The Death He Should Die

Those who requested prayer, remember the Sneeze family, and then the Brown family. Julie, I talked to her today. She's got a ways to go on straightening out that knee. She's five to eight percent. She needs to get down to zero percent to get it straight. So remember her in your prayers. And the others who requested prayer also. Anybody else need to be had? Your sister, your niece, your... Cousin. Cousin. She's on there now.

Yeah, but she's gonna have to have an open-heart surgery. They did a heart cath and they found that the vein was in a place where it couldn't work on it, so they're gonna have to crack her, so remember her. Cynthia tomorrow. And Cynthia tomorrow is gonna get her knee replacement. She'll be hollowed for a bit. You still got that one-legged scooter.

My hope is built on nothing less but holy being of Jesus' name. On Christ the Son, in rock, ice, and all other ground, I rest on His unchanging grace In every high and stormy gale My anchor holds within the veil On Christ, the solid rock I stand over the ground He is all my hope and stay. he's O may a gift in Him be found, rich in His righteousness alone, hopeless to stand before the throne! On Christ a solid rock hath spangled the new ground, On a hill far away died the Christ of the cross, being healed in suffering and shame. and before I must so despised by the world as a once attraction to me. In the dear Lamb of God, let His glory abound to bear all my sin on the tree. So I'll cherish the Christ And before His throne I'll bow down I see. For He opened my eyes, that I no longer hang in line, to behold Him at all His throne! ♪ And before his throne I'll bow down ♪ ♪ I will cling to the price of the cross ♪ ♪ For he is the king I must crown ♪ ♪ To the price of the cross ♪ ♪ I must ever be true ♪ ♪ His shame and ache will just let me bear ♪ ♪ For in love he unleashed strengths ♪ ♪ Filled the walls just to regain ♪ ♪ His glory forever I'll share ♪ ♪ So I'll cherish my Christ the Lord ♪ Oh You have your Bibles, turn with me, please, to John 12, chapter 3, verses 27 through 33.

Our Lord speaking now is my soul true, and what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour, but for this cause came I into this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. People, therefore, that stood by and heard it said that it thundered. Others said an angel spake to him. Jesus answered and said, this voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die by his breath.

Our gracious Heavenly Father, we approach under your holy throne in the name of Jesus Christ, the one mediator between men and God, who is the advocate under you. for all his poor and pitiful children. We know we are sinners, and yet we also know by faith, according to your word, that you will remember our sins no more because of the perfect death of the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for forgiveness of sin, for daily mercies, for sufficient grace for every need. We thank you for the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

May we say with Paul, God forbid that I should blow his saving the cross of Christ, by whom the world is crucified under me and I'm crucified over the world. Let this be our road. Let this be our thought. Let this be the place we fix our hearts and minds upon.

Him who sits at thy right hand, ever living to make intercession for the saints. Father, we ask for those who are sick, and these families who have lost a loved one who sneezed, and the Brown family. Pray for Cynthia, she's preparing for this operation tomorrow. Pray for those doctors, they'll be able to get her knee fixed. Continue to pray for Julie as she's recovering in therapy. Pray for the others who requested prayer. But the lady whose heart is going to be operated on, we know, Father, that it's a serious business when he asks you to be with those doctors and they're able to do what's necessary to get her back to a good measure of health.

Pray for ourselves tonight as you gather here that you might be pleased to cause us in our hearts to consider Jesus Christ, to think on him as he has set forth in this passage of scripture. We are thankful that we can sing such songs as the Christ of the Cross. We are thankful that our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness, and it's built on nothing else. He is our hope and our help, our one great Savior, who by his death secured the salvation of all the elect. Help us tonight, Father, to bow down and worship you. Give us some sense of your greatness and your majesty. Give us some sight of him who's worthy of all praise. We pray in Christ's name, praise the Lord. Amen. I've got an old man's disease. My eyes water almost all the time. They tell me that's an old man's disease. And since I'm an old man, I agree with it, probably.

Here in this passage, after our Lord has declared his death, using the analogy of the corn of wheat that we looked at last week, revealing the results of his intended death and resurrection. In this passage, our Lord speaks clearly and plainly of his death, more clearly than he has up to this point. He has talked about it in metaphor, he's talked about it in analogy, and now he speaks in very specific terms about the death that he should die. Considering the sure death that he must accomplish, verse 27 begins this way, that his soul is troubled.

