But in John 13, in verse 31,
our Lord Jesus is speaking now. And then when Judas had gone
out to sell the Lord Jesus Christ for thirty pieces of silver,
he's going to be the one to lead that wild mob to take the Lord
Jesus Christ out of the garden of Gethsemane and arrest him.
He's going to go into that garden, and he'll say, the one that I
kissed, that's the one that you need to take. And yet our Lord
says here in verse 31, Therefore when he was gone out, Jesus said,
Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. Now, this chapter starts out
with our Lord Jesus Christ knowing that all things that was coming
upon Him washed the disciples' feet, ate with them, told the one that
would betray Him, and then He comes and says, but now, therefore,
when He was gone out, when Judas had left, Our Lord says, now,
now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in Him.
Son of Man to identify Himself with us. Son of Man to identify
His position on this earth as God's servant. And our Lord Jesus
Christ here, when He talks about being glorified, He's speaking
of His death. And as he speaks of his death,
he don't regard it as a martyrdom, he don't regard it as a disgrace,
or something that he should shrink back from. Our blessed Savior
here is viewing his awful death on the cross. And as he does,
he contemplates his death here on that shameful tree. And he
says, that's going to be my glorification. When they nail me to that tree,
when I go to that cross, when I am hung there naked before
the world, that's going to be my glorification. Now is the
Son of Man glorified. Now, when our Lord was at His
baptism, and that dove descended down, the Holy Spirit descended
down in the form of a dove, And father spoke from heaven, says,
This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Or if, when
he was on the mount of transfiguration, and he turned as white as the
brightness of the sun, and his clothes glistened as white and
bright, and the father spoke again from heaven, when Moses
and Elijah appeared to him, said, This is my beloved son, hear
ye him. If our Lord Jesus Christ had
said at either time, that is, baptism or at on the Mount of
Transfiguration, when God spoke, if He would have said then, now
is the Son of Man glorified, we could have grasped that. But
it wasn't then that He said that. But now here, in these strange
circumstances, after washing the disciples' feet, after eating
with them, after telling everything that's going to happen, He says,
now, in view of his death, in view of his betrayal, he that
betrays me is sitting with me. He said, this scripture is fulfilled.
He that's my friend, he that sits at the table with me, he's
going to lift up his heel against me. And in these strange circumstances,
I have to wash the feet neither with him. He says, now, now is
the son of man glorified. And when our Lord spoke these
words, what lay before our Lord Jesus Christ? Oh, the deepest
humiliation as He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying
there till His sweat became, as it were, great drops of blood.
There He was, asking His disciples to pray with Him for just one
hour, and they couldn't. What lay before Him were the
severest sufferings. And the reason they were, because
of who it is that's going to suffer. For you and I to suffer
is just so. We got sin in us. We're under
the curse. We'll suffer all the days of
our life, one affliction or another. And we'll all die. But for the
Son of Man, for the Lord Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh
to suffer, How could it possibly be? He had no sin, and yet he
says, now is the Son of Man glorified. He's going to be brought before
false courts, false accusations, false mock trials brought upon
him, men hired to lie against him. And then they was going
to bring this awful, cruel, condemning sentence, which was crucify him. Well, why, what evil has he done?
I don't care what he's done, I want him crucified. They went
out among the mob and said, listen, I want this man crucified. The
mob started screaming, crucify him, crucify him. I ain't found
no fault in this man. Crucify him! And then they would do the most
blasphemous insults. They put a blindfold on him and
slapped him, said, you say you're a prophet? Tell us who smoked
you. Or you say you're a king? Listen,
we got a crown, we got a thorn for you. And they took a crown
of thorns and put it on his head and pushed it down. We got a
robe for you too. Put a scarlet robe on him. You
need a scepter. A king always needs a scepter.
