Alright, let's take our Bibles
now and turn to John 12. I want to read several verses
of Scripture to you before we get into our study. Beginning
with verse 12 of John 12. On the next day, much people,
when they were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was
coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees and went forth
to meet him, and cried, Hosanna! Blessed is the King of Israel
that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had
found a young ass set thereon, as it is written, Fear not, daughter
of Zion. Behold, thy King cometh sitting
on an ass's coat." These things understood not his disciples
at the first. But when Jesus was glorified,
then remembered they that these things were written of him and
that they had done these things unto him. The people, therefore,
that was with him when he called Lazarus out of the grave and
raised him from the dead, bear record, that is, they told of
what they saw. For this cause the people also
met him, for that they heard that he had done this miracle.
The Pharisees, therefore, said among themselves, Perceive ye
how ye prevail nothing. Behold, the world is gone after
him. And there were certain Greeks
among them, among the Pharisees, proselytes, that came up to worship
at the feast. The same came, therefore, to
Philip, which was of Bethsaida, of Galilee, and desired him,
saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew.
And again, Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered
them, saying, The hour is come that the Son of Man should be
glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. He that loveth his life shall
lose it. And he that hateth his life in
this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve
me, let him follow me, and where I am, there shall also my servant
be. If any man serve me, him will
my Father honour." Now, the earthly ministry of Christ is in this
chapter drawing to a close. It's coming to the end. He's
coming down now to the work. He's been talking about it. The
forerunner has hailed his coming. He's been preaching now for three
years to these people, three and a half years. And the hour,
the hour of hours was fast approaching. The hour to which he was appointed
The hour for which He took to Himself a human body and a soul,
the hour that law and justice demanded, the hour that love
would not avoid, the hour that God showed to Abraham on that
mount when He said to Abraham, God, or Abraham said to his son. You remember when God told him
to take his son up on the mountain and offer him up a burnt offering
to God. And the boy looked, and he saw
the fire, and he saw that knife and Abraham's sheath, and he
saw the wood, but he said, Where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
And he said, My son, God will provide Himself a lamb for a
burnt offering. This is that hour showed to Abraham
on the mount, the hour in which God would declare Himself to
be both just and justifier of guilty sinners. In the New Testament,
When you read in the New Testament, if you are aware of any of the
promises of the Old Testament, the New Testament reads as though
it were written first. And then the Old Testament was
written knowing what was going to be said. It's as though they
were already in on it, as though they already knew what would
happen. And so then these circumstances
and these quotes and these events follow the record. The days of
Christ on earth were a constant fulfillment of Old Testament
prophecy. Just constant. Everywhere He
went, everything He said, everything He did, shortly thereafter, within
just a verse or two, it will say that it came to pass as it
was written. Or it was written for this. And
I just read you one even in this short verses that I read to you. I read to you about the wild
ass's coat. Where he would go and what he
would say and what he would do. And these things should be a
comfort to us when we read these things. Because his life being
our example, we ought to know that our life is ordered in as
much detail as his was. if we'd be in Him. Our lives
are ordered in circumstances and in all these things that
we confront and do every day, you might as well just read it
into your life and it came to pass. It came to pass. There ought to be a comfort to
us. There's an evidence that He was the Son of God by all
these things that the prophets said of Him. but also that they
teach us that our lives and all that comes to pass in them are
fixed, right down to the numbering of the hairs on your head and
just a common sparrow falling to the ground. All of these things
are fixed of God, and He knows these things. And then in this
chapter, He goes to Bethany, into the home of Lazarus, whom
He had just raised from the dead. And there He eats with them.
