This message is from the teaching
ministry of James Tippins, pastor of Grace Truth Church. More information
can be found online at gracetruth.org and anchoringfaith.org. A people
for His glory, by His grace. John chapter 12. Let's read together
starting in verse 20 and then we'll go down to verse 28. Now among those who went up to
worship at the feast were some Greeks. So these came to Philip,
who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, Sir, we wish to
see Jesus. Philip went and told Andrew.
Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. And Jesus answered them,
The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly,
truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth
and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much
fruit. Whoever loves his life loses
it. And whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for
eternal life. If anyone serves me, he must follow me. And where
I am, there will my servant be also. If anyone serves me, the
Father will honor him. Now is my soul troubled. And
what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour.
But for this purpose, I have come to this hour. Father, glorify
your name. Then a voice came from heaven,
I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. The crowd that
stood there and heard it said that it thundered. I'm just going
to keep reading. Others said an angel has spoken
to him. And Jesus answered, this voice has come for your sake.
not mine. Let's pray. Father, I pray that
your word would be true as it is in every step of our lives. Father, as I even this week have
heard people publicly proclaim that your word will not return
to you void, but will accomplish that for which you sent it. Lord,
would you help us to see the purpose for which you sent your
word this day to us? Lord, as you sent the living
word in the day of the scripture for us. Father, I pray that we
would wrestle with the faith, that we would fight in this good
fight, that we would run this great race, but Lord, that we
would at no time put confidence in the flesh, put confidence
in our own spiritual legs and minds, that we would never put
confidence in our own ministry, in our own understanding, in
our own teaching. but Lord, that we would trust
in all ways your revelation of what you've done through Jesus
Christ. For it is only in him that we live. It is in him that
we know it is in him that we stand and it is in his name we
pray. Amen. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ,
It is probably one of the most ambiguous phrases you will hear.
You just need to believe in Jesus. I mean, how many of you have
ever heard that before? How many of you have heard that
even in the cults as they ring your doorbell and they say to
you, do you want to know how to have peace? And they'll give
you the same answer. You just need to believe in Jesus. And our culture, as I have been
saying for 102 weeks in John's Gospel, is not much different
than the culture of the first century. It's not much different
than Jerusalem. It's not much different than
what we see in the narrative scripture, not only in the Gospels,
but also in Luke's writing and the Acts of the Apostles and
everywhere else. There's nothing really changed
about the heart of man. Men, by and large, are desiring
to have some spirituality. Even those who reject all metaphysical,
spiritual things, they still have a sense of spirituality
that they desire. They want to know something that's
greater and beyond themselves, so they create. Man, we create
a God after our own image. Some cultures throughout history
have created those gods with stone and some with wood and
some on paper. But in our culture, we do not
craft false gods out of stone and wood and paper. We craft
them out of words. We craft them out of the likeness
of the God of Scripture, but we change them in such a way
that they are palatable to us, that we can stomach the texture
of them in our souls, that we can control them. that we can
understand them and place them in the box of our soul and of
our mind and of our heart and grab hold of the reins of their
vastness. And some of them even, some people
even call that God, Jesus. And so when someone says you
just have to believe on Jesus, they need to define what they
mean. They need to be clear as to what Jesus they're speaking
of. They need to truly come to a
place of being able to describe what it is that God's word has
taught them about this Jesus. I will suggest to you that as
you get through John's gospel, as we continue to go through
our midweek enrollments, that there's a lot of your doctrine
that's going to be challenged. And because it is going to be
challenged, you have to come to the realization that we, even
us, beloved, the elect of God that have gathered together for
these years as Grace Truth Church, there are a lot of errors in
our past thinking. It's easy to be led astray. It's
easy to be inundated with partial truths. It's easy to be overcome
with certain aspects of legalism and antinomianism and all the
other isms that can plague the world. But at the end of the day, God,
the Holy Spirit will teach us and he will teach us not James
Tipton's gospel. He will teach us not the gospel
of another pastor, not the gospel of a particular confession, not
the gospel of a particular historical season, not the gospel of the
reformers, not the gospel of Protestantism or evangelicalism,
but the gospel of Jesus Christ, the free and sovereign grace
of God. But even in that phrase, there
are many iterations. Even with that statement, there
are many people who would say, well, I believe in the free and
sovereign grace of God. But then when we dig beneath the surface,
just beneath the surface, just a little bit, we realize that
the Jesus that they speak of didn't accomplish much of anything
for anyone, but that he just provided opportunity. As I've
been saying as long as I can remember in pulpits, Jesus is
not a probable Savior, He is a certain Savior. Jesus did not
make salvation possible, He finished it completely for His people.
