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As we get ready to look in the word, let me share Psalm 84:9, and it’s a prayer, “Behold our shield, oh God, and look upon the face of Thine anointed.” David was praying and part of his prayer was that the Lord would not look at Him but look at Christ, the Messiah, and that’s why it’s, “Behold our shield, oh God,” that’s Christ, “and look on the face of Thine anointed.” So, we can be very thankful that God looks at His Son in order to see us, and when He sees us it’s always in His Son. So, let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank You again for the indwelling Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts and who always desires to unveil Christ. So, we pray this morning as we meditate together that You would take us forward in a heart knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You that we can trust You to do that for us. We don’t deserve it; we deserve nothing, but we are in Christ and He deserves it. So, we come claiming it in His matchless name. Amen.
We’re in the gospel of John and we’re looking to see the Lord Jesus. I’m not going to neglect to state over and over the purpose for which the Holy Spirit guided John to write this letter. John 20:31, “These have been written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in His name.” A wonderful reason for writing this gospel is that we might know the Lord, that we might trust the Lord, and that we might have life in his name, abundant life that we might enjoy the Lord. Everything in the gospel just takes us in that direction.
In our study we’ve come to John 12, and I pointed out that there are three major stories. The end of chapter 12 is His response to the third story. The feast that they held in honor of Jesus for raising Lazarus from the dead, where May anointed His feet is the first story. Then we have an abbreviated look at Palm Sunday, and that’s the second story. Then, the story we began to look at last week is when the Greeks expressed a desire to see the Lord Jesus; that’s the third story.
As far as the history goes, in chapter 12 we’re moving fast toward the end. Even though we’re halfway through the book, we’ve very close to the end of the life and ministry of Christ. Chapter 12 is one week away from the cross. As soon as you step out of chapter 12 into chapter 13, you’re one day away from the cross. So, we’re moving quickly toward the end. As far as this history goes, then, chapter 12 is sort of a transition; it’s the end as far as John is concerned. It’s the end of His public ministry, and it’s a transition and preparation into His private ministry which will really come out in John chapters 13-17.
Looking back at His public life of three and a half years, in the main, it was a ministry of rejection. When you come to chapter 12, it just comes to a climax. The Jews are still wanting to kill the Lord Jesus, and they’re even wanting to kill Lazarus who Jesus raised from the dead, and Judas has expressed his final no, and he’s determined to go against Jesus. I’m not suggesting that in the three and half years there weren’t some exceptions where people would believe in the Lord, but in the main it was rejection. It was John 1:11, “He came to His own and His own received Him not.” When we come to the end of this, we are being prepared for the next section where He turns to His own. He hasn’t forsaken them by saying that He came to His own and His own received Him not; they are still His own, and He’s got a great plan for them which we won’t take up at this time.
In John 13:1, “Before the feast of the Passover, Jesus knowing that His hour had come, that He would depart out of this world to the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end.” Those three stories take us into this future where He has this wonderful ministry. I also said that the three stories were a transition and a contrast, and so, for example, the first story of the feast, the contrast was Jesus receiving the treatment from the world which was rejection, and then receiving the treatment that He deserved from Mary which was the anointing. In the second story there was also a contrast, Palm Sunday, and the contrast was that they were looking for a Savior who would give them a physical deliverance, deliverance from political Rome and for political peace. He was going to war against sin and desiring to bring personal peace. We also saw that contrast in the last story which we looked at last time. The Jews said no, and now the Greeks, representing the gentiles, are saying yes to the Lord Jesus.
I’m not going to reteach all of that, but I want to return to the story about the Greeks. Last time we talked about it, I showed you that to these eyes, to the natural eye, it looks like the Lord Jesus was rude. When they said, “We would see Jesus. Can you provide a meeting for us,” that Jesus ignored them. We know that’s only to appearances. It looks like Jesus never sent Philip and Andrew out with an answer. They didn’t tell the Greeks that Jesus would meet with them or wouldn’t meet with them; it looks like Jesus just ignored them, but in the reality, He did answer their request. Their request, “Sir, we would see Jesus,” and the excitement in the rest of the chapter in the word that our Lord Jesus spoke, shows that He answered their prayer. As soon as He heard the request, He said, “Now, My hour has come, and finally after all this time, My hour has come and the purpose for which I came, to bring salvation, and not to just circumcised flesh, but all flesh, not just to the Jews, but to the Jews and the gentiles.”
