Hello, this is Brother Denny.
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We would like to begin our services with,
there will be two messages here this morning.
The first message is brought to us by
Brother David Smith.
He is the pastor of the congregation in
Brunson, Michigan.
We have known David for a few years.
He has been among us different times here
at Bible School and different functions.
We recommend this brother to you as one
who loves the Lord.
We have asked him to come and have
the first message here this morning.
God bless you, Brother David.
You can come and share it this time.
Good morning, everybody.
In Psalm 96, David exhorts us, Oh, sing
unto the Lord a new song.
Sing unto the Lord all the earth.
Sing unto the Lord.
Bless His name.
Show forth His salvation from day to day.
Declare His glory among the heathen.
His wonders among all people.
For the Lord is great and greatly to
be praised.
He is to be feared above all gods.
For all the gods of the nations are
idols.
But the Lord made the heavens.
Honor and majesty are before Him.
Strength and beauty in His sanctuary.
Give unto the Lord, O ye kindreds of
the people.
Give unto the Lord glory and strength.
Give unto the Lord the glory due unto
His name.
Bring an offering and come into His courts.
Oh, worship the Lord in the beauty of
holiness.
Fear before Him all the earth.
Say among the heathen, Let the Lord reigneth.
Lord, we declare Your glory right now.
We declare that our God reigneth.
And Lord, our hearts bow before You to
worship You in the beauty of Your holiness,
God.
It's not our holiness, Father.
It's Your holiness, and You are beautiful this
morning, Lord.
God, open our eyes this morning to behold
wondrous things from Your law.
Lord, we bless Your name this morning.
We ascribe to You glory and strength.
For You alone are worthy, Father.
I pray for Your blessing upon Your Word,
Lord Jesus.
Truly, it is life to us, Father.
It is not a vain thing.
For it is our life.
And we cling to You, Lord.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
Please turn with me to John 12.
We're going to start reading in verse 20.
But before we do, for some opening thoughts
here.
You know, with many people this week having
come to the cross for the first time,
discovering the peace and the joy that their
hearts had been longing for, discovering the true
rest in their souls that had been lacking,
there's a tendency for us to continue dwelling
on our personal needs.
How we feel about how we're doing.
Or to keep seeking a feeling, to pursuing
peace.
You know, the way to peace is not
to be crying out for peace.
The way to rest in our souls is
not to be crying out for rest in
our souls.
It's to be looking to the Lord Jesus.
And my heart is, as our brother shared
this morning, that there'd be something to carry
you beyond the exuberance and enthusiasm of this
week.
And by the grace of God, I desire
to point us all in a direction that
will carry us beyond an emotional feeling.
Because there were some that had stronger emotional
feelings than others this week, but that doesn't
validate or discount their experience.
And you know, in conversion, let's just admit
it, there is an inherent sense or aspect
of self-preservation.
I don't deny that.
The drowning person's greatest need is that he
get rescued at that moment and all he
can think about is himself at that time.
And his fear and his despair and hopelessness.
Thank God that God gives us an awareness
of those personal needs.
But you know what?
If we're really going to go on in
the Christian life, we've got to live for
a purpose higher than our own inner sense
of wellness or our own feelings.
We've got to have a purpose greater than
living for one of our own pleasure or
satisfaction.
And I would like to direct our sights
to a higher purpose than those things this
morning.
Can I just say, I want to exhort
us to live on purpose today.
Living on purpose.
And every step that we take, we want
to be gauging against that purpose that is
set forth by the Word of God for
our lives.
And every step we're taking is either taking
us closer to that goal or it's steering
us to the side or taking us back.
There's just no way to stand still in
the Christian life.
May I suggest, as the psalmist has exhorted
us, that we live for the glory of
God.
And every step that we take, we measure
against that goal.
Is this step I'm taking, is this thought
I'm thinking, is this word I'm saying going
to give glory to God?
Young people, we need to get past living
life for our own pleasure.
Whether you're still yet to come to Christ
or even if you have come to Christ.
We've got to get beyond that.
In John 12, we're going to start reading
in 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 see Jesus.
Philip cometh and telleth Andrew.
And again, Andrew and Philip tell Jesus.
And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour has
come that the Son of Man should be
glorified.
Now, if I could just stop there and
just invite us to put ourselves in the
place of the disciples at this point in
time.