Sets down at meet, each with Mary and Martha and Lazarus. And Mary anoints him for his
burial. She shows her knowledge of what
he is about to do. She saw that in the resurrection
of her brother. She come to an understanding
that he is the resurrection and he is the life. She knew something,
perhaps more than even the apostles knew. Mary did because she anointed
Him to His death. And most of these people, what's
culminating here is all these people in all their different
religious beliefs all see something different in Him. All of these
Jews and these proselytes, they're excited by Him, they're excited
by His miracles, excited by His presence because they think He's
going to set up a kingdom. They think He's there to deliver
them out from under Roman bondage. They think He's there to raise
up Israel again and restore that temple to its former glory and
that nation to its former glory and He's going to ascend on an
earthly throne. That's what they think is going
on. The Jews don't want any part of it. To them, He hampers their
religion. He's in here and He's just exposing
what they are, and exposing their evil thoughts, and exposing all
the corruption that's in their beliefs. All of these things
are coming to pass as this hour approaches. And Mary anoints
Him for His burial. And even under great restraint,
The Lord was still the talk of the people. And the more the
people talked, the more they gathered, and the more they thronged
Him. And then finally all these folks that had witnessed, and
there was a great multitude there who witnessed the resurrection
of Lazarus, they told what they saw. We was there. This ain't hearsay. I saw it. I saw it. And man, a multitude
ran out, took the palm branches, and threw them down on the ground
before Him. and started crying out, Hosannas to the king. And all the people gathered out
there. And the Pharisees talked among
themselves about how this thing was out of control. If something
wasn't done, the whole world was just going to follow after
him, fall down at his feet. And there were some great proselytes
who were with the Pharisees. You remember what the Lord said
of the Pharisees? You are they which compass sea
and land to make one proselyte like unto yourself. And when
you've made him, you've made him twofold more the child of
hell than you are. These Greeks were proselytes.
That's what they were. And they were with the Pharisees.
But they heard of Christ. They heard of these miracles.
They heard of this resurrection from the dead. And they saw the
multitude leaving the Pharisees and going out to Him. And so
they went out too. And they said, this is a very
famous line and a lot of the old preachers, I wouldn't care
if I had me one of those little labelers, I'd put it right up
here on the back of this pew, not only to remind me, but our
song leaders and anybody that steps in this pulpit. They came
to Philip and they said, Sir, we would see Jesus. I need to be reminded of that
every time I open this book. Every time I opened this book,
I would see Jesus. And they came over. Now, understand
what's going on here. These Pharisees and this council,
this high council of the Jews, they were like a bomb getting
ready to blow up. This whole thing just getting
ready to blow up any minute. You could cut the tension in
that place with a knife. These Pharisees had already,
the High Council had already put out the decree that if they
saw him again on the street in their presence, they were going
to kill him. And here he is. But they can't do anything with
him because the whole multitude is over there worshiping him
and throwing palm branches down and shouting hosannas to the
king. And they're just sitting over here in this little group
all by themselves because that's where their power is. And the
power of the multitude done left them and went over here to him.
And their power was gone. They were powerless to do anything.
They sat over there. And they said the whole world
was going to fall down at his feet. This whole thing getting
ready to blow up. Well, then these two proselytes
come to Philip and said, we won't see him. We won't talk to him.
And Philip said, uh-oh. If I do this, this might very
well be the fuse that sets off the bomb. And I don't know where
I ought to or not. So he went to Andrew. Andrew
didn't have the answer either. He said, maybe the best thing
for us to do is just go tell him, see what he says. And so
they came to the Lord. They came to the Lord. And here in verses 23 through
26 is what the Lord told them in answer to these Greek proselytes'
request to see the Lord. And this is one of those things
I just want to put into print and remind myself. Hang it up
in the back of my desk and put it on this pulpit. If I could,
I'd put it on a sign and put it out front. We would see Jesus. That's what we want. We would
see Him. And so the Lord answers this question. Now listen to
what He tells His disciples. He said, The hour has come that
the Son of Man should be glorified. Glorified. If we would see Jesus,
we must see Him as the Son of Man, the representative man,
that man among men whom God glorified. The only way seeing Christ will
benefit you is if you see God in Christ. You must see Him glorified. Just the name Jesus or picturing
a man in your mind that I don't even know who the artist was,
whose conception it was who painted the first picture of Christ.
