May God be pleased to be with
and bless us this evening in turning to his word again. Let's
turn together to the Gospel of John and chapter 12. And we'll read it again, verses 27 and
28. John 12, verses 27 and the opening words of verse 28. The words of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour. But for this cause came I into
this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Why did Jesus come? Why did the Son of God come to
this earth? If I ask that question tonight,
I might have a number of different answers from you. Some might
say the Lord Jesus Christ came, the Son of God, to reveal God
to this world. He came to teach the Word of
God. He came to show the power of
God in his miracles, in his healings and even the raising of the dead.
He came to show the love of God as he showed compassion on the
hurting as he came and touched the lepers. He showed the heart
of God in the way that he dealt with those in need, how he preached
the word of judgment and the word of mercy. So yes, he reveals
the things of God. Some might say the Lord Jesus
Christ came to save his people from their sins. That, of course,
is the reason of the name given. that the angel told Joseph, you
should call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from
their sins. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
came from glory to go to the cross. He came to suffer. He came to die. He came to bear
the sins of many. He came to purchase them, to
shed his blood for them. He came to save. And that would
also be true. But here is another aspect. of
the work and person of Jesus Christ, and we see it from his
own heart, his own words. Here is his desire. Father, glorify
thy name. And so we could say he came to
reveal God, he came to save, but he's also come for the glory
of God. He's come to glorify the name
of his father. Now this word here is spoken
in a context, and it's spoken, it would seem, in the context
of these Greeks coming to Philip and asking, Sir, we would see
Jesus. Can I just make one comment outside
of the subject this evening? And it's wonderful to see how
the word of God is put together by God's inspiration. Because
do you notice at the end of verse 19, the Pharisees say, Perceive
ye how thee prevail nothing, behold the world is gone after
him. The world has gone after him.
And then in verse 20, we have some Greeks. We have evidence
of their word coming true. So the world is going after him. Here we have Gentiles coming
to the Lord Jesus. And they are coming to Philip.
Sir, we would see Jesus. And Philip comes and tell Andrew,
and they come and tell Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying,
and then we have his words from verse 23. And so these words
found here, it would seem, were spoken in the audience of these
Greeks, that they heard these words from his lips. And what
a wonderful message they heard. We don't know what they were
expecting. We don't know what they thought they would find.
We don't know what they were wanting to hear. But it's wonderful to
consider what they did hear. Let's just see briefly what it
was that they heard from the lips of Jesus Christ. He speaks
of what it is to really glorify God. What it meant for Him to
glorify the name of His Father. And it's a different way to what
we might expect. He opens it in verse 24. except a corn 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. He that hateth his life in this
world shall keep it unto eternal life. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
immediately starts to speak about death. He starts to speak about
losing life. And he is speaking, of course,
about those who would follow him, that they must hate this
life, they must hate this world, that they might know life eternal,
but he is of course also making reference to his own death. That
he would be that corn of wheat which falls into the ground,
and by that death there would be this life and fruit. And so we have an indication
right at the beginning that it would be through death and suffering
that there would be glory to God. And then he goes on, verse
26, if any man serve me, let him follow me. Where I am, there
shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will
my father honor. And so he speaks about service.
Not of gaining great honors, not of gaining great position,
but rather being a servant. Again, something they may not
have been expecting. You know, when the Apostle Paul
writes to the Philippians, he writes there about being servants
of Jesus Christ. Is it as he writes to the Ephesians
also? No, it's not the, I can't remember
which epistle it is, but either way, he refers to himself as
a bondservant. And he is speaking of himself
as a slave of Jesus Christ. of being under his authority
completely, not having his own authority, his own will, his
own choice. He is a servant, a slave of God. And here the Lord is speaking
the similar terms. We should serve him and follow
him, no longer our own. And so again, we have a picture
here of what it means to glorify God. It's so different from what
we might expect. Verse 27, he speaks of trouble. Now is my soul troubled. Now is my soul troubled. And
so, this desire to glorify the name of his father would involve
trouble. And yet, that trouble is the
Lord's will. It is why he has come. And so,
to walk this path for the Lord Jesus Christ, would be a path
of suffering and trouble. He goes on to speak of his death,
if I be lifted up from the earth. This, he said, signifying what
death he should die. And so he makes a more explicit
reference to crucifixion. And so in all of this is a desire,
is his prayer, Father, glorify thy name. In the path of death, in the
path of service, in the path of trouble, glorify thy name. Now the Lord gives this wonderful
affirmation. There came a voice from heaven
saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. I have glorified it, will glorify
it, again. And so we can see that through
the obedience of Jesus, in a time of suffering and trouble, through
the death, that he would be lifted up on the cross, and through
his drawing his people to himself, that he will draw all men unto
me. Through those things, the Father
says, I have glorified it and will glorify it again. Now the Lord Jesus Christ must
suffer and die. He must obediently go to the
cross in serving his Father. And yet we can see that it was
no easy path. It was not an easy way, it was
a path of trouble. And look at the strength of his
words. Now is my soul troubled. And again, it gives us a little
glimpse, doesn't it? Just like Psalm 22, my God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me? Just like Isaiah 53, about the
suffering servant, it gives us a glimpse that the Lord's suffering
was not just a physical suffering, not just the nails and the spear.
