The world loves that song sentimentally. Those who know Christ know what
this grace is talking about. Amazing Christ, how sweet the
sound. He saved a wretch like me. It
was Christ that taught my heart to fear, and Christ my fears
relieved. How precious did that Christ
appear the hour I first believed. Through many dangers, toils,
and snares I have already come, tis Christ hath brought me safe
thus far, and Christ will lead me home." The world can't sing
that. Let's try that sometime. John chapter 12, but before we
get into that, look at John chapter 4. Back to John 4. Look at two verses here in John
chapter 4 with me, and then we'll go over to John 12. John 4, verses 23 and 24. Let's read these. But the hour cometh, and now
is, when the true worshipers shall
worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father
seeketh such to worship him. is a spirit. They that worship
him must worship him in spirit and in truth. Now over to John
12. They that worship him must worship
him in spirit. That means from the heart, in
sincerity. the inward man, and in truth,
you must worship God through Christ, in Christ, by faith in
Christ. Look at John 12 now, verse 20. There were certain Greeks, Gentiles
among the Jews at the Passover feast that came up to worship
at the feast. And these men came not to play
religious games, not to go through the outward form or ceremony
of religion, but they came with a sincere desire to worship God. That's what it says here. They
came up to worship, to know God. Somehow or another they found
out that there was one way you could worship God, and that's
through a Passover. lamb. That's where they came,
Joe. They came to the Passover feast
where a lamb was about to be shed, blood, to worship God. So that's all they knew. Oh,
buddy, that's a lot. They came to worship. They didn't
come just to go through this ceremony, as the Jews did. It
says the Jews came up to purify themselves and keep the feast,
and these fellows came to worship. And look at verse 21. So they
came in spirit, didn't they? They came from the heart with
a true desire, sincere desire to worship God. All right? That's
what it said. All right, how did they worship? In truth. They came to Christ. And Christ
revealed the gospel to them. Look at it. Verse 21. The same
came, therefore, to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee,
and desired him, and asked him, saying, And they said this entreating
him or really desiring, really wanting to see this one and saying
very respectfully, Sir, I believe they had heard that this man
was an apostle or a disciple of Christ, Sir, we would see
Jesus. We want to see and hear and be
taught by and about this man. That's why we come. We came to
worship God, and we heard there's a man sent from God who could
be the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth. May we see him? This is why I believe that Christ
was talking to them, as well as Peter and Andrew. Anybody
who comes seeking and asking shall receive." Anyone who truly—and I say this
to anyone in here this morning—anyone who truly comes here desiring
to worship God is going to worship God. Anyone who comes here to
truly understand this word, like that woman back there in John
4, When the Christ has come, he'll
tell us all things. Well, you come to the Christ,
and he will tell you all things. You come to worship. Come to
understand the Word of God. You'll understand. You'll know
the doctrine, whether it's of God or not. You'll know the truth,
and the truth will set you free. That's what these fellows wanted.
That's what they received. And the time has come, and now
is. True worshipers worship the Father
and Spirit. They come to worship. Is there
two or three in here this morning? You come here to worship God
from the heart, not just because you decided to go to church on
this morning. No. Not because some emotional something
happened or whatever. No. I want to know God. Rachel, would you tell me about
God? You going to read that book? How can I know what it's saying
except some man tell me? All right, I'll tell you. You'll
find out. You'll worship God. You'll know,
and you'll do it in truth. You'll do it in the gospel. You'll
do it through Christ. All those who truly come to worship,
they hear the gospel. That's how they worship. Well,
these fellows did. They came to worship. They came
seeking Christ. They didn't know much about him,
did they? A man doesn't have to know much.
about Christ or the gospel. To seek him, that's why he comes. No more. They didn't know much
about Christ. They knew he was an extraordinary
man and could be the Christ. And Christ personally, they came
seeking and Christ personally revealed himself to them through
the gospel. Let's look at it. Verse 23, Jesus
answered them. He spoke with them, saying, The
hour has come that the Son of Man should be
glorified. Now, anyone in here—does everyone
in here know what Son of Man meant? Why did he say Son of
Man? Why does he say that? He says
it more than fifty times in the Gospel of John alone. Why does
he say that? I don't know what you tell me.
