I never, ever, ever get tired
of hearing you sing that song, Mike. Thank you. I have a message from the Lord
this morning. If He enables me to preach it, when I get done,
you're going to know this. It's finished. Christ made an
end of sin. The title of the message is Glory
from Judgment. John chapter 12. You remember
last week we looked at those Gentiles who came and they told
Philip they desired to see the Lord. Sir, we would see Jesus,
they said. They wanted more than just to
lay eyes on the Lord. They could have just hung out
in the streets. They're going to lay eyes on Him. He was very public.
They want to know who He is. They wanted to really talk to
the Lord be taught by Him and to really know Christ. And our Lord's answer to their
request is the hour's come. Now is the hour where you're
going to see Christ and know who He is. This is the hour our
Lord's been talking about frequently since He began His public ministry.
But always before this, He said the hour's not yet come. An hour's
not yet come. Now the hour has come. The hour
of hours has come. The hour that all of creation
hangs upon has come. It's the hour of our Lord's crucifixion.
This is the hour where the true glory of Christ will be seen.
His redemptive glory. Now our Lord Jesus already knew
the outcome of this hour. He's God. He knows the outcome.
But that did not take away from the reality of this hour. Everything
involved in this hour, the hour of redeeming his people from
their sin, troubled our Lord. It troubled his holy human soul. Look what he says in verse 27
of John chapter 12. Now is my soul troubled, and
what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour,
but for this cause came I unto this hour. Our Lord Jesus was
not just troubled by the physical suffering that he was going to
endure. I know that troubled him. But what troubled him more
than that was being made sin. He who knew no sin, he who did
no sin, was going to be made sin. Yet, he never sinned. He never had any sin of his own.
Now you and I are sinners. All we've known from the time
of our conception is sin. So we can't understand how horrible
it is for the Holy Son of God to be made sin. Christ will not
just be made sin judicially, and by that I mean this, he's
not going to be made sin legally on paper. He is literally going
to be made sin. He will literally be made guilty
of the sin of his people, and he's going to suffer all the
consequences of that sin. You and I can't imagine how horrible
that was for the Holy Son of God. Men try to compare it to
taking our little children, taking them from their nice home, from
their nice environment where they're loved and protected by
their parents, and sending them to live alone by themselves in
the sewer. It's infinitely worse. for the
Holy Son of God to be made sin. And He's troubled. He's troubled
because He knows the Father is going to abandon Him when He's
made sin. Again, you and I can't really
understand that. The Father and the Son are one. They love each
other. With the love, we can't understand. They have a union with each other
that we can't understand. Yet, God is going to forsake
God at Calvary. The Father is going to forsake
His Son because He was made to be sin. And our Lord was troubled
by that. Our Savior's troubled because
He's going to be made a curse for His people. And He will only
die a cursed death after He suffers all of the unmitigated wrath
of God against the sin laid on Him. Our Savior will suffer like
no one has ever suffered before or since. And he's troubled. The travail of his soul has begun. The travail of his soul didn't
begin in Gethsemane. It's beginning here. And he's
troubled. Now, what's he going to say? He's come to this crossroads.
Now, what's he going to do? Is he going to ask his Father
to spare him of this suffering? It appears from Scripture that
if our Lord really would have asked the Father to spare him,
he would have. He would have sent those legions
of angels to spare him if he'd asked. But if he did, there'd
be no salvation. There'd be no hope for any of
God's elect. So, our Lord does not pray to
be delivered from this hour. He said, this is why I came in
carnage. I'm not going to dodge this. I came to suffer and die. And there's two reasons why our
Lord does not ask to be delivered from this hour. The first one
is this. The Lord Jesus Christ loves his
people. His great love for his people
compels him to be made sin. His love for His people compels
Him to suffer and to die. So His people will have eternal
life. There's no other way for them to be saved. If He does
not die for them, they will die eternally. And He loves them.
He's not going to let that happen. In just a little while, He's
going to tell His disciples, let not your hearts be troubled.
The only way our hearts can not be troubled is if Christ is troubled
for us. And He's going to do it. He'll
be troubled for His people because He loves them. And the second
reason why our Lord will not ask His Father to spare Him from
this hour is He is concerned about the glory of His Father.