His soul is troubled. From the word of God, and we know that this is Not unusual for our Lord to say this, He said it in many passages. But from the words that follow, we know that He's not contemplating shirking the dreadful and wonderful day that He faces. He came into this world for this hour, for this great task and mission. He is troubled about the concept of dying. and his trouble about the concept of dying.

In the grand scheme of predestinated purpose, he was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. But now he resides in a different form. He resides in the human flesh, taking on the form of man and the fashion of man. He's subject to every pain and every trial and every sorrow, and now his heart is troubled. He is our great high priest who's touched with the feeling of our infirmities. So whatever we feel, even about death, he felt it also because he is a human being. The one mystery that engages the mind of every human being is that death has never been described. Nobody has ever described it.

It can be medically declared. The body no longer ceases to live. But seriously, death is a great mystery. Believers don't fear death, as scripture says, but that assurance is the knowledge of what awaits them on the other side of death. However, human beings are troubled in their souls about a thing that no one has ever explained or can explain because those who've experienced are dead and cannot speak. Death itself is scary for the human being. Just consider this thing dead. What is it? It's a mystery. It's a dark place for a mind to go.

And I sat beside the bedside of my brother, Billy, who was a pastor at Sovereign Grace Church for 50 years. He died of pancreatic cancer in his last days. I went to see him. In Winston-Salem, as I sat beside the bed, we talked about death and about the glory of heaven and things like that.

And he said, you know, it's kind of scary. It's kind of scary. You're the man who believed in his heart that Christ was going to take him to glory. But death itself is scary to a human being. And our Lord was eminently a human being. Probably, well, what he was, he was the human being, the perfect human being, the example of what humanity ought to be. And humanity ought to feel. And humanity fears. And humanity does these things. And our Lord was all that and more. It's often difficult and even troublesome to consider our sovereign Lord in the frailty of human flesh. But here in Gethsemane, our Lord and Savior proved himself to be truly human.

And scripture declares about him fearing death. Over in Hebrews chapter 5, verses 7 through 10, it speaks of our Lord's humanity. Hebrews chapter 5 verse 7 says, who in the days of his flesh, that is, he lives here on this earth, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong cries and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, he was heard in that he feared.

He was heard in that he feared. Though he were a son, yet he learned obedience by the things that he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all. of them that obey him, called of God a priest after the order of Melchizedek. He heard in that he feared. This is what our Lord was talking about when he was troubled in his soul. He became a human being for this reason. God cannot die. Only a man can die. And so God became human flesh in order that he could die. He died for sin, though not his own. So the trouble residing in his soul did not alter the course of his mission one iota.

Which says in the latter part of verse 27, what shall I say then? Father saved me from this hour, but for this cause, This death, this thing that's troubling my soul, came I unto this hour. In Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 2, it says, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising or disregarding the shame, and is now set down on the right hand of the Father. For this cause, I came to this hour, Jesus Christ, Our wondrous Savior, the very person who is both God and man, in whom dwells the fullness of the Godhead Father, came to earth for one singular thing, to die in the womb instead of His people. We just sang about it. That's why we glory in the Christ of the cross. Then our Lord speaks of the Father saying something to Him, or He speaks to the Father in verse 27.

Now verse 28, Father, glorify thy name. Glorify thy name. Scripture says that God has glorified his word above his name. And one version, I think it's the Ethiopian version of Scripture, wrote it this way, glorify thy name and thy word. We know from the first of John's Gospel that Christ is the word. He's the word of God who was God. And he's also the word baked flesh that dwelt among us and we beheld his glory.

So I saw our Lord in effect saying, glorify me. glorify me. He says that again in his high priestly breath in John chapter 17 in verse 5. He says, And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. To which the Father answers in verse 28, He says this, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. God at this time has glorified the name of Jesus Christ twice in the very same way that he now glorifies him, and that is speaking from heaven.

Word came down from heaven. He did it at the Lord's baptism when John baptized the Lord and the Holy Ghost descended on the Lord in the form of a dove. A voice came from heaven and said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, satisfied, and appreciated. Then on the Mount of Transfiguration, when Peter thought he would set up statues for the prophets Elijah and Moses, who had come to talk to Christ about the death that he should accomplish in Jerusalem, he thought he should set up a couple of statues for them, or a tent for them, or some kind of honorary thing for them, and also one for the Lord Jesus Christ. And while the words were yet in his mouth, It says, a fog came across the place, and a voice came from heaven while Peter was talking such nonsense. And our Lord said, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him. And that was in opposition to the sense that he wanted to look at Moses and Elijah and not see Christ. You see, Moses and Elijah, according to scripture, all the prophets gave witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is my beloved son.