but it was in his soul. There was trouble in the soul. There was an intensity of suffering.
There was a depth of suffering. There was a spiritual suffering
as he endures the wrath of a holy God on the sins of his people. And yet, this path of suffering
is part of God's wonderful plan. Father, save me from this hour,
but for this cause came I unto this hour. This is why I have
come to this hour. This is why I have come to this
world, to come to this hour, to come to this trouble, to come
to this suffering, and to come to the cross. This is why I have
come, because it is God's wonderful and sovereign will. Father, save me from this hour.
But for this cause came I into this hour. Father, glorify thy
name. And so can we see something of
the experience of the Lord Jesus Christ in his own suffering and
trouble? And yet in his heart is this
desire, that through it all, even through the cross, his heavenly
Father would be glorified. Now this evening, having considered
the Lord as our greatest example, I want to really consider whether
this is our prayer in our life. Father, glorify thy name. We can think that to praise the
Lord, to bring glory to God, will be at those times of the
most joy, of the most prosperous, of the deepest happiness, that
in those times we will praise and worship and bring glory to
God. We can think that we need those times to worship the Lord
and bring glory to Him. And we can think, therefore,
that when we do not have those times, when we are in the valley,
when we're in a difficult time, a troubled time, that we are
not glorifying his name. And this, of course, is the appeal
of the prosperity gospel, which is preached so widely today. Come to the Lord. He wants to
bless you. He wants to give you. Wealth. He wants to make you well. He
wants to make you rich and prosperous. You come to the Lord and he will
do that for you. If you give your tithes and offerings,
then you can expect all of these blessings from him. I actually
heard even this week an interpretation of the parable of the sower to
make that point. completely ignoring the fact
that the Lord Jesus in fact explains the parable of the sower to us
and tells us that the word is the seed, the seed is the word.
But the interpretation went like this, that those who give and
sow will reap plenteously. And so if you give and you give
your tithes and you give your money to the church and its leaders,
then you can expect Because Jesus Christ has told you, you can
expect to reap a hundredfold of all of this material wealth
in return. That's an appealing message.
It's an appealing message to anyone. It's a particularly appealing
message to someone who doesn't know the Lord Jesus Christ and
is for this world. But you can think which is why
that message is so appealing, that if we had that, if we had
all of that wealth, and we could say, the Lord has given me all
of this, then we would glorify the Lord. We would live in prosperity,
we would live in ease, and we would worship and honour him. And conversely, the opposite,
we can think that if we are sick, And if we are restricted, or
if we are poor, and if we are unable to do things, or if we
are in bereavement and sadness, then we cannot glorify the Lord.
And we do not honour him. And yet, the experience of our
Lord, and his words here, show us the opposite of that teaching. It shows us how wrong the prosperity
gospel is. Because in fact, the Father himself
says, I have glorified it and will glorify it again in the
moment of trouble and in the expected time of suffering at
Calvary. And so this evening I want to
encourage ourselves that the Lord is glorified in the lives
of his people, even in the valley, as well as on the mountains.
So tonight we're going to simply look under three headings of
the great trouble, the great trouble that we can pass through,
and then to consider a gracious God, a gracious God, and then
thirdly, a glorified God. Great trouble, a gracious God,
and a glorified God. Now, none of us will ever enter
into the trouble that our Lord Jesus Christ entered into. None
of us will ever enter into his depths. None of us will ever
know what it is for a holy soul to become sin, the sin bearer
of his people. None of us will ever know what
it is for the eternal son of God to face death. None of us will ever know the
trouble that he experienced. But it is true that we do face
trouble. The world is full of trouble.
