Turn back to John 12. I've entitled the message for
this morning, We Would See Jesus. I feel somewhat uncomfortable
any time I use the name Jesus without seeing the Lord Jesus
Christ. Because you know one thing we
never read of is where the disciples speaking to the Lord ever called
him Jesus. They called him Lord and Master
and that's who he is. But here we have these disciples
or would-be disciples making this request. Sirs, we would,
we desire, we would see Jesus. What a blessing of God it would
be if you and I will be enabled to see Jesus. Now let's read
how our Lord answered this question because the Lord did answer this. Christ had raised Lazarus from
the dead in Bethany about two miles from Jerusalem and he is
entering Jerusalem to the accolades of the people. They're praising
him. Within less than a week, they're
going to be crying crucify. Right now, they're praising him,
and he enters Jerusalem as the scripture foretells, riding on
a donkey. It's prophesied in the book of
Zechariah. Let's pick up reading in verse
12. And on the next day, much people,
this is after all the buzz surrounding Lazarus had taken place. Can
you imagine the buzz that would be taking place here if someone
was raised from the dead? Wow. They saw this happen. A man that had been dead four
days, going through the process of decay, raised from the dead.
On the next day, much people that were come to the feast,
when they had 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'd found a young ass,
sat there on as it's written. How many times do you read that
in the scripture? Everything he did is as it is written. Fear not, verse 15, daughter
of Zion. Behold, thy king cometh, sitting
on an ass's colt. Not a horse, but a donkey. These things understood not as
disciples at first, but when Jesus was glorified, then remember
they that these things were written of him, and that he had done
these things unto him, that they had done these things unto him.
The people therefore that were with him when he called Lazarus
out of the grave and raised him from the dead bear record. For
this cause the people also met him, for they had heard that
he'd 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,
Gentiles among them, that had come up to worship at the feast.
Now this was the feast of Passover. And these Gentiles somehow knew
that God was to be worshipped in the Passover. I think they
were very much like the Ethiopian eunuch. Remember, he'd gone up
to Jerusalem to worship, and he was returning, reading Isaiah
53. He knew God was to be worshipped
in Jerusalem. Well, these people did too, somehow.
And they'd heard all this buzz that had taken place regarding
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him raising somebody from the dead.
They had heard all this. Verse 20, And there were certain
Greeks among them 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, we desire to see Jesus. Y'all think about this. You know
when salvation begins, insofar as our experience goes? When
we desire to see Jesus. All the stuff that was before
then was just your own conscience working. Well, I feel bad about
this. I wish I'd start doing that. I wish I'd quit. All that
stuff, that's just the natural man and his religious being. But true salvation begins when
someone desires to see and to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember Zacchaeus? He sought to see Jesus. who he
was. And oh, it's my prayer that even
this morning somebody is saying from the very depths of their
hearts, sirs, I would see Jesus. What a blessing of God's grace
it would be if you and I would be allowed by God the Holy Spirit
to see Jesus. Verse 22, Philip cometh and telleth
Andrew. I guess Philip didn't know how
to handle this. These are Gentiles. Did the Lord
even come to these people? He didn't know what to think
about this. Jews didn't like Gentiles. They didn't like Greeks.
They didn't think they were dogs. I mean, Gentile dogs. What do we do about this? Philip
goes to Andrew. Andrew says, I don't know. Well,
let's go ask him. Let's go tell him about it. And Philip cometh
and telleth Andrew. And again, Andrew and Philip
tell Jesus. And Jesus answered them. Now,
this is the Lord's answer to this request. They said we would
see Jesus. And if you and I ever see Jesus,
this is how we will see him. Look what it says. Verse 23,
And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come. Now He is talking about the hour
of His death in the same discourse. He said in verse 27, Now is my
soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this
hour? But for this cause came I into this hour. He's talking
about His death. The hour has come. Speaking of
his death that the son of man should be glorified Now if you
and I ever see Jesus We are going to see him in the
glory of his death Now let me repeat that if you and I ever
see Jesus in where God actually gives us light and we're enabled
to see who he is. First of all, we're going to
see him in the glory of his death. Now what do you think about the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ? What do you see in the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I'm convinced that none of
us think enough nor talk enough about his death. When Moses and Elijah appeared
to him on the Mount of Transfiguration, what did they talk about? Luke
chapter 9 verse 31 tells us that this miracle that took place
when Christ was transfigured and Moses and Elijah leave heaven
and come down to earth and speak with him. What were they talking
about? They spake of the decease which
he should accomplish at Jerusalem. They were talking about What
was spoken of in eternity past? The Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. They were talking about the only
subject of glory. I love that passage of scripture
in Revelation chapter 5 where no one was worthy to take the
book. And John said, I wept much that
no man was worthy to take the book. And then the elders said,
Fear not, the Lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to take
the book, and he opened the seals thereof. And what did he see
when he saw the Lion of the tribe of Judah? He said, I saw a Lamb
