Turn back to John chapter 13. The Son of Man glorified. We don't know how we are going to die. Nobody
here knows that. We don't know what suffering
we will endure when that time comes, what sickness we may have. But our Lord knew exactly what
was going to happen to Him. He knew exactly how He was going
to die. He knew the sufferings that He
was about to endure. And it was not the suffering
of sickness. It was the suffering of God's
wrath over sin. And he knew he was about to endure
that, and he speaks of being glorified. I wish that I, myself, and you,
when it comes up time to die, that we could look at it as a
time of glorification. Wouldn't that be a different
outlook? Wouldn't that be a different
outlook on death? It's a time that we're about to be finally
glorified. In other words, when we die,
we are going to receive the final glory of our salvation in Jesus
Christ. It is a glorification. This mortal is going to put on
immortality. This corruptible that you're
looking at is going to put on incorruption. You know, every time I study,
when I study to preach, and when I stand here to preach, even
as I'm preaching now, what's going through my mind, even as
I'm talking to you, is that this is real. As I was saying those things,
I'm thinking, this is real. I'm talking to you about things
that are real. As real as I am standing here.
This mortal is going to put on immortality. And this corruption
is going to put on incorruption. And death is going to be swaddled
up in victory. Victory. And our Lord knew this. He knew
this. Judas is about to betray Him
into the hands of the chief priest. He is going to be crucified.
He knew what was going to happen to him. You know, when our Lord was on
the Mount of Transfiguration and He spoke of His death to
Elijah and Moses, He did not speak of it as a tragedy. And we need to learn to speak
as our Lord spoke. He spoke of it as an accomplishment. He spoke of the death that He
should accomplish. It was an accomplishment for
him. Not a tragedy. Not an attempt at something.
An accomplishment. He doesn't speak of it as being
a martyr, but an accomplishment. Now he says in verse 31, When Judas was gone out, Jesus
said, Now is the Son of Man glorified. He's honored. He's going to be
honored. He's going to be lifted up. He's
going to be raised to glory. Now you're going to see. Here
in a little while. The disciples couldn't see it
at that time. And there's a whole lot you and I can't see at this
time. I mean, I speak of things that we can't physically see,
and we really can't comprehend, but we can believe it, because
it's the Word of God. It's the Word of God. We believe
the Word of God. You know, I was thinking the
other day, I was watching this golf lesson, and the guy giving
the lesson, and I've heard this so many times, he said, feel
and real are not the same thing. Feeling real is not the same
thing in golf. He said, it feels like you're over-exaggerating,
but you're not. Well, I know what's real in salvation. I know
what's real. I don't always feel it. Here's
what's real. In Christ, I have no sin. But
that's not what I feel. That's not what I feel. I feel
like I can't do anything but sin. I feel like I am just constantly,
I'm constantly saying, Lord, have mercy on me. Lord, forgive
me. Lord, help me. Help me to overcome. But the
fact of the matter is, the truth is, sin shall not have dominion
over you. You're not under the law. You're
under grace. In Christ, you're complete. In Christ, you have
no sin. That's real. But that's not feel. That's why we don't go by feel.
We don't go by that. And so here, listen. He's speaking
of the Son of Man being glorified. And if He's glorified, we are
glorified in Him, even though we don't feel it. It's so. Reckon it to be so. Count it
to be so. And God is glorified, He's lifted
up, God is magnified in Him, in Christ. That's where if you
want to see the glory of God, the greatness of God, you've
got to study and look at Jesus Christ. You and I only see a glimpse
of it in creation. We just get glimpses of it in
creation. It's like looking through a lattice, darkly. But boy, when we look to the
face of Jesus Christ and we really, listen now, we just don't learn
some facts, but we really study Him and come to know Him, then
we can see God in His real true glory. Now how is the Son of Man glorified
in such a death? The death of the cross was a
death for the worst offenders. It was a cursed death. It says
in Galatians 3.13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. That being so, how can he be
glorified in such a death? Well, first of all, in the death
of Christ, Jesus Christ is fully revealed to be the I Am. That's
where He's fully revealed to be the I AM. He says in John
13, 19, Now I tell you before it comes to pass. Now who can
do that? There's only one person that
can do that. There's only one person who can tell you what's
going to happen before it happens. God. God. I tell you before it comes to
pass that when it comes to pass you might believe that I AM.