Then He said in John 12:24, “I say to you, that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Jesus saw Himself as the grain wheat that had to die in order to fulfill the request of the Greeks. His heart was, “If the gentiles really want to see Me, the only way I can answer that request is not by having a personal conference with them. If they really want to see Me, I must go the cross and die. That’s the only way anyone can really get to know Me.” In verse 32 He said, “And if I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.” He was not only excited that the Greeks representing the gentiles had a desire towards Him after three and half years of people rejecting Him, but now He said, “When I go to the cross, I’ll answer the desire of every heart, whoever wants to see Me. If I be lifted up, I’ll draw all men to Me.” That response is not only a revelation of His excitement, but it’s a preparation, as we get closer and closer to John chapters 13-17. That’s where we left off last week, with the excitement of our Lord Jesus to see the turning of the gentiles toward Him.
I want to continue meditating on that response and His excitement in terms of preparation; He’s getting us ready for one of the greatest revelations we can ever have in chapters 13-17. This is when He turns to His own, this last day before the cross, hours before the cross, and there’s so much in these chapters, and He’s setting us up now with this response. He looked back, and now He’s preparing us. When we come to John chapters 13-17, those five chapters, His private ministry, we’re going to look at what I’m calling the full explanation of the exchanged life. You will not find anywhere in the scriptures a fuller explanation of the exchanged life than in these wonderful chapters. All through the three and a half year ministry He proclaimed the exchanged life, and all through His life and especially the three and a half years, He demonstrated the exchanged life but He never spelled it out; He never explained it, and that’s what He’s going to in these chapters.
At this point, I want to explain the direction I’m taking in this particular study. As we get closer to John chapters 13-17, which I think are the most strategic chapters, especially in the book of John, the closer we get to that, and we’re only hours away from the cross, Jesus is going to share the burning passion of His heart. This is the main reason for which He came; He came as God intended man to live, and He lived that way and He wants us to live that way. This is an explanation of the Christian. The exchanged life is the Christian; the exchanged life is the abundant life; the exchanged life is a Person; the exchanged life is Christ, and that’s what He’s coming to explain in this wonderful section. It’s important because nothing else is the Christian. If we miss that, we miss the Christian life. That’s what the Christian life is. It’s imperative that we be crystal clear in exactly how He prepares us, the words He uses and what they mean and what they don’t mean. There has been some confusion, and that’s why I think the Holy Spirit, knowing we’re coming to these strategic chapters, is very careful in the words that He uses. In the life it’s just a natural response Jesus had to the Greeks, but in the Bible it’s a preparation for the chapters that are right in front of us.
I’ll be following this truth; it’s just a simple principle, and I’ve stated it before, and perhaps you’ve heard it and maybe you haven’t, but it’s just this—the closer something gets to the truth without being the truth, the more dangerous that thing is. The closer something gets to the truth without being the truth, the more dangerous that thing is. As we get to close to this strategic chapter, I think the enemy would love to have us miss it, and get close to the truth but not exactly on the truth, and we want to be very precise. So, I’m going to focus on a couple of things here. As you come to the end of chapter 12, you not only have preparation, but you’ll see as you go to the end, as we read the end, it’s full of warning, “Walk in the light while you have the light. If you don’t walk in the light, you’ll be walking in darkness.” It ends with a strong, strong warning, and then He gives us those wonderful chapters. There are many ways that we can come close to the truth and not embrace the truth.
I’ll give you a couple of examples that come out of my life. I once mistook positive thinking for faith. That sounds so close, but it’s not the same thing. The theologians have an expression called the “means of grace” and they say that the baptism is a means of grace, and the Lord’s Table is a means of grace, and prayer is a means of grace, and fasting and tithing, and so on. That can be deceptive as a substitute for Christ. I used to think that knowledge had to do with the brain. I didn’t know that it had to do with the will, with the heart. “If any man wills to do to His will, he will know,” and it has to do with the heart. So, there are some things that come really close. Unity is not uniformity. It’s sounds close but it’s not the same. So, it’s easy to be led astray if our eyes are not fixed on Jesus.