as it had been slain. What is the song of heaven? is the lamb that was slain. Now, if I ever see the Lord Jesus
Christ, the first thing I'm going to comprehend is the glory of
His death. Somebody says, shouldn't you
be talking about the living Christ? I am talking about the living
Christ. And I'm talking about the glory of his death. Christ's greatest glory was when
he was nailed to that cross and bled and died. Oh, how glorious is his obedience
to his Father. He became obedient to death,
even the death of the cross. How unflinching He was in His
faith. Though He slay me, yet will I
trust Him. He never quit believing His Father,
even when He was forsaken by His Father and nailed to a cross. How great we see His love for
sinners. When we were yet without strength
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, and some for adventure, for a good man some
would dare to die. But God commended His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. I think of His mediatorial glory
as He's hanging on the cross when He says, Father, forgive
them. And everybody He prayed for was
forgiven. I think of the power of His blood,
what it actually did. His blood took away the sins
of everybody He died for, to where they're non-existent, they're
gone, they're blotted out. If Christ died for me, you know
what that means? I don't have any sin. That means I stand perfect
before God right now, perfect and righteous. Here's the power
of the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ has such
power it can take somebody like me and have God look at me and
say, Thou art all fair, my love. There is no spot in thee. What glory there is in the power
of His death. How He honored God's holy law
by His death. He would die before He'd let
one sin go unpunished. In His death, He magnified and
exalted every attribute of God. Whatever attribute you want to
talk about is glorified in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Oh, what glory we see in His death. Now, the only confidence
that I have that God will have anything to do with me is because
Christ died for me. That's my only hope. But saying that's my only hope,
that's a good thing. It's a perfect hope. The hope
of His death. And if you and I ever see Him,
we'll see Him glorified in His death. Now he gives an illustration
of what he's talking about in verse 24. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
now remember if you would see Jesus, you would see the glory
of his death. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it dies, it bringeth forth
much fruit." Now, you take the corn of wheat, whatever you're
planting, if it stays in your hand, what's going to happen
with it? It's going to buy a loan, isn't
it? But if it falls into the ground and dies, it brings forth
much fruit. Now, if Christ came here and
kept God's law perfectly and went back to heaven what good
would it do you if it only condemned you that's
it he came to die not simply to
live but to die now if he didn't die Cain would be damned, but
so would Abel. Esau will be in hell, but so
will Jacob. Pharaoh will perish, but so will
Moses. Ahithophel will be cut off, but
so will David. Judas will be in the lake of
fire, but so will Peter, John, and James. Simon Magus will be
damned, but so will Paul if Christ didn't die. Now here's the point. His death is salvation. Have you seen the glory of his
death? His death is Salvation. You see, his death was an accomplishment.
They spake of the deceased, which he should accomplish. What did
he accomplish? The complete salvation of all
the elect, of all of his own, of all who believe, of his precious
bride, of his brethren. Don't you love being Christ's
brethren? If he died, he accomplished. See, much fruit came out of his
death. the full glory of God and the
salvation of His people. Now, in Matthew 121, it says,
before He died, thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins. It's certain. But after He said
it is finished, thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He has. saved his people from their sins. Turn to Romans chapter 5, verse 6. For when we were yet without
strength in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet for adventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. Now what's that mean? Well, not
many people would die for a real religious, righteous, moral person
who makes you feel like you're under their microscope. Who's
going to die for somebody like that? I'm not. but a good man,
a merciful man. Some will die for that man, someone
who's gracious and kind and nonjudgmental, a good man. But, verse 8, God commended his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, by his death, we shall be safe from wrath through
him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God. How? By the death of his son. Now do you hear the language
of that? When we were enemies. Enemies of God. We were reconciled
to God by the death of His Son. When were you reconciled? When
He died. His death is salvation. Now this I'm sure If we see Jesus,
we will see his full glory displayed in his death. My sole and only
hope of being saved is that he died for me. Now I say this a
lot, I'll say it again. This is why I despise, I despise
and hate that doctrine that says that Jesus Christ died for everybody
and some of those people will wind up in hell anyway. Because
that takes away the only hope I have. The only hope I have
is that He died for me. And what a glorious hope that
is. Now let's go on reading. Back to our text in John 12.
We would see Jesus. Well, first of all, you'll see
his full glory displayed in his death. Verse 25. If we see Jesus, here's what
we're going to experience. He that loveth his life shall
lose it. And he that hateth his life in
this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If a man sees Jesus, it's going
to determine how he sees his life in this world. Now, somebody who loves his life, and that word is not the word
agape. It's a word that means someone
who has a high opinion of his life, who sanctions his life,
who glorifies his life, who shows signs of love, who
approves of his life. Now, let me tell you something.
