide himself from them. Lord, don't hide yourself
from me. Please don't hide yourself from
us. But, though he had done so many
miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. Why? That the saying of Isaiah,
the prophet, might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath
believed our report? That's from Isaiah 53. And to whom has the arm of the
Lord been revealed? They could not believe, because
that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened
their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor
understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should
heal them. These things said Esaias when
he saw his glory and spake of him. Nevertheless, among the chief
rulers also many believed on him, but because of the Pharisees
they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the
synagogue. 4. Because they loved the praise
of men more than the praise of God. Jesus cried and said, He
that believeth on me believeth not on me, but on him that sent
me. And he that seeth me seeth him
that sent me. I am come, a light into the world,
that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words
and believe not, I judge him not, for I came not to judge
the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth
not my words, hath one that judges him. The word that I have spoken,
the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken
of myself, but the Father which sent me, He gave me a commandment,
what I should say and what I should speak. And I know that His commandment
is life everlasting. Whatsoever I speak therefore,
even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. Now before the feast of the Passover,
when Jesus knew that his hour was come, and that he should
depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his
own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end. He loved them unto the end. May God add his blessing to his
words. It's an extraordinary situation,
isn't it? And it's a challenge. These are
challenging words from the Lord and they're challenging words
from Isaiah. And one of the remarkable things
to ponder is that just as this was a day in which was gathered
together all of the the Old Testament prophecies about the Lord Jesus
Christ just into one in this week and in this death and this
resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ as a judgment upon the
religion of the world. And the reason one of the extraordinary
things is that in Isaiah chapter 6, Isaiah is commissioned and
then he's told what is going to happen to Israel and he's
told you keep preaching the gospel until there's nothing left in
Israel and it's absolutely devastating. If you want to know why Israel
was devastated and sent into Babylonian exile, you need to
read Isaiah chapter 6 and following. You'll see that it was the righteous
and just judgment of God for religion that was compromised
in so many extraordinary ways. They became so familiar with
the things of God that they could treat them with utter contempt.
And if you want to read how horrible it is, you just have to read
what Ezekiel in the opening chapters and Jeremiah says what was going
on in Jerusalem at that time. But the other As much as this
is a remarkable time and Isaiah chapter 6 explains why they were
sent into Babylonian exile, these verses that are quoted out of
Psalm 118. Psalm 118 is the verse and the
passage and the psalm that was sung The foundation of the temple
was rebuilt after the Babylonian exile. You can read about it
in Ezra 3.10. This was the psalm that they
sang. This was the psalm that caused
that rejoicing when Ezra and those people put that foundation
stone down to build that temple again. And the temple is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ in his church. It's a picture of that
building in which he is the builder. It's the picture there. And so. These prophets come to preach
these words and that was in those early days of Darius. If you
read the books of Haggai and Zechariah you'll see that there
was another time and it was just a matter of three or four years
where all of these remarkable promises were fulfilled in the
rebuilding of that temple. And that temple was the temple
that was going to receive even greater glory than Solomon's
temple. It was the temple. in which the
Lord Jesus Christ would come. It was the temple in which all
the fulfilment of all of the Old Testament prophecies would
come and so the books of Zechariah and the books of Haggai and the
books of Ezra and Nehemiah are just so significant about the
building of the Church of God and it's all a picture of the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. This house that's being built,
this physical house that's being built, is but a picture of the
house that the Lord Jesus Christ is building and that's exactly
what John Chapter 12 is talking about. And for this cause, the
Lord Jesus Christ came into this world. And when that house is built,
Zechariah speaks of how that house is going to be built and
what will be the cry of that house. The hands of the rubble
have laid the foundation and his hands will also finish it.