Okay. That's not necessary that I call
myself son of man. That's obvious. I'm a man. You've seen my father. He's with you. He's been with
you. Henry Mahan. I'm son of that man. Right? Christ
said, called himself the son of man. He had to. he had to qualify himself. Christ
says this because, first of all, he is not first the Son of Man.
No child is born, is a baby born, but the Son is given. That's Isaiah 9.6. It was a man
who walked this earth, but he wasn't just a man. He was not
first a man. Why, he's first and last. He
was not just a man. Oh, no, he's God, very God of
very God. But God was manifest in the flesh. And he says, I'm the son of man.
I became flesh, God manifest in the flesh, but not just the
man, not a mere ordinary man. I want you to turn to this, okay?
Hebrews chapter 2. I've quoted this to you before,
but I want you to look at it. I want you to mark it in your
Bible. Hebrews 2. Hebrews chapter 2. Got it? All right, Hebrews 2.
All right, he's quoting from Psalm 8, beginning with verse
6. Hebrews 2, verse 6, "...one in
a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that God is mindful
of him, or the Son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest
him a little lower, this Son of Man, made him a little lower
than the angels, or that is, in actual essence, he was limited
to a body, per se. Thou crownest him, though, with
glory and honor, and didst set him over the works of thy hand.
Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he
put all in subjection under him, and he left nothings not put
under him. But now, we don't see all these things put under
him, do we? Verse 9, we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than
the angels. Why? Why was God made a man? Why did he make himself a body?
Who is this Jesus? Well, we see him as Jesus, made
a little lower than the angels. Why? Why? For the suffering of death. Why did Christ become a man?
So he could die. God can't die. God is spirit. So God took a body to kill it,
to die. All right? Stay with me. All
right, go back to the text in John 12. You see that? It says
we see Jesus a little lower than the angels. for the suffering
of death. We see this one, this man named
Jesus. There was a man named Jesus. Why? To die. OK? And Paul went on to say, we see
him now crowned with glory and honor. These men saw Jesus, didn't
they? We would see Jesus. See that? We would see Jesus. Well, they saw him, didn't they?
Why? They saw a man. Why? Because that man had to die.
But how'd they see him after he revealed himself to them? You reckon they called him Jesus? Huh? You reckon they went out
of there, Stan? You reckon they went out of there
after he revealed all this, his glory, and being lifted up, and
all this about himself? You reckon they went out of there
and said, that Jesus is something, isn't he? This Jesus fellow, oh no, it
was the Lord. Thomas saw him as Jesus for a
long time, didn't he? He said, I won't believe until
I've Because he just comes to me and shows me the nail prints
in his hand and his side eye. He's dead. Jesus is dead. I won't believe until he shows
me he's more than a man. Well, he came and he did. And
what did Thomas say? My Lord and my God. We see Jesus. Most men, that's
all they see him as. Therefore, that's what they call
him. Jesus. We see him, yes, as Jesus made
a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, we
see him a lot higher than that now. He's not in Mary's arms. He's not in man's hands. He's
seated at the right hand of the majesty on high unto whom the
angels themselves call him Lord and God. So how much more a man,
a maggot, what am I going to call him? My God. That's significant. That reveals
how a man's seen. Yes, it does. I cannot make enough
of that. All right? Here in John 12, he
said, Now the hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. His finest hour is here. His greatest glory. His death
on a cross. Him going to the cross and hanging,
naked, dying. His greatest glory, His finest
hour. How can that be? Look over at Luke chapter 9.
This is wonderful. Luke chapter 9. I'm concerned with getting through
these verses, and we're going verse by verse, but if we don't
get past this Luke 9 here, it will thrill me, because this
is thrilling here, Luke chapter 9. Now, death, death is something
that you and I are totally passive to. Death is something that's
going to happen to you. Death comes to us and takes us. Scripture says it's appointed
unto man once to die, after that to judgment. Scripture says God
has appointed his bounds he cannot pass. The number of his months,
his days, are with God. God determines them. Death comes
to us, willing or not. Most people are not willing.
That's the reason they fight it. Willing or not, death comes
and takes them. Not Christ. He said in another
place, he said, no man takes my life from me. He said that right in front of
a whole crowd of people who wanted nothing more than to kill him.