Now whether you understand the doctrinal distinctions of the
labels that have been given to these teachings historically,
academically, in English, you wouldn't have the same words
in other languages, is irrelevant. The teaching of Christ is only
singular. It is myopic. It is simplistic
in that it does not. It does not provide any margin
for other interpretation. The gospel is only the gospel,
and anything else, whether it sticks its leg out the window
to feel the breeze, or whether it veers off path completely,
is another gospel. I don't think you stick your
leg out the window to feel the breeze, but maybe your face. Or your hand. Y'all are all laughing because
you see. Words create mental images, don't they? It's another gospel, the gospel
that will not save. It's not just a gospel that cannot
save, it's a gospel that does not save. Another gospel does
not bring God's elect through false and error, then all of
a sudden to the truth. God, the Holy Spirit regenerates,
and then everything he teaches that new life is truth. It is man who comes along and
twists and changes things. Jesse just a few weeks ago preached
out of 2 Corinthians 4 where Paul declares we do not twist
scripture or what? Massage or damage or to speak
ill or lie about the word of God. We boldly proclaim the truth. And if people don't get it, it's
because the God of this world has blinded their eyes so they
can't get it. This is the Jesus of scripture. This is the sovereign God of
scripture who causes blindness for those who do not belong to
him. So they will not see. It's there. And beloved, in a
couple of weeks, we'll see it right here in John 12, because
God said it to Isaiah, you go preach and you preach the truth. And Isaiah is thinking, yes,
send me Lord. Oh, send me that your people
shall see you the way I see you. I'm undone. And God said, they're
not going to see because I'm going to blind their eyes, and
I'm going to deafen their ears, and I'm going to dull their hearts,
and I'm going to refuse. And when there is a remnant left,
I'm going to mow them over like stumps in a field. And Jesus
says in John 12, that scripture is fulfilled in the hearing. When many people knew in their
cognitive mind they apprehended and assented to the reality that
Jesus was Messiah. God on Earth. Yet they could
not believe in him as their righteousness because God forbid it. You see
that? They knew who He was, but God
had not made them alive, so they could not just believe in Jesus. Now, why do I give you all that?
Because there will be accusations after I get through with this
text, just like there have been many times over, but this text
specifically, that I am twisting Scripture. It's easy to twist scripture.
It's easy to twist words. We are so lowbrow in our reading
in today's culture. I'm not kidding. We are. So you
hand somebody, uh, instructions on how to assemble a grill. Well,
that's not even a good example cause that's not usually an English.
It's some form of English, but let's just say, you know, a technical
manual, an article out of a, out of a, Popular Science Magazine,
and the average person, it's not that they can't read, it's
just that we hear words differently than we used to be, than we used
to. We read in spots, we listen in spots, we don't hear full
lectures. That's why when people first
start coming to visit with us as a spiritual family, they can't
believe that I'm up here for an hour plus sometimes. And yet
once we're accustomed to it, we can't believe that it goes
by so fast. We don't really read as a culture
the way we used to read, because it's not necessary. Videos and
audios and everything else. Imagine in this century, when
very few people could read at all, what's really taking place
in the life of the Jews is that they would memorize things. Well, we memorize things too.
But I believe, beloved, we've memorized eisegetical pretext
of Scripture. We've memorized cultural things
rather than the truth of Scripture. It's easy to take a sentence
and make it say whatever we want. But what determines the meaning
of a sentence? The context. What is it sitting
in? What is Jesus talking about right
here? What has happened? The Greeks have come to Jesus. I mean, come to Philip, because
Philip and Andrew, Greek names, they didn't go to the Jewish
named disciples. They went to the Greek named
disciples because they felt a kinship there. And they wanted an audience
with Jesus. They wanted to hear him teach.
They wanted to engage with him, as we talked about last week. And Jesus responds to His disciples,
not to them. If they want to see me, if they
want to hear me, if they want to know me, then they need to
listen to what I'm about to tell you. Why did He tell them that?
Because they are the ones that God had ordained to create what
we have here, which is the revelation of God. Jesus answers and look at verse
twenty three. We're going to go through this again. And landed
in a different place, same stuff, same teaching, but in order to
get to the end of it, I got to go back through the beginning
as well. The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified
and a truly, truly our main, our main. It is so, it is so,
it is true, it is true. I say the truth, I say the truth,
verily, verily, for those of you who use that version of scripture. I say to you, why is that important? Because Jesus and anyone in that
culture would use that double amen to show the validity of
the confidence that they have in what they're about to say
is absolute. There is, it's like when Paul says, I tell you the
truth. Or like we would say, I swear.
