The Crisis is Past

I'd like to read beginning with
the 23rd verse. I'd like to read down to verse
33 again from 23 to 33. Listen carefully if you will
as I read this scripture. And Jesus answered them saying
the hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, except the 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 hated his life in this world shall keep
it of divine 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. Now is my soul in trouble, and
what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour,
that for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy
name. Then came there a voice from
heaven, saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. The 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 if I be lifted up from the
earth will draw all men unto me. This he said signifying what
death he should die. Now this morning, I'd like for
you to keep in mind, I won't speak if the Lord will permit
me to do so. On the subject, the crisis is
past. The crisis is past. Now I want
you to keep this in mind because there's something in this message
that has to do with the good news of the gospel. The very
heart, I think, of the gospel is in this message this morning.
I'd like to begin by saying that there have been many hours of
crisis throughout history, and each one, I suppose, who has
lived in that moment has had his own particular hour of crisis. And there continues to be in
this world this morning, throughout this world, might I add, multiple
hours of crisis. The local news every evening
thrives on all these various crises that are rolling on throughout
the world. And there are a great number
of daily individual crises in each one of our lives. God knows
There are. And this morning I thank God
that I'm privileged to be able to come here to survive in my
own thinking another week. To be able to come here and to
speak this message this morning and to talk about the crisis
being passed. And I'm not giving any way to
lessening these things, these crises that we have in our individual
lives, our daily lives. When I talk about the great prices
being passed this morning, I'm not doing that at all, because
there's no prices like the prices that you're in right now at this
moment. There's never been one like it
before, and you never expect that there will ever be one like
it again. But I want you to think about
the crisis this morning that the Lord Jesus Christ talks about
here in John chapter 12, the crisis that he refers to here
in this chapter. In verse 23, he says here concerning
the hour, he says, he refers to it in this 23rd verse, he
says, the hour is coming. The hour is coming. that the
Son of Man should be glorified. Let me say that this is not the
literal hour that our Lord is talking about, but he's talking
about the time has arrived, the hour has come when the Son of
Man should be glorified. He says in John 2 and verse 4,
he spoke to his mother and he said, my hour is not yet come. And in John 7 and verse 30, the
babe that sought to take him, the scripture says, but no man
laid hands on him, because his hour was not yet come. But in verse 23, he says, the
hour is come. The hour is come. And I pray this morning that
God will give us all ears to hear what the Lord Jesus Christ
is saying, and not only to hear what he's saying, but also to
understand what he's saying and to believe. what he's saying
here in this text. In this passage of scripture,
I believe that the Lord Jesus revealed just how critical this
power is. In verse 31, he says, now is
the judgment of this world. Now is the judgment of this world. Now the word judgment, there
is in this word judgment, the root word for the word crisis. The word crisis, our word crisis. Now what's being said here, then,
is this. That the cross of Jesus Christ,
and I do not mean by that the wooden cross of the Lord Jesus,
but I mean all things that were accomplished in his death. All that was purposed in that
cross. That's what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about the hour has come that the Son of Man should
be glorified. When he says, now is the judgment
of this world, he's talking about the time of His death and what
will be accomplished, the purpose of God that will be fulfilled
in His death. That's what he's talking about.
Now, the cross, this hour in which Jesus Christ is hung, spans
the great span between God and sinners. Here the cross is said
to be the very central, the very focal point of all time, of all
time and eternity. It is the crisis of the world
above it that the Lord Jesus Christ is referring to here in
verse 31. Now everything depends, everything,
and I want to make that certain this morning that you understand
what I'm saying, depends on what goes on here in this hour. What is accomplished right here
in this hour. Everything depends upon this. It is the crisis as far as God
dealing with that head rebel named Satan. But the Lord Jesus
