We're turning to the fourth gospel, John's gospel, chapter 12. John's gospel, chapter 12. We'll commence our reading at the verse 20 off the chapter together. So it's John's gospel, the chapter number 12, and we're beginning our reading at the verse 20. We'll read down to the verse number 36. And so let's hear God's word. It says, 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 see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew, and again Andrew, and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, It abideth alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it on to life eternal. If any man serve me, let him follow me, and where I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, him will my Father honour. Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I, what shall I say, Father, save me from this hour, but for this cause came I onto 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 I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw men onto me. This he said, signifying what death he should die. The people answered him, we have heard out of the law that Christ abideth forever. And how sayest thou the son of man must be lifted up? Who is this son of man? Then Jesus said unto them, yet a little while, is the light with you. Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon you. He that walketh in darkness knoweth not whether he goeth. While ye have light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light. These things spake Jesus and departed. and did hide himself from them. Amen. And as I said, we'll break at verse 36. We'll briefly pray together once again, just a short word of prayer, and then to the word of God. Our loving Father, we thank Thee for the singing of praise unto our God. We thank Thee for the hymns of Zion that have brought us to the cross. And Lord, that's where we want to drop anchor as it were tonight. We want to stand under the shadow of the tree, under the place, Lord. There where Christ, the Son of God, suffered and bled and died for our sins. We pray, Lord, that Thou will bring us to, O God, the cross tonight by faith. We pray for the help of Thy Spirit, Lord, come and take entire possession of this life, of this body, this frame, with all of its physical weariness Lord, all of its limitations. Lord, we pray, now that thou wilt draw near, we pray. And Lord, grant now the infilling of thy spirit. And grant, Lord, help now for the preaching of thy word. We pray these, our prayers, in and through the Saviour's great and precious and lovely name. Amen. The dark and foreboding shadow of Calvary's cross loomed large over the entire ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, even from birth, the shadow of the cross placed its Dark shadow over the Savior's pathway. I think of how the Savior was born in Bethlehem and how he was clothed even by his earthly parents. Swaddling clothes were more in keeping with a grave scene than they were with the birth of a newborn baby. And yet that is what Joseph and Mary wrapped the baby Jesus in before they placed him into a manger. Another pointer to his death was the gift of myrrh that the wise men presented to the Christ child. It would be one of the spices that Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea would use as they embalmed the body of the Lord Jesus Christ before placing him into that newly hewn rock sepulcher. Like every other Jewish meal, As the Lord Jesus Christ grew up, it was customary for every meal boy to memorize the first five books of the Old Testament. They would do that between the ages of six and ten, memorizing the Torah, memorizing the Pentateuch, the five the first five books of the Bible. Can you imagine the Lord Jesus Christ doing that? Can you imagine what was going through the Son of God's mind whenever he had to memorize Genesis chapter 3 in the verse 15? And I will put enmity. between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. Those words would have reminded the Savior that his heel would soon be bruised at the place called Calvary. There his heel would be bruised as his feet was pierced and nailed to the cross. Can you imagine him as he read that account in Genesis chapter 22? As he read about the ram that Abraham offered in the stead of his son Isaac on Mount Moriah. Can you imagine what went through the Savior's mind as he thought, I am that ram. I am the lamb that is provided. I will be the one that will die on this mountain range. For many believe that Calvary was part of Mount Moriah's mountain range. I will die on this mount that Abraham sacrificed his son. I will die as the substitute. I will die in the place of my people. Can you imagine him reading the account of the Passover night? That lovely lamb, that spotless lamb. whose blood was shed and applied to the doorposts and the lintels of those homes. And through that, how the children of Israel would be delivered out of the house of bondage. He was going to be the lamb for sinners slain. Christ, our Passover, is sacrifice for his people. The Son of God would often speak of his death during his earthly preaching, ministering. He lived and he worked and he ministered under the shadow of the cross for his entire life, that life of some 33 years. John chapter 12, part of which we read this evening, is one such occasion where the Savior addressed his hearers on his death, and particularly with regard to the death that he should die. Speaking to his own disciples alongside a group of Greeks who had come up to Jerusalem to worship and had requested an audience with the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ spoke of himself as being