He told them of His sufferings. He told them what was going to
happen. He told them he must suffer and
die and rise again. He told them this before it happened. That when it happens, you may
know that I am, I am God. Only God can tell you what's
going to happen before it happens. And then he's glorified in his
obedience. The righteousness of Christ is
not just His obedience to the law while He lived on this earth
in the flesh, it also includes His death. You know, for 33 years
He lived on this earth. And for 33 years He kept God's
law in His heart. In His heart He kept God's law.
Oh how I love thy law is written in the Psalms as Christ speaking.
He kept God's law perfectly. But now, if he doesn't die, he
didn't fully keep God's law. Because the law says, the soul
that sinneth shall surely die. Now as my substitute, keeping
the law on my behalf, in order to fulfill the law, He has to
do everything, all the way, even to the point of dying. He has
to die. He has to die my death in order
to satisfy God's law. Because God's law said, you've
got to die. The soul that sinneth, and I
have sinned. So, we see God magnified in the obedience
of Jesus Christ. He obeyed the law, He honored
it, all the way to the point of dying. It's written in Philippians
2.8, "...and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself
and became obedient unto death." Bowed to it. Most everyone I know, I know
this, I know everyone in this world, every unbeliever fights
it. They fight dying. And I've seen
this many times over the years. People fight dying, trying to
live. Our Lord didn't try to live,
did he? He came to die. He became obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross. He didn't just die, He died the
death of a criminal. Because the people He redeemed
are a bunch of criminals. You believe that, honestly? You
believe that? Every one of us ought to be locked
up. I just about guarantee you that you can pretty much, unless
you're so self-righteous it's pathetic, there's some point
in your life where you could be locked up for. If you got
caught, well, God has caught you. God
has caught everybody on this earth. You know, the law has
a grip on everybody. And the only ones that's free
are the ones whom the Son sets free. He's the only one who can set
you free from the clutches of justice. Because He suffered
that I might go free. He satisfied justice, I might
go free. Brethren, never get tired of
hearing that. I tell you, one day when you and I die, I've
never experienced death. I can't tell you anything about
it. We've had several funerals here, but I can't tell you anything
about what they just went through as far as actually the experience
of it. But there's going to be a time
when I'm going to die. I'm going to be laying in a casket.
Somebody's going to be preaching my funeral. I told Paul Mahan
I want him to preach my funeral if I go before he does. But that very hour, that very
hour, that very second when that happens, and I'm delivered from
the law of God, and there's no claims against me, and he says
enter in, wow. Wow. You're talking about knowing
the worth of Jesus Christ. That's when we will sing what
they sing in glory. Worthy is the Lamb, worthy is
the Lamb who was slain to receive power and glory and honor. He
was slain that we might not be. And then at the cross, Christ
is glorified in His perfect sacrifice. All the blood of bulls and goats
could not put away one sin. You know that? Not one. I mean, not even a little white
lie. It couldn't put it away. You know, just a little white
lie. Just kill a goat for it. You could kill every goat on
this earth. You can kill every lamb on this earth, and it wouldn't
put away one sin. But the blood of Jesus Christ,
the Lamb of God, has put away all the sins of all the elect
for all eternity. They don't exist no more. You
know, God dealt with this matter of sin. Sin is a mystery. Sin is a great mystery. Where
it came from, how, and all that, I ain't going to even begin to
get into that. It's a great mystery, but I do
know this. God took care of it and put it
away. And only He can do it. I can't put away sin. It's too
great a mystery for me. I would sin in trying to put
away sin. But not our Lord. He put away that great mystery
of evil and sin and corruption. He put it away by the sacrifice
of Himself. Listen to Hebrews 9.26. For then
must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world,
but now, once in the end of the world," that's right, we're in
the end of it, end of the world, "...hath he appeared to put away
sin by the sacrifice of himself." He purged us from our sins. and
then at the cross, He's glorified in this. He crushed the head
of Satan. All the way back in Genesis,
all the way back 6,000 years ago, God said to Satan, He said,
the seed of the woman, you're going to bruise His heel. That's
the human nature of Christ. You're going to bruise His heel.
