In the twelfth chapter of John's
Gospel, when we come to verse 27, we hear our Lord Jesus speaking with a heavy, heavy
burden. His soul is troubled as He anticipates being made
sin for us, as He anticipates dying in our
room instead, as He anticipates experiencing all the fury of
God's holy anger against Him. Hear Him speak. John 12 verse
27. Now is my soul troubled. There's more in those words than
I can begin to grasp. God Almighty God who created this earth, without
whom was not anything made that was made. God almighty, standing
here in human flesh on this earth, just like I am now, says, now
is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father saved me from this hour.
Shall that be my prayer? Shall that be the thing that
I ask him? If he asked, he would have done
it. Did not our Lord say, don't you
know I can call and my father would send 10 legions of angels
to help me? He didn't have to die. What shall
I say? Father, save me from this hour. Save me from this pain. This
agony, this trouble, this heartache, this reproach, this terrifying
fact of being made sin, save me from suffering your wrath,
save me from redeeming my people. What shall I say? Father, save
me from this hour. But for this cause, Came I unto
this hour. That's the only reason I'm here.
This hour. This is the only reason I've
come to this earth. This hour. This is the only reason I took
into union with myself humanity. This hour. There's no other reason
for me becoming a man. This hour. No other reason for
my existence as the God-man mediator, for this cause came into this
hour. What shall I say? Father, glorify
thy name. Now, that's my subject. Father,
glorify thy name. I woke up real early this morning
after just being asleep for about three hours with a great burden
on my heart, great care, trying to pray, trying to pray for something
I want desperately, something I want desperately. And trying to find a way to say,
Father, what I really want is your glory. And you know what
I couldn't do? You know what I could not do? I could not honestly say, Lord,
I'm asking this for your glory. I just couldn't do it. And the trouble that's on my
heart is nothing compared to what our Savior was enduring. This great trouble. Father, glorify
thy name. Read on. Then came their voice
from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and
will glorify it again. And the people therefore that
stood by and heard it said that it thundered. Others said an
angel spake to him. People who don't know what's
going on when God speaks have always got to say something. They've always got to make some
kind of comment to pretend that they know. Jesus answered and
said, This voice came not because of me. This word from heaven did not
come because I needed to hear it. It didn't come for my benefit. The Lord God didn't speak from
heaven to me as I prayed to him and say, Had both glorified it
and will glorify it again. This was not spoken for my benefit
But for your sake For your sake This was all done
for you and me Everything written here is written for the benefit
of God's people in this world Not done for my sake, wasn't
done because of me, but for your sakes. Father, glorify thy name. Every day. Since I was 16 years old. Through the day, countless times. That's been my prayer. Every
day. Every day. I wake up every morning with
this ambition. And with a real desire that God
will make this the singular ambition of my heart. Father, glorify
thy name. There is no Ambition to compare
with it This is that which ought to inspire and Motivate our lives
in all the details of our lives all the time father glorify thy
name Is that not what our master taught when his disciples said
Lord teach us to pray? What was the first thing he said?
Pray like this our father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name." That's the word. Lord, sanctify your name. Honor your name. Distinguish
your name. Glorify your name. Our Lord Jesus,
I remind you again, had just performed the remarkable miracle
of raising Lazarus from the dead. You can imagine the scuttlebutt. You can imagine how folks must
have talked. You can imagine how quickly that
news or that miracle must have spread through the ears of men
from one little community to the next. So that everybody suddenly
quickly heard about this man, this man from Nazareth, this
man, Jesus of Nazareth, this man who claims to be the Messiah,
the Son of God, this man whom other men worship as the Messiah,
the Son of God. This man, we hear tell, has raised
Lazarus from the dead. And some multitudes, multitudes
came up to the feast at Jerusalem who normally would not have been
there. Multitudes who normally would just pass it by as another
Easter Sunday and we got to go fishing or something. But now
they've heard about something going on. And they heard that
Jesus was going to be there. So they came up to the feast.