like a corn of wheat that falleth into the ground. He said in verse 24, And of course he was referring to his own particular death and the spiritual harvest that would ensue through the death and that harvest that would be eventually produced because of his death. Then in the verse number 32, a verse that was quoted in our time of prayer this evening, the Lord Jesus Christ, he said, if I be lifted up from the earth will draw men on to me this reference of being lifted up from the earth was a pointer to the method by which it would see to the Savior's death obviously that of crucifixion where the Son of God would be lifted up from the earth suspended between heaven and earth as the substitute and as a sacrifice for sin John speaks In verse 33, about the method of the Saviour's death, he comes to really unfold the meaning of the Saviour's words in verse 32. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw men unto me. This he said, and so John is giving some qualifying explanation as to the words of Jesus Christ. This he said, signifying what death he should die. Tonight in this gospel service I felt the Lord would have us to consider that subject matter, what death he should die. What death he should die. And we want to consider that because it is through that death we can know the forgiveness of our sins and it is through that death we can be reconciled to God. What death he should die. When we come to ascertain what death the Son of God should die, we would have to say in the first place that His death was a preordained death. His death was a preordained death. As an event in history, the death of Jesus Christ was no accident and it certainly was no coincidence. His death was predetermined, foreordained, preplanned, purpose by the Godhead in eternity past. The scriptures are very clear on that particular matter. Peter wrote in 1 Peter 1, the verses 18 through to 20, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained, before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest, or was manifest in these last times for you. According to Peter, not particular passage, it was purposed by God before the worlds were ever created that Jesus Christ would become the atoning sacrifice for sin. This is a matter that Peter preached about on the day of Pentecost. Speaking about the Son of God in Acts chapter 2 in the verse 23, Peter said on that particular occasion, Not only did God foreknow, but God also determined what would occur when Christ came to die for sins. Our sins upon the cross. Peter will return To this very truth, when praying after having been in the Jewish council, Peter prayed that when Christ was crucified at Calvary, those that were involved in that wicked deed were doing whatsoever God's hand and council determined before to be done. Acts 4 verse 28. Father's foreordaining of Christ to be the atoning sacrifice of sin is something that not only Peter writes about, but something that the Apostle Paul writes about. Romans chapter 3 verse 24 and 25, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Whom God hath set forth, the literal rendering is, whom God hath foreordained. to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that has passed through the forbearance of God. It is very clear. abundantly clear. I say it is crystal clear that it was no accident that Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross. This was something that was preordained. This was something that was foreordained and predetermined to take place on the directive of God. Before the fall of man, God had devised a means whereby those who would be estranged from God because of their sin could be reconciled to God, and that means required the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. There was no other way, no other way in which man could be reconciled to God. One Christian writer put it like this, the principal cause of Christ's death was no contingency, accident, or chance, but the sovereign counsel and eternal foreknowledge of God. It was God who planned it, it was God who ordered it, and it was God who disposed all things concerning it. Jesus Christ was not the victim of unforeseen circumstances. No, all of the circumstances leading to the death of Jesus Christ was sovereignly controlled, planned, and purposed by God. There was nothing accidental. There was nothing left to chance about the death of Jesus Christ. It was purposed and it was planned by God. And thus all who come to trust in the death of Jesus Christ, The very thing that secures salvation from sin and hell, those who come and place their confidence in the death of Christ and trust in the death of Christ can do so with absolute confidence. Why? Because it is God who purposed it, and it is God who has executed it. all that is required to see to our reconciliation to God and not us. All that God does, He does well. And that is certainly true with regard to the plan and the scheme of redemption. Let me ask you this evening as we think of these matters, I wonder What do you think concerning the death of Jesus Christ? Is it anything to you in this meeting house? Are you resting your soul upon the finished work of Christ? Can you say tonight with absolute confidence, I'm depending on the blood. I'm depending on the death of Christ. I'm depending on the blood of Christ. I'm depending on the righteousness of Christ. And I'm depending for him to see me safely arrived in heaven. I trust you are and I trust that you can. His death was a foreordained death, a purposeful death, a death that was planned. Can I say in the second instance that the death of Jesus Christ was a real death? It was a real