As Jesus rejoices with these gentiles, He’s going to expose a few things that sound spiritual and sound correct and sound true, but actually cloud what we are going to need to prepare us to embrace these wonderful chapters. Chapter 12 is going to prepare us. At the end of chapter 12, Jesus not only refers to exchanged life, which He’s going to explain, but let me start at the end; let’s go to the end of chapter 12. Listen to John 12:44&45, “And Jesus cried out and said, ‘He who believes in Me does not believe in Me.”” Isn’t that a strange verse? “He who believes in Me does not believe in Me, but in Him who sent Me. He who sees Me see’s the One who sent Me.’” Why could He say that? It’s because He lived the exchanged life. His ministry was not His ministry. His ministry was the Father ministering through Him; He exchanged His life for the life of His indwelling Father, and that’s why He could say that. John 12:45, “He who sees Me, see’s the One who sent Me.” By the way, when we get into the full explanation, He who sees you will really be seeing Christ. This is a parallel that He’s going to explain to us.
Look how the chapter ends in verse 49, “I did not speak on My own initiative. The Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know His commandment is eternal life. Therefore, the things I speak, I speak just as the Father told Me.” So, as we come to chapter 12, the end, He summarizes everything, and He says, “For the last three and a half years I’ve been ministering, but only through My Father; it’s through the exchanged life. The light to bring you knowledge to bring you to God is so that you would see Him.” To keep an emphasis on the preciseness, we don’t want to get close to the truth; we want the truth.
I want to return to the grain of wheat. There’s been some confusion, not about verse 24 but about the verse that follows it. John 12:24, “Truly, truly, I say to you that unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” Jesus clearly was referring to Himself as the grain of wheat that must die to bring forth fruit. The Greeks said, “Sir, we would see Jesus,” and then He said, “Oh, that I must die, that I must go to the cross.” I don’t know any commentator, I have more than sixty commentaries on the gospel of John, just on that gospel, and not one of them deny that the grain of wheat refers to the Lord Jesus, but the verse that follows, “He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.” That verse following so close to the grain of wheat makes some people think that it’s the same thing said in different words, only this time applied to us rather than to Jesus.
Is Jesus saying, “I’m the grain of wheat that must die and bring forth much fruit, but it’s not just Me, it’s also you. You are a grain of wheat that must die in order to be fruitful. You must die to self; you must not love your life, but like Me, you must be prepared to lose your life for the sake of others. If you don’t hate your life, you can’t communicate to others and there will be no fruit.”? That sounds like the truth, but is that the truth, or is it something just close to the truth? This is one of the things that I was hinting at that something can be close to the truth and not the truth, and it becomes dangerous and an enemy of the truth, and that you won’t actually enter into the full truth.
I know this for a fact because I for one embraced that concept, not for a little while, but for many years in my life. I tried to live it, I believed it, and I’m embarrassed that I taught it and it’s on tape (I’ve tried to get rid of those tapes), and I fell into the danger that I’m warning against. Is Jesus saying that every Christian. in order to be fruitful, must die to self, or he can not bear fruit; he’s got to become a grain of wheat? That’s how it’s often interpreted but that interpretation is apart from the context of the exchanged life, and you can’t understand Jesus’ words if you ignore the context of the exchanged life.
Let me read verse 25 again, “He who loves his life loses it; he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.” I’m going to give you three reasons why I don’t believe Jesus is using that verse to apply to Christians as the grain of wheat. I think the grain of wheat passage applies to Jesus and to Jesus alone. It does not apply to Christians, and I’m going to give three reasons why I believe that.
The first reason I’ve already hinted at, that a passage needs to be interpreted in terms of its context. The context here is the exchanged life; that’s the immediate context. But a passage also needs to be interpreted in terms of the larger context of the whole Bible. In other words, one passage can’t contradict another passage in the Bible. So, you need the immediate context, but you also need the larger context. Verse 25 can’t contradict the context of chapter 12, but it also can’t contradict the rest of the Bible.
My second reason comes out of that, and that is that this grain of wheat that dies, I’m telling you applies to Jesus only, look at the end of the verse. Verse 24b, “If it dies, it bears much fruit.” Clearly, if you take a principle, it is that fruit bearing comes from dying. The grain of wheat dies, and then it can produce. I know that applies to Jesus; He had to die to produce fruit, but is that how you produce fruit? Listen to John 15:4, “Abide in Me, and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I’m the vine and you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in Him, He bears much fruit. Apart from Me you can do nothing.” So, here’s the question, “Is fruit bearing coming from dying to self, or is it coming from abiding in Jesus? Or is that the same thing?” Hosea 14:8, “From Me comes your fruit.” You see, Jesus was already living the exchanged life before He called Himself a grain of wheat. A grain of wheat, fruit bearing, is not the path to the exchanged life. Fruit bearing is the goal of the exchanged life; it’s the fruit of the exchanged life. Are we exchanging life for death? Is that the exchange? Or is it life for life? Are we exchanging our life for His life, or are we going to bear fruit by exchanging our life for death, and that we’ve got to die to self?