And among those who came, There were these certain Greeks, certain
Gentiles, who came to Philip and said, sir, we would see Jesus. Now, they weren't just asking
to look at him. They could do that without Philip's help. They
weren't just asking that they might get a glimpse of him. All
they had to do is stand around, they'd see him. They wanted to
see him so as to know him. Sir, we would know Jesus. We need somebody to tell us who
he is, somebody to introduce us to him, somebody to bring
us to him. And so they come to Philip, and Philip comes to his
brother Andrew, and Andrew and Philip went and told the Lord
Jesus. And remarkable things happened. The sight of these
Greeks must have brought great joy to our Savior's heart. No
doubt these men reminded him of that for which he had come
into the world, that he might gather together God's elect out
of all the nations of the earth unto himself. These men represented
countless multitudes who would come to him from all the nations
of the world, men of every region, men out of every nation and tribe
and kindred and tongue. Oh, imagine that. Men out of
every region, out of every nation, out of every kindred, out of
every tribe, out of every tongue are going to come to him. Men
who are in the palace of kings and in the courts of royalty
and men who serve in great notoriety in various ways in their generation
and men and women who are in the gutter and in the streets. and in the prisons, men and women
who, just ordinary folks, men and women who are brilliant and
men and women who are illiterate, black and white and of every
color and race in the world. He sees these Greeks and says,
that's the reason I came here. I came to save my people from
their sins. How his heart must have laughed
with joy. He looks at these Gentiles coming
to him on this momentous occasion about the time of the Feast of
the Passover and he says, this is the joy for which I must soon
endure the cross, despising the shame. And then as he began to
address the crowds before him, a solemn thought seems to have
seized his mind. He seems to have thought to himself. I'm just putting things together
as I've read and studied this chapter so many times. He seems to have thought within
himself. Multitudes are to be gathered
to me. Both Jews and Gentiles shall
be saved by me, but they cannot be born into my kingdom without
my soul to avail. They cannot be saved except I
satisfy the justice of God for them. These people cannot live
except I die and redeem them, redeem them with my own precious
blood. And that fact comes vividly before
our Savior's heart. He sees these Greeks coming to
him and he says, corn of wheat, abides alone unless
it falls into the ground and dies, and then it brings forth
much fruit. As if to say, I'm corn of wheat. You can't live
unless I die. But if I die, multitudes shall
live. He speaks to these Greeks and
to the multitudes around him of this appointed hour for which
he had come into the world. He was and is that one by whom
all who live must live. That one by whose death alone
we can live. And our Savior begins to anticipate
what that involves. what's involved in the cost of
our redemption. And he said, now is my soul troubled. And yet, we must never imagine
that our Savior feared death. He didn't. He certainly did not fear death. His courage, his strength, his
confidence of mind and spirit and temperament was infinitely
superior to that of any man. And yet I have read numerous
times of men and women suffering horrible, torturous death, horrible,
torturous deaths, who did so with calmness and resolve. never go into Scotland, but I
remember a little bay there where the paper staked out two women,
an older one and a younger one. The first time I went to England,
I just read Ryle's work on why the martyrs were burned and told
the story of these two women, very commonly known. And they
staked the younger one up a little higher on the shore. than the
older one, hoping that when the younger heard the older woman
scream for mercy, she would recant and give up the faith. But the
old woman died with confidence. She did too. Our Lord was stronger
than that. Our Lord was stronger than that.
I've personally seen men and women die, sometimes die in great
pain, suffering, and die with calmness, gladness, joy. But our Lord, his death was different
than ours. We read in the scripture precious
in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints. But death
is the penalty for sin, and he knew no sin. Death is the curse
of God's broken law, but he never broke the law. Death is the outpouring
of divine wrath upon fallen man, but he is this father's delight.