They've just come through the triumphal entry.
They've seen what they believe to be the
ushering in of their King.
And I can just imagine that they're just
thinking, as Jesus says these words, now is
the time that the Son of Man should
be glorified.
They're thinking, ah, yes.
Our moment is here.
And I believe Jesus was even tempted to
think when those people were bowing before Him
and waving the palm branches and crying, Hosanna,
that the devil was tempting Him with this
very thought.
Ah, yes.
Now is the time.
And you know, many a zealous young Bible
school student full of zeal and full of
new life and full of a passion for
God and a burden for souls is going
to be tempted with this very same thing.
As God begins to bless your work and
bless the ministry that's in your heart to
do, you're going to be tempted to think,
ah, yes.
Now is my time.
But let's keep reading.
This is what Jesus meant when He said
the hour has come that the Son of
Man should be glorified.
He said, 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.
And I can just imagine them wondering, what
does He mean by this?
So let's meditate on this for a minute.
We'll continue.
I guess let's just keep reading through the
first part of verse 28 and then we'll
come back.
But Jesus said, He that loveth his life
shall lose it.
And he that hateth his life in this
world shall keep it unto 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 honor.
Now is My soul troubled.
And what shall I say?
Father, save Me from this hour.
But for this cause came I unto this
hour.
Father, glorify Thy name.
Then came there a voice from heaven saying,
I have both glorified it and will glorify
it again.
I'm taking note this morning of Jesus' real
disregard for His own fame and His own
glory.
Oh, brothers and sisters, can we get a
grasp of this?
Can we truly embrace the humility of the
Lord Jesus Christ?
That His true and one passion was that
the Father would glorify His name.
This is how the Son of Man would
be glorified.
Verse 24, Except a corn of wheat fall
into the ground and die, it abideth alone.
But if it die, it bringeth forth much
fruit.
This He was speaking of of His death.
The work that God was going to fulfill
in paying the price for our sins would
be the glorification of the Son.
This is how the Son would be glorified
was through death.
And He calls each one of us to
take up a cross.
You know, we don't just come to the
cross one time.
We come daily and take it up.
And by the way, the cross is something
that God doesn't put on us.
You know, the cross is something that we
voluntarily take up.
Let's think for a minute on this glorification
of the Son.
I will call that, as Watchman Nee has
described it, the objective work of the cross.
What God has done in Christ in redeeming
us.
I don't know where I saw it, but
in a book, I latched onto a phrase
that goes this way, Upon a life, I
did not live.
Upon a death, I did not die.
Another's life, another's death, I stake my whole
eternity.
Another's life, another's death is the basis for
my eternity.
It is not what I have done.
It is what has been done by the
Lord Jesus Christ, that I stake my whole
eternity on.
We know from Isaiah 53 we won't take
the time to turn there.
We went back there at certain points earlier
in the week.
But the reason why I can have confidence
likewise as we saw so beautifully opened up
to us in the book of Hebrews, why
can I have confidence in coming before God?
It's because the blood has satisfied God.
The blood has satisfied God.
The blood of Christ has satisfied God.
And therefore, through faith in His blood, I
have access to the Father.
Amen.
Now, in v.
25, He's taking us to look beyond the
work of the cross, the objective work of
the cross.
He's telling us now, can I just suggest
that this is the setting here where certain
ones came to see Jesus.
I'm not sure why they were coming to
see Jesus.
Maybe they were sincere.
I don't know.
Maybe they wanted to join the following.
And I would invite you to watch for
this also in your Bible reading.
Whenever you see large crowds following Jesus, whenever
there's a movement or some excitement or something,
and people are interested, looking, just get ready
for something stiff.
Get ready for something hard, because there's such
a tendency to just want to follow, be
a part of some new thing.
But let's keep our ears open.
So more than just that Christ is going
to die and be glorified, He says, now
He, it's going just be on Him now.
This is anyone else.
Anyone else that loves His life.
He says, he that loveth his life shall
lose it.
And he that hateth his life in this
world shall keep it unto life eternal.
And I think this is where we're going
to spend the majority of our time this
morning with what time I've been given.
A timeless eternal truth here is being shared
with us.
It's sort of a paradoxical truth in the
Kingdom of God.
The way to life is through death.
There's no other way.