This is the truth. As if we're just
lying every other time. Well, I swear today. Or I promise. Like what we said, yes, I'll
take out the trash. Well, that's a promise. You don't
have to add, I promise. It's a promise either way, but
Jesus emphasizes it and it was well understood. What he was
about to say was of the utmost importance and of the utmost
truth. I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth
and dies. Now let's remember what he's
talking about. Who's he talking about? Himself.
He's not talking about man. He's not talking about grain.
He's not talking about anything else, but as I spoke earlier,
if we take a bunch of grain, we can eat it, we can make bread
out of it, but if we put it in the ground and it dies, it produces
a harvest that we can live on forever. This is the image that
Jesus is responding with in response to the inquiry, can we be taught
by Jesus? And Jesus tells His disciples,
this is what you tell them. This is what you teach them.
You want to believe in me? You need to believe in this.
You need to believe that unless I go into the ground and die,
you see that? Unless I die, unless I'm buried,
I remain alone, just like the grain. Alone in what? In life, in righteousness and
glory. No man, no man, no woman, no
child, no human being who ever walked this earth but the God-man
Jesus is righteous. No man has ever been imparted
righteousness. That means he actually has a
righteousness of his own. No man has ever matured into righteousness. No man has ever served God in
righteousness. No man has ever... Well, wait
a minute now. I hear these Bible stories about Moses who walked
uprightly. That has a different meaning. Oh, good teacher. No one is good
but God. Don't you understand there's
a different use of the term sometimes? Righteousness is only Christ. If you want a deeper study on
that, listen to the last three weeks of reading Romans on Wednesday.
Go to the church website and look at the videos. Listen to
them. The righteousness of God is Christ alone. It's not a set of rules that
give us righteousness. The rules kill us, convict us,
judge us, condemn us. Christ is the righteousness of
God. Romans 3. Anyone who teaches
anything else, Paul would say to the Galatians, is anathema,
cut off from Christ. Anyone teaches anything else
but that is cut off from Christ. So Jesus must fall into the earth
and die. Lest he remain alone. But if
he dies, he bears much fruit. So that's what he's talking about
there in that image. As the grain dies, it bears much fruit. So
shall I go into the ground and die and bear much fruit. And
if I don't, I remain alone. If you want to witness me, if
you want to see me, if you want to know me, if you want to be
with me, then I must die. Hasn't this been the talk the
whole time during Jesus' ministry? Hasn't he been dealing with his
impending death, his crucifixion? This is not earthly justice. You understand that? Jesus didn't die by the hands
of men because he had to settle some earthly debt in the judicial
systems. As a matter of fact, both systems
of justice, as you'll see, said that Christ was innocent of all
crimes. This man has done no wrong. washes
his hands of the guilt of his crucifixion. Jesus must die. Now friends,
this is where the blatant hatred of the gospel comes to play a
lot of times in specific congregations and groups of congregations and
assemblies of churches and denominations who will say something like,
well, we don't need to teach this kind of stuff. because it's
not important. We need to teach people how to
live. That's what's most important. So what we say when we say that
is that Christ's revelation of himself is not important. And so they would skip this verse
24 and 23 and they would go to verse 25 and 26 and they create
a whole series around it. What does that say? Look, whoever
loves his life loses it. See, you're already feeling tension.
Well, I do love my life sometimes. I'm not gonna lose it. What's
the context? Jesus talking about his death as a means to fruit. Whoever
hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
Not for this life, but for eternal life. If anyone serves me, he
must follow me. And where I am, my servant will
be also. If anyone serves me, the father
will honor him. You see, I could take verses
25 and 26 out of context and I could teach a 4000 week series
on getting your life right for the sake of Jesus. And I could
impose anything I wanted to on the church. Your dirty mouth, your cursing,
put it away. You need to stop. If you love
Jesus, you wouldn't curse. You see? And that word you thought in
your head when I said that. It's not the context. It's not
the instruction. Now we've got that instruction.
Don't let crude talking. Where's it at? You see it in
the following letters. Let this stuff not be named among
you. But that has nothing to do with eternal life. Nada. Jesus is the author of eternal
life. Jesus is the fruit bearer that brings to life His people.