Death had no claim on him. He's holy, harmless, undefiled,
and separate from sinners. And yet the Son of God must die
as the sin bearer. His death was to be the vindication
of God's holiness. God's justice and God's truth. He must die under the black cloud. The black cloud of justice. He must die under the black cloud
of justice with guilt. Guilt made his own. He must die
under the black cloud of God's justice. He who is holy, harmless,
undefiled, and separate from sinners must die as a horrid
mass of iniquity to redeem my soul. And when he anticipated that,
being forsaken of his father as the object of his father's
holy wrath, as the just object of his father's anger, he says,
now is my soul troubled. This is altogether different
from the death we die, we who believe. We die because of his
death with the sweet confidence that we're not dying. We die
because of his death with the blessed assurance that our departure
from this body is entrance into glory. Because he died, we die. with the blessed peace of sin
forgiveness, of sins pardoned, of sin put away. He died being made sin for us. On this public occasion, our
Savior seems to have rehearsed what he would later endure in
Gethsemane. His heart's heavy. his spirits
in agony, and his inmost being the son of God going through
a time of deep, deep distress and great trouble. Our text is
the culminating point of the trouble, the climax of his anguish
and the conquest of his soul over it. He seems to shake himself. He said, now is my soul troubled. And he pauses. takes a deep breath, and he says,
but what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?
No. For this cause came I unto this
hour. Father, glorify thy name. These Gentiles, these Greeks,
came and said, sir, we would see Jesus. They wanted to see
this royal king. They wanted to see the wonder
of this man who is the Messiah, the Christ of God. They wanted
to see the majesty of his person. And they saw it as never before
human eye had seen it. They saw him in trouble. They saw him fearful. They saw him shaken. And then
they saw him shake the fear and shake the trouble. And he says,
Father, glorify thy name. I want to show you three things,
and I'll be very brief. I'm always hesitant. When I start
to talk about the conflict of our Savior's soul. These three
things, this word from our Savior, And our text is a prayer of faith. And the Lord God Almighty speaks
from heaven and gives a promise of grace. And as we follow our
Savior in his example, we have this prayer. Father, glorify
thy name as a principle of life. First, here's a prayer of faith. Our Lord Jesus. was imminently
a man of faith. We are justified by the faith
of Jesus Christ. We we are justified, Alan, because
he believed God, because he walked on this earth in perfect faith
and faithfulness to God, justified by the faith of Jesus Christ. Our Lord was imminently a man
of faith. And so he says, Father, glorify
thy name. This prayer arose from our Savior's
great trouble as a man. His great agony of soul is full
of trouble, full of trouble. His heart is heavy. How can this
be explained? He knew what lay before him.
As I said a moment ago, He begins to rehearse what transpired in
Gethsemane. Turn over to Lamentations chapter
1 again. We've looked at this several
times recently. Lamentations 1. He knew that soon Judas would
betray him. He knew that very soon Peter
would deny him three times. He knew all of his disciples
would forsake him. He knew that soon he must be
made sin. Soon he must be made sin. We can't begin to grasp any thought
of that, Joe, because sin's what we are. We drink iniquity like water.
That's our nature. We have no real knowledge of
what sin is. Not one of us. Not one of us. We love to point out wicked deeds
of other people so that we can think we're better than they
because we haven't done what they've done, but we don't have
a clue what sin is. We don't have a clue. This man
is God in human flesh. Merle Hart is the only man who
ever walked on God's earth who knew what sin is, really, as
God sees sin. And the thought of sin being
made his. The thought of our sin Being
transferred to him, not just judicially, not just pasted on
him, but being made sin, crushed his soul. Crushed him. Crushed him. I've often tried to find an illustration. Where can I find one? Take a
young virgin child. just old enough to have some
apprehension of the fear of what could be done to her and throw
her into a tank of drunks to have their way with her. Imagine
the shock, the horror as she anticipates it. It's nothing
compared to the trouble of his soul because her purity is but
the purity of physical nature, nothing else. His is the purity
of God in human flesh. He anticipates being made sin, suffering the wrath of God in
our state, bearing all God's judgment righteously
on our behalf, being made a curse for us, Not just being cursed
for us, being made a curse for us. And he says, now is my soul troubled. But the lamentation is what?