But that's not going to benefit you one bit. You're going to
have to see Him as He sent forth of God that propitiation of God. who declares the very character
of God and declares all of these things in His glory. We are going
to have to see Him. We are going to have to see the
second Adam. He said in the volume of the book, it is written of
Me, I come to do Thy will, O God. And then listen to the simplicity
of Christ. Listen to what He tells His disciples. Verse 24, Verily, verily, he
said, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the
ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. Now in this passage, the Lord
declares Himself to be the seed of God. That's what this declaration
to His disciples is all about. He said, I'm the seed of God.
I'm the seed of God. Paul told that Galatian church
that to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith
not unto seeds which are many, but as of one, and that is Christ. The singular seed. God has but
one seed, and that seed is Christ. In Christ is all the rest of
the seed. If his seed shall be like the
stars of heaven and the sands of the seashore, know this, they
all had their beginning in him. There's just one seed. There's
only one seed in which eternal life can come, dwelling in eternity,
preserved in His own essence and being. In the beginning was
the Word, John said, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. He's the firstborn, Paul said,
of every creature. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was
life. In this seed, the very life of
God, eternal life, dwelling in eternity. Dwelling back there
in the very presence of God before there was a world, before there
was a being, before there was earth and water and all things
that you see. Dwelling back there, picture
in your mind a seed. A seed in which was all things
that God determined to do. Everything that God is going
to grow up in this world, He put in that seed. Right there. Here it is. But he said it's
not going to benefit anybody if it stays by itself. Not going
to benefit anybody up there in glory. Not going to benefit anybody
up there in the presence of the triune God. The seed must come
down. The seed must fall into the ground
and die. All seed, I don't care what it
is. You're all farmers. You grow things and sell things. That seed ain't of any value
to you when it's sitting in the barn. It has to go in the ground,
don't it? It has to go in the ground. Christ is the seed. There's no
life apart from Him. This life is in His Son. He that
hath the Son hath life. I remember years ago, we used
to get in school, I don't know if they still get them or not,
but we used to get what they called a weekly reader. Y'all
ever remember them? You'd get them and they'd have
things in there. And boy, as a child, I was just fascinated
by some of the things that I found out in this weekly reader. And
I'd go home and, of course, some of these things were contrary
to what my parents believed, and I thought that was kind of
cute as a kid to go home and find out something they didn't
know. But these things, and I remember this, I remember they dug up
and discovered one of the old pharaohs, and when they found
him, in his hand was a pod of wheat seed. You remember reading
about that? There was seed. He had it in
his hand. They believed that these pharaohs
went on to another life, and they put those seed in there,
that grain in his hand, to carry him to that new place. And these
seeds were thousands of years old. But they were still good. They were still good, still able
to preserve. But there was no benefit sitting
in a dead man's hand, none whatsoever. It just abides alone when it
sits there in the grain. It does no good, no good whatsoever. Oh, see, the Son of God decreed
the Holy Seed preserved in heaven, but He abideth alone. The beauty
is there. The life is there. The glory
is there. The means is there. All things are there. But He
cannot do what He was designed and appointed to do until He
falls into the earth. That's what this book teaches.
Front to back. Front to back. And I love how
the Holy Ghost records this condescension of Christ. It says, and He falls
into the ground. I spend hours sometimes preparing
and talking to people about this. Christ just turned around to
them and said, a seed is worthless when it sits on the shelf. It
has to come and fall into the ground. Fall into the ground. What a condescension it was. He who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God made himself of no reputation. Took to himself
the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of sinful
flesh. You know, when planting time
comes, you have to go get the seed. I went to plant some beans
the other day. We had to drive to town. I had to get some seed.