The Father will not be glorified in His mercy to sinners if Christ
is delivered from this hour of suffering. And our Lord came
to this earth to glorify His Father. If Christ does not go
to the cross, not only will His people that He loves not be saved,
but God's greatest glory will never be seen. If Christ does
not go to the cross, mercy to sinners will never be seen if
Christ is delivered from this hour. And our Savior is not about
to let that happen. He is not about to let the glory
of God fall to the ground. So what should He say? What's
his heart's desire? Father, glorify thy name. See that in verse 28? Father,
this is, I don't ask it to be delivered. I pray that you glorify
your name. Then came there a voice from
heaven saying, I have both glorified it and I will glorify it again. If our Lord does not pray that
he be relieved from any of this suffering, because he's not going
to pray for himself. He prayed that the Father be
glorified. Isn't that the way he taught
his disciples to pray? Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be
thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done. Not my will be done. Thy will be done. Believers have
been taught to pray for the glory of God. We've been taught to
pray for the glory of God more than for our own glory. more
than for our own comfort, and our Lord is the example of that.
He did not ask to be delivered from this hour, but rather He
prayed that His Father be glorified. Our Lord submitted Himself to
His Father's will, and He obeyed the Father in all things, even
unto death. Isn't that the definition of
faithful? He obeyed His Father in all things. Look at Hebrews
chapter 3. This is our merciful and faithful
High Priest. Hebrews 3 verse 1, Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers
of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of
our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that
appointed as also Moses was faithful in all his house. For this man
was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, and as much as he
that built the house hath more honor than the house. For every
house is built by some man, but he that built all things is God.
And Moses barely was faithful in all his house as a servant,
for a testimony of those things which were to be spoken after.
But Christ, as a son over his own house, whose house are we,
If we hold fast to confidence and the rejoicing of the whole
firm unto the end. Christ is faithful to build a
house. His people, you're the lively
stones that he's used to build his house. Believers are. Now
look over Romans chapter 3. How thankful should we be that
Christ was faithful in all his house. He's the merciful and
faithful high priest. We ought to be very thankful.
Because that's our salvation. The faithfulness of Christ. Look at Romans 3, verse 21. But
now, the righteousness of God without the law, without your
obedience to the law, is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there's
no difference. Now, Paul here is not talking
about salvation through faith in Christ, although that's vitally
necessary. We must have faith in Christ
in order to be saved. But this is saying that salvation
and righteousness comes to God's elect by the faith of Christ. We're made righteous because
Christ was faithful to establish righteousness for his people,
the righteousness that he would impute to us. We're saved by
His faithfulness. He was faithful to fulfill everything
the Father gave Him to do. That's why He did not pray to
be saved from this hour. Because this is the hour that
the Father sent Him to accomplish. To suffer and die and fulfill
all righteousness. And our Lord's desire was that
the Father be glorified. And the name of the Father has
already been glorified by Christ. In all of His earthly ministry,
the Father was glorified. And now, He's going to glorify
it again. One more time, He's going to
glorify His name through the death of Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ glorified the name of the Father in His death. He glorified
every attribute of the name of the Father when He was lifted
up to die as a substitute for sinners. The holiness of God. God's chief attribute is His
holiness. The holiness of God was glorified
by the death of Christ. When Christ died, we see God
punishes sin. Even when that sin is found on
His beloved Son, God punishes sin. God's holy. The wisdom of
God was glorified by the death of Christ. There is a way Righteousness
and peace can kiss one another. There's a way. Through the death
of the substitute. Look at Job chapter 9. Job was
very concerned about this. Is there a way that God can be
just and justifier? Is there a way God can be just
and holy and still justify sinners? Yes, there is. It's through the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Job. Job was very concerned
about this. Job 9, verse 1. Job answered
and said, I know it shall be true. But now answer me this. How should a man be just with
God? Look over at chapter 14. Verse 4. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean? Not one. How is this unclean
man going to be made clean? That's what Job's asking. Look
at chapter 15, verse 14. What is man that he should be
clean? And he which is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
Behold, he putteth no trust in his saints, yea, that heavens
are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable and
filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water? Job wanted
to know how can a man be just. And he didn't have an answer,
did he? He searched his mind over and over and over. He couldn't
find an answer. You're not going to find an answer
in your mind. You're going to find it in God's Word. Job didn't
know the answer, but God did. And He provided him. The answer
is through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how a sinner