Listen to me. If you approve of your life,
you have never seen Jesus. If you look at your life and
sanction it and approve of it and you like what you see, you've
never seen Jesus. You see, the conviction of sin
comes from a sight of the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you love your life, if
you highly approve of your life, you can write this down, you're
blind. You've never seen the Lord Jesus
Christ. But that person who hates his
life in this world, that is the one who'll keep it unto life
eternal. You see, you ever see him, you'll
hate your life. Now somebody says, I'm a happy
person. I'm satisfied with my life. I've got a good job. Bills are paid. Everything's
going well in the home. Well, I'm glad. I'm glad. But
here's the point. If you ever see the Lord Jesus
Christ, when you look at your life, you'll see nothing but
sin. That's it. You won't see anything
but that. Somebody says, well, I don't
see that. Well, then you've never seen Him. That's all there is
to it. You've never seen Him. Because if you've ever seen Him,
You're going to know exactly what I'm talking about, and you're
going to hate your life. And the only life you want to
have is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. Now, we have seen Him when we hate our life. and look
to his life as the only life we want to be found in. How about
you? What have you seen? Let's go
on reading. Verse 26. If any man serve me, remember
this is his answer to we want to see Jesus. This is our desire.
He says, 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. If a man has ever seen the Lord
Jesus Christ, his great desire is to serve him and to follow
him. If I've ever seen Christ, this
I know. My greatest desire, other than
being found in Him, is to serve Him, to be His slave, to be His
servant, to do His bidding, and to follow Him. How do you follow somebody? There's
only one way to follow somebody. You keep your eyes on them. If
you look down, you lose them. If you look to the side, you
lose them. The only way you follow the Lord Jesus Christ is to look
only to Him, not to look within, but to look to Him. Your great
desire, if you've ever seen Him in His glory, oh, you'll see
the complete salvation in His death. You'll see that your own
life is no good and you'll only want to be found in Him and have
His life. And you'll want to serve Him
and you'll want to follow Him. And look at the language in verse
26. 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 this I know. If anybody's
ever seen the Lord Jesus Christ, they want to be where he is.
That's where I want to be. I want to be where he is. Because wherever he is, is God's
complete acceptance. I want to behold his beauty.
I want to behold his glory. I want to be found in him. Wherever
he is, that's where I want to be. I want to have his presence.
I want him. I am my beloved and he is mine. I want to have his presence.
Father, I will that they whom you've given me be with me where
I am that they may behold my glory. There's what I want. I want to be with him wherever
he is. that I may behold His glory."
The beatific vision. John said, when He comes, we'll
be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. Now that's what
every believer desires, to serve Him, to follow Him, and to be
with Him. And that person that honors the
Son, the Lord tells us the Father is going to honor that person
because the Father knows all honor goes to the Son. Now if
you've seen Him, if I've seen Him, I know this, I'm going to
want to be His servant, I'm going to want to follow Him, and wherever
He is, that's where I want to be. That's true of everyone who's
seen Him. Now let's go on reading, verse
27. Now is my soul troubled. When Pam was singing that song,
she talked about God forsaking God. Now Christ was troubled. That's a hard thing to get hold
of, isn't it? Christ was troubled. Was there anything easy about
being the sinner's substitute? About suffering the wrath of
God? This is God, the all-powerful One, but He was troubled. Now is my soul troubled, and
what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?
But for this cause came I into this hour. Even though he was
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, that didn't make
the thought of being made sin and being forsaken by God any
easier. And if I ever see Jesus, I'll see the awesome glory of
what he was doing. And that I can't, the Son of
God being troubled. If you see him, you'll see the
awesomeness of what he went through, and you'll see this was his cause,
and this was his purpose for coming. I don't know how to explain
his soul trouble, but oh, it was more infinite than anything
that's ever been. Now is my soul troubled. Think of the Gethsemane's garden
when he was sweating great drops of blood at the thought of being
forsaken by his father, at the thought of bearing the guilt
and the filth and the shame of his people. Now is my soul troubled. But what shall I say? Save me
from this hour? This is the reason I came. Now if I ever see him, I see
the reason he came. He came to save sinners. That's why He came. Verse 28, Father, glorify Thy name. If I ever see Jesus, I will see
that His primary purpose was to, for coming, was to glorify
His Father. You see, this is not about me
and my happiness. This is about His glory and the
glory of His Father. He said, Father, glorify thy
name, glorify thy attributes, is what that means. His name
is his attributes, it's who he is. Every attribute of God that
he's been pleased to make known was glorified in the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, glorify thy name. Then we read of a miracle taking
place in verse 28. 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, if I
ever see Jesus I will hear the voice of God
in the gospel. I'm not talking about hearing
his audible voice, but even more loudly. Spiritually, I'm going
to know that this is God's Word. This is the Gospel of God. When
I hear the preaching of the Gospel, it's not Todd's opinion or some
other man's opinion or the denominational distinctive. This is the very
truth and Word of God. If I ever, if I ever see Jesus,
I'm going to hear the very voice of God. You ever heard God's voice? Yes,
I have. Yes, I have. I've heard it in the glory of
his son. Oh, how it's thundered. Somebody
said it thundered. Louder than thunder. This is
nothing less than the voice of God. Verse 32, and I If I be lifted up from the earth,
will draw all men unto me. This he said, signifying what
death he should die. Now this is very interesting.
