Take your Bibles and turn to
John chapter 12. John 12, I want to look at verses
27 through 36 together. Our Lord in this passage, in
verse 31, He speaks of the judgment of this world. He says, now is
the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. Now our Lord had said these words
after his father spoke to Christ. And he confirmed for us what
the will of God is for us in his son, Jesus Christ. The will
of God. Declared in Christ is that God
will be gracious to His people in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
the will of God. That's what's revealed to us
and declared in His Son Jesus Christ. And this word which the
Father spoke wasn't to convince Christ. Christ knew what He was
come to do. Christ tells us in verse 30 that
this voice came for your sakes. The Father declared the word
for your sakes. Now the judgment of this world
at the time of our reading, the judgment of this world has already
come. It's already been settled. Turn over to John chapter 3.
Look at John 3 verse 36. He says, John the Baptist says
of our Lord, he that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. So the God, our Father, God in
heaven, has made it abundantly clear to us, in whom He is well
pleased. God reveals who His salvation
is. He says in verse 35, John 3,
35, the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into
His hand. If you would know the true and
living God, if you would be received by God, You must be blameless,
faultless, perfect, holy. And the One who makes His people
blameless, faultless, perfect, and holy is the Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look to Him, hear Him speak,
because He declares to us the Father. He declares to us the
way of salvation, which is Christ himself. He is salvation. He is the salvation of God. He
says in John 3 verse 34, for he whom God hath sent speaketh
the words of God. For God giveth not the spirit
by measure unto him. And so what Christ speaks is
the truth. And Christ's words are life. And he that hears those words
has life because the Spirit has come and given us faith and life
and the ability to hear Christ speak. Verse 33, he that hath
received his testimony hath set to a seal that God is true. He that believes the Lord Jesus
Christ is confessing, Lord, I have no righteousness. I have no merit,
no reason to think that you will receive me by my works, because
my works are filthy. My works are sin, and I am deserving
of your wrath and judgment. But you have sent your Son, and
you have declared Him and set Him forth who is life and hope,
reconciliation and peace Lord, help me, help me to believe Him,
to trust Him, Lord. Have mercy on me for Christ's
sake. And all who come to the Father,
declare, Lord, You're true, and there is no salvation apart from
Your Son. I titled the message, For Your
Sakes. For your sakes. You know, man
spends a great deal of time trying to get himself saved. He spends a great deal of time
trying to obtain favor of God and forgiveness with God. Isaiah
describes it in Isaiah 55 verse 2. He says, you labor, you spend
money for that which is not bread. and you labor for that which
cannot satisfy. And that's what man does. He
labors and strives and works to obtain the favor of God. But our God says, hear him. Hear my son. Look to my son. He is salvation. And so the people of God, behold,
it's not what I do. It's not by the things that I
do or what I try to do or what I don't do. Christ is the very
salvation of God. He is life. And so if you would
know what God is saying to his people, hear Christ. Look to
him. You leave on the sun because
he is life. So let's begin here with this
phrase, the judgment of this world. Many people read the Bible, they
come to church services, and they think that the act of doing
those things, of Bible reading and coming to services and doing
works of that sort, that's what makes them good. That there's
imparted to us some kind of good dust. It makes us more moral
and makes us better people because we're doing something that's
religious and that God is impressed with our effort. And that's because
by nature, man sees what he does, what man believes is salvation
is wrought by his hand, is worked by something that he does for
God. But the truth, the truth of God
is that God must do something for us. We need his grace. We cannot turn the face of God
towards us. We cannot turn God to us to be
merciful and gracious to us. We need Him in grace to turn
to us, to look upon us, and to show us kindness and mercy, which
He does in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not by our choices. It's
not by our will. It's not by our works. It's by
the grace of God revealed in His Son. Man doesn't know that
by nature, We are born in trespasses and sins. We come forth spiritually
dead, unable to know the true and living God, unable to please
the true and living God. And we won't know that until
we are spiritually regenerated. spiritually born again, born
from heaven above by the Spirit of God. Until that happens, by
the gift of God, by the grace of God, we won't see and know
the darkness that we're in. We won't know how blind we are
to the truth of God until he makes us to know how blind we
are by nature. Paul, when writing to the Ephesians,
speaks to those of you who believe the truth, and he reminds us
that we all were in darkness, we all were in death, we all
didn't know the truth of God until God came and delivered
us out of that darkness. And he said in Ephesians 2, verse
2 and 3, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course
of this world. That's us, all of us by nature,
according to the prince of the power of the air. That's the
devil, the deceiver. the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation, our walk, our way of doing things, in time past,
in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. There is nothing that distinguished
us from any other person. We all were deceived. We all
walked in darkness. We all spoke lies. We all thought
that we were doing something for God. But the truth is that
except God have mercy on us for Christ's sake, we shall all die
in our sins. We cannot save ourselves. And
so man in his darkened mind convinces himself that what he's doing
for God is what saves him. But the Lord convinces his people
that it's not what we do for him, but what he does for us.
in his son Jesus Christ. And left to himself, man will
always miss Christ. He'll never see Christ. He'll
hear religious things. He'll hear about religious works.