And our lives are full of trouble. There is sickness. There is sadness. There is bereavement and death.
There is disappointment. There are paths which are shut
to us that we wanted to take. There is trouble, and we can
all think of the different troubles that we have been in and the
circumstances we have had to walk through. And where we have
said, now is my soul troubled. And of course, for the Christian,
there is soul trouble. Everyone passes through troubles
one way or another in this world. You're not immune for it if you're
a believer. We pass through them just the same as everyone else
does. But there is soul trouble for the believer. There is a
battle. There is a warfare that's to
be fought. There is this constant pulling
of the old nature against the new. There is that warfare that
the apostle describes in longing to do good and yet finding evil
is ever present with him. There is a constant proving.
that we still have this sinful heart. There is trouble. Now is my soul
troubled. As we read the word of God, we
have some examples of this. You can think in the Old Testament
of Job, the trouble that he faced, of course, in an outward way,
he had very outward trouble, the death of his children, the
taking or killing of his livestock, the removing of his own health
and strength. He faced trouble and yet when
you read Job you realise that there is an inward trouble, there
is a searching There is a reasoning out, there is a trying to understand.
And so we have the longings of his soul at times. Oh, that I
knew where I might find him. He's searching and he's longing. You come into the New Testament
and you come to the Apostle Paul, who tells us that he had a thorn
in the flesh. And that he describes as the messenger of Satan that
buffeted him. It was a trouble. And it caused him sadness, it
caused him grief. And he wanted to be rid of it.
And he sought the Lord three times that he would be rid of
that thorn in the flesh. It was a great trouble. And you can read the experiences
of God's people throughout the ages of the trouble that they
go into. Now we may be in trouble this
evening. or we may face trouble in the week to come in some way
or another. We may be burdened in our soul,
burdened with those circumstances, burdened with questions about
why the Lord brings that trouble to you, burdened with a sense
of your own weakness or little faith in the midst of that trouble,
burdened with how to progress, burdened with this question,
How can God be glorified in this hour? How is it possible? For the believer, for the Christian,
for God's people, there is always this desire, surely, that God
will be glorified, but how can it be possible? And so we look
and we say, but we must therefore want to be delivered from it.
Save me from this hour. Deliver me from this trouble. Oh, like Paul, this I besought
the Lord thrice, that he might remove that thorn. Could it possibly be the Lord's
will to glorify himself in the trouble? I say, let's come to
the gracious God. I may have a great trouble, but
remember a gracious God. Look what the Lord says. Father,
save me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour. He brought me into this hour. It has been in the eternal counsel
and plan of God that this hour would come. It was purposed before
the world was formed that this hour would come. And the whole
course of history has been working toward this hour. And even the
life of Jesus has been working towards this hour. For this cause
came I unto this hour. It is not by chance. It is not
outside of God's control. In fact, it is well and truly
in the hand and will of God. It is for this cause. It is for
this moment. It reminds us, doesn't it, of
the words of Queen Esther. or the words of Mordecai to Queen
Esther. Who knoweth whether thou art brought into the kingdom
for such a time as this? Well, in fact, we can answer
Mordecai's words and say, yes, she has been brought into the
kingdom for such a time as this, because Esther's placing on the
throne and Haman's decree and all of those things fitting together
from Mordecai's refusing to bow down to the discovery of the
previous plot have been working together to this moment. For
this cause, Esther, you came to this hour, that you might
go into the king. Because God has had his amazing,
sovereign, gracious hand on you. And it's true in the life of
the Lord. For this cause, for this reason,
that I might enter into trouble. And he could say this even more.
when he enters into Gethsemane, and when he bears the sins of
his people, and when he lays down his body on the cross, for
this cause came I into this hour. You see, when the Lord Jesus
Christ passes into suffering, and when he then enters into
death at Calvary, God didn't cease to be God. God didn't cease
to be sovereign and God didn't cease to be good. He was still a gracious God. In fact, as we thought this morning,
we see the grace of God even more gloriously displayed at
the cross and in the sufferings of Jesus Christ. He is good. The psalmist reminds us, give
thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, his mercy endureth forever. What hour are we in this evening? What hour, what trouble are we
passing into or passing through and saying, how can God possibly
be glorified in this and we have forgotten that our gracious God
is good, that he is always good, and therefore what he does is
always good. I am the good shepherd, said
the Lord Jesus in John chapter 10. I am the good shepherd. And to the Jewish audience who
heard the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, I am the good shepherd.