Jesus alone is the true gospel. He is the good news. His work
is the good news. The good news is not an opportunity
for salvation. The good news is the finished
work of salvation. The greatest lie that the devil
has ever perpetrated in our day is to teach the nations that
the gospel is an opportunity for glory. And then they downplay the reality
of the simple instruction of the Scriptures by the mouth of
Christ alone, by saying the church doesn't need to learn all that
stuff. How can you apply the finished work of Jesus? I've
had somebody ask me that. All this exposition. You know
why? Because they've heard me say on my Sunday nights recently
that a pastor who's not doing exposition is actually sinning
before God. Because he is. You think I want
to teach the hard stuff? No, I don't want to teach the
hard stuff. You know what's real cool? Is to get up here and give
you a 25-minute homily about loving your neighbor and feeling
good about it. Because God is love, and God
loves all, and loves us all, and God is love, and all this
kind of stuff. And you know what? Massage a
neighbor's shoulders, and kiss them on the cheek, and fill up
their tank of car, and wash their windows for them. You know, sort
of like a homeless man in New York. Do all that, and maybe you'll
get a dollar. And the Lord is honored. No, He's not. The Lord is honored
in the death of Christ. The Lord is honored in the life
of Christ. And if you want to see God honored
in you, you have to believe that only Christ did it. Now, do we throw out loving one
another? No! But that is a whole different
conversation. It's another conversation. People
who accuse me, as they just have recently this morning, of giving
license to sin, They're a liar and the truth is not in them.
They are an abomination to God to accuse the brother that teaches
the gospel of grace of sin. Because he won't attach words
to justification and righteousness. That is the devil's mouth. I
don't care who it is preaching out of whatever pulpit with whatever
label. That is Satan's words. It is
Satan's voice. Don't listen to it. God does not speak that way. God says that all of his glory
is sufficiently revealed in Jesus, including the death of Jesus
for the sake of his elect that he loved before the world began. That's the gospel. And God strike
me dead if I ever stop preaching it. Y'all strike me dead. The death of Jesus in it contains
the fullness of the glory of God, for the glory of God is
the revelation of who God really is. So for Christ to ask to be
glorified is for him to ask the father to expose him for who
he really is and expose his work for what it really did. That's
the point. And brothers and sisters, when
we step outside of contextual teaching of scripture and we
step into all these other forms of knowledge, even if it's my
sermon, don't use my sermon to teach you the truth. Use the
scripture. We are what if that's the condition
I was trying to make, we are in danger of just falling away
a little bit into lies, into falsehoods. The death of Jesus and in the
death of Jesus is contained all the glory of God for his people,
the revelation of everything that God has done for his people.
There is listen, this is not new. We've said it for seven
years now. As a congregation. There is no
condition that you or any other elect person must meet whatsoever
in any way in order for you to be righteous before God. None. You don't have to have a strong
faith. You don't have to have a good life. You don't have to
have a heart for holiness. You don't have to have a desire
for service. See, that's why this verse 25, 26 must be preached
in context. And it makes me sick to see just
how many solid Bible teachers can't deal with this. Let's talk
about the weather and in the middle of the weather, put an
order in for a Big Mac. Well, the storm's going to do
this and the weather's going to be here and I'll take some
fries with that and no mayonnaise. And now back to the weather.
That's how it sounds to my ears when somebody begins to impart
some type of words, righteousness or some type of secondary condition
for justification in the midst of Jesus teaching the finished
work of his own life and his own death. Why am I passionate about this?
Because it is your joy, beloved. If you don't have this knowledge
clearly, your joy is not complete. And you are a basket case, emotionally
and spiritually, to beat yourself up every second of the day, wondering
when it is that you're ever going to get yourself in the place
where you're fit enough for Christ. Newsflash! You never will. And
the more you try, the worse it's going to get. And that's not a license to sin,
beloved. That's a command to obey the gospel. We grasp the glory of God in
the face of Christ. 2 Corinthians 4, 6 has always
been a constant verse in my head. The glory of Christ, His essence
as God is revealed in His crucifixion, in His life. Remember what John
started out with? Remember me telling you 102 weeks
ago that the prologue of John's gospel is the outline? That the
first 18 verses teach us exactly what we're going to see in every
aspect of every story, dialogue, discourse, and teaching in John's
gospel. We have seen God's glory. No one has ever seen God, but
the one and only God who is at his side has made him known. People are going to be sorely
disappointed in glory if they're looking to see the face of the
Father next to the Son. The Father has no face except
the Son. We grasp the glory of God in
the face of Christ because his essence is God. We see the fullness
of who God is. We see the true glory of Jesus
as God. We see the profound holiness
of Christ as God, the set apartness, the perfection, the impeccability
of Jesus as God and as man. And we see his purpose as man
and his death as a man. He died. He lived as a man. He
was raised to life as a man, as a human being. He was impeccable
as a man. He didn't need to earn righteousness. He is the righteousness of God.
In his essence, ontologically, as he exists as God the Son eternally,
but also humanly. He didn't have to earn righteousness.