So they put a reed in his hand. And then they mocked him even
when he was on the cross in his priesthood. They said he said
he saved others. But yet himself, he cannot fear
being the Christ. Come down, save yourself. He
can't even save himself. How could he ever save anybody
else? And then, beloved, it comes down to where he was called hung
between two common thieves. He had this in his death. He
had the fellowship of his thieves. And yet he says, now, now is
the Son of Man glorified. And here he's going to come into
the awful agonies of death? He's going to be hanging there
until the scripture says his tongue was, mouth was dry as
a posher and his tongue was swelled in his mouth, then plucked his
beard off, then beat his back bloody and bruised and beaten
till his back and his bones were showing? And then he's going
to have to hang there and listen to the awful blasphemous insults
and derision. And then on top of that, he's
looking for the fearful judgment of God himself, who is going
to come down and judge him and pour out on him his wrath, unmitigated,
upon his own son. And you know what he says? Now,
is the Son of Man glorified? And oh, and what lay before him
when he said this? The knowledge of being alone. In this hour, he says that he
tread the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of God alone, and
there was no man with me. And then after that, he knew
he was going to die and be taken down. And just like everybody
else, his body is prepared to be buried. He would be wrapped
up in clothes, burial garments, and put in a
cold, lonely grave, trusting God to raise him again from the
dead. Oh, and you know what he says,
but now is the son of man glorified. And it's in view of all this,
these circumstances, and wherein our Savior's death on the cross
was His glorification. How could He say these things
in light of all this? How could He say the Son of Man
is glorified? How could He say God incarnate
is glorified now? Well, I'm going to tell you how.
I'm going to tell you how. He was glorified in His death
on the cross, because in that death, and this is why it says,
now is the Son of Man glorified, because in His death on that
cross, He performed the greatest work that's ever been done in
the history of this universe. He done something that no other
man has ever done in all the universe. Not an angel's ever
done it, not a man's ever done it, except that, in fact, it
was such a great, great work that the eternity in the past
and the eternity in the future all looked to this one event.
The scripture said he was the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. So eternity looked to it. And
you go to Revelation chapter 5. And when you look into heaven
itself, and there's the future eternity, there's the eternity
that we're going to enjoy. They said John stood and wept,
and he says, there's no man able to open the book. And now listen,
John said, they told him, said, John, don't you weep, because
look down there. He said, there's a lamb, as it
had been slain. And he's sitting on his throne,
the lion of the tribe of Judah. He's taken the book and opened
it. And so eternity said he was coming. And eternity looks back
and said he's come. And he hath prevailed and opened
the book. And oh beloved, this is the greatest
event. There's been epic events in history. The forming of America was an
epic event. The fall of Rome was an epic
event. There's been great epic events
in history. But, beloved, of all events that's
ever happened in time or eternity, when our Lord Jesus Christ was
on that cross dying, glorifying Himself, that was the greatest
work that's ever been done in the sight of God and in the sight
of every saved sinner. That's the truth. Now, I'll go
back some, because I know it is for me. You see, He was the
promised seed, the seed of the woman that should come. He was
the promised Lamb. Behold, God will provide Himself
a Lamb. And He's the promised Deliverer.
Thou shalt come out of Zion a Deliverer. And when He was come, the angel
said unto us, is born this day of the city of David a Savior,
which is Christ the Lord. Lord, we don't name Him. Call
Him Jesus. Why? Because He shall save His
people from their sins. Oh, bless his holy name. Now,
no wonder now, you see why he says now, is the son of man glorified. And secondly, in his death on
this cross, on his cross, he reversed, he reversed the conduct,
the fall of the first man out. Now you keep this and let me
show you something over here in Psalm 69. Look in Psalm 69
with me. In his death, and that's why
he says, now is the Son of man glorified. That's the Son of
man glorified here. Man, like us, sin accepted. And oh, he's glorified in his
death on the cross because he reversed the conduct. What was
Adam's conduct before God? He disobeyed God. He partook
of the fruit of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
And then he failed. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ reversed
that conduct and reversed the effects of the fall of the first
man Adam. Look what he said here in Psalm
69 in verse 4. He says, They that hate me without
a cause, are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would
destroy me, being mine enemies, wrongfully are mighty." Now listen,
then, then, while he's hanging on that cross, then, when those
who hated him without a cause, then, when their enemies were
treating him wrongfully or mighty, then, I restored that which I
didn't take away. Huh? Oh, listen, we know that
sin entered this world by one man, and by one man we became
sinners, and by another man we become righteous. By one man
we died, by another man we're going to come alive. You see,
as far as God's concerned, there's only two men in this world. As
far as God's concerned, God views the whole human race in two men.