death. The gospel records debunk any false suggestion that the Lord Jesus Christ merely lost consciousness By swimming on the cross and then he revived in the coldness off the rock here in tomb. Such a forward, such a false theory must provide credible answers to the following questions of such a supposed theory as to be believed. Question number one, were the Roman soldiers incompetent when it came to them executing the Lord Jesus Christ? Were they incompetent? Could they not put him to death as they put other men to death when it came to the Lord Jesus Christ? Number two, how did the thrusting through of the spear into the Savior's side by the centurion not make sure that the Savior was dead? Question three, why did the centurion use the past tense at the cross? When he looked into the bloodied face of the Lord Jesus Christ and said, truly this was the Son of God. Question four, why did the Roman soldiers not break the Savior's legs? They broke the others who hung on either side of him, those two thieves. Why did they not break his legs if they were not convinced that his life had expired? And why did Pilate marvel at the report of the centurion who said that Christ was dead? Christ did not swoon on the cross. He died. He gave up the ghost. He was buried. And on the third day he rose again. His death was a real death. John tells us that having cried, it is finished. He goes on to say that he bowed his head and he gave up the ghost. The apostle Paul, when writing to the Corinthian believers, He wrote there in his first epistle that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. That he was buried and on the third day he rose again according to the scriptures. To the Christians in Rome, the same apostle would write these words. For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. But rather than listen to mere man, Why not listen to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and His own testimony concerning Himself that He gives in Revelation chapter 1 and the verse number 18. Whenever the glorified Christ, he says these words to John, in the Isle of Patmos, he says, I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore, amen, and I have the keys of hell and of death. Jesus Christ himself said that he died. If words mean anything, and they do, And we can take it as a fact that Christ's death was a literal death. It was a real death in every sense. Can I say to you folks that he died in a real body? Real hands and real feet were kneeled to the cross. Real sinew and real muscle were torn. Real skin. was pierced when they kneeled the Son of God with real kneels to a real cross, a real head was crowned with real thorns, and a real side was pierced through with a real spear, and real blood, real blood came forth from the Savior's precious body, real blood. Redeeming blood. Royal blood. Ruby red blood. Blood. The blood of Christ. This that makes the atonement for the soul. This which is the ransom price. This which is the payment for sin. Real blood came forth from a real body. Because it was a real death. Eternal Son of God became flesh, condemned sin into flesh, and tasted death when he died for sin upon the cross. Pause and think of that wonder at it, stand amazed at it, child of God. Think about it, what I've just said. Is it not amazing? Is it not an amazing thing that Jesus Christ would die for the likes of you and me? I tell you it's an amazing thing. Is it not astounding to think that there is someone, there was someone of his calibre, there was someone of his rank, There was someone of His position. There was someone of His majesty who was willing to lay down His life for me on the cross and for you. Charles Wesley summed it up well. Tis mystery all. The immortal dies who can't explore his strange designs. In vain the firstborn seraph tries to sound the depths of love divine. Tis mercy all, let earth adore, let angel minds inquire no more. His death was a real death. He did not lose consciousness, but he died. And he died an atoning death. The death of Jesus Christ in the third place was a voluntary death. It was a voluntary death. The Savior was no forced conscript when he came to die for sin in the cross. He was no forced conscript when it came to die for sin on the cross. He was not coerced, he was not pressurized into dying on Calvary Street, but rather he willingly and he voluntarily and he freely and he gladly gave himself to death. in order that He might procure salvation for all who would come and put their trust in Him. In John chapter 10 and the verses 17 and 18, the Savior testified of His own willingness to die whenever He said in those verses, Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. None of us suffer willingly. Some people get a thorn in their hand and they're nearly crying. We thorn. We don't suffer willingly, do we? And we don't really suffer gladly either. Suffering is something that we try to avoid at all costs. And so what happens whenever we get a headache? Well, we're reaching in. to the handbag or reaching, not men, men won't be reaching into handbags, but into the cupboard maybe to get maybe some type of tablet in order to dull the pain. We do not suffer willingly or gladly, and we try to avoid suffering at all costs. Suffering is just something that we don't want to face, something that we do not want to endure. And yet the Son of God was different because he was the willing sufferer. For he knew what his sufferings would secure, who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame. John Calvin, he said, if his death had not been voluntary, he would not have been regarded as having satisfied for our