Christ Certainly it approves the head
of Satan on the cross. And certainly this head riddle
is cast out. He is cast out. Meaning that
Satan at the cross received his judgment, his doom. And certainly
it is true that the Lord Jesus Christ will ultimately be victorious
over the devil. It's not up for grabs. There's
no possibility Satan's going to win out. He is defeated. Satan is defeated. And that the
Bible is very clear, the message remains clear, that Satan is
a defeated devil, and that he is under the absolute sovereign
control of an almighty God. And this is to be understood
by every one of the children of God. Because if you can't
understand that or don't understand that, you'll never understand
the book of Job, and you'll never understand many scriptures in
the Bible. The Bible is clear on it. that
God has Satan under control. Now then, and it's most definitely
the crisis as far as God dealing with this matter of salvation
with regard to his elect. For in verse 32 he says, draw
all, look at this, he says, and if I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men unto me. Now you take note here that the
word men has been supplied by the translators and it's in italics
in your bible and it should read and it might be lifted up and
the earth will draw all unto me now what he means here by
this is he refers here to the same all that he spoke of in
john 6 37 and also in verse 39 when he said all that the father
giveth me shall come to me this is the same all Though that's
the all that He intends to draw. And then in verse 39, and this
is the Father's will that I'll draw what He hath given me, I
shall lose nothing. He said, I'll be lifted up. I
shall draw all unto Me. Now if I'm lifted up, I'll draw
all I own. All that the Father chose, all
I've come to die for, and all that the Father will draw, and
all that the Holy Spirit will regenerate, He says, I will draw. And so this crisis involves the
salvation of God's elect. Now if this be true, then this
is the good news of the Gospel, that the crisis is past. That's the message here of this
text. Now, even the Christ's is past.
Therefore, then, for any man to preach anything else is utter
foolishness and reveals spirits of ignorance and blindness. The Christ's, beloved, is past. We're not walking up to a victory,
we're walking down from a victory. The hour of the Lord Jesus Christ
is come and the Lord Jesus Christ has been glorified. Now Isaiah
was moved by the Spirit of God to say that if they speak not
according to this word, if they speak not according to this word,
there is no light in them. If there is after their speaking
one hint, if there is one note of any remaining crisis, then
they have not spoken according to my word, and there is no light
in them. Now look, if you think about
the trivial subjects, that men speak of in our day. I say they're
trivial as compared to this subject of the prices being passed. What are preachers known for
in our day? What are preachers known for?
I thought about this a little bit. And they're known for their
ability to speculate on prophecy. Some preachers are known for
that. And there are others that are known for their friendliness.
and the others that are known for their pleasing ways and for
their personalities. And there are others that are
known for their willingness to visit, and for their ability
to organize, and their ability to motivate, and their ability
to administer. That's what preachers are known
for in our day and in our time. But listen, the preacher of God,
the man who's called God, the man who has the burden of the
word of the Lord upon his heart, the man who claims to have seen
Christ, Lift it up in its glory. That man's burden, it must be,
he has to be known for this message, the crisis is past. It is all over. It's past. Now Paul said that he had not
shunned to declare all the counsel of God. And he's the same man
who said in the book of 1 Corinthians chapter 2, I determined to know
nothing among you, save Jesus Christ and Him crucified." He
said, that's my resolve, that is my determination. Let men
rise to more lofty themes and higher themes if they want. But this is the message about
the crisis of eternity, and I must preach Christ and Him crucified. Now look if you will in Acts
16, and I want to show you this further in Acts chapter 16 and
verses 10 or 9 through 10 here, verses 9 and 10. And Elisha appeared
to Paul in the night. And there stood a man of Macedonia,
and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help
us. Now, we're living in a day when
TV evangelists and preachers can get up on television, and
they can see visions, and they can even see visions while they're
speaking on television. They're telling you that they're
seeing something that you don't see, and that others are not
able to see. The Apostle Paul here, he saw
an angel. There appeared to him a vision.
Now it wasn't the kind of vision that these TV evangelists have,