Verse 12. Is it nothing to you, O ye that
pass by, behold and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow,
which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in
the day of his fierce anger." Our Lord Jesus in trouble, and yet he prays,
glorify thy name. In all points he's made likened
to his brethren. In all points made to suffer
all the things that we suffer. In all points tempted like as
we are yet without sin. He never knew sin, never did
sin. But he was made sin. And Mark Henson, he knows infinitely
better than you and I can know what it is to be sin before the
Holy God. And now, having put away our
sin by the sacrifice of himself, he is able to succor them that
are tempted. For he is a merciful and faithful
high priest in all things pertaining to God, able to succor them that
are tempted. And as he does this, being made
sin, as he anticipates this, he says,
Father, glorify thy name. Turn to Matthew chapter 27. You see, our Lord Jesus was determined
to suffer the wrath of God. And to suffer it all. That he
might redeem and save us by his sacrifice on our behalf. To suffer
it all that he might be sympathetic with us in our greatest trouble
of soul. In Isaiah 50, remember he spoke
of himself as the bond slave. He said, the Lord's opened mine
ears. And I didn't turn my back away from him. I wanted to be
his servant. I came here to be his bond servant,
to do his will. In Matthew 27, verse 34, as our
Lord hung upon the cross, we're told that they gave him vinegar
to drink, mingled with gall. And when he had tasted thereof,
he would not drink. Here he is in horrible thirst. in horrible thirst, hanging up
between heaven and earth, fever rushing through his body, his
tongue swollen, he's horribly thirsty. They put vinegar on
a sponge and stick it up to his mouth and he wouldn't taste it. Why? Because he's determined
to suffer. Perhaps the vinegar in gall was
intended to intoxicate and stupefy and There's some thought that
perhaps this is a mixture that would deaden one's senses and
make it easier for him to endure the pain. Maybe that's the reason
he didn't taste it, maybe. Others imagine that vinegar helped
to prolong life. It was the theory of folks in
that day. They'd give vinegar to someone
who was about to die and revive them a little bit. Perhaps that's
the reason he didn't take it. He didn't want anything to indicate
any prolonging of life. But probably, this vinegar and
gall was to aggravate his agony. Vinegar. You folks who like vinegar,
you had to get used to liking it. I'll guarantee you, you didn't
like it the first time you tasted it. Ugh, bitter stuff. Gall. Representing that which
is extremely bitter. Bitter. This potion of vinegar
with gall, John Gill said, was an aggravating circumstance in
our Lord's sufferings. It was given to him when he had
a violent thirst, and it was an emblem of the bitter cup of
God's wrath. He had already begun to taste
in the garden and was about to drink up. He took the vinegar and gall
given to him to aggravate him. indicating his taking the cup
of God's wrath and drinking damnation dry in our stead. Understand
then how our Lord Jesus came to die. He died for the glory of God by his own
will because of his love for us. that he might satisfy the
justice of God on our behalf. All right, here's the second
thing. Our text reveals a promise from God. Then came their voice
from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify
it again. The grand result of our Lord's
death on our behalf is the glory of God. Here the father speaks
from heaven, speaks to his son so that men hear. Men here, I
don't know who all understood what was going on, but our Lord
understood. John apparently understood. Those who heard the voice understood.
Those who believe it, believe God understood. Others just thought
it thunder or an angel spoke from heaven. But three times
our Lord had God the Father speak from heaven on his behalf. All
three times there was an intimate connection with his death. The
Lord spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased at his baptism, symbolizing his death by which
he fulfilled all righteousness. The Lord God spoke from heaven
at the Mount of Transfiguration and spoke of his son in whom
he is well pleased. And then here, the Lord speaks
to him. In all past things, our heavenly
father declares that he has glorified himself. Without a doubt, this,
however, is particularly speaking of the sacrifice of his son.