disobedience. And so watch him. Watch the Savior. View Him as He marches to the cross as a willing sufferer, as a willing victim, ready, resolved to do the Father's will. Steadfastly, with unflinching courage and unwavering resolve, He sets His face to go to Jerusalem. knowing all that would be fallen there, the mockery, the scourging, the spitting, the crowning, the derobing, the investing, then the derobing again, the journey to the cross, the knying down with hands and feet kneeled to the cross. Reluctant he was not, ready he was. Oh, what love we see displayed in the willingness of our Savior to die, to die at Calvary's cross. Not human love. Human love's fickle. Human love's finite. But here we see expressed and displayed and manifest divine love. A love that is as strong as death. A love that is infinite. And if you know nothing of that love, tonight may you come to know the love of God in Christ Jesus by casting away your sin and throwing yourself on the mercy of God that is found in the gospel. His was a voluntary death. This is a death that he would die. It was a voluntary death. The death that he should die would be a violent and a painful death. Only one has to read the accounts from history to know that that was the case. Crucifixion was one of the most painful ways for any individual to die. I read this account as I prepared for tonight's meeting. It's an account that I haven't read to you before, but I'll read it to you now with regard to crucifixion. The writer writes, death by crucifixion seems to include all that pain and death could have of the horrible and ghastly, dizziness, cramped thirst, starvation, sleepiness, traumatic fever, shame, long continuous torment, horror of anticipation, mortification of intended wounds, all intensified just up to the point at which they can be endured at all, but all stopping just short of the point which would give to the sufferer the relief of unconsciousness. The unnatural position made every movement painful. The lacerated veins, the crushed tendons throb with incessant anguish. The wounds, inflamed by exposure, gradually gangrene. The arteries, especially at the head and the stomach, become swollen and oppressed with surcharge blood. While each variety of misery went on, gradually increasing. There was added to them the intolerable pang of a burning and raging thirst. And all these physical complications caused an external excitement and anxiety which made the prospect of the death itself, of death, the unknown enemy, at whose approach man usually shudders most, bear the aspect of a delicious and exquisite release. One thing is clear. The first century executions were not like the modern ones. They did not seek a quick painless death or the preservation of any measure of dignity for the criminal. On the contrary, they sought an agonizing torture which completely humiliated him. Beloved, it is important that we come to understand this for it helps us to realize the agony of our Savior's death. The Christ of God taken by wicked hands and wicked men, and by violent hands he was put to death. The suffering of crucifixion would be extreme, the shame, the ignominy of that death only added to the pain suffered by the eternal son. It was a death that Roman law accorded only to felons and serfs and the Jews. A man would be crucified often, and they would live often times for days. Some would even last for a week. Christ was dead in six to seven hours after he had been impaled to the tree. The sixth hour he was crucified. By the third hour, darkness had stopped from the twelfth hour to three o'clock in the afternoon, and soon after that, the Son of God, his life expired. What a death it was for a man, for a man to die, as it were, in that period of time. But you see, he laid down his life. He chose the time that he would die, and he chose the time that he would be raised again from the dead. The Puritan writer John Flavell says the cross was a rack as well as Egypt. The pains which were suffered were pains of death and terrible agony. His body was wrecked with pain. He endured bitter sorrow and travail of soul. We may not know, we cannot tell what pain he had to bear. We believe that it was for us. He hung and He suffered there. Did He? Did the Son of God hang and suffer on the cross for you? If you have believed on Him for salvation, then you can say, yes, there He died for me. The pains that Christ bore when He suffered on the tree were for my sins. a violent and a painful death. The death that he died, and I say in the fifth and the final place, it was a sufficient death. What I mean by that was that Christ's death was sufficient to satisfy the demands of divine justice and deal with the problem of sin to the satisfaction of a holy God. Justice demanded death. That would be wages for sin. The wages of sin is death. Thus one must pay the price of sin. One must die. One must discharge the wage. One must satisfy the law's demands on behalf of the sinner. Christ was willing to pay the price of sin. It was a sufficient death, because by His death He secured redemption for His people. By His once and for all sacrifice for sin, He has put an end to sin. He has dealt with sin to the satisfaction of God. And I know that to be so, because God raised His Son from the dead. The resurrection declares that God is satisfied, that all of the legal demands against the sinner have been satisfied by the eternal Son. And all who come to put their faith and their trust in Him, who believe to the keeping of their soul and give to Him the keeping of their soul, those who come by faith to Him and rest upon that work, thank God the debt of sin