can be made just and washed clean from all of his sin. It's in
the blood of the sacrifice of Christ. Christ honored, glorified
the wisdom of God in His death. Then Christ glorified the Word
of God in His death. Now, that's very important. David said in Psalm 138, God's
magnified His Word above all of His name. Well, if you're
going to glorify the name of God, you're going to have to
glorify the Word of God, aren't you? Don't ever stray from God's
Word. Don't ever stray from it. Don't
ever allow anything to be preached from this pulpit other than God's
Word. Don't stray from it. God's name will be glorified
by His Word. And God said in His Word, the
soul that sinneth, it shall die. Christ was made to be guilty
and He died. He honored His Word. When God
thrust Adam and Eve out of the garden, He killed an animal and
covered their nakedness with the skin of that animal. When
Christ died, He glorified His Word. He glorified by showing
us what that picture really meant. Now the sin of God's people is
covered with the blood. Their nakedness is covered by
His righteousness. Noah and his family were delivered
from death and that flood because God put them in the ark. And
when Christ died, God glorified His Word by showing us the fulfillment
of that picture. Christ bore all the sin of God's
elect, and He bore all the wrath that that sin deserted and sheltered
all His people from that wrath by burying it Himself. God's
Word was glorified. In Egypt, the firstborn was spared
from death. Why? The Passover lamb was killed
and the blood put on the doorpost. And God said, when I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. When Christ died, the Word of
God was glorified. The blood was shed. The Holy
Spirit applied the blood of Christ to the hearts of His people.
And God said, it's enough. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. He glorified His Word. All those
things would just be stories if it wasn't for the death of
Christ. The death of Christ glorified God's Word. The mercy of God. is glorified by the death of
Christ. God can only be merciful to sinners
through the death of Christ. And what depths of mercy we find
reserved for sinners because Christ died. The death of Christ
made God rich in mercy to sinners. The righteousness of God is glorified
by the death of Christ. Sinners are saved in righteousness,
not by avoiding righteousness. But in righteousness, sin was
transferred to the substitute and the righteousness of the
substitute was transferred to his people. That's a righteous
salvation that makes sinners righteous in him. In the name
of God, all the attributes of God are glorified through judgment. Glory came through judgment.
Glory came when sin was judged and punished in the person of
Christ, our substitute. So verse 29 back in our text,
John chapter 12, the people therefore that stood by and heard it said
that it thundered. Others said an angel spake to
him. Now this is always the reaction in any crowd of people when the
gospel is preached. Some people hear God speak. They hear him speak with the
ear of faith and they believe. Some people hear noise. They
don't understand any words. They just think it's thunder.
They didn't hear anything that meant anything. They couldn't
distinguish the message. They can't distinguish the sound.
They didn't hear any words. They might hear a preacher. He
may thunder and yell a little bit, but that's not going to
do them any good. Not unless God speaks to their heart. So
we need to hear Him. Some people do hear words. They
can make out the words. But they don't hear God. They
think an angel spoke. If we did hear the voice of an
angel, brethren, it wouldn't do us any good. We've got to
hear God speak. They might hear the preacher.
They might like him, but it's not going to do them any good.
It won't save them. They've got to hear God speak in order to
be saved. They might hear good words of
the doctor, but that's not going to save them. If we're going
to be saved, we must hear God speak through his word. He's
got to speak to our hearts. And this is why I insist children
under four stay in the nursery. It's not because I don't like
children. I love children. But you just heard one of them
up there. What about down here? We don't want any distractions
when God's Word is being preached. That's why I insist people don't
go to the restroom while we're preaching. We have a break between
services so people can go to the restroom. Dale and I were
talking about this Wednesday. You said, I'm going to go put
that in my notes. Henry said this. You might not care, but
God's speaking to somebody, maybe speaking to the person next to
you. Sit still so they can hear. There's nothing more important
than hearing God speak. We won't be saved any other way.
Verse 30, they didn't know what they heard. And our Lord answered
and said, this voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Our Lord said, the father didn't
speak because I needed to hear him. The father spoke because
you needed to hear him. The father spoke so you'll hear
and believe on me. The father spoke so that your
faith in Christ would be strengthened. The father spoke so you'll look
to Christ because he's your only hope of salvation. If the father
was just going to comfort the heart of his son, he'd have whispered
in his ear. but he thundered so that we'd
hear and believe. Everything God does, everything
God does for the glory of His name and for the good of His
people. Christ came to fulfill the law,
to magnify the law and make it honorable. He came to fulfill
all righteousness. Christ came to be the substitute
for sinners. Through His sacrifice, their
sins put away. The accomplishment of all that,
that glorifies the Father, doesn't it? But isn't that for the good
of His people? Oh, that's for our eternal good.