But He's going to bruise your head. He's going to destroy your
power forever. He's going to destroy your power.
Satan has no power over you. He has no power over you. I tell you, who does have power
over you? Jesus Christ. He's the one who has the power.
And then he's glorified in this. He reversed what the first Adam
did. You know, in Adam we lost the
way to God, the truth of God, and the life of God. And in the
Lord Jesus Christ, all that is restored and much more. We can't
lose it. In the first Adam, I could lose
everything and I did lose everything. In the second Adam, I have everything
and I can lose nothing. I can absolutely lose nothing
in Christ. He's no failure. My servant,
he said in Isaiah 42, shall not fail. He shall not fail. Now how is God glorified in Jesus
Christ? Well, every attribute of God
was magnified and honored in the Son of God, the Son of Man. Listen, in that man was accomplished
what could not be accomplished in the first man, Adam. All the attributes of God, were
glorified in Him and are glorified in Him. Wisdom. Do you not see and understand
the wisdom of God at Calvary? You know, I see and I understand,
by the grace of God, I understand the wisdom of God in representation. I have zero trouble with representation. I'm glad Jesus Christ is my representative. Yes, I fell in Adam. The whole
human race fell by representative. But the whole heavenly race is
saved by representative. In Adam I died. In Christ I'm
made alive. I see the wisdom of God in that. God's wisdom is magnified. God's
love is magnified. God's righteousness is magnified. God's faithfulness is magnified.
Every attribute of God is magnified in that man, Jesus Christ. And
then the power of God was magnified at the cross. Man and Satan, they did their
best to destroy that man. They did their best to destroy
that man, but they couldn't do it. They couldn't put out the
bush that burned. They couldn't extinguish him.
They tried, but they couldn't do it. Our Lord said this in
John 10, 18, no man takes my life from me. I lay it down of
myself. I lay it down and I take it again,
but nobody's taking my life from me. Jesus Christ did not die
because Satan or men took His life away. He died because He
gave it up. Who do you think could take such
a beating that He took and not die? Who could take the stripes
that He took They whipped Him mercilessly. They didn't do 40
stripes save one. They whipped Him until it looked
like He was gonna die. He was gonna die there before
they can get Him to the cross. They whipped Him till His visage,
it says, was marred more than any man. He was unrecognizable.
Any man, any man beaten like He was beaten would have died
before He ever made it to the cross. But He couldn't die because
it wasn't time. You see, you can't take life
away from life. You can't do that. He said, I laid down my, no man
takes it from me. And when he was on the cross,
hanging there, after taking such a beating, visage so marred more
than anyone, he finally says, Father, You know, we don't do this, do
we? I've never heard anybody, when they were dying, say, Father,
I commend my spirit into your hand. We don't do that. He did. He did. He commanded himself to leave
that body and let it die. Let it die. At the cross, we see justice
magnified, we see the power of God magnified, we see the attributes
of God magnified, and we see His love magnified. Having loved
His own, He loved them unto the end. You know, the Lord could
say this, I do this for you. You go through the Gospels and
read where He did anything for Himself. I challenge you. He never made the stones into
bread when he was hungry. You think we would? Well, I think
so. He never made the stones into
bread. He never performed one miracle, not one miracle to relieve
himself. Not one. And why is that? Because I can't. He's got to be a proper substitute.
He takes my place. I can't do anything to relieve
myself. I can't turn stones into bread
when I'm hungry. I can't. I can't do that. And
our Lord never did one thing. Everything He did, He did for
you. He did for those who believe.
He did for His people. Having loved His own, He loved
them to the end. He loved them with an everlasting
love. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Unfailing love magnified as a
cross. And if God be glorified in Him,
in verse 32, God shall also glorify Him in Himself. God will glorify
Him in Himself. And how's that? by raising Him from the dead.
