[0:00] I am sitting in God's dressing and His head that has turned back to John's Gospel Chapter 12, and it can read at verse 27.
[0:15] Now my soul is troubled and what shall I see? Father, save me from this hand, but for this purpose I came to this hand.
[0:35] Father, glorify you me, and my voice came from head at the scene. I have both glorified it and glorified it again.
[0:47] At the beginning of this chapter of John's Gospel give us a picture of how Jesus viewed His own death that was coming steadily near, and it was nearer, but just a few moments away from when He spoke, those words, and if you read the chapter from the beginning you will see that He saw His own death as a means of bringing glory to God.
[1:24] This is the way Jesus looked at His own death as a means to bring glory to God, and it also was to Him aware of being fruitful and bringing forth fruit, and also it was a way also of defeating loneliness, like the grain of sweet which will be lonely until it dies in the ground and then brought out much fruit.
[2:01] He saw His own death in His ways as being fruitful as defeating loneliness and as bringing glory to God. Now with this verse from the eighth special week, He prays a prayer that should be on all of lips every day.
[2:21] Father, glorify your name, it should be a daily desire, wearing up in our hearts that we should bring glory to God and that God, the Father, would be glorified in our land, in our villages, in our congregations and throughout the world.
[2:46] Now it's good for us to think about the context of these words and notice just for a few moments the context in which they were spoken.
[2:59] Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead in chapter 11 and his fame went far and wide. He had become so popular that the Pharisees were saying, as we read in verse 19, look, the whole world has gone after them and people were willing to crown Him as King and they cut down palm branches and they waved them about and He rode into Jerusalem in lowly majesty upon Adoption.
[3:36] All this had led those strangers from Greece to come to Philippi and say, sir, we would see Jesus.
[3:47] We would like to see Jesus. We want to see Jesus. And I'm sure that Jesus would be glad when He would hear those Greeks.
[3:58] He would be glad to know that they were being drawn to Him because you see they are representative of the millions upon millions who are going to come to know Him as Savior down the years of time.
[4:19] And the promise given in Isaiah chapter 11, chapter 53 verse 11, rather, began to be fulfilled. He shall see of the labor of His soul and be satisfied.
[4:35] But He also knew that sinners could not be saved if He did not go to the cross Himself.
[4:46] He was the grain of wheat that had to die before the harvest of precious souls would be whipped into the kingdom.
[4:58] And therefore He spoke those words and it was as if He was standing at the edges of the great ocean of God's wrath.
[5:11] That was to break over His soul in a few days' time. That infinite ocean, you could hear it roaring in the distance and coming ever nearer and ever nearer.
[5:29] The ocean that no one could ever measure was soon to pass over His sinless, spotless soul.
[5:41] With great courage He faced whatever the future had installed for Him. He resolutely set His face towards that storm that was making its way to Him.
[5:57] And He praised Father, glorify Your Name. What a wonderful prayer on the lips of Jesus.
[6:08] I want us to think of three things to learn regarding this passage and regarding these two verses in particular, verses 27 and 28.
[6:22] First of all, thinking about the anguish He experienced and then the glory that He desired and finally the assurance that He received.
[6:38] First of all, the anguish that He experienced. He said, now my soul is troubled. Now my soul is troubled.
[6:51] Isn't it amazing that the one who commanded the storms to be still forever had such a raging storm within his own heart and soul?
[7:07] A storm that he refused to calm in any way until it exhausted itself on him. He refused any anchorage in that storm.
[7:21] He refused any shelter in that storm until it had spent itself on him. And as you go on with John's Gospel and the other Gospel, you will discover how it gets so many.
[7:40] He was there to pray, not my will, but your will be done. He could have called 12,000 inches to destroy his enemies that night in the Garden of Gethsemane.
[7:58] They would have come gladly and joyfully to set him free, but he refused that help.
[8:09] He even could have taken the drugged wine that was put into the sponge that was handed to him as he hung on the cross.
[8:20] You remember how someone that we do not know run and filled a sponge full of drugged wine and put it up to his lips, but he refused the drugged wine.
[8:36] That drugged wine would have eased the storm and fallen to a certain extent. But he refused. Why did he refuse?
[8:48] The answer is so that we who believe in him could enjoy the calm of eternal rest and eternal joy within in glory.