You can be sure that every single one of them would immediately
have thought of, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. I am the good shepherd. Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will
fear no evil, for thou art with me. The good shepherd is with
me. Jesus Christ is with me. And why is the flock walking
through the valley? Why are those sheep walking through the shadow
of death? Because the good shepherd has
led them into it. The good shepherd has led them
into it. He hasn't made a mistake. He
hasn't made a wrong turn. And at no point for a moment
was he motivated by a heart of unkindness. He is good. And for some reason, unknown
to the flock at that time, perhaps. He has seen it good to lead them
into the valley. And so this evening, for some
reason, a reason that you can't explain and a reason I can't
explain and a reason that you didn't expect, you have been
led into a path that you didn't expect. But the shepherd has
brought you there. the good shepherd. For this cause
came I unto this hour." We have, of course, a common example of
this thought in the life of Joseph in the Old Testament. Again,
so many twists and turns, so many unexpected changes, so many
difficult places, from the pit to being a slave, to being in
Potiphar's house, to being in the prison, all of these different
experiences, and yet, he could say at the end that God meant
it for good. Because though he was suffering,
and though he felt that rejection, and though he felt that loneliness,
and though he was alone in the Egyptian household, seeking still
to honor his God, the good God had put him there. Now Joseph
was a man of faith, but the word of God tried Joseph. And there
must have been times in his life when he looked at the different
experiences that he was in, whether he was those years in the prison,
or whether he was walking, being dragged behind the camels, being
led down into Egypt, that he must have wondered, where is
the goodness of God? And yet God meant it for good.
And he knew that in the end. And so the greatness of your
trouble, the overwhelming nature of that trouble has not overwhelmed
the grace of God. In fact, even the wind and the
waves obey him. And the waves and the billows
of your life obey him. And so we remember that there
is great trouble, that there is a gracious God, and then thirdly
a glorified God. Father, glorify thy name. Again, it can be our natural
disposition. It can be our thought that we need to be delivered
from the problem in order to praise the Lord. Bring my soul
out of prison. Save me from this problem. Deliver
me from this hour. Then I will glorify the Lord.
And yes, that may be the Lord's will. The Lord does deliver his people
out of trouble. The Lord is able to still the
storm. The Lord is able to heal the leper. He is able to raise
the dead. He is able to deliver Peter out
of the prison. He can bring you out of trouble. And I'm sure he will lead you
to praise him and honour him. But do not forget that he is
also glorified as you walk through the valley. as well as when you
come out of it. Father, glorify thy name. How is the Lord glorified as
his people walk through the valley? Let me suggest a few thoughts. The Lord is glorified as his
people continue to follow him in the valley. We are told, if any man serve
me, let him follow me. And God's people, in more and
more dependent on his strength, they do continue. He does keep
them. And they do find that they press
on another step in front of each other. The fact that his people
do not give up, they do keep pressing on, glorifies God. The Lord uses these times very
often to cause them to prove their dependence on him, to cause
them to prove that they cannot take another step without him
and he brings them to prayer and to cry to him and he gives
them, they don't know how, they've done it. They don't know how
it is possible, but they find that there's another day and
strength for that day. And they find that they come
to the end and the Lord has helped them through it. And they find
that somehow, though they've been tempted many times to turn
back, and though they've been tempted many times to forsake
the Lord and to give up, somehow they have kept on going. Somehow,
another day. If I can just speak on a personal
level, and other preachers will understand what I'm meaning,
or if you teach Sunday school, you'll understand something what I'm
meaning. When you've got a passage in front of you, you've got a
text in front of you, you've got a service in front of you, and you don't
know how you're going to preach it, you don't know how you're
going to take it, or you've got a service behind you, and you
don't think it was very good, and you say, I'm not going to
do it. I'm not going to do it. And yet,
somehow, you do another one and somehow there's another step
and there's another day because the Lord keeps his people pressing
on. Pressing on looking to him not
in their strength but in remembering that at the head of the flock
right in front of them is the Good Shepherd. And so as others
look on, and as we prove the Lord's help, we glorify Him in
that continuing in the valley. We also glorify Him as we cling
to Him, as by faith we remember the goodness and the greatness
of the person of our Savior. as our minds and our hearts are
again directed to Him, and as we find again a sweetness in
the truth that He is the Good Shepherd, as again by faith we
come to the cross and find a sweetness that He has loved us with an
everlasting love. And again we come to his word
and find that sweetness that he is faithful to his word and
his promises. And with that little faith we
cling to it and we hold to what he has said and what he has done.