because he says there was a man of Macedonia. This man prayed
him, or was asking him, beseeching him, to come over unto Macedonia
and to help them. Now, Paul did not get the view
or the idea or the opinion from this vision that they wanted
to come over there and build a hospital, or they wanted to
come over there and start some kind of social program. that
he might be able to give those prodigals over there a better
job in a foreign country. He did not believe that that
was the vision, but all at first Cain explains it. And after he
had seen the vision, immediately he said we had dared to go to
Macedonia to share the gathering. that the Lord had called us for
to preach the gospel unto them. Not the whole way to start a
social program, but to go over there and to preach the gospel
unto them. The good news that the crisis
is past. Now, the ending is not to preach
current events so as to excite men and women to come to hear
us. It is not to preach morality.
Some may feel that that's very much needed, but it's not to
do that. It is not to excite men with
our own experience, and it's not to move men to have greater
experiences themselves. But it is to deal with this matter
that Jesus Christ says that the judgment now is the crisis of
this world, and this is the crisis of all eternity, and it is past. Now, then, if this is true, what
I say is, if the crisis is past, here, beloved, must be the glory
of God. Here must be the glory of God.
If this is the hour, if this is the focal point of all eternity,
if this is the main attraction, if this is the main event, then
this must be the glory of God in Christ revealed. Now look
again at verse 23, and I'll show you this. In verse 23, it says,
the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. The hour has come that he should
be glorified. Had there not been other hours? Had there not been other hours
when the Lord Jesus had been glorified to some degree in this
world? Well, certainly there was. There
were other times when the Lord Jesus received glory, when he
bestowed He laid up all men when he raised the dead, when he healed
the blind. Certainly he had received glory
prior to this, but this is the hour of his greatest glory. Now this is to be understood.
There's a great truth here, and I want you to get it. If you
ever see this with a spiritual eye, if you ever lay hold of
this, if you ever aim to receive this, this into your soul, assimilating
your spiritual system. If you're ever able to do it,
you will never be the same. Now hear me out this morning.
This is the hour of the greatest glory of the Son of God. Now
how could it be such? You might ask that, how could
it be such? You listened as I read, and you
said, but John, listen as you read these verses, how could
it be the hour of His greatest glory? Well, because all we see,
you might ask this, because all we see and view here, as far
as a natural life and understanding is concerned, instead of it being
the hour of his glorification, it seems to be the hour of his
greatest humiliation and the hour of his greatest failure,
because he talks about death. It talks about him dying. It
talks about him being lifted up from the earth on the glory
tree, on the wooden cross. He dies. And it may appear that
this could not be the hour of glory for the Lord Jesus Christ. Certainly not the hour of greatest
glory. But, beloved, it is so. But I'll
tell you why it's the great hour of His glory. It is because,
number one, God has conditioned it. God has laid everything,
God has set everything that has anything to do with the salvation
of His people on what Christ does right here on the cross. This is the crisis. Now all that was bound up in
the purpose of God, all that was involved in the salvation
of the most obscure sinner that would ever live on the face of
the earth, all in the Old Testament, all of the New Testament, all
in this place, Right now, this morning, that knows Christ and
feels the forgiveness of sin and has ever heard the voice
of the pardoning love of their soul, all of the Lord's living
family, beloved, it depends on what happens in this hour is
spoken. of our Lord Jesus Christ. It
depends on that. There's no salvation apart from
what happens here in this hour. Now it is His glory because everything
hangs in the balance right here. Everything hangs in the balance.
If Christ does not die, Old Testament saints die in vain. And they
believed in vain. They believed the prophecies
in vain. All the prophets prophesied in
vain. If Christ does not die right
here. Now, all the glory of Almighty
God is at stake here. Because the veracity of God,
the truthfulness of God, the faithfulness of God, the purpose
of God, it's all drawn down in time and turned to this hour.
One focal hour. Even though it's not a literal
hour as I explain, it's now or never. It all hangs on what happens
right here and now in this hour. And Jesus says the hour has come. It's come. He said before, as