[9:04] I find the words of Psalm 107, 29 and 30 so relevant, whether it's a philanderal in the congregation, a philanderal of one of God's people who has lived a life of witnessing rightly forecast in this dark world.
[9:29] You know that I'm sure of by half already the storm has changed into a calm at his command and will, so that the waves which rage before now quite are still.
[9:45] Then are they glad to cross at rest and quite know the need be so to behave and heed them brings, which they decide to see.
[9:58] That was not for him though. That was not for him. As he worked out, your eternal salvation and my eternal salvation on that cross, he could easily and truly say deep calls to deep at the noise of your water steps.
[10:26] All your waves and your pillows have gone over me. Are you passing through a difficult time in your life just now?
[10:40] Is there a crisis brewing that has it come upon you in these past days? Well remember that Jesus was all about troubles, for he has passed through these storms himself on Calvary.
[11:04] And that's the way ahead for you and for me maybe, looking darker. We can trace his footsteps even there.
[11:19] We can realize as we go into the darkness of the path to which he is leading us, that this is not a new path, that this is a path that has been threatened before by Jesus our Lord himself.
[11:37] And many of his people have gone this way ahead of us too. So maybe there is a word here for somebody who is feeling lonely, who has lost a loved one, and whose heart may be still, feeling empty and afraid.
[11:59] Remember that great version, I say on 63 verse 9, all their affliction, he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them.
[12:13] Maybe there are some people who feel guilty because they are so often found in the depths of trouble and despair.
[12:26] But they are not like the others who seem to be on top of the mountain most of the time. And they are saying to themselves, where there is something wrong with me because I find myself down in the depths so often.
[12:46] We must remember that it is not a sin to be afflicted, it is not a sin to feel that you are down in the depths.
[12:58] For the afflicted soul knows this from the reading of the word of God, that Jesus the spotless Son of God went through dark areas like that.
[13:14] So it is not a sin if you feel downhearted, it is not a sin if you are feeling lonely or afraid. It is what we do when these afflictions come upon us, it is how we react in the affliction that is important for us all.
[13:34] God is greater than a reflection, God is greater than a lot of problems, God is greater than the troubles that overwhelm us so often.
[13:47] And we need to remind ourselves of that. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them who fear him.
[13:59] His heart goes out to those who are in the depths of despair and who are feeling the going hard in this life.
[14:10] You imagine how your own heart would be so touched if your little boy or little girl could go to school and say to you, Mummy, Daddy, I can't cope with the sums that I was given or the writing that I had to read and answer questions on.
[14:34] And not clever enough for that, your heart would be run when you would wish to go to the school and take those lessons in place of your little one yourself.
[14:51] If your heart and my heart feels like that with our own children and our grand children, how much more the heart of God goes out to those who are finding the way difficult and hard in this world.
[15:10] It's not a sin to say, as Jesus himself said, if it be possible, let this cup pass from as long as we don't forget to say, but not my will, but your will be done.
[15:33] There was an anguish in the heart of Jesus that we cannot fathom, we cannot plumb the depths of it.
[15:45] And he did it so that you and I could have someone who would sympathize with us and help us in our troubles.
[15:59] The next thing here that we see is the glory that he desired. The anguish that he experienced, the glory that he desired.
[16:14] Father, he said, glorify your name. In other words, he was saying that, Father, glorify your name through my death on the cross.
[16:28] You know, when we ask why did Jesus Christ die, the most common answer that comes back is to save sinners, to save men and women from their sins.
[16:44] And that is through he died to save his people from their sins. But from this flesh we see that there was a deeper and a more solemn reason for him dying on the cross.
[17:03] You see, Jesus did not pray initially. Father saved sinners from being eternally lost. No, he prayed, Father, glorify your name.
[17:17] The glory of God was the chief end and the true object of Christ's death on that cross. It was in order that God's name be glorified that Jesus wanted to see sinners being saved.
[17:37] His death had this as its aim. His death had this as its goal, that the glorious attributes of God might be blazed abroad, so that heaven and earth and hell could see what a great God he was and is and will be.
[18:02] So that heaven and earth and hell would realize that God is our righteous God, that he is a holy God, that he is a just God, and that also he is a loving God, that he is a merciful God, and that he is a God of infinite grace.
[18:28] God was glorified in the death of Christ as it showed first of all his justice, that he was a just God.