He may even try to reform his life and to do better. But he's
missing he that is salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. So for example, look at John
12. John chapter 12, verse 28 and 29. This is the prayer that our Lord
prayed. He said, Father, glorify thy name. Then came there 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
spake to him. That's a great illustration of
the natural man left to himself. We don't hear what the Lord is
saying. We think, oh, there's something spiritual around this
Jesus of Nazareth, there's something about him, but we don't see that
he is salvation itself. He is the very salvation of God. We'll hear things, we'll look
and try to understand what's being said, but all it is is
a natural, carnal hearing that cannot save. The Lord shows his
people that Christ is our salvation. He's not an example. He's not
a good man. He's not just a prophet or someone
for us to try and imitate and be like. He is salvation. Apart from him, there is no life. There is no salvation, no acceptance
with God. Now, our Lord told Nicodemus,
verily, verily, truly, truly, except ye be born again, except
you be born from above by the Spirit of God, you can't even
see the kingdom of God. How are we going to believe on
Him whom we have not heard? How are we going to believe on
Him whom we have not seen by the grace of God, by His Spirit? Until the Lord gives us a new
birth by His Spirit, we don't even see that He is salvation.
We don't have a hope in His righteousness. And so what I want us to see
here is our Lord declares in this passage His glorification. He speaks of His death and what
His death accomplishes for His people and how His resurrection
is our very life. My prayer for you people, for
you my brethren here, is that the Lord is pleased to pour out
His Spirit to give us a hearing ear of faith, to give us a believing
heart that receives the Lord Jesus Christ, because we only
hear Him and receive Him when we have the Spirit of God, when
the Spirit of God comes upon us with resurrection power and
raises us from the dead so that we hear and know the true and
living God. Our Lord shows us our need of
Him and he shows us that Christ is sufficient to save us to the
uttermost. He convinces his people of that
salvation of the Lord. All right, now, our Lord teaches
his people here that salvation is in his hands. Salvation is
in his hands. He's the one who's saving his
people. He said in verse 27, our Lord
says in verse 27, 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. The trouble that our Lord is
speaking about is that very soon, very soon, He's going to the
cross as the sacrifice. He's going to sacrifice Himself
unto the Father as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of His
people, to provide an atonement, a covering for the sins of His
people with His own blood. to deliver us from the wrath
of God, which is what we've earned by our works, what we've earned
for our sins and iniquities. So this sacrifice of Christ,
it wasn't a theoretical sacrifice. It wasn't a mere show. It wasn't
just to put on a show and show us how bad sin is. Christ died
in the room instead, in the place of his people. because we cannot
save ourselves. Our sin is that vile, that offensive,
and God is that holy that our sin must be put away. In 2 Corinthians 5.21 the Spirit
tells us that our God hath made His Son, Jesus Christ, to be
sin for us who knew no sin that we in Him might be made the righteousness
of God. Christ is the righteousness of
His people. Our God provided His Son to put
away that sin. Christ knew what He was coming
to do. He knew that He was coming to fulfill the will of His God
for the people of God. And he would not be delivered
from this hour. He didn't seek to take himself
from this hour. He came to this hour with purpose. He came to accomplish our salvation. He said in one place to his disciples
around this time, he said, with desire, I have desire to eat
this Passover with you before I suffer. Our Lord loves his
people. Our Lord came to save his people,
to put away their sin. Our Lord came to make them righteous,
to make them his people, to secure for them an inheritance with
holy God. And so we read again in Matthew
26, verse 38 and 39. Turn there. Let's go to Matthew
26. Let's read it together. Matthew 26, verse 38 and 39.
Here we read of our Lord's trouble in Gethsemane. This is the Garden
of Gethsemane on the night in which he was betrayed and would
go to the cross the next day. He said to his disciples, then
saith he unto them, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto
death. Tarry ye here. Wait here and
watch or pray with me. And he went a little farther,
and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as thou wilt. Do you know why our Lord prayed
that prayer? Do you know why He said those
words? It wasn't because He desired
to be delivered from the sacrifice that He was to make of Himself.