I explained in regular scripture, the hour has not yet come. But
now it's come! It's all drawn down to this hour,
which I award is to die upon the tree. It was ordered and
purposed from eternity, and this is the hour of glory. Can we, beloved, get hold of
this this morning? This involved a certain hour
in history in which a certain man, who is the God-man, he involved
himself on behalf of a certain people to accomplish certain
things, and he doesn't. This is what's involved here.
Now, this is the hour, not the hour we feel like it, but this
is the hour. It's past, it's finished. The
Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished the divine purpose, and the elect
of God are secure to say what the Lord Jesus Christ has done
here in this hour. Now, what we hear at the average
church today We here, if you were to attend many of the professing
Christian churches and even Baptist churches in our area, you would
hear the most pitiful story about a man called Jesus who was put
to death on the cross. And they imply that it was indeed
an awful thing that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross.
Well, I want to tell you something this morning. that my opinion
and view of this has changed radically from what I've studied
concerning this crisis being passed and this being the hour
of his glory. The scripture says, the Lord
Jesus says, that the hour has come that some man should be
glorified, that he should be glorified. Now, if we can't see
the glory of God in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and
in what the scripture says here this morning, we've missed it.
We have missed it. The gospel or worship service
is not going to come together to have some big pity party for
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is to be understood. This
is the hour of glory, and this is the way He goes from eternity. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Now in this way,
or in the way which God purposed for him from eternity, the Lord
Jesus Christ is crucified, and this is the way of humiliation,
but he calls it just being lifted up. He says in verse 32, and
it might be lifted up. Now it is true that the Lord
Jesus Christ was humiliated, But the scripture says he was
lifted up. It is true that he died on the
mower tree, but he was lifted up. That's the way he speaks
of it. The way up is down with God. The way up is down with
God. And so it is, as we look upon
this scripture, the Lord Jesus has died. He must suffer. He
must die. But this is the hour of his glorification. And I'll explain all this if
you'll listen. This has to do with all the exaltation and the
accomplishment, don't you see, of this power. That's what he's
talking about. This glory, it involves his exaltation
and him coming to the place where the Lord gives him sovereign
rights over all men and the scripture says he's lord over all men and
he earned the right to be everybody's lord. by the way of the blessed
cross. He earned the right to be everybody's
sovereign by the way of obedience to God in this hour. And so it's
talking about the exaltation and what was accomplished in
this life, in this hour. He said he's lifted up the hour,
and I think that we all can understand this, and we understand anything
that Paul said. In Philippians 2, when he was
talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, that he's Lord, and that
every knee's going to bow, every tongue is going to confess, and
that God has highly exalted him, given him a name which is above
every name, that when the Lord Jesus was lifted up, Brother
sister, he was lifted up a whole lot higher than what he could
be lifted up on a wooden cross. Let me tell you that. He was
lifted up. He was glorified by the Father. Now, if you ever see the gospel,
if you ever see God's Son, if you ever see the Lord Jesus Christ
in this mediatorial work, who comes and is, as it were, the
priest, who is pleased to offer himself to God's presenters. If you ever see it this morning,
I think that it'll take you higher than just a wooden cross. And
certainly it'll take you higher than a metal cross which you
can wear around your neck. Beloved, if you're ever able
to get a hold of this truth that the crisis is past, and that
Jesus Christ will be home on that cross, that he's satisfied
that God will suffer our hell and our roof and stand in place,
and that the great crisis of all eternity, as it comes down
to that one hour, in that one hour, The judgment, the crisis
has come to pass. If you ever able to see it. Beloved,
if you lift you higher, then you can be lifted on a wooden
cross. Well now, verses 33 and 24. Through, well let's look
at verse 33 first here. It says this. Verse 33 says,
this is sent signifying what death should die. And so I know
that this lifting up has to do with death. And then if you look
at verse 24, he says, truly, truly, I say, you can accept
the horn of wheat, fall into the ground, and die. It abideth
alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. Now, I'm talking about this being
his glory. Even though it involved death,
it was the hour when he was glorified. Now, that's your point. That's
what I'm talking about. Now, it's a time right now where
people plant gardens. Now, I've never seen anybody,
I've seen a lot of gardens planted in my time. Planted a few of
them myself. Was involved in planting some gardens. But I've
never seen anybody put seed in the ground and weep over the
seed when they put it in the ground. No, I've never seen that. And I don't think you have either.
Because the seed dies, we know that that's what verse 24 is
talking about. Jesus said, I say to you, that except the point
we fall into the ground and die, it abides alone. And he's talking
about himself, along with all of his people that live after
him, who will follow him in glorification. They also will experience a dying
out to themselves in this life. But now what he's saying is,
if it dies, if it don't die, it'll abide alone. But if it
died, it'd bring forth much fruit. It'd bring forth much fruit.
Now then, instead of being just, you put one grain of corn into
the ground, and it dies, and then it's resurrected. And when
it springs forth, you don't have one grain of corn coming forth.
You have a stalk, and you may have one ear, two ears, or three
ears on it, and maybe even more than that. And all those ears
many many brains of home and so the lord jesus here is a this
is the hour of my glorification This is what happened in his
death and resurrection. He said i thought you'd die But
he said the pleasure of the lord will prosper in my hand And whenever
I die, whenever I'm put into the ground, and I come forth,
He said, I will draw all unto me. All my life will be drawn
to me. This is the hour of glory, because
when I do heal this cross, this will result in all of those that
the Father's given to me, that they come to me, and that they
experience everlasting life, the regenerating, quickening
work of the spirit and the soul, that they all come out of death,
and they all come to life, and the seed of life will be planted
in every one of them, and it's an eternal seed, and they'll
finally be resurrected, their bodies even from the grave, and
for all eternity, they'll live with me because of what happens
right here in this hour. And that's what he's talking
about, and he says, signifies what death is, you and I. So
I know that he's talking about his death being that which glorifies
the Son of God. Well, let me answer some questions
here as I come to a conclusion here of this subject this morning.
How is this the revelation of Christ's glory? How is it? Now,
I'll give some thought to this, and I hope you listen just a
little bit while I try to explain to you how this is the revelation
of Christ's glory, His death, His coming into this hour of
crisis, and Him so dying that the crisis now is passed, and
that I've come before you this morning, and I can speak to you
and tell you this morning that the Great crisis between almighty
God and man. The crisis is over. And all of
the elect have been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ. Now let me try to explain this
a bit. How is revelation of Christ's glory revealed here? Number one,
I think it's revealed in the fulfillment of the Father's purpose. The Father had a purpose. And
the Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled this purpose. God has a purpose.
Let me say that and make it plain. God does everything he does on
purpose. Everything he does, he does on
purpose. He has a purpose of grace. Now look in verse 27. The Lord Jesus said, now is my
soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour? Is that what I ought to say?
No, he said, but for this cause, for this purpose, came I unto
this hour. The Lord Jesus said, is there
not a cause? For we have been come to this hour. Yes, there's
a cause. And what is the cause? Well,
he said that I asked the reason I came unto this hour. That's why I was preserved in
John 7 when men tried to get a hold of him to kill him. And
they couldn't. He just passed out of the midst.
because his hour had not yet come. How did he get to this
hour? Because it was the father's purpose that he would make it
to this hour and that he would fulfill this hour and the crisis
would be passed. Now the scripture says in Acts
2 and 23, him being delivered by the determined counsel and
full knowledge of God, he was taken to the hands of wicked
men and he was slain. Now, that scripture plainly tells
us that the cross, that it was designed of counsel and coordination
of God. Also Isaiah said, in Isaiah chapter
3, that it pleased the Father to bruise Him. Now, I'm talking
about the revelation of the glory of God, the revelation here of
Christ's glory. It was that the purpose of God
would be fulfilled. Now, God is not a sadistic God. who just inflicts pain for the