And now our Lord speaks again to glorify Christ from heaven. Those gathered about who were nearby Christ heard the words and thought that the angels spoke to him. And those not so close thought it thunder. In either case, the voice of God is no small thing and is often described as thunderous in scripture. And that's what they thought. Verse 29, the people therefore that stood by and heard it said that it thundered.

Others said an angel spake to him. This is the voice of God. Our Lord tells those listening that the voice came not for him, but for their sakes. Verse 30, he says that Jesus said this voice came not because of me, but for you. This voice that came from heaven, this declaration that came from heaven was so you'd learn something. So you would understand something. The voice was the noise of impending doom. We know that. It says that in verse 30, the voice came not because of me. In verse 31, now is the judgment of this world. So this voice is declaring by glorifying Christ. He's glorifying Christ in this aspect. Judgment is coming to this world. Does that glorify Christ? Indeed it does.

For in that death that he died, he saved his elect, but he also condemned the world. He condemned the world because he paid for the sin of the elect, but didn't pay for the sin of the elect because they weren't his elect, because they were decreed to reprobation, because they did not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, if you don't believe on me, you'll remain in your sins. He said that even in John, and that we've already read.

Our Lord, the source of the voice is the authority behind it. So whatever's being said here is backed up by the very power of heaven. It's God Almighty who is speaking here in verse 31. It says this, now is the judgment of the world. Judgment of the world, and the judgment is impending due. The judgment is coming. The world is about to be judged. Now this could apply to the unbelieving Jew.

Because he said he came to his own and his own received him not. And as many as received him gave him the power to become the sons of God. But those who received him not he described in John chapter 8 when he talked about judgment. In John chapter 8 verse 39 Well, no, it's not John chapter 8 verse 39. Let's see if I can find it. Jesus said that, no, it's 9, I'm sorry. John chapter 9, not John chapter 8. In verse 39, Jesus answered and said this. Jesus said, for judgment I am come into this world. Now here he's speaking to the Jews.

He's speaking to the Pharisees. that they which see might not see they said they saw and he said i came so you who say we see will be made blind that's a judgment that's a judgment and they that see not i'm going to give them sign and they which see might be made blind so this is what our lord said so this could be in the reference to judgment the jews he's already said he came for that judgment it could apply to the gospel being taken from the Jews, leaving the ears of the Jews and going to the Gentiles.

That's spoken of in Acts chapter 13, when Paul was preaching the gospel and declaring who Jesus Christ was and being rejected by the Jews. In Acts chapter 13, verse 45, it says this, But when the Jews saw the multitudes, that is the Gentiles that came out to hear Paul, they were filled with envy and spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting and blaspheming. And then Paul and Barnabas flaxed boldly and said, it was necessary that the word of God should be first spoken to you, the Jews. But seeing that you put it from you and judge yourselves, unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles. So that judgment, that is a judgment also that Paul made concerning the Jewish people and the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But the context makes these words apply to the defeat of Satan. In verse 31 it says this, now is the prince of the world cast out. The prince of this world. In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, it may be referring to him when he talks about the God of the world is blind in the eyes of men. However, if you really want to search out scripture, Satan doesn't really blind anybody, it's God who blinds people. So the God of the world blinded men's eyes, I may just speak of the elect and the non-elect, because he has made the light of the gospel shine in the hearts of his own people. But here it talks about the defeat of Satan.

Satan is the prince of the world. And he was cast down. Look over at Luke chapter 10. Luke chapter 10, verse 18. It says, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. And look over at John chapter 14, verse 30. John chapter 14, verse 30.

It says, Hereafter I will not talk much unto you, for the prince of this world cometh, and he hath nothing in me. The prince of this world, so that's how Satan is described. Over in chapter 16, verse 11, it says the same thing where it says he's in a judgment because the prince of this world is judged. He's judged. In Ephesians chapter 2, he's called the prince of the power of the air.