He learned obedience in his human life, but he didn't earn righteousness
through the obedience. He is righteousness. So verse 24 then applies only
to Jesus. This is the image that Jesus
is giving. Only Jesus can die and bring
forth true fruit. Okay? So if that is true, then
why is it that 25 and 26 seem to contradict that? If Jesus is the grain that must
die in order to bring fruit and only he can die and bring fruit
that he's already talked about, we've we've we've read 11 chapters
of John already. Then why is it so popular for
people to say, now you must produce fruit if you truly are in Christ,
then you will do these and do that and do that. No, you won't. You may. So the true statements
of Jesus here, listen to this. Listen to it in context of what
he's teaching. I must die to bring forth the fruit of life,
for whoever loves his life loses it. Whoever, who loves their lives. And we'll talk about that in
a minute. Whoever hates his life in this
world will keep it for eternal life. Jesus has said that already,
haven't he? What good does it profit a man? What does it profit
a man? To what? Gain this world, gain this life
and lose his soul? The rich young ruler who followed
all the rules, who lived a very moral and high righteous life,
said he loved the Lord his God with all his heart, strength,
mind and soul. And Jesus says, Oh, great. Then do this. Give
it all away. He walked away with dejection
for he had much wealth. In other words, his flesh began
to fight against the reality that I love me. I love my life. I love my stuff. I mean, I was raised under very
godly people. Parents and grandparents, very
godly people. But I'm going to tell you what,
grandparents and great-grandparents, you mess up some furniture. You
spill something where you're not supposed to spill it. You
break a valuable ante. And there's no Jesus to be found.
The image of Christ is vanished, vanquished from the world. So
to this day, I won't put my foot on a coffee table. Not going to do it. Even if it
has pictures of feet placed here, I would feel uncomfortable. I
mean, I've just recently, in the last few months, been able
to put my elbow on a table. I mean, you know what I'm saying.
Little things like this. So I was taught to love the Lord
with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength, but not mess up
nice stuff. And this is nice now. You take
care of it. You know what that does? It creates
idolatry. Now be a good steward, of course. Don't use a wrench
as a hammer. Don't be dumb as a bag of potatoes. Have some
common sense. But in reality, don't we all
have seasons and things in life that if somebody messed up, we'd
get upset? Yes. Spill something on this
Bible. You won't see it, but I'll be
very angry. Especially if you were horsing around. Why can't
you just act straight? Why? Because I love this Bible.
I like the way it looks. I like the way it feels. I like
the fact that I don't have to replace the cover every six months.
And I don't want coffee in it. You see? We don't want somebody just to
throw rocks at our car. What's the point? We're all idolaters
at heart. But the command of John says,
keep yourselves and idols. How is that possible? That's
not what's in view here. But it's still teaching, 1 John
2. It's not what's in view here.
What's in view here is a reflection of the reality of what Christ
can accomplish in His death. Because if it's left up to us,
beloved, look at this, if it's left up to us even post-conversion,
after God saves us, if it's left up to us to mold our lives into
some Some passionate, perfect picture with no love but Jesus. We're doomed. We're doomed. Yes, to love Christ
is to hate life. Paul would say, it is not I who
live but Christ who lives within me. I live this life by faith
in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me. So you
see the principle at work. And we see Romans and we see
chapter six, seven and eight. And we see Paul lamenting over
his present day act of sin and the struggle of his flesh. Let
me give you another news flash. This is not an academic debate.
This is an exegetical debate based on the gospel that you
believe. Paul was not talking about his
pre-conversion life. Paul's letter to the Philippians,
he gives his pre-conversion resume and he says, according to the
law, blameless. His post-conversion resume says, I died and the law
came alive. I saw who I really was. I was
an idolater. I was an idol worshiper. That's
what covetous means. Covetousness is idolatry. When
we see things we wish we had better, more of, it's idolatry. How many of us are not guilty
of that right now? Don't raise your hand because
you will look so silly. I should have said, put your
hands down, everybody would look around the room. Jesus died to bring forth fruit.
And the reflection of this reality is to love Christ is to hate
this life. Yes, we do have a disdain for this world, for its systems.
We have a disdain for sin, some of them. In the depths of our soul, when
the Spirit of God is truly filling us and the Word of God is teaching
us, we have a disdain for all sin. For the condition of sin,
but we're still blind to so much sin. In our own lives. So to grasp the reality of Christ's
death and what it accomplishes is to apprehend the temporality
of this world. That is what Jesus is trying
to show. This life and this ministry and
this work and this temporal place that we live and the Jews and
everything they love and Israel and everything that they love.