He said, no man takes my life from me. They said, get him boys. Scripture
said his hour wouldn't come. Couldn't do it. Couldn't touch
him. Touch not my anointed. You won't
lay a hand on him until God says, OK. Can't kill the immortal one.
It's only if he decides to lay down his life. He said in John
10, we just looked at that. He said, therefore, my father
doth love me because I lay down my life willingly, voluntarily
of my own power. I lay down my life. Look at Luke
9, verse 31. This is the story of Moses and
Elijah who talked with Christ on that Mount of Transfiguration. Verse 31, it says, "...they appeared
in glory," Moses and Elijah. In other words, they were in
their glorious body. "...and spake of his," or Christ's,
"...decease, which he should accomplish Jerusalem. Moses and Elijah came to speak
with Christ, and what did they talk about? His death, the expiration
of his earthly life, which he should accomplish, this accomplishment. Have you ever heard it said of
somebody at their funeral, well he accomplished death? Huh? Oh no, cancer killed him. Heart attack killed him. Here
it says they talk about how he would accomplish this thing,
death. Accomplish, oh this is wonderful.
Death is an accomplishment to Christ. Death is Christ accomplishing. or fulfilling or successfully
fulfilling God's purpose. God's purpose was accomplished
in him dying. Christ's death was an accomplishment.
Christ accomplished, or he finished, salvation. Salvation was finished. There went one of those flowers.
That will make you think of our death. A petal just fell off. All flesh is grass, flower the
field, flower withereth. Death is not an accomplishment
to you. It's going to happen to your body's neck. Oh, yeah. I'm going to talk about
that tonight. Charles Ross, probably you. Probably. Probably. You ought to have a great interest
in this accomplishment here, Charles. He accomplished death. It's going
to happen to you. He accomplished it. Because he accomplished it, you're
not going to feel it sting, Charles. Accomplishment. Christ finished
this salvation. He made himself die. He willed
his own death. He willed his own death. I love the story when he was
hanging on the cross, it says, after he cried with a loud voice,
the shout of the king. Remember what the shout of the
king was? It's finished. And it says, he
bowed his head. And this is his finest hour.
His greatest glory said, The hour has come. The Son of Man
should be glorified. And in his finest hour, the accomplishment
of so great a salvation, after he said, I've done it all, even
while hanging on the cross, seemingly helpless, he was in control of
the whole situation. He was putting away our sin.
He went to hell and back hanging there. He went somewhere, this
fit man, this scapegoat with my sin on him, and deposited
him, never to be seen by God again. Yes, it was an accomplishment
to put him away in my sin. And after he did all that, he
bowed his head, curtain call, bowed his head. It didn't hang
a lot, and it didn't drop and long helplessly. He bowed it
as one taking a and gave up the ghost, died,
killed himself, left his body. That's an accomplishment, isn't
it? That's an accomplishment. You see, Christ assumed a body
like we would a pair of work clothes we put on. A body has
style given Christ put on this body and a pair of work clothes
and came down to this world to do a job, and after he got the
job done, folded that up and left the body. A little while later, three days
later, he came back in it, and then he went back to glory in
that glorified body, and there he sits, a man. But more, more,
oh, more, the death he accomplished. Oh, my. My, my, my, the hour has come.