You know, this is a real fact. This is another one of those
feeling real. What's real and what we feel
is two different things. Here's the real. God raised Him
from the dead, and in raising Him from the dead, He raised
us also. You know, when He went back to glory and He's seated
at God's right hand right now, we are seated there also. You
know, the whole church right now is seated before God in Jesus
Christ. The whole church, from beginning
to end. The whole church is seated in
Christ right now at God's right hand. That's real. That's real. How is God going to glorify Him
in Himself? By giving Him all the covenant
promises. Ask me for the heathen, he said
over in Isaiah. Ask me for the heathen for thine
inheritance. Well, here we are. You bunch of heathens. Here we are. You know why you're here? He
asked for you. Imagine that. He asked for you. Give me Doug. Give me Judy. Just go around this congregation,
those of you who believe, give me them. And as many as thou hast given me,
I have given eternal life to. And then I want you to notice,
and I'll wind this up, right here in the midst of him about
to be betrayed, and he speaks of his death as being glorified,
his redemptive glory. He's speaking here of his redemptive
glory. I want you to notice, he turns in verse 33 and he says,
little children, little children. They were grown men, but in Him,
they were little children. They had just newly come to the
faith, but we're still God's little children, aren't we? We're
still His children. It doesn't matter how old your
kids get, they're still your children, aren't they? I mean,
you could be 200 years old, and your kids could be 150, and they're
still your children. They're still your little children.
He said, I'm with you for a little while. And you're going to look
for me." They've been with him for three years. They said that
in one place they had forsaken all and followed him. And I'm
going to tell you the same thing I said to the Jews, but there's
going to be a little difference here. Because the Jews, the unbelieving
Jews, can never come where I am with the Father. Lost people,
they're never going to get there. And he says, I'm telling you
the same thing, that where I'm going right now, you can't come.
You can't come. He's about to go into darkness.
He's about to go into a room that no mortal can go into and
come back out of. He's about to do that. But I want you to notice here,
notice that the Lord did not address them as his little children
until Judas left. Not until he left did he call
them little children because he says in verse 18, I know whom
I've chosen. I know my little children. You
know, I don't call everybody in this community my little children. I have two sons that are mine,
that are mine. And God has many sons and daughters
that are His. And He knows exactly who they
are, where they are, right down to the hair on their head. He said, I'm going to be taken from
you for a little while, but only a little while. But while I'm
gone, I want to give you something. I want to give you something.
And it's very important. And it's still in effect today.
This is still in effect today. A new commandment I give you
that you love one another. You know what? If we love one
another, we don't need another commandment, do we? Here's the problem with the world. Here's the problem with society.
Here's the problem. We don't love one another. Period. We naturally don't love one another. We love our own. And that's truth. That's the truth. We love ourself. We love our own. But the Lord
says here to His disciples and to all of us throughout the ages,
here's a commandment I leave you, a new commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you. He didn't just tell
them to love one another. Well, we do love one another.
You know, you'll hear most societies say that. We do love one another
as you love Christ. He says, you love one another
just like you love Me. He's not jealous of that. You
know the Lord's not jealous of that kind of love? That you also love one another. New commandment, newly revealed
in a new light. Here's the new light. As I have
loved you. How did He love us? Sacrificially. Sacrificially. That's how He
loved us. He loved us to the end. And by this, by this love, shall
all men know you're my disciples, if you have love one to another."
They don't know you're my disciples by what you believe. Now that's
important. I mean, that's very important.
It's more important who you believe than what you believe, because
who you believe will determine what you believe. But here's
the number one mark of sonship. And where this is absent, you
believe whatever, you just believe all the doctrines of grace. You
just believe, you dot every T, dot every I, cross every T. If
this is absent, if it's absent in me or you, we're not His.
By this, you'll all men know you're my disciples if you have
love one to another." The mark of discipleship. He that loveth
not knoweth not God. I don't care what the person
believes. You can be a Calvinist till your eyeballs pop out. But
if you have not love, you're not my disciple. And then last of all, I close.
He's going to die. He's going to go to the cross.