In verse 31, our Lord says, Now is the judgment of this world.
Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. Now this word
judgment, this means more than the time that judgment is pronounced. This is more than the time that
judgment will be carried out, although that's true. The word
means contest. This is the hour when the battle
for salvation is going to be contested. This is the decisive
moment. The word means decisive. This
is the decisive moment. The hour when all of our eternal
destinies will be decided in this hour. Matthew, Henry, Arthur
Pink, Henry Mahan, Charles Spurgeon, several other men I read, I put
a lot of trust in them, say this word means crisis. Now is the crisis of this world. The hour has come, and it's an
hour of crisis. It's a critical hour. Now we
all know what it means when the doctor comes out, we're in the
waiting room at the hospital, and the doctor comes out and
he tells us, The next hours will be critical. We all know what
that means. That means the next hours will
determine life or death. The life or the death of the
patients can be determined in the next hours. The next hours
are critical. This is what our Lord's saying.
These next hours, this hour that he's referring to, is going to
determine the eternal salvation or damnation the souls of His
elect. The next hours will determine
the cure for the sin sick. Will they live or will they die?
It's an hour of crisis. A critical moment. Everything depends upon the outcome
of this critical hour. Now when the doctor comes and
tells you the next hours are critical, you know what you don't
do? You don't go get a milkshake.
You don't have much of an appetite. You don't say, well, there's
going to be nothing going on here. I think I'm going to go visit
some friends. There's nothing going on here. I think I'll go
catch up on my favorite show I got on my DVR. You don't do
that. You probably don't even sleep.
I mean, unless your body's just overcome with exhaustion, you
don't even sleep. And if you do sleep, you wake
up. You can't sleep for very long.
Because the hour is critical. Do you know what you do? The
doctor tells you the next hours are critical. You pray. You watch and you wait beside
that bedside of your loved one to see the outcome. The hour
is critical. My friends, this is the decisive
moment. This is the critical hour that
we're reading here in God's Word. The next moments are critical. Pray and watch and wait and see. It could be the Lord's going
to reveal Himself to us. Could be. The next hours are
critical. How critical are they? This is
the moment. Sin will be paid for or it won't. This is the only sacrifice. In
the next hours, the Lord Jesus Christ will pay in full for all
the sin of His people or they're going to have to pay it themselves
in hell. If Christ dies and the Father
is glorified, Satan is crushed. His head is crushed and he's
cast out. If Christ does not die, Satan
is victorious and all mankind is doomed. If Christ dies and
the Father's glorified, His elect will live. They'll have eternal
life. If Christ does not die, they're
going to have to die themselves. And eternal death is a critical
hour. If Christ dies bearing our sin,
we are saved from sin, death, and hell. Sin has been judged. Sin has been put away, finished,
if Christ died bearing our sin. If Christ did not die bearing
our sin, We'll bear our own sin eternally in hell. If Christ
dies, there's no condemnation to anyone in Christ. But if he
does not die, there is nothing but condemnation for every son
of Adam. If Christ dies, the law, the
ceremony, the sacrifices, the priesthood, that's all over. No more counting how many sticks
you picked up on Saturday. It's all over. and rest in Christ
if he dies. If Christ does not die, there
remaineth no more sacrifice for sins. There can be no mercy,
there can be no grace, there can be no salvation if Christ
does not die. If he does not die, no amount
of animal blood, no amount of religious ceremonies and traditions
will help our soul. We're damned if Christ does not
die. This is the moment of Crisis. Everything depends on this moment. Everything's hanging on it. And
if Christ does not die, no one, no one will be drawn to Christ
for salvation. It's not the miracles of Christ
that draws His people to Him. It's not the tears of Christ.
You know, we all look at Him crying. I feel sorry for Him.
I think I'll come to Him, make Him feel better. What a horrible,
horrible thing. Christ felt sorrow for his people.