He says, I have glorified it. Glorified my name in setting
up Christ as the lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
I have glorified my name in this sacrifice, in your death, as
it's portrayed in all the Old Testament scriptures. I have
glorified my name in your death right now. and I shall glorify
my name in your death. You see, God's primary purpose
for everything is his glory. Everything. God's principal purpose
for everything is his glory. Read the 106th Psalm. As the
psalmist describes Israel's rebellion in God's mercy, Israel's transgression
in God's forgiveness, Israel's sin in God's pardon, Israel's
rebellion in God's being gracious to them over and over again.
We read, nevertheless, he saved them for his namesake. The reason God Almighty saves
such things as we are is for the glory of His name. The reason
He saves us as He does is that He alone might receive all the
praise, all the honor, and all the glory. He glorified His Son
in the past, and He says, I will glorify it yet again. If you'll look at the context,
you'll see that When Christ died, the world was judged. Sin was
judged at Calvary. Satan was bound. Sinners were
redeemed. And the crucified Christ draws
sinners to himself. We'll look at that more tonight,
Lord willing. Turn back to Psalm 85. Let me show you how God glorified
Himself in the sacrifice of His Son. Psalm 85, verse 9. Surely his salvation is nigh
the end that fear him. That glory may dwell in our land.
What happened to Calvary? Mercy and truth are met together. God says I will be gracious and
God says the soul that sinneth it shall die. God is mercy and
God is truth. How can God's mercy and God's
truth both stand and God yet freely forgive sinners? Only
through the sacrifice of his darling son and the satisfaction
of divine justice. And now in the person of the
substitute, here is truth, the soul that saideth it shall die
and Don Fortner dies. His mercy yet freely forgive
iniquity, transgression, and sin. And Don Fortner's forgiven. How? Because Christ has put away
my sin. Mercy and truth are met together.
Righteousness and peace have kissed each other. Righteousness. Righteousness says that man must
suffer the fury of God's holy wrath. Righteousness says every
transgression must be punished to the full satisfaction of justice. How on this earth can righteousness
and peace kiss each other? How can God be righteous? and
yet kiss the prodigal on the cheek with full reconciliation. How can God in righteousness
embrace the harlot and the murderer and the transgressor of every
kind? How? Only in the person of the
substitute. And then when mercy and truth
are met together and righteousness and peace have kissed each other
for God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself. Truth
springs out of the earth, Christ Jesus and righteousness. Christ our righteousness looks
down from heaven in mercy. Yea, the Lord shall give that
which is good and our land shall yield her increase. Righteousness
shall go before him and shall set us in the way of his steps. How can it be that God Almighty saved such a one as I? How could he do that? How could
he do that? We hear about criminals being
pardoned. We hear about folks being set
free. This fellow in California, this man who Guilty of crimes indescribable.
Turned loose by courts to commit crimes again. And our blood boils
in anger because of it. Just not right. But God in heaven has set one worse than he free.
And you know how he did it? Moral righteousness went before
me. and set me in His way. Righteousness! God saves sinners
only righteously, only by the sacrifice of His Son. Now, here's
the third thing. I'll be very brief. This Oh God, make it the principle
by which I live. The rule of my life. Father, glorify thy name. He says, I have. Okay. I believe that. And I will. I think I believe
that. I think I do. Until I get to the thing that
troubles me. And then I've got trouble. What shall I do? Trust in the
Lord with all thine heart. And lean not unto thine own understanding. in all thy ways acknowledge him our father which art in heaven
hallowed be thy name thy will be done acknowledge him and he shall
direct thy path Lord God Do what you will, and give me
grace to trust your will, to submit to your will, to rejoice
in your will. Give me grace. Oh, Brother Dodd,
I sure would like to glorify God. Wouldn't you, though? Wouldn't
you like to glorify God? Huh? Wouldn't you like for God
to be glorified in you? He that honoreth the Son honoreth
the Father also. If you would glorify God, believe
Him. Trust His Son. And when God gets
done, He can be glorified in you and
in me and in you. He will spread us before the
universe to be admired as the trophies of His grace to the
praise of His glory forever.