And that faith speaks loud and clear to the glory of the God
who gave it. the glory of the God who implanted
that faith and opened the eyes and the heart that they might
cling to what he has said and done and his name is glorified. He is glorified in the trouble
as the Lord Jesus Christ shines through his people. He was troubled. He passed through deep waters. And they taste a little, a little
taste of what he knew. And they find union with Christ
and fellowship in those sufferings. and the gospel of God's grace
and their union with Christ shines through. Sometimes we can look on others
and think they have such a close walk with the Lord. They have
such a close union with the Lord that Christ seems to shine through
them. They are full of speaking of
him. They have experience of him. They clearly have a close
relationship with him. We can look on enviously at a
Christian like that and wish that we also knew the Lord like
they do, that Christ also shone through us like he does through
them. But we don't know the trouble
they've been in that they might experience that union with Christ. We don't know what they've passed
through in their life or in their soul. to seek that closer union
or to experience that closer union with the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Lord Jesus is glorified
in his people as they show forth that they are only what they
are by his grace. And then one other thought. He
is glorified as they die. He is glorified as they die. Do you notice what the Lord says? He that loveth his life shall
lose it. He that hateth his life in this
world shall keep it unto life eternal. His people are called
to die, to die to themselves. to hate this life, not to hate
it in a sense that we're not thankful for it, not to hate
and despise the blessings that God has given us, not to just
wish our years on this earth were away and we could quickly
depart into glory, though we look forward to it, but the sense
is that where our heart is, where is our treasure? And the Lord
brings his people more and more to die to this world, to die
to themselves. The Apostle writes to the Romans,
he speaks of how they should be made, should be a living sacrifice
to the Lord. I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living
sacrifice. Living sacrifice. When you think about it, those
two words don't belong together. A living sacrifice. A sacrifice
was killed. A sacrifice is laid on the altar,
a life is taken. Well, you are not a sacrifice
in that sense. You don't literally lay yourself down. We don't,
of course, kill ourselves or one another for the Lord. Far,
far from that. But God's people are a living
sacrifice. That means they live for the Lord, but they die to
themselves. This, he says, is your reasonable
service. And so God is glorified. As they
walk through the valley, they die to themselves. They die to
their own will. They die to their own way. And
they say, not my will, but thine be done. You know, we read the Lord's
Prayer this morning, where we read there, thy will be done
on earth as it is in heaven. We often think of the words of
Jesus Christ in Gethsemane, nevertheless not my will but thine be done.
And we can pray, Lord may thy will be done. Do you know how
incredibly hard it is to mean that prayer? How hard it is to
truly say thy will be done. When that may mean the path of
trouble. and the path of sacrifice, the
path of suffering, the path of difficulty, the path of disappointment,
the valley of the shadow of death, to then say, Lord, thy will be
done. And yet surely it is through
the experience of the valley that they learn to say that with
true meaning, because they prove again that in the valley the
good shepherd is there. Father, glorify thy name. The end of the Gospel of John,
we read of Peter. When Peter is recommissioned
to serve the Lord and serving his people, to feed the sheep
and to feed the lambs, after his denial and after the resurrection,
And Peter is called by the Lord, and he says to him, when thou
wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkest whither thou wouldest.
When thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thine hands,
and another shall gird thee, and carry thee whither thou wouldest
not. Now he's saying, Peter, you're not your own. And there
will come a day when he would die. And tradition tells us that
Peter was crucified as a martyr. And he goes on to say, he spake
this, signifying by what death he should glorify God. What death
he should glorify God. Now that doesn't mean, of course,
that we only glorify God in our physical deaths. But it means,
what makes us consider, doesn't it, this losing our life, this
giving, dying to self, that in that way should glorify God. This evening, is your soul troubled? By the way, by your life, or
by the experience of your heart, and the way that the Lord is
teaching you and leading you. Is your soul troubled? Well,
tonight you have a wonderful union with your Saviour, Jesus
Christ, who himself knows what it is to be troubled, and who
himself will never forsake his people in their trouble, but
rather, amazingly, will be glorified in that trouble. It is not wrong
to pray to be delivered. The Lord Jesus Christ said, save
me from this hour. It is not wrong to pray to be
delivered. But may we be given the grace
to pray with an eye on the gracious God, desiring that whether in
the valley or out of it, he alone will be glorified. Father, save
me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto
this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Amen.