He's going to go to a place at that particular time that the
disciples can't go. Nobody can go but him. He's got
to tread the winepress of God's wrath alone. And Peter said to him, Lord,
where are you going? And Jesus answered him, where
I go, you can't follow me now, but you'll follow me here afterwards.
He didn't say that to the Jews. He said that to Peter, to his
disciples. Peter says, where are you going?
Well, if he told Peter at that time, he still probably wouldn't
understand it. This is too deep for you, Peter,
right now. And I'll tell you something else,
Peter. You need to fall. You need to fall. It's sad, but
it's so. Sometimes we need to fall. Peter
needed this. Because Peter says there in verse
37, Peter said to Him, Lord, why can I not follow Thee now?
I lay down my life for Thy sake. Well, that would be useless at
that time. That would be a useless death, wouldn't it? For Peter
to lay down his life at that time for Christ's sake? Peter
needed this. He needed this fall to humble
him and turn him into a preacher of the gospel. You notice when
God chose David to be king, He didn't take David and just put
him on the throne. David had to run and hide in
caves and it was after his life. God had to mold him and make
him into a leader. And Peter needed this fall that
God may mold him and make him into a preacher. I'll tell you
this, Peter, after this denial, he asked Peter, do you love me?
And every time he said, feed my sheep. You see, Peter had
such a personality about him that he would have been fighting
those Pharisees constantly and the sheep would have starved
to death. He would have let them starve to death. He'd be right
in their face. And he's saying, Peter, if you
love me, feed the sheep. Don't get caught up fighting
false religion because false religion is going to be false
all the way to the end. It's never going to change. But
God's got some sheep in false religion he's going to save.
So you feed the sheep and I'll do the saving. So Peter needed this. Too often
we think too highly of our spiritual strength, don't we? We do. We do. We think we're strong,
spiritually strong. When in fact, if the Lord would
leave us alone, we'd deny Him. I bet you it surprises how many
times we have denied Him. That would surprise us. But here's
a promise. You will follow me afterwards,
Peter. You will. You'll follow me afterwards. You'll be where I am. You know,
He's there now. All of them are. They're there
now. Isn't it amazing how fast life goes by? Look how far, 2,000
years ago, blink of an eye, two days. As
far as God's concerned, that's two days ago. What was today,
Sunday? That was Friday, with God. And Jesus answered him, will
you lay down your life for me, for my sake? I'll tell you truly,
truly, Peter, I'm gonna tell you something here. The cock
shall not crow till you've denied me three times. I wonder what Peter thought of
that. You know what's interesting? The Lord can tell you, he can
tell us, this is what you're gonna do tomorrow. You're gonna
deny me three times tomorrow. You think tomorrow would come,
we'd think about that? You think tomorrow would come and that
first opportunity comes along and we think, wait a minute,
he said I was going to deny him. It didn't even cross Peter's mind
that the Lord said you're going to deny me. You know why? Because
you're going to deny me. You're going to deny me. And
as soon as he denied him that third time, it crossed Peter's
mind. And of course the Lord looked
at him and it was like, He told me that. He told me,
he told me I was going to deny him three times. And I did. And I did. The death of Christ, and I close,
the death of Christ on Calvary's tree was His greatest glory."
You know, the world looks at the death of Christ on the cross,
they don't see any glory in that at all. God's chief glory is His redemptive
glory, not creation. Not God speaking creation into
existence and the universe. That's not God's chief glory.
God's chief glory is God becoming a man and dying under the curse
of His own law that He might redeem a people and bring them
home in a just way and that they would dwell on a new earth forever
and ever and ever. That Scripture came to me again
this morning, and it's one of those Scriptures that kind of
keeps me in focus. In Colossians 1, all things were
made by Him and for Him. For His glory. Now if you get
in line with that, you're going to be happy. You're going to
wind up happy. It's His chief glory, and the
only place where a holy God and a sinner can fellowship is in
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Paul said in Galatians 6, But
God forbid that I should glory, saving the cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me, and I unto
the world." I'm crucified to the world. The world has nothing
for me, and I have nothing for it. We've gone our separate ways. We've gone our separate ways. All right.