That's what he came to deliver us from. Well, don't feel sorry
for him. He's victorious. It's the death
of Christ that draws his people to him. Look at verse 32. That's
what he says. And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto me. And you're all well
taught enough to know that word men is in italics. It was added
by the translators trying to help us understand the meaning
of the verse. They did harm to it. Our Lord said, and I, if
I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto me. He's not dying for all men. He's
not dying so that all mankind will be drawn to him. Christ
did not die for all men. He didn't do it. Christ didn't
die to make salvation possible for all men. The teaching of
universal atonement, universal salvation, this teaching that
Christ died for everyone to give everyone a chance, that horrible
teaching takes away from the glory of God as much as anything
I can think of. If Christ died for everyone,
I want you to think about this. Is the fact that Christ died
for everyone, is that to His glory or His shame? If Christ
died for everyone and hell is filled with people, God's Word
tells us it is. If Christ died for everyone and
hell is filled with people, then the death of Christ brings no
glory to the Father. It brings only shame. If Christ
died for everyone and there is even a place called hell, even
if it's empty at this moment, That does not bring glory to
the death of Christ. It brings only shame. If Christ
died for everyone, why would God even build hell? If God even
built hell and Christ died for everyone, there's no glory in
the death of Christ. There's only shame. If Christ
died for everyone, yet he's not able to save them, there's no
glory in the power of his blood. His blood means nothing. It brings
only shame to His blood if Christ died for everyone, but He's not
powerful enough to save them. If Christ loves everyone, yet
He still sends them to hell? There's no glory in His love. There's only shame. What a shameful
love that sends people to hell. This word, all, does not mean
all man. It means all sorts of men. It
means people from every nation, every gender, every skin color,
every generation. It means all of God's elect.
Look back at just a few pages at John chapter 6. There's so
many scriptures where you read on this. I'll just read you two.
The all means all of God's elect. It's the same all that our Lord
speaks of frequently. In John chapter 6 verse 37. All. Now who's the all? that
the Father giveth me. This is God's elect. All of the
Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me
I will know I is cast out. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is the Father's will which is sent me, that of all,
all his elect, all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again at the last day. That's why he
died, because he's not going to lose any of those all, all
of God's elect. Look at verse 44. No man can
come to me. By nature, we don't have the
ability to come to Christ, except the Father which has sent me
draw him, and I'll raise him up to the last day. It's written
in the prophets that they shall be all taught of God. All of God's elect will be taught
of God. Every man, therefore, that have
heard and have learned of the Father cometh unto me. The all
will always come to Christ. God's going to teach them. God's
going to draw them. Notice here, none of the elect are driven
to Christ. Now the law has to drive men,
because you can't get rebels to do anything unless you drive
them. But because of the death of Christ, sinners are drawn
to Christ. Drawn to Him by grace. Drawn to Him by cores of love. The death of Christ draws sinners
to Him. This is why He did not pray that
the Father deliver Him from this death. Because His death draws
sinners to Him. Four ways. The death of Christ
draws sinners to Him because the love of God is seen in the
death of Christ. Christ must love sinners to suffer
as no man ever suffered. He must love sinners. Now, that'll
repel the self-righteous, but that will draw a sinner to Christ.
He could love me. That'll draw me to Him. Secondly,
the death of Christ draws sinners to Him because of the righteousness
of His death. In the death of Christ, I see
this is the only way a sinner can be made righteous. He must
be made sin for me. so that I can be made the righteousness
of God in him. This is a righteous salvation. This is a salvation that didn't
circumvent the law. It upheld the law. This thing
has been done to magnify God's law. This has been done, I hate
to say in a legal way, but the law is satisfied. This is a righteous
salvation. And because of that, God will
never take it back. Nobody can ever say there's a
fault in this salvation, so it won't save you. This is a righteous
salvation. That'll draw a sinner who has
no righteousness to Christ. Thirdly, the death of Christ
draws sinners to Him because of the truth of His death. I
see the truth of God as every attribute in the death of Christ.
This salvation has been done in truth. God will never take
it back. And fourthly, the death of Christ
draws sinners to Him because of the reconciliation in the
death of Christ. God's reconciled by the death
of His Son. That sin that made God angry,
that sin that offended God is put away under the blood. God's
not angry anymore. God's reconciled. Then I'm going
to be reconciled. I'm going to surrender and be
reconciled to God. The death of Christ is the only
way a sinner can have peace with God. I see. In the death of Christ,
God's reconciled. There's peace with God through
the blood of His cross. That draws a sinner to Christ. And here's something else that
draws a sinner to Christ. Christ is the successful, victorious
Savior. This matter of universal atonement,
that leaves salvation in doubt, doesn't it? Will you or won't
you? I don't know. Will you keep it or will you
lose it? I don't know. It's up to you. You're pretty fickle.