That's why Paul said, I want to be found in Christ. He's already
found in Adam, but I want to be found in Christ. You see,
beloved, two men in God's will, two men in God's purpose, two
men in God's covenants, the first Adam and the last Adam, and Christ,
as in Adam we all die, in Christ we shall all be made alive. Just
two men. And both of these men were representatives. Now, we know what a representative
is, that they represent those that were given to them, those
that were born to them. And see, we were in both. By
birth. I was in Adam by birth. I was
in Adam by birth, and I was in... I inherited Adam's nature. I was born in sin, I was shaped
in iniquity. And yet, that's exactly the same
way we get in Christ. By a new birth. By God giving
us a new birth, giving us a new heart, a new will, a new nature.
And not only that, but we inherit the nature of our Father who
regenerated us and called us. And as we fell in Adam, we're
raised up in Christ. As we were far off in Adam, Adam,
where are you? I'm over here. We're made nigh
by the blood of Christ. We disobeyed God in Adam. We've
become obedient in the Lord Jesus Christ. We were dead in Adam. and made alive quickly together
with Christ. We were naked. Adam, where are
you? I'm ashamed. Why are you ashamed
of? Because I'm naked. We were naked in Adam. Now we're
clothed in Christ. Got on that wedding garment.
Bring forth the best robe and put it on him. Oh, bless His
holy name. We were, now listen to me, we
were only innocent in Adam. And what do I mean by that? You
know, a person can be innocent of a lot of things. And that's
strictly a negative condition. But at the same time, not only
you're not supposed to not do something, but you're always
supposed to do what's right. So innocence is just a negative
condition. We stood in Adam only innocent. And that was before the fall.
I mean, we hadn't done anything yet. But yet, Adam didn't do
what was right. So there's a negative... Oh,
listen. In righteous, in the Lord Jesus Christ, which that's
a positive condition. We're not only innocent now in
Christ. God finds no guilt in us. finds no sin in us. But that's
not only that, if we not sin in Christ anymore, our sin is
all gone. But not only that, but God counts
us as if we had obeyed from the day we was born till the day
we enter into glory in Christ. We have His righteousness. We
not only quit doing certain things, but now we do everything in Christ. Because we have a righteousness
in Christ. We have a righteous standard
and we have a righteous nature. Oh, my! You know, everybody's
just saying, well, I haven't done this, I haven't done that,
but have you always done what was right? See, we can be interested
in a lot of things, but we've got to be righteous in everything.
We have a righteousness in Christ. And, oh, listen, Adam was a rebel.
Talking about Christ restored that which was took not away.
Rebel Adam was a rebel. Christ was an obedient son. This
is my beloved son, in whom I'm well pleased. Adam was disobedient
unto death. God says, the day you eat of
that fruit of that tree of Narnia, you're going to die. Well, he
died. He died spiritually, he died
physically, and if God don't save a man, he'll die eternally.