Let's look at some key words here.
Loveth.
It's the Greek word phileo.
It carries the idea of fondness or affection
to kiss or to love.
It's a feelings-oriented love.
And it speaks of a fondness.
It's a natural sort of love.
He that loveth life here.
He that loves.
He that has a fondness or an affection.
He's drawn in his emotions towards his life.
Now what does that mean?
It's just the Greek word psuche.
We get our word psychology or psyche from
it.
And it's translated soul in other places.
This speaks of the seat of our affections.
It's our soul, our inner unseen self.
It speaks of our inner motives and thoughts
and desires.
So let's think of it this way.
If our affections are absorbed in our feelings
or in our self, in our thoughts, in
our desires, in our feelings and needs, you
know what Jesus says?
He says you're going to lose it.
If your life is consumed in those things,
you know the Christian has a choice as
to whether he's going to allow himself and
his affections to be absorbed in his own
thoughts and feelings.
Do you see why we've got to get
beyond what makes me happy?
Am I serving Christ because of what happiness
I get out of it?
We've got to get beyond that.
Because the promise is here.
It's a guarantee.
You will lose it.
This word psuche is translated soul in most
of the places you'll find it.
However, in the book of James, chapter 3,
verse 15, it speaks of the wisdom that
comes from the earth or from below as
being soulish, earthly, sensual, devilish.
And that word sensual is the same word
psuche.
Sensual.
If we're absorbed in our senses, what I'm
feeling, what's in it for me?
Jesus says you're going to lose it.
This word lose here is akin to the
name of the king of the destroyer in
Hades.
Apollyon.
It's the same word.
And you know, earthly, sensual, when we're absorbed
in our feelings, in me, if I'm just
continually looking in, what's in it for me?
What's going to make me happy?
You know what?
We're following the ways of the world.
We're loving the world.
And we're playing right into the hands of
the destroyer himself.
This word lose has the idea of being
destroyed.
It's not just, I can't find it.
It's the idea of being utterly destroyed.
He that loveth his life shall lose it.
How might I be found?
Let's just get practical here for a couple
minutes.
How might I be found to be loving
my life today?
Am I clinging to preserve my right to
live life for myself?
Am I?
According to my plans and my desires.
Am I unthankful?
Am I complaining?
Am I easily offended?
Am I pouty?
Do I get jealous?
Am I impatient or critical?
Am I proud?
Do I get upset when it seems like
people have taken advantage of me?
Am I fearful?
Do I worry?
Am I wanting to take attention to myself?
Do I want my opinion to be aired
and voiced?
Do I get offended when other people are
given privileges and I'm overlooked?
This quote is attributed to Oswald Chambers concerning
the nature of sin.
The nature of sin is my claim to
my rights to myself.
What's the word that shows up so prominently
in that phrase?
My.
If I am most consumed with myself, my
feelings, my interests, I will lose my life.
I will lose my soul.
Now, he says that whoever hateth his life
in this world shall keep it unto life
eternal.
Now, what does this mean?
Let's consider this for a minute.
And by the way, the tense of this
verb, to hate, is the present, ongoing, continuous
tense, as also is the tense of the
word loveth.
He that loves.
He that lives to love himself.
He that loves and loves and loves his
life shall lose it.
And likewise, he that hates and hates and
continues to hate his life shall find it.
How does this happen?
How do we live this out?
Am I really being called to hate myself?
To despise myself?
Many people say they hate themselves.
And they inflict abuse on themselves and they
talk bad about themselves and they just think
they're so worthless and everything like this.
Can I just suggest that the motive behind
that really isn't that you hate yourself.
You really do love yourself.
All you're thinking about is yourself.
You're absorbed with what you think about yourself,
what other people think about you.
Let's get past that.
Let's face reality.
You're loving your life.
I'm loving my life when I am absorbed
in what I think or what people think
about me.
Many people, they hate their life because they
hate the circumstances of their life.
That's not what this is talking about.
We may hate the circumstances of our life
and be utterly miserable, but until we see
that we are the problem, we'll never get
past it.
Until we see that it's not the circumstances
of my life that are the problem.
Until we see that God is dealing with
me.
It's my love for my soul that has
caused this misery.
It's not other people's problems.
And you think, let's just think about other
youth.
And this is something that we all have
to deal with.