Some might suggest that’s just semantics, and that dying to self and abiding in Jesus is just the same. If you see it that way, make sure that what I’m about to do, that you don’t confuse it with something called “surrender” and “dying to self”. Those who teach dying to self is the only way a Christian can bear fruit, usually use words like “self-denial”, “surrender”, “dedication”, “consecration”, “rededication”. If fruit bearing was because of total surrender, the most fruitful people on the earth would be Muslims. Do you know what the word “Islam” means, the word itself? It means “surrender”. They believe in surrender; that’s their thing, that’s their theme. No one is more surrendered than the Muslims; they’re going to tie a belt around themselves and blow themselves to smithereens. They’re surrendered; they are going to destroy themselves and set themselves on fire; that’s how surrendered they are.
Paul mentions that kind surrender in 1 Corinthians 13:3, “If I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, and do not have love…” What’s love? It’s the fruit of the Spirit; it’s the exchanged life. “If I do not have love, it profits nothing.” All the surrender in the world profits nothing. If you give away everything, if you give your body to be burned and it’s not a fruit of the exchanged life, the life of God, it is worthless; it profits nothing. Now, since death is the fruit of the exchanged life, in other words, if Christ lives in you, He went to the cross when He lived in His first body, you better believe that now that He lives in you He’s going to the cross. That’s the fruit, but it’s not the source.
I told you that I had three reasons. The first was the context, and you’ve got to keep it in context, and the second is that there is a clear statement that the Christian bears fruit by abiding in Jesus as the branch abides in a vine and draws life from the vine. The third reason I believe the grain of wheat of wheat can only apply to Christ and not Christians, is because dying to self is not a matter of surrender; it’s a matter of faith. I want to show you that from the Bible. The enemy would love us to believe that we’re never quite surrendered enough and we’ve got to keep giving more and surrendering more, denying ourselves more, in order to be fruitful Christians. We’ll never be fruitful and we’ll always be striving, until we finally give a total surrender.
I went through that surrender thing, and every time I fell on my face, somebody would say, “You are holding something back; there is something secret you don’t know about,” and then I would go back again and try to find what it was and search my heart, and so I loved revival meetings. I would go to every revival meeting because I always needed revival, and somebody would say, “Are you consecrated?” “Last week I reconsecrated myself,” and then I’d be reconsecrating myself all the time. I’d fall, I’d rise, I’d confess, I’d try to go on. and I’d give it all I had, and I tried to trust Jesus, and then I’d fall, and then I’d repent, and then I’d confess, and then He lifted me up, and that cycle of constant surrender, “You need to surrender more.”
What is the Bible truth about surrendering to self? May God help us with this. The Bible truth is that you died to self two thousand years ago in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He not only took your sin to the cross, He took you to the cross; He took your nature to the cross. Galatians 2:20, “I’ve been crucified with Christ, and it’s no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. The life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Romans 6:6, “Knowing this, our old self was crucified with Him, in order that the body of sin may be done away with, so we would no longer be slaves to sin.” You died to self two thousand years ago. Romans 6:11, “Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God.” You’ve got to die to self, but you do it by faith, and you just reckon yourself that it’s been done already; you don’t have to every day give yourself again in surrender, and give up this and give up that.
You might say, “Isn’t there a place for surrender?” Of course there is! Listen to Romans 6:13, “Do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as the instruments of unrighteousness. Present yourself to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God. We live an exchanged life; we live a risen life, an abundant life. Surrender that to God; surrender yourselves as those alive from the dead. Dying to self is never an issue for a Christian. That’s been done; that’s been accomplished two thousands years ago. “Don’t I have to keep giving myself to the Lord?” If you do, do it as somebody alive from the dead; surrender yourself as somebody full of the Spirit, someone seated in the heavenlies, someone who is victorious, someone who is an overcomer, someone who has been given all things in Christ; give that to Jesus and watch what happens. You give yourself as those alive from the dead.