The second death. And Adam was disobedient unto
death, but Christ was obedient unto death. Adam was disobedient
unto death, Christ was obedient unto death. He took upon Himself
the form of a servant, and being found in fashion as a man, He
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Now,
the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever. That
here's a man who did. Our Lord Jesus Christ glorified
God, and God was never more glorified than in His incarnation. And
because He, as the Son of Man in His human nature, glorified
God, now, because Christ did that, And glorified God, you
and I will be able to enjoy God forever now, because somebody
else glorified Him perfectly. As a man, on a cross. Now I get
to enjoy God forever, because somebody else glorified
Him perfectly. in every act, especially on that
cross. And let me tell you something
else he did on that cross, why he said he was glorified. That
through death, through his death on that cross, he destroyed him
who had the power over death, the devil. Now, I got to thinking
about that just more. Look with me in Hebrews chapter
2. Through death, he destroyed death. He destroyed him who had
the power over death, the devil. Now, how in the world did the
devil have power over death? And how come we who threw fear
of death were subject all our lifetime to violence? Well, you
know, it was in Hebrews 2, in verse 14, For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself, our Lord Jesus,
took part of the same, that's why he said he is the Son of
Man, that through death he might destroy them that have the power
of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them, save them,
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. Now what does he mean here that he destroyed his power,
the power of devil over devil? Well, you know, it was Adam that
came from Satan, the devil, that came into the garden of Eden
and deceived Eve and caused Adam and Eve to fall in the garden.
It was the devil that done that. It was Satan that done that.
And he caused Adam to sin. And you know, the scriptures
tells us that the devil takes men captive at his will. He's
the one who keeps them in spiritual death, spiritual darkness. He's the one who makes men fear
death and fear facing God. He's the one who can keep men
under the power of sin and the dominion of sin, which is death. And our Lord Jesus Christ came
and destroyed his power. And now everyone for whom he
died, Satan has no more power over them. In fact, this picture
says that he don't abide him until he can't even deceive the
nations anymore. He had the whole Gentile nations
deceived in Christ when he conquered him and defeated him. None of
the nations are deceived anymore as nations. And when our Lord
Jesus Christ came, when he became a man, then he became a servant,
then he became a criminal, one put on the cross, he was made
in the likeness of sinful flesh. He had flesh, and it looked like,
and it was flesh, and if you looked at him, it was everything
that you and I are, but he had no sin in his flesh, no sin in
his nature. And he came to accomplish the
defeat, the absolute defeat of the enemy of God and man, the
devil. Our Lord Jesus Christ says, now
cometh the prince of this world, and he hath no part in me. I'll
tell you, he can do anything he wants to with you. That's
why Paul said Timothy. He said, Timothy, he says, you
be gentle after teach, instructing those that have proposed themselves,
for I bet your God will grant them repentance and save them
from the devil who takes them captive at his own will. You
know what I'll tell you, beloved? If you're in spiritual darkness,
Satan's got control of you. That's just the way it is. If
you're dead in trespasses and sins, Satan is your master. If you're not obeying God, you're
obeying Satan. If you're not walking in the
light, you're walking in his darkness. And how in the world
can you be set free from him? God, he's got you in death chains.
And you can't save yourself out of those chains. You can't save
yourself from the power of the devil. You know, that strong
man of arms, as long as he's got his goods, they stay good
when he keeps deceiving you with lies and pride and self-righteousness,
self-confidence, always, well, tomorrow, I'm going to get right
one of these days. One of these days, I'm going
to trust the Lord. One of these days, I'm going to trust Christ.
As long as, you know, as long as you go to church and say,
well, I'm okay, you know, I've got a good heart. See, that's
all lies the devil's told you. And he's got you right where
he wants you. If he can get you carrying the Bible, get you to
wear the cross, the devil's whole master plan is to get you to
trust anybody but Christ. Trust your words, trust your
church membership, trust your doctrine, trust anything but
Christ. And Christ came here and by his
death on the cross, he defeated him, and he's the only one that
can set you free. He set me free from Him. Only
I know I was bound by Him. He took me captive in Him. Well,
you know, I was as captive when I first started preaching as
I was when I was drinking and doping it up. Now, that's right. When I was in religion and preaching
holiness and preaching works, And preaching man's priorities,
free will, and preaching people got to live right in order to
get to God, and all that kind of stuff, change his will, isn't
it? I was just held captive by the devil then as I ever was,
and he was tickled to death that I was preaching works for salvation. Ain't that right? You say, preacher, I don't like
the sound of that. I can't help it, that's the truth. If you go to ever alter, you
can make every promise you want to make, but until God comes
and takes those chains off of you, and breaks the power of
sin, and breaks the power of your flesh, and breaks your false,
horrible nature, and breaks your soul down into the dust, you'll
go to hell, believe it or not! And oh, beloved, and let me tell
you something. Death is one of the greatest
mysteries in the universe. Death. Death. The death of Adam,
the death of sin, was defeated and destroyed by
death. You know who's death? Christ's
death. So now we're not afraid of death.