I can't create seed. I had to go get it. I had to
go get it. I had to go get it. When planting time comes, the
farmer goes to the garner and gets the seed. God the Father,
when it comes time to plant, produced the seed, didn't He? That angel came down and told
Mary, he said, that holy thing which is in thee, the seed of
God, came down and took to himself human flesh. This is the great
God, the great God, the living God. And he's saying, you can't
just plant. He teaches this in the parable
of the sower. The farmer goes out and throws
seed, and some of it falls on a rock, and some of it falls
over here, and some of it falls over there. The ground has to
be prepared, has to be plowed. And God sent His forerunner,
He sent His prophet before Him, and He plowed the ground. He
broke up the ground, that fallow ground. It was ready for the
seed. And the seed came forth, born
of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under
the law. And now the time is at hand for him to be planted. He said, except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. Now, won't
you listen to me? In Christ, in that seed, is vested
all that God has determined to be, everything. But in order for it to be accomplished,
he must die. He must die. And no fruit unless
the seed is planted and dies. But if it dies, he said, he'll
bring forth much fruit. Now listen to this. What God
has determined to do in Christ and what He's demonstrated in
creation Just you remember our studies back on creation. I told
you that each thing, all these herbs of the field and all these
fruit trees and everything that God put out there, He put within
it a seed that it should bear after its kind. After its kind. Well, God only has one seed.
Just one. And that seed is Christ. And
what God has determined to do in Christ, He demonstrated in
the wheat He'll have every child of God to also do. He's going
to do it too. He that loveth his life. Listen,
he just breaks off of this whole conversation about the wheat,
and the seed, and the dine, and the producing the life, and all
these things, and now listen to what he goes to here in verse
25. He that loveth his life shall lose it. And he that hateth his
life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve me, let him
follow me. And where I am, there shall also
my servant be. If any man serve me, him will
my father honor." The lesson here is that life comes through
death. That's what he's teaching. He's
teaching it in this eternal seed, and he's telling you that this
is what's going to happen in you. When you come to understand
what this eternal life is, and see that seed, and God puts that
seed in you, you're going to despise what you are. You're
going to despise what you are. And from that day to the day
they put you in the ground, there's going to be a crucifying of the
flesh every day. Every day. And the more it's
crucified, the more fruit it'll bring forth. Man's dead. The life, the natural
life it has is but a curse to him. Paul said, Oh, wretched
man that I am. How'd he know that? At one time,
he was proud of everything he did. But he said, when the commandment
came, sin was revived and I died, didn't he? I died. The believer
is not satisfied with anything he can produce, but in him is
a holy seed. I want you to listen to this
in John 3.6. If you can explain this some other way, other than
the fact that God has put in you His seed, I sure would like
to hear it. I want you to listen to these
verses. 1 John 3.6. Whosoever abideth in Him, abideth
in Him, sinneth not. Huh? Ain't that what it says? Whosoever sinneth hath not seen
him, neither known him. Little children, let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. He that committeth sin is of
the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works
of the devil. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin." Now listen, For his seed remaineth in him,
and he cannot sin. He cannot sin. In order for the
believer to produce the fruit of God, this flesh must be crucified,
must be despised and judged for what it is. And there is in every
believer the seed of perfection, the seed of holiness, the seed
of Christ. But that perfection of life,
that holiness, that perfection of holiness, Cannot be produced
until it's buried in the earth. Buried in the earth. This old
hole that surrounds that seed has to rot. It has to rot. We have it in the seed. In the
seed. Perfection of it in the seed.
And knowing what it is and why it's there, we willingly serve
Him and count ourselves sheep for the slaughter. And Paul said
this, O wretched man that I am, who's going to deliver me from
the body of this death? Who's going to take this thing? I can't do good every time I
do good, evil's present. Every time I want to worship,
evil thoughts enter my mind. Every time I want to be friends,
I get angry. Every time I want to do something,
it messes up and it don't come out the way I want it to. The
only way it ever will is when this flesh dies and they put
it in the ground. They put it in the ground. Just like He did
with old... He showed us that in Lazarus.
Took Him right out of that tomb, didn't He? Him right out of there.
And that's what He's going to do with us. That's the hope of
glory. It's all in that seed, which
is Christ. Under His seed, To Abraham and
his seed were the promises made. All in him. You have him, you've
got all the promises God gave to Abraham. All in him.