Some Christians, in fact many Christians, and I led the parade on that, are constantly, as I was suggesting, surrendering their old self, the self that went to the cross two thousand years ago. I remember coming to the Lord. I don’t know the exact words, but it was approximately like this, “Lord, I blew it again. Here am I. I’m a no-good-for-nothing-inconsiderable, lousy bum of a sinner, and I keep messing up, and so I’m going to give you that, Lord; just take that. I didn’t hear words, but if I did, I would hear the words of the Lord saying, “What in the world are you giving me that for? I don’t want that junk; I took that two thousand years ago; I took that to the cross. Stop giving Me all of your failures and your weaknesses. I’ve raised you from the dead; I’ve put My Spirit in you; you’re alive. Give me that! Surrender yourself as alive from the dead. Surrender is one of those things that sounds so close to the truth, “That I must surrender to be fruitful.” No, I must believe that I surrendered two thousand years ago, and now I’ve got to receive the life of Christ in order to be fruitful.
So, the question comes, then, in verse 25, if He didn’t mean that to be, “You, also, are a grain of wheat,” then what did He mean? He means something. Let’s look at that. John 12:25, “He who loves his life loses it; he who hates his life in this world will keep it to life eternal.” There’s another passage that sounds a lot like this, and actually it’s more complete. I’m going to share from that passage. This same expression that John uses is in all four gospels. It’s in Matthew 16, in Mark 8, in Luke 9 and in here John 12. I want to take the Luke 9 passage, “And He was saying to them all, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow Me. Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.’” Now, there’s only one condition/responsibility that’s ours if we’re to follow the Lord.
The reason I chose Luke’s word is because he takes that one condition, and he breaks it up into three for the sake of simplicity. It’s not three conditions; it’s one condition stated in three different ways. The first is that you must deny yourself. The second is you must take up your cross daily. The third is you must lose your life. Those three things: deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and lose your life. Now, that sounds like surrender. I’m deliberately avoiding that word because many have made surrender, like I did, a work of the flesh rather than a step of faith. The one condition stated negatively is, “I must reject one life,” and stated positively, “I must receive another life.” That’s called an exchange, “I exchange one life for another life.”
In each situation here there are two lives; my life, and everyday I wake up and I’m there, it’s me, it’s my life; there’s my life and His life. From morning until night He says, “There are two lives. One must be denied. Are you going to deny your life?” It’s a no-brainer, yeah! “I’ll deny me, and I’ll let Him live.” That’s the simplicity of it. There are two lives. On the cross, that expression “the cross” is the ultimate picture of rejection. That’s the principle, rejection. There are two lives; one must be rejected, and one must be received. “Alright, I rejected me, and I take Him.” There are two lives, His and mine. One must be saved, and one must be lost. “Alright, it’s easy. I choose Him to live.” That’s the Christian life every day, denying yourself, taking up your cross and following the Lord. Which life are you going to live? You can say, “I choose me,” or, “I choose Him.” So, that’s our one responsibility and it’s to choose His life. May God open our eyes to see the difference because one is legalism, and it sounds spiritual, but it’s really baptized legalism and it’s just works. It sounds spiritual but it falls short.
Alright, I want to return to John 12. Those next verses, 27-50, the rest of the chapter just continues to prepare us for the wonderful chapters that are coming. There is no time this morning to do the entire thing. I’m going to take us all the way up to verse 38, Isaiah’s prophecy, and then next time we’ll start with Isaiah’s prophecy. This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet which he spoke, “Lord, who has believed our report?” We’re going to look very briefly at John 12:24-36, and I’m going to once again divide it this way; Jesus claims that He lived the exchanged life, and then the voice comes from heaven and endorses that claim, and then the people standing around respond to that. So, Jesus makes a claim, God the Father verifies it, and then people respond. That’s what we’re going to look at.
John 8:42, “Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love Me. I proceeded forth, I came from God, and I have not come on My own initiative. He sent Me.’” Jesus claimed He always lived the exchanged life. He said, “I didn’t even come from heaven on my own. I was sent.” Verse 27, “Now, my soul has become troubled. What shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? For this purpose, I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name.” What do you see there? There are two lives; one is asking, “What shall I say, deliver Me?” One is saying, “Glorify Thy name. I choose that.” That’s exactly what He did. He’s claiming that He lived the exchanged life. John 12:28, as soon as He said, “Father, glorify Your name,” a voice came out of heaven, “I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.” When did He glorify it? The answer is all through the life and ministry of Christ, when Jesus kept giving Himself, “I did not speak on My own. You saw miracles, the works I did, you thought I walked on water; your Father walked on water through Me. I didn’t multiply bread; He did, all the works, He did them, He did them all. I didn’t raise Lazarus; My Father raised Lazarus. He used Me.” All through His life, “I have glorified Him,” and then He said, “I will glorify it again.” We’re one week away from the cross.