He wasn't trying to get away from fulfilling the purpose that
God had for Him for His people. They're spoken for your sakes. The fact that our Lord said those
words shows us, it tells us there is no other salvation for sinners. There is no other means of our
being delivered. If Christ does not die, if Christ
does not give himself as a sacrifice to the Father, you cannot be
saved. We must die in our sins. We'll
bear our sins ourselves before the Father, and we must perish
in our sins. Our Lord prayed that prayer so
that we know that cup cannot pass from Him. There is no other
means of salvation. There is no work, no law, no
nothing you or I can do to save ourselves. Christ and Christ
alone is the very salvation of God for His people. And so we
see there We're sinners and Christ is righteous. He's precious to
the people of God. He's made precious to us. It's
why we love Him. Why we joy in Him and rejoice
in Him. Why we speak of Him and boast
of Him and sing of Him and declare Him to sinners because there
is no other salvation. There is no life outside of Christ. Now back in verse 28 of John
12, John 12, 28. He prayed, Father,
glorify thy name. And then came there a voice from
heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. Our God is glorified in his Son
in all things. He's glorified in his coming
in the flesh, that he would humble himself, becoming the bondservant
of his father, to accomplish our deliverance. He's glorified
in the miracles which our Lord did. He's glorified in the shining
of his light as he declares the truth into the hearts of his
people. And though many people never
understand what the Lord is saying in the slaying of Christ on the
cross, for you who know the Lord, for you who have been delivered
from bondage and set free from dead works religion and set free
from the fear and the terrors which you had under the law,
Christ is precious, and He's darling, and He's wonderful to
you. You here, you see, you understand
what the Lord is declaring in the death of His Son. For you
know there is no other way. That's my sin that put Him there.
That's for me that He did that. For His love for me, that He
went to the cross to save me, to put away my sin. It's the
Lord's mercy, it's the Lord's grace and love declared to his
people what he's done for us to deliver us from the condemnation
that is coming upon the world. And so we who are cleaned and
cleansed by the blood of Christ, it's for your sakes. It's for
your sakes that Christ did this. He didn't go to the cross for
his own sins. He didn't go to the cross for any other purpose
but to make an atonement for you, his people, whom he loves. Now this is the judgment, John
3.18, he that believeth on Christ is not condemned. But he that
believeth not on Christ is condemned already, because he hath not
believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God. We see the
condemnation, because no faith is revealed in those for whom
Christ did not come to die. And yet those for whom Christ
did come to die, faith is revealed. Faith is wrought in their heart.
Life and liberty and hope looking to the Lord Jesus Christ is wrought
in them for whom Christ did this work. Now our Lord says in verses
32 and 33, John 12, 32. And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto me. This, he said, signifying
what death he should die. And so we see that it's there
on the cross that Christ was sacrificed, bearing the sins
away of his people in order to set them free. We see that Christ
knew what he was coming to do and how he would die and how
he would be sacrificed to the Father to make an atonement for
our sins. Turn over to Hebrews 10. Let's
go to Hebrews 10 and we're going to pick up in verse 5. Again, showing us that we could
not be saved by our works, that we need a savior. We need salvation,
which is provided in Christ alone. Hebrews 10.5, wherefore, when
he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice and offering. That is, he's speaking of the
sacrifices of bulls and goats under the law of Moses. Sacrifice
and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared
me. He brought the Son into the world,
robed in flesh, because the Lord God gave Him a body of people
who are His inheritance. He gave Him a people. Now in
burnt offerings, verse 6, and sacrifices for sin, thou hast
had no pleasure. The sacrifices which Israel did
under the law, they could not take away sin. Those things were
a type, a picture of looking to the coming Savior. And so
that left his bride. Under the law, his bride, his
body, had no hope of righteousness. We couldn't be delivered from
our sin. God wasn't pleased with those works under the law. Verse 7, then said, I, lo, I
come. In the volume of the book, which
means in the beginning of the book, in the very beginning of
Genesis, it speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's written of
me to do thy will, O God, Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering,
and burn offerings, and offering for sin, thou wouldst not, neither
hath pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. Then
said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the
first, that Old Testament covenant, that he may establish the second,
the covenant of God's grace with his people, by the which will,
the will of God, we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ once for all. And we see this. Turn over to
Isaiah 53. Go to Isaiah 53. Verses 4 and 5, we see the offering
of our Lord for his people to put away our sin. Isaiah 53, 4 and 5, it's in Christ's
body that he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet
we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. In his
body our Lord came, and he was wounded for our transgressions.