And is described as those who is the leader of all of those who remain in unbelief. Satan possession and demon possession is not what men make it out to be. It's not pentagrams and sacrifices of goats out in the middle of the wilderness and dancing and charms and such, that witchcraft and such. Satan's work in this world, his work in this world is to convince men that they can arrive in a an acceptable state before God by their own merit and their own righteousness. If you'll be good, if you're good enough, God will accept you. He'll override all the bad stuff you do and God will accept you. That's a satanic lie, but it's also the lie promoted by most of religion in this world today. If we go to heaven, If we go and sit in the presence of God accepted in the beloved is for one reason to the praise of the glory of His unmerited favor, His grace. And that's it. Satan was cast down. He was judged. Where was he judged? He was judged on Calvary. If you read scripture, it says he bruised the heel of Christ. But Christ bruised his head. Christ crushed his skull. Christ put him out of business.

Now, he still operates in this world, but he's the minister, one of the angels of God. See, God made him, God created him, even though he fell with a third of the angels, and took a third of the angels with him, even though he fell, he still serves God, because he has to. God created him. God controls all his creatures. None of them are out of control. Even when he fell, it wasn't out of control, because that's all part of the plan. So he uses Satan off of him to buffet us. He used him to buffet Paul. So Paul wouldn't glory in the fact that he had died and gone to heaven and saw things that no man had ever seen. He buffeted Peter because Peter thought he knew better than God.

When the Lord said, I'm going to die in Jerusalem, he said, oh, not so, Lord. That's not going to happen to you, Lord. That don't have to happen to you. He said, get thee behind me and save me. You desire the things of the world. I must die. I must die, is what he told.

This is how the Holy Spirit, this judgment of the world, this is what we preach when we preach the gospel. The Holy Spirit takes it and it tells people things. It tells people things, the Holy, or He tells people things. In John chapter 16, our Lord is talking about when the Spirit of God will come, and it's His Spirit. spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ, for in Him dwelleth the goodness of the body, the goodness of the... the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In John chapter 16 verse 7 it says this, nevertheless the Lord says, I tell you a truth, it is speedy and or necessary for that I should go away. So he's talking about going to the cross. For if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you, but if I depart I will send him to you.

Now what he's saying is that Up to this point, this presence, his physical presence is what kept these guys together. They heard his message and they believed what they could believe. There were still some things that they didn't understand. It would come later in their understanding. But they had a physical presence of Christ. But you see, something else is going to happen. This new covenant is not based on what you see. Not based on what you see at all. It's based on this thing called faith. believing the word of God.

So when the Holy Spirit comes, he's going to lead you what? To some kind of physical thing? He's going to lead you to truth. He's going to lead you to the facts set forth in this book about God Almighty. He's going to lead you to Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life.

And then he says, and when he has come, he will reprove the world, or convince the world, or convict the world of sin and of righteousness, and of judgment. And we know that in the normal context of religion, they take those things and they have very good definitions of them to please the flesh. Of sin, drinking, smoking, chewing, going to a movie show and stuff like that.

If you quit doing that, you ain't no sinner no more. A lady actually told that to Wayne Robinson one time. She said, I'm not a sinner. He says, yes, she already quoted 1 John chapter 1. He says he has no sin. He makes God a liar, and the truth is not in him. She didn't believe that. And he said, yeah, and you're ugly, too. But he didn't have to say that. But he did say that anyway. Of sin, church has an idea. Religion has an idea about sin. It's the things you do. It's not what you are. Sin is what you are. Sin is what you are. Sin because what? What's the mother of all sin?

Hearing of Jesus Christ In truth said I don't believe These men surrounded him as he taught these words to them heard the words of the Savior himself Yet did not believe on him. We'll see that in our next study And there's a reason for that that's also defined in our next study why they didn't believe on him The Spirit will prove the world of sin and of righteousness.

Religion also has an idea about that and a definition of that. It's doing good, being holy, being the kind of person that's upright and full of rectitude, that type of person. That's not righteousness. That's not the righteous and holy Spirit. It's His righteous end of judgment. Religion had an idea about that.

Judgments are coming. Everybody's going to be judged. Some people have already been judged, so they won't have to be judged again. Those who are in Christ are judged on Calvary Street. They won't face the judgment. They'll only have a book open that has their names written in it from the foundation of the world.

It'll be a roll call for them. Now, we used to didn't like singing the song, because I didn't think too much to it. But do something to it. When the roll is called, or the altar, the elect say, I'll be there. I'll be there. But our Lord doesn't leave it to religion to define. He said, when he comes, he's going to tell you of sin, of righteousness, and judgment, of sin because they don't believe on me, of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see me no more. How does that, how does that say?