When Jesus died on the cross, did He die in the exchanged life? Listen to 2 Corinthians 5:19, “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them.” Even on the cross it was the exchanged life, God reconciling the world; God was in Christ. Jesus claimed to live the exchanged life, and a voice came out of heaven saying, “I glorified it and I’m going to do it again,” and now people respond. Now, wouldn’t you think if Jesus prayed a prayer, “Father, glorify Thy name,” and a voice came out of heaven, “I have and I will,” wouldn’t you think that would be exciting for Jesus, as that was a response to His prayer? And yet, what do we read? Verse 30, “Jesus answered and said, ‘This voice has not come for My sake but for yours.’” What is that all about? Jesus prayed, He spoke, and Jesus said, “That voice was for your sake.” What did they hear? John 12:29, “The crowd of people who stood by and heard it were saying that it thundered. Others were saying that an angel spoke to Him.” They didn’t even understand. A voice comes out of heaven, they hear something, and Jesus says, “That’s for you. That’s for your sake.” All they heard was thunder or an angel; they had no clue. In what sense was that for their sake? Jesus had just said, verse 32, “If I’m lifted up, I’ll draw all men to me,” and they responded, and again, this looks good, but it’s not, “and the crowd answered, ‘We’ve heard out of the Law Christ is to remain forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up?’”
This is a questioning question; it’s not an inquisitive question. It’s a questioning question. They’re not saying, “We’re a little bit confused, like the prophet was when they couldn’t put together the glory and the suffering.” They aren’t saying that. This is rejection; they’re rejecting the Lord. They’re saying, “You’re saying You are Messiah, and you’re going to die. Ah ha! We’ve got you. The Bible says that Messiah is going to live forever. That proves you’re not God; that proves you’re a fraud and you’re an imposter. You’re a fake and a liar.” John 12:36, Jesus begins to give a warning, “’While you have the light, believe in the light, that you might become sons of light.’ These things Jesus spoke and went away and hid Himself.” John 12:37, “Though He had performed so many signs, yet they were not believing.” They are rejecting Him all the way. They didn’t understand the word of the Father, and Jesus said, “That’s for your sake.” He had already said in Chapter 8:47, “He who is of God hears the words of God. For this reason, you do not hear them, because you are not of God.” And Jesus said to them in John 12:35, “For a little while longer the light is among you; walk while you have the light.”
Do you understand what is going on? Jesus said, “I lived an exchanged life, all my life, and the Father said, ‘Yes, He did, and I glorify Him and I’m going to do it again,’ and the people said, ‘We reject that.’” A voice came and they didn’t understand it, and Jesus said, “Do you know why you didn’t understand it? It’s because you don’t know Me; you don’t know God. That’s why you didn’t understand it; that’s why it’s for you. It’s a warning for you. You need to walk in the light while you have the light because a day will come when the light is going to be taken away from you.” I think one of the most scariest verses on that kind of thing is Proverbs 29:1, “A man who hardens his neck after much reproof will suddenly be broken beyond remedy.” You don’t know when your opportunity passes.
I’ll close with this illustration. My wife and I were talking to an elderly woman, and she explained to us, “Let me just make sure I know what you’re saying. You are saying that God loved Me, and He took my sins, and He died in my place, and if I just say yes and receive Him, then I can be saved.” We were so excited, and we said, “Yes, that’s exactly what we were saying.” She said, “I reject that. I don’t want charity from anybody; I don’t want charity from God. If I owe Him anything, I’ll pay my own debts.” Lillian went away weeping. It was a terrible situation. Within minutes she was seeing children run up the wall; she went senile. She lost her mind. She lived several weeks after that, and every time I saw her, she would say, “Remember the time we talked about religion?” and then all of a sudden she would see dogs all over the place, and she was gone. I can’t see her heart; I don’t know if God did something in her heart. I pray He did but I don’t know, but it’s the warning that we don’t know when. Listen to this verse in Isaiah and we’ll pick it up here next time, Isaiah 55:6&7, “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near. Let him return to the Lord and He’ll have compassion on him. To our God He will abundantly pardon.”
Let’s pray together. Father, thank You for this chapter, not what we think we understand, or how clear or confusing my explanation is, but, Lord, You’re the teacher and You’re the One that has to reveal it. So, reveal in our hearts what is true from Your point of view, not my point of view, and, Lord, thank You for being available and always being patient and calling and drawing all men to You. Thank You for the truth of the exchanged life. Lord, we look so forward to these next chapters where You are going to explain it in great detail. Lord, prepare our hearts for this, and we thank You in Jesus’ name. Amen.