He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. Look at verse
10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief, when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin. When our Lord You know, we're
like the people who stood by when they saw Christ hanging
on the cross. And when we consider the Son
of God come in the flesh and he went to the cross for my sin,
the creator hangs on the cross to put away my sin, to deliver
me from that just death, which I deserve because of my works,
we're amazed. We're perplexed, and we're wondering,
Lord, how can these things be? We struggle to comprehend it. And so it is when those people
who stood by and heard Christ praise prayer, and they heard
it and said that it thundered, and others said an angel spake
to him, we wonder, Lord, what Why was it that your son came? What did he accomplish? How did
he accomplish this? But we wonder. But through it,
though we struggle to explain what the Lord was doing there,
we hear the thundering strokes, the thundering strikes of holy
God pouring out his wrath on the son. to put away our sin. We hear His thundering strokes
come down upon Christ for our sins, being laid on Holy Jesus,
the Lamb of God. And then, when we behold what
God has done to His Son for our sakes, we hear the voice of the
angel declaring the gospel as it says in Revelation 14 6 there
was an angel which flew in the midst of heaven having the everlasting
gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth and to every
nation and kindred and tongue people and so that voice what
we see in beholding our Lord on the cross is that holy God
poured out his wrath against his son for your sakes and for
your sakes he causes you to hear the voice of the gospel the word
of the gospel declaring your sins are put away you're forgiven
God is at peace with you because he's reconciled you to through
the blood of His Son. There's nothing more to do. There's
nothing you can do. Christ has done it all. All the
works which God requires are finished and complete in His
Son. Jesus Christ and so all our enemies
are defeated the devil's destroyed the grave is is ruined it cannot
hold us death cannot hold you sin has no more dominion over
you it's all been put away by the Lord Jesus Christ and we're
given life that life whereby we see Christ and we see in him
is all my hope all my salvation all my acceptance with God John
1234 If we don't have the spirit,
all we'll see Christ is with carnal eyes. We'll only see him
with carnal eyes and we won't see who he is or what he accomplished.
John 12, 34, the people answered him, we have heard out of the
law that Christ abideth forever. And how sayest thou the son of
man must be lifted up? Who is this son of man? And they
didn't see that Christ has come a bondservant. made willing,
willing to do the will of the Father, to accomplish his purpose,
to be gracious to his people. You know, he said those words,
the Son of Man, when he was speaking to Nicodemus. We don't see it
recorded here that he ever used the term Son of Man, but they
heard him declare this. likely on more than one occasion.
And he said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish, but have eternal life. And so the point is, is that
Christ came as a servant to lay down his life. He did the work
that we could not do and accomplished our very salvation. Now, you'll
notice though in verses 35 and 36, Christ didn't answer their
question. All he did was declare the truth.
He just declared himself. He lifted himself up. And that's
what we do in the preaching of the gospel. We just declare Christ. And those for whom God will be
gracious, they will hear his voice. And they will look to
his son. And they will behold the servant
of God and believe on him. and rejoice in him and be glad
in him. Verses 12, verse 35 and 36. Then
Jesus said unto them, yet a little while is the light with you.
Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you.
For he that walketh in darkness knoweth not where he goes. While
ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children
of light. These things spake Jesus and
departed and did hide himself from them. Is Christ hidden from
you? Has Christ hidden from you? What
think ye of Him? What do you think of Christ?
I declare to you He is the salvation of God. We see Jesus made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death. And He came
and accomplished that death for His people. He wrought salvation
for you that have no hope and believe on Him. testifying that
God is true. Lord, I'm a sinner. I have no
righteousness of my own, but you've provided him in your son,
Jesus Christ. Lord, help me. Help me to see
him. Help me to believe, Lord. Help
me to trust him and have no other trust. And the Lord says, he
that believeth on me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have
the light of life. Look to the Son. God has provided
Him. While you have the light, in
the day of grace, while this gospel's being preached, look
to Christ. Don't ignore it. Don't put it
from you. Look to Christ and trust Him.
Because it's the mercy of God for His people. And in Him, in
Him alone is salvation. And there's not another. There's
not another. I pray the Lord bless this word
to the hearts of His people and comfort you in Christ. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for your great grace and your mercy
that you have sent your Son to accomplish our salvation and
that you've caused us to hear it. that it's for our sakes that
you condescend and speak this word to our hearts, making us
to see that it's for our sins, because we're the filthy sinners,
and that we're deserving of hell, but it's for your love's sake
and your son, that you show us mercy and grace by him. Lord,
help us to see Christ. Help us to hear his voice. Lord,
turn our hearts from darkness and help us to see the light
of our God, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to believe on him. It's in
Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen. All right.