[18:39] In the death of his Son Jesus Christ on the cross we see God opening the way of salvation for his people, making it possible for you and for me to go to heaven at last to be with himself, while at the same time remaining a just God who punishes sin with the penalty, the full penalty that sin deserves.
[19:10] So you see the justice of God at the cross of Calvary as his own Son takes the punishment of his people upon himself.
[19:22] And the death of Christ on that cross also glorified God, where he testified to his wisdom that only God alone could have thought out the plan of salvation.
[19:39] The great wisdom of God is the only thing that could have been realized such a glorious plan. The wisest men in the world could not do it.
[19:53] The higher intelligence among the angels could not do it. When God unveiled the plan of salvation for all to see, Peter tells us what reaction of the angels were.
[20:12] The gaze and the plan of salvation with adoring love and wonder, for Peter 1.12, which sings the angels, Desire to and to.
[20:30] They were just amazed when they saw the plan that God had made to save sinners. They could never have thought it out like that.
[20:42] Nobody on earth could have thought it out like that. So we see the wisdom of God at the cross.
[20:53] God is also glorifying the death of Christ for it displays the love of God. If you want to see the love of God displayed in all its splendor, then go to Calvary's cross and look upon the Son of God as he suffers and bleeds and dies there.
[21:18] God's love was never ever more clearly revealed from the very beginning of time as it was that day on Calvary.
[21:30] As the Son of God hung upon that cross and bled and died for his people, we all know how the diamonds back are so brilliantly and so beautifully against the black velvet cloth that the jeweler places on the counter if you go into a diamond or a piece of jewelry for your wife or your girlfriend.
[22:02] The first thing that the jeweler does is he takes out the black cloth and he puts it on the counter. Then he takes the item that you decide or select it and he places it in front of you.
[22:17] Then he puts it against the black cloth. It seems to sparkle more beautifully and more clearly than ever before.
[22:28] And so it is with the love of God. It shines more blackly against the black cloth of our unworthiness, the black cloth of our sinfulness and all the shame connected to our lives as sinners.
[22:50] All the divine attributes of God are all perfectly glorified in the atoning death of Christ on that cross.
[23:03] We were just talking about that on the way over tonight. A sherrock came, a heavy sherrock came, and the sun was shining and a double rainbow appeared in the distance.
[23:21] And it was so beautiful. You'd see all the southern colours so beautifully there. And that is what happens when a sunbeam passes through a prism.
[23:34] The prism breaks up the sunbeam into its seven different colours with all the beauty that was there. And that we would not be able to see whether it's not for the prism.
[23:49] You wouldn't see all those colours in the sunbeam with your ordinary eyes. But once the sunbeam went through the prism, then all these colours came to the fore and we would stand all day to admire them. And this is what happened at the cross that day.
[24:16] The attributes of God we have seen in all the majesty and glory and wonder. Things that we would never have seen were it not for the atoning death of Christ on that cross.
[24:35] And I believe that this is one of the things and one of the reasons. If not the chief reason that drove Jesus on to the cross, he knew that through his death God would be glorified.
[24:52] And this is part of the joy that was set before him as he went to endure the cross and despise the shame. When we think of the number of precious souls that would be saved by his death on the cross, a stirring him on, a striving him on, that I see more than that, I see the glory of God spurring him on as well.
[25:23] Because he knew that by going to the cross that God would be glorified through endless ages of eternity. And that sinners would be saved, his people, that the Father had given him in the eternal covenant before time began.
[25:43] That they would be saved and that they would be with him in heaven, in glory. So there were these two things spurring him on anyway.
[25:56] That he would see his Father glorified through his death and that precious souls, that no man can number according to John in the book of Revelation, no one can number them.
[26:12] The number were going to be in heaven saved because of that atoning death on the cross, the glory that he desired.
[26:23] Father, glorify, glorify your name. And we see also here the assurance that he was given.
[26:36] Where heaven responded and a voice came from heaven saying, There's 28, I have both glorified it and we're glorified again.
[26:50] Here God has tested time regarding what he has already done. And also going on to say what he is going to do in the future.
[27:02] I have both glorified it in the past and I will glorify it again in the future.
[27:15] What he is going to do in the future. What is he referring to when he says I have glorified it?
[27:26] What is he referring to when I may be referring to a number of things? He is referring first of all to the incarnation of Christ.
