John chapter 12, I told someone, we have two wonderful
messages, two wonderful texts. John 12, Exodus 3, if the Lord
is pleased to bless it. It's completely up to Him. The title, the theme, the subject
is found in verse 23, John 12, verse 23. Our Lord said, the
hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. And verse 27, He said, for this
cause came I unto this world, for this hour, Son of God. came
to earth, sent by God. God the Father sent His Son to
be the Son of Man. He named Him Jesus, Joshua, Savior. God sent Him to this world as
the second Adam, covenant head. He's going to do for us what
Adam could not do. And Adam all died. But the second
Adam, the Lord from glory, is going to live because of Him.
He came, He lived, He died on the cross to pay for our sins.
And for this cause, He said, He came out into the world. That's the gospel. If we don't
hear anything else, it just hurts. The gospel of how Christ came
to live, to die, and He rose again and ever lives to make
intercession for us. Verse 20, there were certain
Greeks among the Jews that came to worship at the feast. Is this making a noise? John is our sound man. He's downstairs
teaching our young people. How about that? Better? For certain
Greeks, verse 20 through 22, certain Greeks among them, among
the Jews that came to Jerusalem to worship at the feast, the
same came therefore to Philip. which was of Bethsaida. I don't
know why they asked Philip, unless it's just they knew he was one
of the disciples. That would be a good illustration,
wouldn't it? Somebody asked us something of
his disciples. Let's hope they know and believe
that we've been with him, we're his disciples. They desired him
saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. And Philip cometh and telleth
Andrew, And again, Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. Now, I've
preached this two ways and heard other men preach it.
This is a type of how the Gentiles, the Lord calls the Gentiles,
not just the Jews, but the Gentiles came and they were true seekers.
Let's hope they were. We don't know for certain. It
says they came to worship. They came to see Jesus. Well,
if they did, and most of the people, that's why they came.
They came to see Jesus. This whole chapter is about the
people that came out of curiosity to see Jesus and Lazarus even. You read it with me. We looked
at it. And the fact of the matter is, If we're truly seeking to
know God, to know Christ, we will see Jesus as more than just
Jesus. If Paul wrote the letter to the
Hebrews, he said this, let me find it, in Hebrews 2. He says, we see Jesus. He saw
a man, witnesses of a man who lived on this earth named Jesus,
made a little lower than the angels for this cause, for the
suffering of death. And he continued, we see him
now crowned with glory and honor. And at Pentecost, Simon Peter,
he said, hear these words, Jew, Gentile, everybody, Jesus of
Nazareth. This same Jesus whom you crucified,
God hath made Lord. So if these men came to seek
the Lord and said we would see Jesus, the Lord is going to reveal
Himself to them as who He really is. Not just a man, but the Lord
Jesus Christ. It doesn't appear that He gave
them an audience though. And that's fitting if people
just come to see Jesus, and the whole religious world is coming
this morning to talk about Jesus. God's people are coming to worship
the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. So, I hope
there were seekers. But I believe the Lord said this
to Philip and Andrew who came to speak to Him. Verse 23, the
Lord answered them. Whatever, everybody heard this. You're hearing it. The hour has come that the Son
of Man should be glorified. He said, for this cause came
I into the world. The hour has come. His time. This is what Christ came into
this world to do. The Son of Man, He's called.