All these things, now the Greeks are coming after me, but the
point is that all that they do in this life is nothing if I
don't die, because it's nothing either way. Before or after my
death, the death that I give is where I give life to my people
alone. And so when I do the work that
I was sent to do, as I'm getting ahead of myself here, The reality
of the love that you will have for me is always at odds with
the love that you will have with the world. But until glory, we will be in
that war, beloved. Don't ever let anybody teach
you that you can be perfect in your love for God. They're a
liar. It's the third time I've said that today. And you know
why? Because I'm tired of being gentle with heresy that hurts
you. I'm tired of it. Like you got that crazy uncle,
you know, that teaches your children all sorts of crazy stuff and
finally you just have to say, listen, don't teach my kids this junk
no more. They can't even go to bed thinking trolls are in their
closet. Stop teaching them. You know what I'm talking about. For us to hear what Christ says
is possible only through God the Spirit. We know that. Can
you hear what Christ says right here? If you're serving Christ, you're
following Him. If you're following Christ, you're serving Him. And
where He is, you will be, and the Father will honor you. How
do we serve Christ? How do we honor Christ? How do
we lose our life? God the Spirit, through no means
known to us, none whatsoever, and no pre-existing conditions
or post-conditions brings to life His people as He sees fit.
So as long, listen, as long as we are working in our flesh in
an attempt to prove our place in Christ through our service
to Christ, we aren't listening to the words of Christ that say
He had to die to bring forth fruit. And we aren't recognizing
the fruit that he is speaking of is eternal life. That is evidenced by regeneration
of the elect alone. The elect are granted repentance
from what? Dead works. From what? What is
a dead work? Self-righteousness. When you see that, that's what
it means. A change of mind from thinking how we might be right
before God in our own selves, how we might work with God synergistically
to produce a righteousness, how we might approach righteousness
in our own lives versus what the scripture teaches about what
Jesus reveals that his death accomplished justification for
all the elect forever. And that in due time, God the
Spirit will rebirth His people and they will believe in this
truth. And then we'll struggle with it. And then we won't struggle with
it. Then we'll struggle with it. Then we won't struggle with it. Then we'll struggle
with it. And one day we'll be glorified and the struggle will be over. What's that struggle look like?
It's different for all of us. The war, the battle, the race,
whatever you want to call it, it's different for all of us.
It looks different in all of our lives. Some of us couldn't
imagine being hooked by certain temptations of self-righteousness
or even sinfulness. We're like, why in the world
is somebody still troubled with that? That's such an infantile
problem for us. But the very fact that we can
say that shows that we have no place to speak. How dare we think
our righteousness is greater than our brothers and sisters?
And I'll be straight with you. We don't have any! It's all Jesus' righteousness
shoved into our account. See? And we don't even have a
right to write a check on it. Because He's the only signatory. He's the only one that's going
to be able to say, hey, I paid for this. So verses 25 and 26 is to show
and reveal that without the granting of repentance and the gift of
faith, there is no true life. Christ brings forth this fruit.
So the elect then see the measure in which we are to grasp this
world. We're supposed to see this world.
Now imagine this. What's in view? We've got Jews
wanting to kill Jesus, the Sanhedrin. We've got Jewish worshippers
wanting to see Jesus. Hosanna! Hosanna! See? Worshipping Him. Now we've got
Greek people wanting to worship Him. So I don't think any of
this that Jesus is speaking to has anything to do with any gross
sin. It's not in view. What's in view
is their desire to worship Jesus the way they see Him. Instead
of worshiping Him in spirit and truth. The way He's revealed
Himself. And only God can grant that sight. And that sight can only be granted
because Jesus Settles the record of debt for his people. God cannot regenerate someone
whose sins have not already been forgiven. So I would take this application
here versus 2526 for myself this way. Even in the ministry. I need to be willing to lose
it. Gospel preaching, I need to be
willing to lose it. Am I so important to the cause
of Christ that Christ's work is not effective? Is my sermonizing so important
to God's economy of grace that without me the world would go
to hell? No, I'm nothing. So in that view, this gives me
great comfort. God does not need me. For there
are millions more like me and millions more like you. But that
doesn't diminish our preciousness to our God. For Christ gave himself up for
us, not all humans, his. Gospel service, all of these
things are vanishing. Exposition is vanishing. Ministry
is vanishing. Assembly, periodical assembly
is vanishing. The Lord's table is vanishing. So let's apply to that as well.