You'll probably lose it. Well, I don't have much interest
in that, you know. But a successful, victorious
Savior that saves His people from their sin, that's sure and
certain, that draws a sinner to Him. Now is the crisis of
the world. But the outcome of this hour
was never in doubt. What did Christ say? Now is when
Satan shall be cast out. Now is when I shall draw all
men to me. This thing is certain. And we're
drawn to Christ. We're drawn to the person of
Christ. We're not drawn to doctrine.
Now don't get me wrong. I'm a big fan of doctrine. We
must preach right doctrine. But we never arrive at Christ
through right doctrine. Ever. We arrive at right doctrine
through Christ. When we see Him, all my doctrine
is going to fall right into place. Every bit of it. By coming to
Christ. By seeing Him. The Apostle, the
Saul of Tarsus was probably as doctrinally sound as you can
find anybody anywhere. The man was just lost as could
be. He was a rebel. Doctrinally straight,
but he was a rebel. One day, he saw Christ. And he
became the greatest theologian ever, I reckon. I mean, look
at the scripture that he wrote. His doctrine all fell into line
when he saw Christ. And Christ is king. Now it wasn't some yahoo from
out back of Raritan that came to save his people from their
sins. It's the king. The king lowered
himself, humbled himself, humiliated himself to save his people from
their sins. Mike sang it. The king of all
ages. One day I heard, the king of
all ages. It fought all my battles for
me. That's too great for a human
being to comprehend. I'm going to go further. The king didn't fight that battle
wearing a golden crown. He fought the battle wearing
a crown of thorns. It's not the golden crown that
draws sinners to Christ. It's the crown of thorns. that
draws sinners to Christ. Because when we see Christ bearing
that crown of thorns, I see He's bearing my curse. When Adam sins,
what did God tell Adam the crown is going to bring forth to you?
Thorns. What did Christ wear on His head?
Thorns. He bore the curse away. And that draws sinners who are
under the curse to Him. Judgment has been satisfied in
Him, then I'm coming to Him. You just try to keep me away.
You can't do it if He's my Savior. Sink or swim, I'm going to Him. If I go to hell, I'll tell you
this, I'm going to go to hell at His feet because I have no
hope anywhere else but Christ. And you want some good news?
If Christ is your only hope, you'll never perish. Ever. Because He was lifted up and
died the death that you deserve as your substitute. So you'll
never perish. He's faithful. He carried you
all the way through that critical hour, that hour of crisis, and
gave you life in Him. When our Savior talked about
being lifted up, you know what He was referring to. He's referring
to that Old Testament picture of the brazen serpent lifted
up on a pole. And everyone who was bitten by
those fiery serpents, if they looked at that brazen serpent
lifted up, they'd live. They'd be healed. Is anyone here bitten by sin? Is sin, your sin nature that's
coursing through your body, is it killing you? Is it condemning
you? Look to Christ. Look to Him lifted
up. It's the healing power of Christ
lifted up that draws sinners to Him, that draws the sin sick
to Him. Look and live. Look. Look to Christ lifted up
and see God's glory in the judgment of sin where He judged His Son
for the sin laid on Him. Look. See God's glory in judgment. And come to Him. Come to Him.
I pray God enables us to do that. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank You
that You, by Your mercy and grace, have allowed us this morning
to look at this critical hour. The hour of crisis. And we give
thanks that the outcome of this hour was never in doubt, that
our Savior emerged victorious over sin, death, and hell, conquered
every enemy, every foe, and has made a show of them openly. And
Father, we pray that you give us here this morning, by faith
of you, of our Lord Jesus Christ, of Him lifted up, of Christ and
Him crucified, and draw your people to Him. Draw us ever closer
to Him. Cause us to be taken up with
Him. How thankful we are. How thankful
that the King, the King of all glory, suffered this critical
hour and redeemed His people from their sins. Given us a full
and free salvation through His sacrifice. that He has been judged
for the sins of His people so that we will never face judgment
for our sins. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. Father, we're thankful. We pray
that You give us the faith to continue lifting up Your Son
in preaching that we might see and believe. It is in His precious
name we pray and give thanks. Amen.