Jesus, yes, a man. Made of woman, made under the
law. Why? To redeem them that were
under the law. The Son of Man, it says, should
be glorified. Glorified. God's glory. And in a moment we're going to
hear Him ask the Father to glorify His name. Well, the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ is who He is and what He did. That's
in His name, isn't it? The Lord. God, before He came. Before He became a man, He was
God. Still is. Still was. Jesus. Joshua. Savior. Christ. Messiah. Redeemer. Covenant Head. That's in His name. If hours
come, He said, that the Son of Man should be glorified. God
is glorified, Christ is glorified in saving sinners. We're going
to see in one of these days, if we get to it, Exodus 33, where
we're going to read it this morning. Where Moses says, show me your
glory. And the Lord said, there's a place by me, I'm going to put
you, I'm going to put you on the rock, I'm going to put you
in the rock. That's Christ and Him crucified. And our Lord was
glorified in what he did by saving sinners by his own precious blood,
laying down his life for no good sinners. What glory, what mercy,
what love, what grace. Then he gives a parable, verse
24. This is a parable. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat, that's seed, seed corn,
we plant corn, we plant seed corn on. Except a corn of wheat,
a seed, fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But
if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. It must be planted. Our Lord came in Isaiah 53, it
says He grew up as a tender plant. planting, the vine which the
Lord planted, Isaiah spoke of. And our Lord, if he's not planted
later on in burial, if he's not, if he doesn't die, if he's not
put in the ground, if he didn't come to die, he didn't need to
come, did he? And he would abide alone. There'd
be nobody with him someday in glory if Christ didn't come to
die. The reason there's a people which know make the number is
because Christ died, he said. But if he died, if the Lord plants
him in the ground, much fruit. Oh, how much fruit. So Christ
came to live, to die, as a sin-pagar. You've heard these things before. I don't have anything else to
say. This is what he's saying. And he arose, proof that God
accepted what he did and who he was, who he is. The proof
that he actually put away sin is he arose from the grave, like
the high priest of old went into that holy of holies and under
the veil to offer a blood of a sacrifice. If he didn't come
out, God's angry. But he came out. Our Lord came
out. And so from that seed, from Christ, who's called the seed,
not many, he said, but one, Christ, the seed. And so the great fruit,
a number which no man can number, all to the praise of the glory
of his grace. All right, verse 25, it says,
he that loveth his life shall lose it. He that hateth his life
in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. He that loveth
his life on earth, loveth this world. 1 John 2. Go over there quickly. 1 John
chapter 2. Listen, John was standing there
when our Lord was saying all this and he heard him. He heard
him well. John and Simon and Andrew and
all of them, They had a life in this world, wives and children
and all that, and they left it all in it. Wow. They loved Christ
more. And like Walter Gruber, remember
somebody said to Walter when he was taking his family to Mexico,
one of his relatives said, you don't love your family. How could
you do that? You must hate your family. No.
Just love Christ more. Christ is all to me. And 1 John 2, John was standing
there and when he said this in 1 John 2, verse 15, he said,
Love not the world, neither the things of the world. If any man
loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Meaning,
whatever you love is who or what you live for. It's what you think
about all the time. It's what you spend all your
time and your money and your effort and everything. It's your
life. Whoever and whatever you love,
that's your life. That's what you're going to go
after. Our Lord said, if any man come after me, if it's me
you're after, he said, deny yourself, forsake yourself. Follow me. Read on. All that's in the world,
this is all that's in the world, you know? Verse 16. We've found this out, haven't
we? All that's in the world is the
lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of
life. That's not of the Father, it's of the world. And the world
passeth away, it's all gonna pass. The less thereof, but he
that doeth the will of God." What's the will of God? This
is the will of God, that you believe on Him whom you have
seen. The will of God, Christ, was to come and raise up those
that believe on Him. Shall abide forever. So back
to the text. So our Lord is saying this, he
that loveth his life, that is, if this is your life, this is
all you live for, you're going to lose it. We're going to lose
everything. All our relationships are going
to end unless we accept the relationship in Christ. We're going to lose
it all. And only those who know and love
Christ will lose nothing at all. Why? Because Christ is all. And like Paul said, I haven't
lost anything. He said, I count it done. The unsearchable riches of Christ.
To live is Christ, but to die is what? Game. We don't lose anything.