[27:39] But when Jesus came into this world as a baby, God was glorified. The mystery of the incarnation is something that brought glory and honor and praise to God.
[27:58] And it is the greatest mystery that this world has ever known or ever seen. It's wonderful what scientists can do in our day and new generation as we read about their ability in the field of genetics and in other fields as well.
[28:21] But the wonder of wonder and the wonder that counts it all. At least the wonder that God became man when the word was made flesh and wealth among us.
[28:36] The one who was an abuser of the Father from all eternity that he took upon himself. A human form, a human soul, a sinless, spotless body.
[28:53] The miracle of the incarnation glorified God and the voice from heaven referred to that.
[29:05] I have glorified it. This is something you don't find in any of the religions of this world.
[29:16] You can read all the books of comparative religions that you want. But you'll never, ever find any kind of all the world and in all the religious of the world the Creator coming to be one of the creatures that he had made and taking upon himself the penalty of their sins and of their wrongdoings.
[29:48] Now you can search all the books about the religions of this world. But only the Christian faith testifies to this fact that the Creator God who created all things and upholds all things became man, became one of us so that he would be able to take the punishment that his people deserved upon himself so that they would be set free.
[30:28] When the angels began to sing at night about Bethlehem, it was God's glory that was their theme.
[30:39] And their song, Glory to God in the highest they said, in carnation I have both glorified it.
[30:53] And also what about the 30 sinless years we spent in Nazareth as an infant, as a child, as a young man and throughout all these silent years as they are called the pity and the condescension and the longsuffering of God was there every day.
[31:23] This young boy Jesus, the young man, never put a foot wrong in all these years.
[31:36] All these things, his condescension, his pity, his love, his longsuffering, is seen also in his public ministry which took another three and a half years or so.
[31:54] He lived a perfect life in those years with his parents at Nazareth and during his ministry with his disciples.
[32:12] He showed at Nazareth what God wants little boys and little girls to be like in this world, obedient, good, kind, and every other attribute.
[32:33] He glorified God in his youth and in his childhood. He would be obedient to his parents who he drew saying that when they found him in the temple, he went down to Nazareth and was obedient to Joseph at his mother Mary.
[32:59] He lived a perfect life showing us how God wants, you and me to live in this world. This is why we play so often to make a small life Jesus so that we will please God in this world that we live in from day to day.
[33:24] This is our chief reason for being in the world, is it not? From your catechism days you learned it but it bothers me that our chief aim is to glorify God, to do things God wants us to do, to bring glory to him by being humble and kind and obedient, being truthful, not hurting anybody, not even hurting the animals or the birds that share this world with us.
[34:06] I can't imagine Jesus throwing stones at birds and at animals hurting them anyway. That's how God wants boys and girls to be as they grow up.
[34:23] And as again men and women we see an example here as well of how we should live our lives. Be as Jesus was when he was here on earth as a moment about from place to place, doing good, helping others, doing what we need and so on and so forth.
[34:50] I have glorified it, say the voice from heaven, the voice of the Father, that God the Father spoke our Son of the future and will glorify it again Jesus.
[35:05] I have both glorified it and will glorify it again and that word again does not mean once again, only but it means I will glorify it again and again and again and again and again.
[35:26] That's what that word again means. It's like an echo that goes on repeating and gets louder rather than faint.
[35:38] And it comes the most evening if you're near cliffs or rocks and you shout at the top of your voice you'll hear the echo coming back maybe two, three, four, five times and then it disappears altogether.
[35:59] But this again is an echo that keeps on repeating and gets louder and louder and not faint.
[36:10] The Father is saying in these words I will glorify it again and again and again and again and across the death of His Son was going to take place there in a few days time.
[36:32] Cross was that near when He spoke those words. On the death of Christ God says that's going to happen on Calvary.
[36:44] It's going to bring glory to me forever and ever and ever throughout endless eternity.
[36:58] The resurrection of Christ on the third day also brought glory to God. For the women found the grave empty and this reached the girl in the morning at the breaking of the day.
[37:14] They found it empty. The stone had been rolled away. The angels told them He is not here. He is risen.
[37:27] And that resurrection of Jesus from the dead on the third day brought glory to God that morning.
[37:39] And it brings glory to God for it shows us His power over sin and death and the grave was broken. Forever and ever for those who trust and believe in Him the powers of darkness have been repeatedly defeated.