sake of inflicting pain. There was never, and I want you
to hear what I'm saying this morning, and you may say, Brooks,
I don't, did you say that? Well, you listened to me right
off this morning, so you know for sure what I'm saying, that
there was never an hour when God was more in control than
in the hour when the Lord Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross.
We're not just going to have a big pity party for the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's not the purpose of the
worship service. The purpose of this worship service is to
come here to honor Almighty God and His Son. Almighty God who
purposed it and the Son who did fulfill the purpose of the Father
in so healing. with our sin on this glory tree,
on this cross, that the Father's purpose was fulfilled completely
in the Son, that the Son might see a deceit and be satisfied,
and that the justice of God would be completely satisfied, that
God's righteousness would be honored to the full, that God's
purpose would be fulfilled. Now in verse 28, And verse 30
here, look at this. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from
heaven, saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it even.
Now, what this reveals is that the Father was about to glorify
it in licking up his Son, just as we've explained. The people,
therefore, that stood by and heard it said that it thunders. Others said an angel spake to
him. Then Jesus answered and said,
This was not the cause of me, because I came into the world
to do my Father's will, and for this cause I came to this hour,
that the Father might be glorified, and His purpose would be fulfilled. He said, But for your sakes,
Jesus knew already. You think Jesus didn't know that
He was the eternal Son of God? You think He didn't know that
He was coming into the world to die? The Lord Jesus Christ,
if you want to get real specific about it, the Lord Jesus Christ
was the only man, the only one, who ever was born into this world
for the purpose of death. Jesus Christ is that one. This is the hour. This is the
call. And this, beloved, is the glory
of Almighty God revealed in Christ's accomplishing and fulfilling
purpose of the Father. Now, secondly, the revelation
of Christ's glory is bound up in the endurance of the God-man,
as is revealed here. The endurance of the God-man.
Now, I've heard people say that I don't know how any one man
could do all of this. All of this suffering, all of
this dying, all of this standing in the place of sinners. All
of this for so many people in such a short time. How could
he do it? Well, it is because they do not
have any idea of who was hanging there that they asked this question.
How can He do it? Beloved, this is God-man, God
in flesh, God in the human body hanging here on this cross. And
He can add, because He is the God-man, He can add such virtue
and such worth. to the sacrifice that He made
so as to accomplish all that must be accomplished and enable
Him to do what must be done for all those it must be done for
in the length of time it must be done. Now, if you can follow
that, I think you will get the drift. This is the God-man and
His endurance is revealed here, and this is His glory. He is
the God-man and he can bear all of our sins. He can bear the
sin of all of us in his body on the tree. And he can, he can,
there's a word that was made to be said for us that we might
be made the righteousness of God and he was made to be said. What's impudent to him? I said,
well, that's not so bad as far as my part is concerned. Well,
just what we know about you. There's a lot of things we don't
know about, maybe even ourselves. Certainly, there's a lot of things
we don't know about other people. But I'll tell you this, all of
our sins met. on the Lord Jesus Christ, that
he bore, when the Bible says, in his own body, on the tree,
he bore. I mean, the weight of our guilt
was upon him. That's why he scraped great drops
of blood in the garden of Gethsemane. He bore our sins in his own body,
so that he was cut off from the Father, and fell asleep with
the Father, and the Father forsook him, because he was what we are. He was made to be that. before
God, legally constituted sin before God, numbered with the
transgressions. And the Lord held me. because he was anointed with
the transgression. This is what God meant. Well,
how can he do it? Well, he endured the cross, he
despised the shame, and he sat down at the right hand of God.
He suffered the hell and the wrath of an offended God for
every one of God's elect in that hour. He could do it because
of who he was. He could do it. He could do it.
The crisis has passed. Now the third thing is this.
His glory was revealed in that he died in the place of somebody
as a substitute. Now you can walk up and down
this land and you can preach the Christ God for everybody
if you want to. And you can preach it as loud
as you want to. It's like what Barber said, makes