We lose sin. We lose lust. We lose these things
that have us so bound. I'm anxious to be loosed like
old Lazarus. Loose him! These are grave clothes,
aren't they? So, our Lord says, he that loveth
his life shall lose it, he that hateth his life in this world
shall keep it. Isn't that what our Lord did
Himself? He came to this world to live
as a man. He didn't love his life on this
earth. He loved whom he came to live
for and die for. That's why he came. In love to
his people. And, oh my Lord, he lives eternally
for us. Verse 25, it says, he that hateth his life
in this world. That doesn't mean, go to 2 Corinthians
5, 2 Corinthians 5. That doesn't mean that we're
to live morose life that is miserable and melancholy and want to die,
a death wish. That's not what that says. at
all. But what it means is you love
Christ, his gospel, his kingdom so much that the world thinks
there's something wrong with you. Here Paul explains it better
than I just did. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 1. Now we know if this, our earthly
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building
of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
And for in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with
our house which is from heaven. That is a sinless... Paul said, in all of God's people,
don't believe that, all wretched man that I am, to carry around
this dead body. Who shall deliver me, Paul said,
from this body of death? He was looking forward to being
delivered from that body of death. Verse 3, he said, if so, we're
going to be clothed and not be found naked. And we that are
in this tabernacle grown, being burdened, not to just be unclothed,
not to just die and have all our troubles over. A lot of people
want that. That's the reason a lot of people
kill themselves. Not unbelievers kill themselves. I want to end
my trouble. You've just begun them. Now we don't desire to die just
to get out of our troubles, but verse 4 says we want to be clothed
upon. That mortality might be swallowed
up of life. A believer is like a bird in
a cage. Believer's like a worm. He is
a worm. Fear not that worm, Jacob. Like
a worm who wants wings. You know how the only way you're
going to get a worm? Those bag worms. Those ugly things are like bag
worms. We want to kill them all. We do, don't we? Set them on
fire. That's a good illustration. Those worms, they want to fly. What's going to have to take
place for them to turn into a butterfly? Put them in a cocoon. Put them
in a coffin. You wait a little while. That's us, isn't it? Is that
you? You know, a believer, I believe
a believer, I believe a believer, I know a believer enjoys the
things in this world more than the people of this world enjoy
them. Why is that? You know, they're all my grace.
You know, all your Heavenly Father freely gave them to you. I was
feeding the birds this morning. I went out in the rain to feed
a bunch of birds, sparrows. But it gave me great joy. I love feeding those birds. Our Heavenly Father loves feeding
His own and giving us these things, as long as we give Him all the
glory for it. And doesn't that make these things
more of a blessing and more precious? My Father gave this to me. And
knowing what we deserve, from Him, knowing that we don't deserve
any of this. We deserve rather wrath from Him, and yet He freely
gives us all things to richly enjoy. Oh, Father. It's like
the woman said, all this and Christ too. Believers enjoy these things
more than anybody does, realizing where they came from. They're
undeserved, but we don't live for them. We're all like Solomon. Every believer comes to the understanding
of Solomon. It's all vanity. Vanity, vanity. This is a vain life we live.
And the only good part of it, the only thing that's not vain,
is our walk with Christ. And serve. Paul said, for me
to live is Christ. Verse 26, our Lord said, if any
man serve me. John 12, 26. If any man serve
Me, let him follow Me. And where I am, there shall My
servant be. If any man serve Me, him will
My Father honor. Serve Christ, be honored by the
Father. I can't do it. You say, I can't
do anything. I never have done it. The Lord
commended some people one time and said, He said, enter into
the joy of the Lord. When I was naked, you clothed
me. When I was sick, you fed me. When I was hungry, you fed
me. When I was sick, you visited
me. And they said, we didn't do anything. We don't remember
doing anything to you. He said, you've done it to the
least of these. You've done it to the best. Our Lord's in heaven. Serve Him. What does He need
from us? The only thing that He accepts from us His thanks
and praise and worship. But who needs help? His body. That's who we serve. His feet need washing. That's
his people. He said, you serve me and you
serve them, your Father will honor you. You trust Christ. Here's the good news, the promise. You trust Christ, you'll be accepted.
Accepted in the blood. You glorify Christ, you'll be
with Him in glory. God's promised. You glorify the
Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to be with Him to behold His
glory. God has promised it. Christ promised
it. If you confess Him before men,
if you get in that pool and say, I want to be crucified with Christ,
buried Dead, crucified to the world and the world to me. That's
where I'm telling everybody, Christ is my all. You get in
that pool and confess Him, you know what He said? I'll confess
you before the Father and before the angels. You're going to come
in the glory and Christ's going to say, here He is. Bring Him
in. Here She is. So, this is what our Lord's saying. Verse 27. Now is my soul troubled. What shall I say? Father, save
me from this hour? No, but for this cause came I
unto this hour. Now is my soul troubled. Man is born of woman is a few
days and full of trouble. Like sparks that fly upward,
man gets in trouble. Our Lord, like in John 11, you
remember when He came to Lazarus' tomb, in verse 33 it says, He
groaned in the Spirit and was troubled. And the margin says
He troubled Himself. He took flesh. He came down here
because we groaned. In the flesh, He came and took
flesh, the likeness of sinful flesh, and lived in this sinful
world. We've grown, we're vexed with
it, aren't we? How much more, John, our Lord. Everything He
saw and heard around Him, vexed His righteous soul. Everything
He saw and heard. He could read men's thoughts.