And you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. And not by might, not by might,
you don't build by might, you don't build nor by power, but
by my spirit saith the Lord of hosts. He shall bring forth the
headstone. The headstone is the Lord Jesus
Christ in Psalm 118. He'll bring forth the headstone. Thereof with shoutings crying
grace, grace unto it. Here we have, in this last week
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the extraordinary clash between law
and grace, the extraordinary events that unfold when, to a
religious world who had become so familiar with holy things,
God Almighty turns up. and after three and a half years
of witnessing and miracles and fulfilling the Old Testament
perfectly and completely in word and deed and proving beyond a
shadow of a doubt that He is the Messiah. These people who
were so familiar with holy things and so knowledgeable as they
thought of the Scriptures and had this great, great, great
tradition. found him offensive, and find
his words offensive, as do so many people who are familiar
with holy things. That was one of the problems,
isn't it? You keep wondering why did God destroy that temple
twice and why did he bring such extraordinary devastation upon
that temple twice. The first time it was the open
idolatry and blasphemy that was going on around there. And if
you read Ezekiel you'll see that they'd actually concocted a notion
of God who was nothing like the God of the Scriptures and they'd
become so familiar with those things that they thought that
they were serving God. And these people had the same destruction
come upon them in 70 AD. And if you want to read how horrible
it is, you just have to read Deuteronomy 28 and 29 and you'll
see that the curses of God came upon them to the full extent
with sensitive young women eating their babies and allowing their
other children to starve so they could feed themselves. God is
not playing games with his worship, and God is not playing games. It's a great and serious question,
isn't it, that we started with in Psalm 24. How do I get to
God's holy hill? How do I stand in the very presence
of God? Is my relationship with God and
is our gathering such that the only explanation
for it is that God the Holy Spirit has done it, and God has sent
a witness of himself to his people. There is a danger in being familiar
with holy things. Every day, twice a day, those
people who put the Lord Jesus Christ to death put their hand
on a head of a sheep, And they cut its throat and watched its
lifeblood pour out. And they had absolutely no idea
that they were sinners in need of a Saviour. They went through
all of the ceremonies. The big question is, does God
get all the glory? And is his word, is his word
to be honoured? Is it, as Psalm 118 says, is
it marvellous in our eyes? Is the doing of the Lord something
that's marvellous? Is my saving faith true? Is my religion true? Or is my religion like the religion
of these people that the Lord Jesus Christ condemned in the
most extraordinary ways and people's hearts were hardened against
him and they went on? John's Gospel reveals so many
instances of false faith. and false religion. In John chapter
2 he wouldn't entrust himself into their hands. He'd shown
himself that he is God Almighty over that temple. It's a remarkable
miracle to walk into that huge temple with tens of thousands
of people around and all of that ceremony and say, this is my
house and out you go. And tipped over those money changers
and let loose the doves and made a court of whips to cast them
all out. And at the end of this day that we're reading about
here in John Chapter 12, the Lord Jesus Christ does exactly
the same thing in the temple. He goes down there and all those
money changers, everyone that came to the temple had to bring
a half shekel. Can you imagine how many half shekels were there?
And he just tipped them over on the ground and he opened up
the cages of the dove and he said, you get out of here. This
is my house. This is my house. And it's a house of prayer for
all nations. He had people who believed in
him in John chapter 6 and followed him. And they followed him because
of the loaves and the fishes that they'd eaten. And when he
declared who he was as God Almighty, they had nothing to do with him
anymore. And he said to his apostles, you can go as well. And Peter
makes that remarkable statement. We've got nowhere else to go.
We've got nowhere else to go. These people in John chapter
12, there are some of them there that believed. But they loved
the praise of men more than the praise of God. There is a burden
of the word of the Lord that he lays upon his people and you're
much on my hearts and As we go through this remarkable chapter
in these remarkable Old Testament pictures of our Lord Jesus Christ,
I just pray that we will be led to be people who declare that
it's marvellous in our sight. I want to see something that's
marvellous. Marvellous, the declaration of
the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. How do I know that my
faith is saving faith? And I'll give you seven things
just briefly for our consideration. You will find that they are lacking
from the Pharisees and they are the gift of God to his people. I trust the Lord Jesus Christ
alone as all my salvation as my all-sufficient
Saviour. Nothing in myself, nothing done
by me, nothing experienced by me can I build any hope on before
God. Only what is written. Because
of Him you are in Christ Jesus, who has made unto us wisdom and
righteousness and sanctification and redemption. I trust Him. I trust Him. I love Him. I trust Him. If I have saving
faith, I am a man with a broken and contrite heart before God
because of my sin. That was David's prayer, isn't
it? Don't you love the prayer and the promise in Psalm 51?
O Lord, I'm a man with a broken and contrite heart. The sacrifices of God, the sacrifice
acceptable to God, are a broken spirit and a broken and a contrite
heart. O God, you won't despise them. God sees my heart and he sees
yours, which is why the child of God is continually saying, saving right now from what I
am. God has made his people to see who they are and what they
are, and their hearts ache for it. That's what the Lord Jesus
Christ is talking about, a man hating his life in this world.
The heart aches for it. If my religion is true, I'm a
man at war with myself. People can intellectually know
the sinful nature that they have. God's children know it and hate
it. and they fight against it. There's
a war that's begun in the children of God, and it's a war that continues
until God puts his flesh in the dust from which it came. You
can read about it in Galatians 5 and Romans 7. If my faith is saving faith,
if my religion is true, I'm a man of prayer. What was the very
first thing that God said about the Apostle Paul, who was one
of these people that are spoken of here? Behold, he prayeth. He prayed formal prayers all
of his life and stood on street corners and stood in churches
and synagogues and temples and prayed. Never, he'd only prayed
with himself. In true prayer, a believer believes
God and trusts God and calls upon God
continually and incessantly. Prayer for a believer is not
a religious exercise. It's the very breath of life
that he has put in his people. It's an expression of a living
relationship. He just prays. shall call on
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Child of God, we call
on him. We keep calling on him all the
time. If my religion is true, if my
faith is true, I'm a man who bows to the rule and the dominion
of God. I just bow, I bow to who he is. True faith comes from love. We actually love him. God's children
love him because he first loved us. And God's children love his
children. God's children love his children.
If Kevin was to come back here this week with Kimberley and
his children, what would there be between us? There'd be love. God's children love. God's children
love. And finally, God's children,
because of their love, are forgiving people. If you forgive men their trespasses,
your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. If you forgive not
men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your
trespasses. God's children are forgiving
people because they know how much sin is in them. reflects love, and forgiving
reflects being forgiven. Those who have forgiven much,
love much. May the Lord add his blessing
to our words. Let's sing.