is paid. The blood of Christ will cleanse you from every sin. Calvary really does cover it all. One night many years ago in the Pacific Garden Mission in Chicago, a man of A rather slight build slipped into the meeting. He, like so many who went into that rescue mission, was under the influence of drink on that particular night. He did not respond to the gospel invitation that was given, but he did keep coming back to the rescue mission night after night to hear the gospel being preached. He became a regular in that particular rescue mission and so the workers started to speak with him and they started to get to know him. They found out that he was a professional entertainer, Mac as he was called. was at that time between bookings. Mr. and Mrs. Taylor were the individuals who were in charge with running the mission at that particular time. And Mrs. Taylor, she herself had been an entertainer and in the entertainment business before she had trusted in Christ. So she knew the many pitfalls and the temptations that came around with being involved in such an entertainment business. One night or As she got to know Mac, she started to be burdened for this man and she started to pray that God would save Mac. One night after the preacher had finished preaching and he had given the gospel invitation, Mac was found to be the first one who moved towards the altar. Mrs. Taylor, she looked at Mac on that particular evening, could see that he was having trouble as he He knelt at the altar. And so she motioned for someone else to take her place at the piano. And she went down and she knelt beside him. And as she did so, she heard Mac saying to himself, but you don't understand. You don't understand. You don't know how bad I am, Lord. Really, I'm the worst man in the world. You couldn't save me. I'm too bad. Well, Mrs. Taylor began to speak to Mac, and as she did so, she remembered a testimony that she had heard some weeks before about how Calvary covers it all. She said, Mac, Calvary covers it all, all the sin of your past life. looked to her and looked at her and said, say that again, say that again Mrs. Taylor. She repeated the words, Mac Calvary covers it all. There's a moment of silence and then Mac replied, Calvary does cover it all. My old past of sin and shame. Oh Mrs. Taylor, I'm so glad it's true and you told me. That night, Walter McDonald, that was his name, became a new creature in Jesus Christ. He became a Christian. He used to say that, Jesus found me and made me all over at the Pacific Garden Mission. Happy Mac. Happy Mac, as he became known after his conversion, he left the entertainment business and he became an evangelist and an outstanding soul winner. A few days after that event, Mrs. Taylor found herself alone in that specific mission station. She took her position at the piano that she had played so many times before, and she penned the following words. For dear, than all that the world can impart, was the message that came to my heart, how that Jesus alone for my sin did atone. And Calvary covers it all. Calvary covers it all. My past, with its sin and stain, my guilt and despair, Jesus took on them there. And Calvary covers it all. Calvary does cover it all, because the blood of Jesus Christ covers our sins. The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin. The work that Jesus Christ did on the cross is sufficient and it is efficient to deal with your sin, whatever your sin might be. And so I encourage you then to come to Christ. Come with all your sin, your wicked sin, your abhorrent sin, your vile sin. your defiling sin, your soul-damning sin. Come with your sin to Christ and seek cleansing for that sin in His precious, precious blood. For the promise is, the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. May this night find you trusting in the death of Jesus Christ, a death that put to death the sins of all who trust in Jesus Christ. The death. He should die. Let's bow our heads together in a word of prayer. And as I often say at the close of the meeting, if I can help you with this matter about your soul's salvation, then do not hesitate, do not feel embarrassed in any way to speak with me at the door. Remain in your pew, remain in your seat. I'll come back in and speak with you. Make contact with us. Think of it, sinner, that Christ would die for you. For a sinner like you, that he would give his life for you. Oh, come and put your trust and make this personal to you tonight, and may you leave this place saying, yes, Christ loved me and Christ gave himself for me when he died for me on the cross. We'll bow in prayer. Loving Father and gracious God, we thank thee for all that has occurred in this meeting. The singing of thy praise, the preaching of thy word, And Lord, what else can we do, Lord, but be faithful? And Lord, to simply bring the message that you have given, Lord, to this preacher. We leave the rest now to thee. We pray, Lord, that if there be, as it were, a mack in this meeting, an individual who feels themselves to be too great a sinner, O God, that the words will come to their mind and their heart, that the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, does and continues and will cleanse me. and wash me from my sin. Lord, we pray that there will be those who will come tonight. Lord, we pray that you'll complete family circles, you'll save boys and girls and young men and young women, older men and older women, and that tonight will be a night, dear God, of great rejoicing on earth as well as in glory over sinners that return to our God. Answer now, prayer, and partisan thy fear. We pray these are petitions and prayers.