Isn't it a good thing we don't know people's thoughts? Isn't
it a good thing we don't know each other's thoughts? Our Lord
did, and it vexed His righteous soul. But He came here, why? For us, His body. And He groaned,
He troubled Himself. We'll never know, we'll never
fully know how much trouble our Lord went through for us. It's
like our parents and our mother that gave birth to us, those
ladies that gave birth. It's no pain like it, they say,
unless it's a twisted bowel. That's what Nancy said, worse
than, Mindy says, worse than childbirth, but it was painful,
wasn't it? If you were offered a choice
to have childbirth without the pain, would you? Our Lord put himself through
great trouble to prevail, as it were, in birth, to give birth
to his children. It gave him great joy, says,
for the joy set before him endured a life of nothing but trouble. From the grave, I mean, from
the cradle to the grave, he endured more trouble than all people
put together. Trouble. We'll never know. Truly,
what trouble our Lord endured. And later in the garden, he was
in such trouble, such sorrow, he sweat blood. And Scripture says, you haven't
sweat blood. You haven't resisted unto blood,
striving against sin. He did. But let me ask you this. Like I asked you ladies, would
you go through that pain again? Deborah, would you go through
that pain again to have Andrew? You better do. And Jennifer? Mary, would you
go through that pain again? That's my mother. If you love those children, you'd
do it all over again. Do it all over again. Let me
ask you, do you love God's children? You love God's people? What are
you willing to go through? What kind of trouble are you
willing to go through for them? Do you love Christ? What trouble
are you willing to endure for His sake? Is this life of trouble,
this life that we live in this sinful world and suffering and
reproach and so forth for Christ's name, is it worth it? We're going to find out someday.
just how little trouble we went and how light were our afflictions
compared to the eternal weight of glory. We're all going to,
like the woman, he gave this illustration, a woman travails,
she's in great pain, but then when the son is born, a child,
she totally forgets it all. What pain? What pain? That's what we're all going to
say. What suffering? What trouble? What trial did I ever go through?
Look where I am. Look who I'm with. So, now this
is the son of David. He said, for this cause, I love
thee. What should I say? Father, deliver
me from this cause. He said, for this cause came
I into this world. I immediately thought, when I
first heard that, David, David came. All of Israel was confronted
by the adversary who was taunting God. Picture Satan, taunts our
God, taunts his people, tempts his people, assaults his people. David came to face that giant
while his brethren that despised and rejected him were cowering
over here in the corner, cowards, and they were no match for this
great giant. David stood up before everybody
in the face of that foe, for all of Israel to hear, and he
said these wonderful words to them, is there not a cause? Yes,
there is. David said, I'll go. It all depends
on him now, doesn't it? Whether Israel's taken captive
or dies, it's dependent on that man, David. What happened? He slew the adversary, cut his
head off. This is what our Lord's saying
here, now as the God of this world, he's coming. He said,
for this cause, the Son of David came for this cause. He came
into this world. Down in verse 31, he said, now
is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. This will whet your appetite
or your interest anyway. Wednesday we're going to look
at that. Now is the prince of this world
cast out. We're going to look at that Wednesday.