Even in our service to Christ, it is vanishing because what's
most important and most vital is that Christ has served us.
in his death, he has served us. And in doing so, we have assurance
and life. The reward of glory is assurance
of eternal life through the death of Christ. The reward of God
given to us is life eternal. God has promised eternal life. God gives assurance to His people
even when they war against the idolatry of their hearts. But contrast this to those who
have self-righteousness at large. Why is it that Religious people. I saw somebody write an article
a few months ago about the hatred of Christianity. And I clicked the link and I
thought, oh, this is going to be another one of those social justice
type things to which I will not speak right now. My soapbox isn't
up here. And as I read it, I realized,
wow, this person's not talking about Christians hating others. He's talking about the fact that
true Christians are hated by professing Christians. Why is it that so often when
we stand on the sufficiency of the gospel as revealed through
scripture that so many religious so-called Christian people come
against us in large numbers? That's where the oppression comes
from, isn't it? Persecution comes from those who reject, and they
reject in part, they reject in part, they reject in part because
they can't stand the outcome. What's the outcome of the gospel? Eternal life is granted and given
to the elect of God alone, and it is a finished work against
which no man can fight. They hate it. Just like these
religious people of this day, they hated it. They despised
the glory of God as revealed by God. What does that mean? They hated Jesus. People can use the Bible all
they want. They can love the Old Testament. They can love the
New Testament. They can take bits and parts. They can twist
it however they want to. But if they don't love the Christ
of Scripture, they despise God. He is God. There's no two revelations
of God. With the first couple, God revealed,
Jesus the Son revealed to Adam and to Eve and to their progeny
the doctrine of the covenant of redemption by grace. The seed
of the woman will crush the work of the enemy. will bruise his heel, rather.
I mean, the work of the enemy. And then the enemy will bruise
the heel of Christ. What's he talking about? The
death of Jesus as the only sufficient work in which God's people will
be counted as righteous before him. So there was never a time
where there wasn't the gospel. There were seasons, and there
were places, and there were people groups who never had it. Why? Because
that's what God does in election. Even in the first couple's family,
Cain and Abel, one was approved by God and the other was not.
They both worshiped identically. One did so by faith, for he was
approved by God. The other, God had no favor for
Cain. So his worship was worthless. They despise the glory of God,
those who are self-righteous at large. They despise then,
by implication, the grace of God is revealed. The idea of
mercy, when you've worked so well and you've become so amazing
in the ministry and you've taught so much and you've accomplished
so many things and you've published a lot of books and you've done
and done and done for the glory of God, it's not for the glory
of God. if it is not revealing the grace
of God sufficiently. People don't like the grace of
God. Look at that. Somebody says something to you
about me. The first thing you want to do
is defend me. I hope. It's not necessary. Defend the truth. Proclaim the truth and move on.
Dust your sandals off. Don't throw pearls before swine.
Don't throw pearls. Don't throw the pearls of God's
effectuous grace before those who could care less about it.
Did Jesus debate the Jews? No. He proclaimed the truth and
he walked off. He vanished. And every time he
did, they'd try to kill him. And he proclaimed the truth to
the masses and they wanted to make him king and he vanished. Because
he did not come to do those things. Neither should we. But he came
to die that he might bear fruit for his people. and they will
be despised. The self-righteous at large despise
the substitutionary sufficient work of Christ. They'll say, oh yes, like the
Judaizers, Christ did all the work, great, but we must then
also, false gospel. False gospel. Lie. There is no but, we must also.
We either have been given the gift of faith to believe in the
sufficient finished work of Jesus alone, or we are not believers.
And when our faith wanes, as believers, the Holy Spirit of
God puts us back to the cross of Christ and what it did. And
by faith we believe that His work did it all. Friends, that's
what the Bible talks about. When the Son sets you free, you're
free. You get to live in the house
of God if the Son sets you free. Because you're in the Son. He
doesn't leave. He stays. If you grant your freedom through
some other means, you will be a slave to somebody. They despise the gospel of grace.
Why? Because it removes their glory.
It removes their power. It removes their influence. And
the list could go on and on and on. It reveals the trueness of
their heart, like the rich young ruler, a love of this world beyond
what he could ever see in Christ. Like the Pharisees, a love for
human glory, even though the very Passover that they were
celebrating, Jesus is the point. They couldn't handle it. People
are worshipping Him. like the crowds, a love for secular
benefits that Jesus might give them. Does this sound familiar?
It's a miracle! But even the elect will struggle
with loving this world over Christ. But Christ alone, in His death,
will perfect His people in a real way. Let me tell you
this, church. This is going to really sound
strange. When you sin, it's not counted as sin. When you sin, it's not counted
as sin. Because you are the righteousness
of God. Your sin and our sin does not lead to death, beloved.
because Christ has paid for it. And the gospel of grace is written
that we may not sin, but if we sin, we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, who is our propitiation,
our satisfaction of the wrath of God. He is the one who set
us free from the law of death. Jesus' death and resurrection
prove the promise of righteousness. Jesus now, verse 27, I spent
too much time on those two verses. Verse 27 and 28 explains this
battle within Himself. Not this battle, but explains
His battle. Now is my soul troubled. What shall I say? Father, save
me from this hour. But for this purpose, I have
come to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice from heaven came.