If I be lifted up from the earth. You know the way that word is
generally translated? Exalted. Exalted. When he talked about his death,
he talked about his exaltation. This is pretty much the same
point as the very first point. We'll see the glory of his death.
He says, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, if I be lifted
up on a cross and nailed to a cross, suspended between heaven and
earth. If I be lifted up, if I be crucified,
he's talking about the death he should die. If I be exalted,
here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to draw, I'm going
to draw all men. Now notice in our text in verse
32, and if I, if I be lifted up, I hope you have a King James
because only the King James does this. And I, if I be lifted up
from the earth, will draw all men. Now notice how the King
James uses men. It's in italics, isn't it? It's
in italics. You know what that means? That
means it's not in the original. And I, if I be lifted up, will
draw the all. The whole. Every single one of
my people. I will draw them. I will irresistibly
and invincibly draw them to Myself. Every single one of them. Not
one will fall through the cracks. I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw. I love that passage of Scripture
in John chapter 6 verse 44 where the Lord said, No man can come
to Me except the Father which has sent Me draw him. Now let me tell you what happens
when you're drawn to the Lord Jesus Christ. Your will is violated. You're irresistibly brought to
him with your full and willing consent. And you find Him irresistible. You must have Him. You must be found in Him. Now that's what happens when
folks are drawn to Christ. Now if you're saved, it's not
because one day you decided, I'm going to get saved. I'm going
to believe. It didn't have to be that way
at all. You were drawn invincibly and irresistibly to the Lord
Jesus Christ and made to bow at His feet and cry, He is all. That's what happens when someone
sees Jesus. They're irresistibly and invincibly
drawn unto Him. You know, that's what I love
about the preaching of the gospel. I don't need to worry about doing
anything. I can't do anything. But God draws His people by His
Spirit, by His grace, through the Word of Christ. Now, we would
see Jesus. That's our desire. Let me tell
you this. If I ever see Him, here's what
I'll see. First of all, I'll see the glory of His death. Secondly, I'll hate my life. Thirdly, I want to serve Him
and follow Him and be with Him wherever He is. Fourthly, I'll see His purpose
in coming. I'll hear the voice of God in
the preaching of the gospel. You know, I just noticed this
is what happens when I don't use my notes. I forget a point. I forgot a real important point.
So let me close with a point that wasn't supposed to be the
last point. Look at what it says in verse 31. Now is the judgment
of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. If I ever see Jesus, I'm going
to understand that all judgment has already taken place and the
prince of this world has been cast out. Now when Christ died
on Calvary's tree, all judgment took place. All judgment. The elect were justified and
declared by God to be not guilty. Those who don't believe were
condemned. And the prince of this world,
the devil who thought he was destroying and defeating Christ,
all he was and is, is God's puppet on God's string doing God's bidding. He was being used by God for
the most glorious thing that ever took place, the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, I was thinking about
making a statement like that about the devil, nothing but
God's puppet on God's string. And I thought, well, Lord will
protect me. I'm scared of the devil. I'm scared of him. I don't
want to know anything about him other than Lord protect me from
him, protect me from the evil one. I know what good, what he
could do to me. But I still love thinking about
the fact that the prince of this world who thought he was destroying
Christ was having his head crushed. In answer to the ancient prophecy,
the seed of woman shall crush the serpent's head. And if you
and I ever see Jesus, we'll see judgment accomplished and Satan
utterly defeated. May God give me and you a sight
a spiritual saving sight of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord, we would see Thy dear Son
And we cannot see him unless you're pleased to make him known.
Lord, we ask that we might be allowed to see him in the glory
of his death. We ask that you give us such
a sight of him that we see ourselves and hate ourselves and look to
the life of thy son as our only life before you. Lord, we ask
that we might see him so as to want nothing more than to serve
him and to follow him and to be where he is with him. Lord, do this for us. Lord, how
we thank you that when he died, he brought forth the fruit of
the salvation of everybody for whom he died. Lord, bless this message for
your glory and for our good. In Christ's blessed name we pray,
amen.