Armageddon. If I announce that publicly,
we can fill this place up. But I'm not going to. I hope you'll
be here. Is there not a cause, he said,
in our Lord? I love you. Verse 28. I have my soul troubled. He's in trouble. The thought of going to the cross
and being forsaken by God, the thought of being made sin, He
knew no sin. Gave him great trouble, great
sorrow, didn't it? But then he stops and prays. A brief prayer. Four words. Like that Canaanite woman, three
words. Lord, help me. Four words. Here's what he said. And I can't
help but believe he looked up to heaven. You see all these
people in religion today doing this. No fear of God in that. There's only one man who ever
lived and looked into God's face. A publican in a temple wouldn't
lift up his eyes with smoke on his breath. I mean, yeah, the
publican. The Pharisee, oh, he's like these
people today, holding his hands up. Isn't Jesus wonderful? Our Lord Jesus Christ, the only
man who ever lived, could look in the face of God. In John 17,
when he prayed, he looked into heaven and said, Father. And here he said, Father, glorify
Thy name. Father, glorify Thy name. Look at verse 28. Then there came there a voice
from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify
it again. And the people therefore that
stood by heard said it thundered. I believe it did. I believe it
thundered. Boom. As it said in angel's paper. I want you and I to think every
time you hear it thunder. Now it, it didn't thunder. It never thunders. Like it doesn't
just rain. God sends the rain. This is where
I say we need to change our vocabulary when we talk. God sent the rain.
Let's give glory where it's due. It thundered, God thundered.
And every time, he whose voice is like thunder. Every time it
thundered. Every time the Lord thunders.
I want you and I to think this is what God is saying to us.
This is what God is saying in answer to Christ's prayer for
us. I have glorified it and I'll glorify it again. His name. Isn't this fitting? In this day
when everybody's got the name of God on their lips and God's
name has never been blasphemed like it is today. Never. Little
children. Oh my God. Oh, shouldn't we pray
all the time, every day? God, Father, glorify Thy name. He said, I have and I will. How? In His people. His people are
going to glorify His name. David said, unite my heart to
fear Thy name. Ye that love the Lord make mention
that His name is exalted. He had the opportunity and somebody
says that. Well, this man I used to know
when I was in a church in Ashland. He was a shop foreman at a body
shop. I used to go and he'd help me
learn how to work on cars and body shop. He was a foreman and
some men were over there taking God's name in vain. They were
working for him. He's the boss. He's an example. And he went over to them and
said, men, if you stay out of hell and be by that name, you're
cursing right now. He glorified God's name. Our Lord prayed that. Glorify
your name. His name is who He is. When we
say God, we mean God, don't we? We never say let God be God.
Do it. Let go and let God. We never
say that. We never say God wants this. Never! It's not in the
Bible, is it? We never say accept Jesus. No. We say we're accepted in the
beloved. We say, may God let us know he's God. May God cause
us to let go. But may God never let go of us.
We glorify his name. His name is who he is. His name
is to be feared. His name is to be reverent. Holy
and reverent is his name. Don't call me reverent. Don't
call any man reverent, but call him reverent. Holy Father, call
no man your father, Christ said. He's one father in heaven, right? And how blessed we are if we
know that. You know how many millions of people talk about
a Holy Father over in Rome who's the Antichrist and Antichrist? Who made us to do it? Why are
we not at that celebrating mass over there this morning? His name is to be honored and
glorified, only used in praise, honor, and glory. Father, glorify
that name. His name is Lord. His name is
the Lord God. He's the Lord God of hosts. His
name is God Almighty. That's what His name is and that's
what it means. And our Lord said, this voice
spoke, this voice came, verse 30, not because of me, But for
your sake, your sake. In closing, turn to Hebrews 12.
This goes so well with Hebrews, with that text. And it also leads
into the next message. I love how, when messages go
together. I love it. Hebrews 12, confirmation to me
I've got the message. Hebrews 12. Look at this, we
close with this, verse 25, Hebrews 12, 25, to the end of the chapter. See that you refuse not him to
speak it. If they escape not who refuse
him to spoke on earth, that's Moses, much more shall not we
escape, we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven, whose
voice shook the earth. But now, he hath promised saying,
yet once more, I shake not the earth only, but heaven itself. Read on. And this word, yet once
more. signifies the removing of those
things. See that? You don't want to lose
everything. Things that are shaken, things that are made, those things
which cannot be shaken. Oh man, oh man. What can't be
shaken? Verse 28, we receive a kingdom
which cannot be moved. So let us have grace. Let us
hold fast. Let the Lord give us grace whereby
we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. Why? Our God is a consuming fire. The next message is a burning
bush.