mighty good preaching, it just ain't so. But you can get up
and you can preach it all you want to. And Christ died for
everybody. But I want you to understand
this. That you're not saying a thing when you do. You're not
saying a single solitary thing when you say that Christ died
for everybody. Because if one soul goes to hell
for whom Christ died for, then your doctrine, and your lessons,
and your atonement is gone. It's worth nothing. if one soul
for whom Christ died goes to hell. Now you mark it down. You
mark it down. Here's his glory, brother. Here's
his glory. Because if he died as a substitute,
if he died for somebody, if he died in someone's place, then
that one for whom he died must be saved by death. They must
be saved by death. God cannot demand Hey, but twice,
once for my bleeding shirt, his hand, and then again in mine.
God will save all for whom his son died. He said, I've given
him, he has power over all the flesh. And he's able to give
eternal life to all that I give to him. I give him that power.
He's got it. I was talking to a Mennonite
fellow the other day. And then I preach to him, who'd
been right across the road from me, an old, blessed, young fellow.
And I was talking to him about the fact that Jesus Christ is
a sovereign, that he's almighty, has all powers in the earth.
And he said, well, I don't know that he can do anything he won't
do. I know that. But yet, he preaches the man
that he lost again after he's supposedly saved. And he preaches
that Christ will not have that he died for everybody and that
his hands is tied until a man lets the Lord save him. He preaches
that. He said, I don't know if he can do anything more than
that. Well, for a friend of mine, that's inconsistency. It's what
that is. It's a lie. And you can't worship
believing a lie. You can't worship believing that.
And you can't have any hope if there is one single solitary
soul for whom Jesus died and rose to hell, it will be me.
I want to tell you that. That's the way I see it. If there's,
if there's a Christ, if it won't be everyone for whom he died
and got to hell, I will be the one that will slip in the middle.
It's got to be sure or I'll go to hell. And ain't no doctrine
of the Lord Jesus died for Judas like he died for me. And also,
Judas went to hell. That's where he went. I'll tell
you that he's in hell this morning. I mean, if you believe the testimony
of the scripture, he's in hell. But I'll tell you what, my hope
is this, that Jesus Christ died for me. That's my hope. I believe
that he died for me. And that's the only thing that's
going to keep my eternal God so high. Hell is the fact. Christ
died for me. And he preached all the world.
Too many died for everybody. But if anybody who died for goes
to hell, your message is a goner. Your message mounts for nothing.
It mounts for nothing. He died as a substitute for somebody
in somebody's room and place and state, and somebody's hell
has been suffered already. The crisis is past. All right, now fourth way.
This is the last. His glory is in satisfying God. He satisfied God. Jesus Christ
satisfied God. You say, well now, you know,
I think that most anybody can do that. Well, I want to tell
you this. Your daddy hadn't been satisfied
God. He started this crisis. He started
it. And I want to tell you this,
you never satisfied God. God is dead. If it wasn't for
the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, he wouldn't be satisfied with
any of that. Never. No son of Adam could ever
satisfy the debt they owed to God. No son of Adam could do
that. But the Lord Jesus satisfied God. There's a great crisis going
on between all of Adam's nature, all of Adam's kin, And we're
all Adam, if you please. We're all Adam. God dealt with
us all in Adam. We all died in Adam. And we all
live in the new Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ. We're all just
Adam. Are you in the old or the new
Adam? But listen to me. God's satisfied in the new Adam. God's satisfied in Jesus. He's
satisfied with what we're reconciling now. Paul said, we're reconciled,
we're ambassadors for God, and we pray you in Christ's name,
be reconciled to God. The enmity's been put away, the
crisis has passed, Christ has died. Be reconciled to God, because
God has been satisfied. I'm also glad to be able to lay
down my life and know God's satisfaction. He's not angry with a child who
died. He's not angry with a believer.
He said, Preacher, I'm not all to all to me. I know you're not
all to all to me, and I'm not either, but God's satisfied.
I want you to know that somebody satisfied God. And when you satisfy
God, all that were in the owner, they satisfied God, too, because
they're living. We're accepted in Jesus Christ.
We accepted His love. We were put in Him from before
the foundation of the world. We were chosen in Him. Don't
you see that? The scripture says that in Ephesians
1 verse 4. Chosen in Him. In Him. And so