We know the devil ain't going to destroy us. We're not afraid
of the second death or the eternal death. Why? Because Christ defeated
the devil. Huh? You know how sin was destroyed?
Sin was put away. Sin was absolutely destroyed.
Its power was destroyed. You know where it was destroyed
at? By sin. By Christ being made to be sin,
He, and He was made to be sin, He destroyed sin once and for
all in His power over His people. And righteousness was obtained
and given to His people by a man being accounted and treated as
unrighteous. Oh, that's what I'm telling you.
That's how He was glorified. Now He's the Son of Man glorified.
He destroyed him who had the power of death. And let me tell
you this. How was he glorified in the cross?
In the cross. In the cross. In his death on
that cross. He paid the ransom price that
was set. Now why are we talking about
ransom price? You see, I just got through telling you that
we was all held in bondage. Held in bondage by sin. Held
in bondage by our fallen nature? Held in bondage by that strong
man that was armed, that kept us, and lied to us, and deceived
us? Well, you've got to belong to somebody, and somebody's got
to love you, and you've got to belong to somebody, for they'll
be willing to pay the ransom price to set you free. You know,
if you hear about somebody on the news and they took their
child ransom or their wife ransom and say, we hold them for a million
dollar ransom, I'm not going to come up with a million dollars.
I don't even know. But those that love her will.
And so you see, Christ loved us. We were given to Christ. And we were held in bondage by
sin, held in bondage by our fallen nature, held in bondage by death
and the sin nature. And God set a ransom price for
us to be set free from this sin, from this death, from this bondage.
And you know what the ransom price was? The blood of His Son
being shed freely. and his death on a cross to pay
that price. And I tell you what, he bought the freedom, the souls
of every one of his elect when he died on that cross. He paid the price of a multitude
that no man can number. What price will it take to get
me off the slave market of sin? What price will it take to set
me free from my degradation, my depravity, my sin nature,
my love for sin, my hatred for God? What price will it take
to set me free and bring me out of that? With the precious blood
of Christ, who was a lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
And, oh, beloved, that's why Job said this. He said, deliver
him from going down to the pit. Why? I found a ransom. I found
a ransom. Oh, listen. Nothing or no one
else could accomplish this awful task. What would, you know, one
of the songs, I almost can't tell you which one it is, but
anyway, it says, What would a man give? What would a man give? What ransom would he pay? What
price would he pay for his soul? He said if he had gold, whatever
man has, but there's no way in the world a man can ransom and
pay for his own soul. Can't do it. Can't do it. We can't pay for one sin to set
ourselves free. We ain't never paid for one sin.
Never. I don't care how many tears you
shed, how much suffering you've done, how close to death you've
been, how much your body aches. No amount of suffering you or
I have ever done has ever put away one sin. Never set us free. I remember
when I was 21, we just bought a new house in West
Union, Ohio. Nice house, nice house. And I was in misery. Oh, I was
in such misery. And I remember laying around
on the floor, especially on the weekends when I wasn't working,
because, you know, I was so bound in my mind, so bound in my soul,
I was so sick. I just, drugs wouldn't do it,
drinking wouldn't do it, nothing would give me any relief. And
I remember laying in the floor, saying, oh, I'd give anything
to be set free from this. I'd give anything in this world
to be set free from this. Doogie was just a little baby,
two. You all thought that a man would
have anything and had everything. But I remember laying before
Him, begging, oh, I'd give anything in the world if I could be set
free. Oh, God set me free. I want to be free. And I couldn't do it. I couldn't
do it. I wanted it. I desired it. I needed it. But I could not break not one
chain. But I'll tell you who did it.