Because as Jesus Christ went to the Father, that's the righteousness of Christ because he finished the work that he came to do. He finished that work, he saved his people, he redeemed his people, and that righteousness sits at the right hand of the Father. That's the righteousness declared in the gospel from faith to faith. There alone is where the righteousness is revealed. And that righteousness is a person. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is our righteousness. He is our righteousness. And that's what the Holy Spirit is going to teach you. But righteousness, because I go to my Father and you see no more of judgment.

Why? Because the Prince of this world is cast out. This world that's what he said boys from heaven came to teach you that The prince of this world is cast out The voice was the noise of impending salvation being lifted up on the cross. It says in verse 32 of our text And I if I be lifted up from the earth will draw all men to myself I The word draw is specifically used by our Lord in other places. And it doesn't mean a specific thing. The word is heilka in the Greek. It means to drag. But often it is used in the sense of removing an inanimate object from one place to another place.

Like the same word is used when it said Peter grew his sword and cut off the ear of Malchus. Now, he wasn't aiming for his ears, cut his head off, but he wasn't that good a man. The Lord put his ear back on and said, don't do that. But he had a sword. You only had a sword. Because the Lord told his disciples, carry a sword. Carry a weapon. Carry a weapon. But he drew that sword, same word as used, I will draw into myself. I will draw. He took that sword out of that scabbard.

That sword didn't have no acting power. It wasn't alive. It wasn't animate. It couldn't do anything. He hadn't pulled it out. It was just there right where it was. But he pulled it out and moved it from another place. The place he moved it was the side of Malchus's head. But that sword isn't out. He grew his sword.

The same word is used when our Lord said he was going to draw men to himself. He'll take them from one place, the place of sin and human nature, and take them to the spiritual world, to the spirit. They will be still flexible, but they will also be Spirit that's removing them.

That's why our Lord said look over John chapter 6 here. I would use that phrase John chapter 6 In verse 44 He says no man can come to me except the father which has sent me draw him And I'll raise him up again in the last day. So unless the father draws you that is move you from one place to another place. I because in that state you are an animal, you are dead in trespasses and sin. Here you move to life in Jesus Christ. But that never happens. You don't come to Christ unless the Father in heaven draws you, moves you, relocates you to where you are with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The word men is in italics. It will draw all men to Himself it says that word men is in italics is added by the translator supposedly for clarity, but that is not the meaning of the word Word that word is not even in the original text the word all that's already also been clarified by our Lord the word all back again in John chapter 6 This is the all and that's the way it should be read in our text It should be, if I believe to draw all to myself, all to myself. In John chapter 6, In verse 37 through 39, he makes this pretty clear.

He said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out, for I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. This is my Father's will that sent me of all. Which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up again in the last day. And it says in verse 31, and this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone would see of the Son, and believe on him, may I be everlasting life, and I'll raise him up again in the last day.

Then in verse 45, it speaks of being taught. What's happened here? A voice from heaven. Some heard thunder. Some thought it was a voice of an angel, but it was the words to the Lord Jesus Christ. This were the words. I have the law about it. That's the glory, you see, it's the salvation. This is what he's talking about. The glory of God is the salvation of his elect. How does that take place? How in the world can I believe the gospel? How in the world can I? I'm not a believer by birth. I can't work up faith.

Somehow the word brings that to me, but it's because the father has done something for me in verse 45 It is written by the prophets. I've always had written. It was written in in Isaiah chapter 40 chapter 54 Just before he says some wondrous things concerning children of God This is one of the wonders things he says in Isaiah chapter 54 because it says he's written Verse 13 says, and all thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy children. Those things all speak of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our peace. He is our peace. He is his peace to us, as he'll say also in John chapter 16, which we'll get to in a later date.

But he says in John chapter 6 and verse 4, it is written, Isaiah 45 verse 13, it is written in the prophets, and they shall all, all thy children, shall be taught of God. All of them shall be taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of or from the Father comes to Christ. Everybody who God teaches comes to Christ. Now there were some in this crowd that were taught about it. Some believed in Christ because of this. Many did not. Why didn't they believe? God didn't teach them.

This is the word that came from heaven. This is the word that came from heaven. The word has already been clarified. This word, all. As all whom God has given to the Lord Jesus Christ. And the voice was the noise that explained what he said when he said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a coin, if we fall on the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. Verse 33 says, This he said, signifying what death he should die. What is that death? That death is judgment. That death is salvation. This is what the Lord was teaching when he said to Jesus Christ, I have glorified him in his name and I will glorify him in the name of the Father, the

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