I have glorified it and I will glorify it again. We should put
reverb sound effects when I say God's words on it. No man can ever love God to the
fullest. Not in this side of eternity.
Even in our best days, the flesh claws against the spirit. And
in the greatest of those days, it causes grief. Christ alone will die for the
sake of this perfect love toward his people, where God has first
loved us. Then we shall surely love him. But this will be perfected in
glory, not now. It will be a war today. Jesus
says in verse 27, now I'm troubled. That word there is in the perfect, passive, indicative
tense. What's that mean? It has always
been there, but now it's worse. My soul is troubled more now
than it has forever been in my incarnation. Think about it that
way. All of a sudden, Jesus didn't become troubled. He's always
been troubled by the reality of His impending death. My soul is troubled. Why? He
has just revealed to His disciples, not the Greeks, to His disciples,
He's just revealed to them this clear example that He will die
in order for them to live. And their life will not be a
life that is attached to this world, but this world will be
let go and Christ will be everything. Christ will be life. And now he's troubled. This disturbance
in the soul of Jesus is greatly and deeply troubling. What does
this show us? That the human nature of Jesus
Christ was truly human, but not sinful. Now there's a dime a
dozen of theologians who love to try to put things in place,
and I'm not as smart as the worst of them. But when he asked these two questions,
what shall I say? Would you say, Father, save me
from this hour? I think he's explaining to his
disciples, I'm troubled like the Garden of Gethsemane. But should I ask God to take
away? Does he not say, if it be possible, Father, remove this
cup from me, but not my will, but yours be done? That's the
point. This human mind of Jesus is warring
with the impending judgment of the Father that awaits Him. His
flesh is not stupid. He's not ignoring death as if
it's a picnic. And yet He resolves in the same
breath to be the obedient Son without wavering. He's not making
a choice. He is the obedient Son. Being fearful, being doubtful,
wondering is not disobedience. It's an opportunity to resolve
by the power of God's mercy and His Spirit to give us the ability
to endure. Jesus suggests, as listeners,
it's sensible to request an escape of such a fate. But it is glorious,
glorious, glorious to the father, to stand in the purpose for which
he came, which was to die. The hour of Christ is at hand
for this purpose, I have come. He may not relish the horror
of His death, but it is the reason He lives, and in His death He
will give glory to the Father, so that He may grant the fruit
of eternal life for His people, under the praise of the glorious
grace of God. Without which, none of us would
have hope. Jesus then will do what no man
can do. That which is impossible with
man is possible with God. Jesus accomplishes eternal life
through His death when we cannot love God as we should, but yet
Christ loves the Father in ways we never could. Jesus glorifies the name of Father
in His death. He glorifies God through the
cross. Father, we praise you for the
teaching of your word to our souls, not just to our minds,
but Lord, to the core of our being. There's so much more to just
expand upon this. Lord, you will be done in the
teaching of this word that if it is for the purpose of us revisiting
and thinking more about it, we will. Father, you guide us in
this learning. Father, I pray that as we've
come. To this place in John's gospel. That you would begin
to stir us. To see the implication of this
amazing love and this perfect gospel in this great substitution
of Jesus. that we would realize that in
the epistles that your apostles left for us, there is instruction
on how now we are to relate to one another because of this great
love given us in Christ. Lord, if we could please learn
and mature to do the work of the ministry toward each other
and for each other, to love each other, to grow with each other,
to encourage one another, to pray for one another. Lord, help
us to be intimate, not in earthly intimacy, not in silliness, not
in foolishness, not in worldly affinity, but God in gospel,
divine, holy, majestic and glorious intimacy that only you can bring.
Help us to truly be for the world to see, not that it matters what
they look at, but Lord, that if they were to look, that they
would see a people who live and love for the sake of your name
and for your glory, who proclaim the gospel that gives glory to
you in the death of your son, that's proven effectual through
the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, Lord, that we would
be a people. by the power of your great love
and mercy who could live that way. And that we would do so
by the name and the power of Christ and in and by the authority
of Christ that we are so perfectly able to pray to you because he
has counted us righteous. Thank you for listening. We hope
that this message has encouraged you in the faith. Subscribe to
these messages and other teaching resources and podcasts at anchoringfaith.org. More information about the church
can be found at gracetruth.org.