Back to the text now, John 12. The hour has come, the hour predetermined
before the foundation of the world, that Christ should expire
on the cross, that I be glorified. Look at verse 24. He says, "...verily,
verily, I have a truth of a truth. I say unto you, except the corn
of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But
if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Barely, barely. Except it die, it abideth alone. Now, unless the Lord Jesus Christ
had agreed to come to this earth and die, there would be no earth. It would be just God. That's right. Unless Christ had
come to this earth and agreed to die, unless God had—unless
they had made this covenant, this agreement together before
the world ever began, That Christ would come down here and die
at this time, there would be no earth, there'd be no universe,
there'd be nothing but God alone. Or Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Don't need man, don't need earth,
don't need anything. Alone. But, if he'd come and
die, if he'd come, agree to do this and die, he'd bear much
fruit. Now listen, in light of that,
listen to Ephesians 1. Listen as I read this. You see,
God has made known unto us the mystery of his will. I'm trying to hope you'll understand
what I just said, me reading this. This will make known unto
you what I just said. God has made known unto us the
mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he
purposed in himself." This is God's purpose, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of time, in time, he might gather together in one
all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, in earth, even
in Christ, all things in Christ, that we, that all things should
be to the praise of the glory of his grace. to glorify God's
Son. In other words, God created planet
Earth to glorify His Son. That's why the whole thing was
created—to glorify God's Son. And God is going to glorify His
Son the most. Christ is going to give His greatest
glory in doing this work of redemption. That's why He came. Oh, God could
have just made the angels, you know, and let the angels fly
around and glorify Christ and give Him glory and say, What
a beautiful, wonderful person this Christ is, but He created
man and allowed man to fall, and just the whole gospel story. He created a terrible backdrop,
and in the midst of this black backdrop of sin put this pearl
of great price. And in the end, angels can't
really worship. They just see Him in part of
His character. They just see Him as holy and
righteous and just and good, yes, but then sinners. There's
going to be a heaven full of sinners saved by His grace, by
His mercy, singing to the top of their... Angels will be singing,
but sinners will be singing. to the top of their lung, we're going to say, you know
it by rope, we know it by heart. Because He did this for us. Does
that make sense to you? That's why He created this whole
thing. If Christ hadn't agreed, if God hadn't purposed it, and
Christ agreed to come, had He created Adam, And Adam failed
at it. Snuffed him out. Right there.
No more man. Don't need him. He can't serve
my purpose. But a sinner saved by grace,
singing of God's mercy and grace, a trophy of his grace, can bring
glory to his son. Can't he? See that? See that,
Joe? Ought to quit. Oh, just quit
right there. I've got something else to say.
All right, back to John 12. Now, this is what Christ said.
You see, Stan, I wanted to get through several verses, and now
my goal is to get through three, three verses. You've been teaching, you know
what it's like, don't you? One truth brought home to the
heart. What all can be said about it? Well, read this, look at this,
this is wonderful. Christ said, if it die now, if
it die, if this wheat, corn of wheat, why do you say wheat?
I think, you know, bread's made out of wheat. If wheat die, then
if this grain of wheat die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Christ
likens himself to seed planted. which bringeth forth much fruit."
Seed planted. Did I say this a moment ago?
More than fifty times in the Gospel of John, Christ is called
the sent one. Sent by God. That God sent him. Fifty times. John said over in his epistle, That, God couldn't even describe,
that which came from God, life in Him we live, life born again of incorruptible seed,
that one life, life sent by God, was planted, this seed, this
supernatural. That's what the angels But angels
came to Mary. See, the angels didn't know.
The angels came to Mary sent by God to announce the birth
of this God-man, this being, God in a womb of a woman. And the angels said, that holy thing. That's all they could describe
it. This is what the Israelites in the
wilderness when white bread started coming down from heaven. That's
what they called it. What is it? That's what they called it. You
know that? What is it? That's what they
called it. That's what manna means in the
Hebrew. What is it? That's what the angel said, his
thing came down from heaven. What is it? That's what John
said, death. Seed death. In a wonderful form. Root out of dry ground. The power of God. You know what
power, you know how we get the word dynamite? Dynamite? Dunamis. The Greek word dunamis means
power. That's exactly what the word
power of God. Cross the power of God. The dunamis, the dynamite
of God. One seed. The best I can illustrate this
is that years ago, forty-some years ago, man created a bomb, an atomic bomb. And dropping
that bomb, that bomb which fell from heaven and annihilated millions, and even the fallout from that
later on killed millions more. God sent something from heaven,
and it didn't annihilate life, it created it. God planted life in the earth,
the power, the dunamis of God, which caused the life of many.
Scripture says, as in Adam, all die. Sin just exploded and permeated
this world like that atomic dust. Well, in Adam all died, but in
Christ, all those in Christ made alive. This is power now. This is power. Man can't create
one life. God, by the death of one, created
many. Oh, I wish we could just dwell
on this some more, but he said, Here, if it die, it bringeth
forth much fruit. Now, why did Christ have to die? Why did Jesus Christ have to
die? Why didn't he just come down here and say, I forgive
you? Or, why didn't Christ just come down here and take everybody
back to heaven? That's what they say about most Messiahs. They
come and they're going to, you know, what was it? Hail Bop. Get on board the Bop. It's here to get us. It's going
to just, Messiah's going to come and just take us back to glory.