[38:00] That's how the resurrection shifts loudly to the world and to hell itself and to heaven.
[38:13] Isn't at all as He likes to be moments. Just the one left for Christ Jesus was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead.
[38:31] Resurrection brought glory to God and will continue to bring glory to God forever and ever. Because in eternity we shall be pondering and wandering about the resurrection of Christ.
[38:53] He rose from the dead. He took the sting out of death. He robbed the grave of its victory.
[39:07] Then the Father must glorify it again as He ascended to the right hand of the majesty of high. You imagine as those golden gates were swung wide open and Jesus returned after finishing the work of atoning the dumb across and having been with His disciples for the forty days that He was seen on this earth appearing at certain times and in certain places.
[39:46] But then the day came when He took His disciples out of St. Petersburg and He was lifted up from the earth and the cloud removed them from their sight.
[40:02] The angels came and they said to the disciples, why are you chasing your men of Israel up into heaven? This same Jesus that you have seen going up to heaven will come back from heaven one day.
[40:24] God was glorified to the ascension of Jesus. Ten days after that Holy Spirit was poured out upon the church, the waiting church.
[40:42] That little group of disciples praying with the women constantly day after day and saying to one another, do you think the promise that He gave us will be fulfilled today?
[41:01] He said He would send the Holy Spirit just for us to keep on praying and to be faithful.
[41:12] You can imagine them making their way to the place of prayer day after day wondering if the Spirit came today.
[41:24] Another came on the day of Pentecost and what a day that was. And oh how God was glorified as the Spirit was poured out and three thousand precious souls were added to the church in one day.
[41:48] Very conversion in every age brings glory to God. It shows the authority and the power He has over sin and over Satan.
[42:04] As I drank God and as I... Passion must be in a stray for years lying in the gutter. The Spirit of God touches that person as a new man.
[42:19] New desires, new language. His life is cleaned up and he wants to go to the prayer meeting instead of going to the pub.
[42:38] Isn't that God glorifying? Of course it is. Every saved sinner, it glorifies God.
[42:54] And every saved sinner who lives an obedient life, a gaudy life in this world also glorifies God.
[43:05] That's how you and I would glorify God in this world by living an obedient and a holy life. As much as it's possible for us.
[43:21] Robert Murray, that chain used to pray Lord make me as holy as a saved sinner can be in this world.
[43:32] In regard to a great extent answered his prayer. Did you know that when he would assign the steps of the pulpit of his church in Dundee that the people in the pubes of the Lord would break down in tears.
[43:53] For no reason at all but seeing the man and knowing that there was something about him that was Christ's glad. And God glorifying.
[44:05] And without him preaching a word they were convicted in their seats. Convicted first of all of their sins.
[44:16] Just because a man decided to give his life holy over to God and pray God make me as holy. As a saved sinner can be in this life.
[44:30] And every sinner that is sanctified and made perfect in holiness at the moment of death and enters into glory also glorifies God.
[44:45] Somebody once pictured the angels looking on us. Searching and entering through the gates into heaven.
[44:57] And one angel said to another, I am beautiful. They are all so like Jesus. Every one of them is so like Jesus.
[45:11] I am beautiful. That's what happens when a sinner saved by grace is taken home to glory to be with him in heaven.
[45:24] But only tears. Would they say that to the Jew and about me one day. He said she is beautiful.
[45:36] How like Jesus. She is. How beautiful he is. How much like he is saving her. Yes.
[45:48] And then on the last day when the plump which will sound and tinge and be no more. And Jesus comes for his church and the graves will be opened.
[46:01] Graves of believers first of all. And the souls of believers who had died years and years before. Will come back for their bodies.
[46:13] New bodies. Glorious bodies. Like into the body of Christ himself. And they will all go to heaven with him.
[46:29] And those who are alive when he comes. And who will be believing in Christ when he comes. Will be changed in a moment. In the twinkling of an eye is the impossible.
[46:42] And will meet the Lord in the air. What will all that be doing if we bring glory to God.
[46:54] The anguishing and the good or experience. The glory hidden inside. And the assurance he was given. Father glorify him.
[47:05] I have glorified it. And will glorify it again and again and again and again. For all eternity.
[47:19] We go to help us to have a part in that. My soul glory. Amen.
[47:30] Thank you.