if you're in Him, then God's satisfied with you too because
you're in Him. Because you're in Him. Alright?
Well then, the crisis has passed. Is that clear? Now what are you
worried about? What is your worry? What is it? What's your problem? If you are worried, say, I don't
know whether I'm going to be able to please the Lord enough
for him to take me to heaven at last. You don't believe what
Scripture says. You still got the crisis. Any
preacher tells you that it's depending on what you do, that
preacher don't have all I do. He thinks there's still a crisis.
And you're going to be the one that decides when it's finished.
You're going to be the one to... That's not the way it is for
God to let you. The crisis is past for God to let you. It's
over when it's done. No more need to worry. It's all
set. It's all done. The crisis is
past. You believe it? Now if you believe
it, then you don't have any more problems. No more problems. Now, I'd like to say something
further here. I think that if we ever get a
hold of this, this truth that the biggest crisis is past, I
feel that it will help to alleviate some of the trauma of some of
these little crisis that we got in our lives. You know when we
have crisis, people say we got a crisis in the church. Somebody
said we got a crisis in our home. Somebody said I got a crisis
on the job. And all that may be true, but
I want to tell you this, that if you ever get on the list,
that the main event that the central fold of all eternity,
that this hour has come and the crisis, the hour is the judgment
of this world. Now is the crisis of this world,
right now! And that it's over, it's done.
2,000 years ago it was said, it's over, the crisis is over! We have to get that done. And all these other things just
won't be much talk. I'll tell you that, just to alleviate
Like I'm saying, I'm not trying to lessen it. I know we got some.
But another sister, I mean, don't it reduce the trauma? I mean,
it don't hurt so much. It don't hurt so much. Because
the crisis. Mainly the crisis. The Lord satisfied my many sins.
Settled all eternity. Now, there's just one thing I
just want to suggest, and I won't preach on it, and that is this. That this is what draws the Lord's
people is for this to be preached. Those for whom it was done, they
are drawn by hearing about the crisis being passed. They're drawn to that. Now, they're
not drawn by a message that implies that the crisis is still going. The people of God come with joy
to the Lord Jesus Christ because the victory is won and because
salvation is to be had freely on the basis of the marriage
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said it is finished. The scripture
says that He entered into the glorious and He turned those,
because He has provided, He turned it into glory. He has provided. It's not something that we're
trying to work out ourselves. This is what draws, this is the
way the Lord is going to draw men to Himself. Draw them to
Himself. You're here this morning and
you've never come to the Lord Jesus Christ in your heart. You
never have. You've never been drawn into
Him. This message, I hope under God, will be used to draw you
to Christ. He's the one that has done everything
that must be done to save your poor, pitiful soul. When you're
dead and sinning, only Christ can give you life. Life is in
His hands. He's the one who set up all the
lines between your soul and God. He set it up. He's always taking
care of you. He'll draw on you. Might you be one of those that
He draws to Himself by this message. Always like this morning for
the privilege of preaching this message. How wonderful it is
that we have such a message. Oh, we should get preaching better.
And we should have some way of saying these things in such a
way that you would be glorified and honored and you'd be so lifted
up that nobody would ever do the same, that everybody would
be different, having heard this message. Father, we all need
to get a hold of this truth. And we all need, our Father,
to assimilate it into our system. And we all need to believe it. Oh, God, give us help. And give
us, we pray, of the Spirit this morning to enable us to do what
we cannot do with the strength and energy of the flesh. And
that is to believe the Holy Word and see with spiritual eyes the
truth that Christ has passed. Have mercy upon us, oh God, and
spare us that we may yet preach again today. In Jesus' name,
amen.

The Crisis is Past

Sermon Transcript

Comments

Joshua

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Music

Recent Comments

About

Legal

Subscribe

Account

Articles

Featured Authors

Podcast

Recent Comments

Sermons

Featured Preachers

Books

Browse by Format

Collections

Music

About

Legal

Subscribe

The Crisis is Past

Sermon Transcript

Comments

More from John R. Mitchell

Same Scripture

Joshua

Where this book stands in the tradition

Plato

Augustine

The Western Christian Tradition

This Book