That's not what, and that's what, through the Jews, the Jews said,
well, we thought, He's just going to restore the kingdom and just
take us back to glory. Even the disciples thought that.
Why did he have to die? He'd been telling them all along,
hadn't he, this thing? He'd been telling them all along.
God had been telling it from Genesis chapter 3, hadn't He? They didn't know the Scriptures.
He had to die. Look down at verse Verse 32, "...if I be lifted
up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me." This, he said,
signifying what death he should die. And after he died and came
back from the dead, and he said, "...O fools, and slow of heart
to believe all that the prophets said! Ought not Christ to have
died, and enter into his glory?" Look
at verse 27. What shall I say? Save me from
this hour. Save me from this death. This
is why I came, to die. Why? Do you know why? Most religion says God loves
you, Christ died for you. Why? I'll never forget Brother James
giving this illustration about that. See, preachers don't tell
people why. They don't know why. Brother
James said, it'd be like me telling my wife, he said, honey, I love
you, and they get a gun out and boom. Why? What does that prove? Can he do more for me by living? Well, he will do that, too, but
he's got to die first. Why? Do we have another hour? Y'all raced
the last hour. Let's just act like we started
all over again, OK? I wish we did, but we don't. Except the corn wheat fall on
the ground and have died about as long. Why? God is holy. God is holy. I can't even describe that. God
hates sin. God must punish sin. God is just. Scripture says He's
a just God first, and a Savior. Not a Savior first. No. A just God and a Savior. The Scripture says a couple of
times, he will by no means clear the guilty. God said, the soul
that sinneth must surely die. And that was it. Must die. He said without the shedding
of blood there is no remission of sin. God won't forgive. God
does not forgive sins. Scripture says every sin will
receive a just recompense of reward. Every sin committed by
every human being will be punished. God is just. Well, how can God be just and yet let me go free? Justify me, save me, declare
me innocent. How? Do you know the answer to
that? That's why Christ died. Substitution and satisfaction. Have you heard it? Do you know
it? The gospel is these two words, substitution and satisfaction. Man cannot satisfy God's law. Man's a sinner. Man's got to
die. He's got to pay for his sin. So God became a man. And the
Scripture says he was made sin for us. That's the reason he
said here, my soul's troubled. That's the reason he sweat blood
in the garden. Why'd he sweat blood? Dying on
the, thinking about the nails and the crown of thorns? No. Oh, no. Thinking about hanging
naked? Oh, no. That wasn't what, it
was being made sin. His holy nature recoiled against
the idea, but he said, no, I've got to. I'm a lamb. I'm a sacrifice. Lay all the
sins of your people on my back, and I'll go and die for them. Punish me in their stead. Let
them go free. Punish me. Let them go free. Give me what they've got coming
to them. Give them what I've got coming
to me. acceptance, love. God laid on him the iniquity
of all his people, and he died a substitute. He satisfied the
law perfectly, holy man, and then died a substitute. Satisfied
justice, satisfied the penalty of the law, death, blood, Separation
from God, that's the reason he cried on the cross, Why hast
thou forsaken me? Because death and hell is separation
from God. And for a while, God separated
himself from God. That's what happened. And Christ satisfied my substitute. and died, but he didn't stay
dead. That proves that God accepted
it, accepted the sacrifice. He got thirty more minutes. I
can tell you about the high priest, you know, who went in there,
and proof that the blood shed and laid on the altar was accepted
by God was when that high priest walked out of that The bells
still rang on his garment, and he walked out without blood. Walked in not without blood.
Walked out without blood. He said, Touch me, a spirit hath
not flesh and bones on that blood. I like that. Well, all right. Joe, you got a hymn picked out? 209. Why did Christ die? As a
substitute for all of God's people. Except he died now. He'll stand
alone, but if he dies for you, all fruits unto God. Salvation. All right. 209. Stand with me.
Let's sing the first and the last stanza. 209. I love you. Service is at 7 o'clock tonight. Look at the bulletin, read the
text, 1 Corinthians 15. And come on out tonight. All
right. You have come to see His face
Will you know what His grace may see? Grace, grace, God's
grace Grace that more than anything's
within. Grace, grace, God's grace. Grace that's greater than all
our sins. Thank you. You're dismissed. When it comes to the point of death,
they fight it, naturally. They fight it.