When Christ died on that cross, He paid a price for my freedom. And at God's appointed time,
God crossed my path with the gospel, saved my sorry soul,
sorry, sin-sick, bound soul, and paid the ransom to set me
free. And when Satan said, I ain't
gonna let him go, God said, yes, you are. When justice said, I
can't let him go, God said, yes, you are. When sin said, you ain't
gonna let him go, God said, yes, you are. nature said, I ain't
gonna let him go. God said, yes, you are. Everything
that said no, God said yes. Yeah, he's coming out of there. He gonna let you go. Let loose
him and let him go. Why? The Lord has to be in love
with him. The Lord won't see him. He's
a mess. He's a dumbass. Yes, he is, but
let him go. He's the Lord's ass, and I want
him over here. Is that right? And, O Beloved,
what He did glorified Him. And, O Beloved, how He did it
glorified Him. First and foremost, He was a
willing sufferer. The price was joyfully set. He,
for the joy that was set before him. What joy? The joy of setting
us free. The joy of more finding self.
The joy of honoring his father. The joy of saving all of his
elect. The joy of satisfying justice. The joy of coming and doing his
father's will. And oh, beloved, he was a lamb
led to the slaughter, voluntary. And now, beloved, And before
Him, joy that was sent before Him that was buried, the curse
of the law, satisfying justice, and being made sin for it. And
when that was done, you know what He said? Finished. Finished. Finished. And listen to this. This is how
else He was glorified. Now is the Son of Man glorified.
By virtue of His work on the cross, by virtue of that work
on the cross, by virtue of that greatest work that's ever been
performed before, between the eternity. Our Mediator, our Redeemer,
our Savior acquired a glory. Now, what do I mean by that?
There is a man, right now, right now, a man sitting down at God's
right hand. And we're going to see
that man one of these days. We're going to see him as he
is, and when we see him as he is, we're going to be like him.
There's a glorified man at God's right hand right now. How come? Because he accomplished the work
God sent him to do, and God raised him out of that cold, lonely
grave. Oh, beloved, after he by himself purged our sins, he
sat down on the right hand of the majesty of heaven. And oh,
beloved, listen. God made him to be despotage. He made him to be a despot. What
do I mean by that? I mean that God put everything
that rises and wriggles into the hands of his blessed Son.
Huh? Oh my! Thank God for that. As a man, listen to me now, by
virtue of his work on that cross, as a man, he brought everything
under the roof. everything under the throneship
of God. And God turned right around and
gave the right to rule under His own Son, and the right to
dispose of all things that seemed good in His own sight. The Father
had given into His hands all things. And God put everything
under His hands. And listen to me. Every body
on the top side of this earth From the smallest thing you can
ever find. You put a worm on a hook and
he just rise and wriggles. Christ the Lord over him. God
calls us worms. And you and he puts us on his
hook, you go rise and wriggle. No, not me. Oh, he did it by virtue of his
work on that cross. Now listen, this is one of the
most blessed things. And this ought to be a blessing to you
of His never-trusted Christ, though He's got everything in
His hands, and you especially. We are all in the hands of a
man, of a man, a glorified man. Because he has done, done everything
that God said do, and now there he sits. And ah, I'm in His hands. I'm like John. Let me put my
head on your breast, Lord. Who's going to betray you? Lord, don't let it be me. Aren't
you glad that you're in His hands? Now, what if Christ, after He
paid all this price, done all this work and glorified Himself,
Instead of taking you into his loving hands, into his gracious
hands, into his nail-scarred hands, at the judgment, he turns
you over to God and said, here, do with him what you will. Be awful with him. Our Father, in the gracious name
of the Lord Jesus Christ, we bless you for allowing us this
day, allowing me to speak, for the grace and the strength to
speak. I pray that the message would be a blessing, that you
would save your people in this place, save your people, save
your sheep. You laid down your life for the
sheep. You became a lamb that died. in order to save your sheep. So, Father, make the gospel alive
and real and effectual here in these hearts who ask it in Christ's
name. Amen. Amen.