But think about other youth in the Scriptures
that have really gone on for God.
Think about Daniel.
Think about the circumstances that surrounded the youth
there in Babylon.
Daniel and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.
They had just come out of and very
likely they witnessed some of the most horrible
atrocities ever known to man there in Jerusalem
when they were under siege.
Starvation.
Cannibalism.
I mean, it was terrible.
They might have seen their parents butchered.
Their brothers and sisters.
How many of you think you've seen bad
things in your lifetime?
I am sure for the vast majority of
us, we've not even come close to seeing
this sort of thing.
Did they fall into self-pity?
Hating their circumstances into despair?
No!
Hating our life is not self-pity, my
friends.
Self-pity is as sure a snare and
a path to destruction as you'll ever walk.
Think about David.
David was rejected by his brothers and his
father when it came time to find the
king.
It couldn't be David.
They didn't even consider him into the lineup.
Well, Samuel says, is there one more?
Oh, it's only David.
How many of us?
And you know, to be the favorite in
the family is not a blessing.
But neither it is to be rejected.
David got past that.
We've got to get past that sort of
thing.
Joseph, likewise, and on and on watched for
this.
They rose above their circumstances.
Even the Lord Jesus Himself.
What does it mean to hate our life?
I would like to suggest this.
Do we see that the root problem is
in my heart?
It's in my soul.
I am the problem.
It's seeing my own undone-ness and just
stopping the blaming.
Blaming other people for my problems and my
woes.
And just letting God shine the light on
me and seeing my own undone-ness and
saying, oh God, God, I am undone.
I am the problem in this whole thing.
My life lived for myself to make myself
happy has left me utterly empty and wretched.
But it's not because of my circumstances or
my environment.
It's been a heart problem.
God, have mercy on me.
God, give me a life.
Hating this life that I have created for
myself as I have pursued my own will
and walked in my own pride.
This is the beginning of hating our life.
The solution here is just to trash the
whole thing.
Trash the religion.
Trash the self-righteousness.
It's left you empty, right?
Trash the pride and the pursuit of self
-gratification through lust.
It's empty also.
It's vain.
Just trash the whole thing.
Accept and embrace the claims of Christ upon
my life and accepting His offer for life
eternal.
That's the only response that God will accept.
Unconditional surrender.
God, not my will.
I've been living my life for myself up
until now.
I'm yielding now to Your will.
I'm surrendering without condition.
Not on my terms, God.
It's Your terms and I'm willing to do
it Your way.
The person who's willing to do this and
see this, to hate his life in this
way, will, lo and behold, discover the secret
to life eternal.
And by the way, the word life here,
when it speaks of life eternal, it's not
the same kind of life that the carnal
man can enjoy.
It's the very life of God and the
tragedy of the human condition is we've been
alienated from the life of God, walking in
the vanity of our minds as other Gentiles
do.
Oh, may God raise our sights and lay
hold of the life that is eternal in
Jesus' name.
V.
26 So after giving the principle of the
way to true life, it's through the death
of our self.
He says, if any man serve Me...
How many young people?
How many of us have a desire to
serve the Lord Jesus Christ?
Amen.
You know, that's a good desire.
God is blessed when there's a genuine desire
to serve Him.
But it's a conditional offer.
He says, if you want to serve Me,
it's going to be on a condition.
What's the condition?
To follow Him.
Many a people, many a man in the
name of service to Christ is failing this
very principle.
He's serving Christ as he would think while
yet clinging to his own life and his
own reputation.
And it can't be.
There's only one way to truly serve Christ,
and that's to follow Him.
And what is the path that He's invited
us to follow Him in?
It's the cross.
There's just no other way.
If we're really going to serve God.
If any man serve Me, let him follow
Me.
Let him follow Me.
These men came to Jesus.
Lord, we want to see Jesus.
Amen.
That's a good desire.
Are we willing to follow Him?
Are we willing to see ourselves, our own
pursuits as just contradictory to truly serving Christ?
Are we willing to let our motives really
be examined?
Well, praise God, guess what's going to happen
if we're willing to do that, if we
are willing to follow Him?
He says, and where I am, there shall
also My servant be.
You know, what is the key to life
eternal?
It's being where Jesus is.
It's being with Jesus.
When they saw the boldness of Peter and
John, it says, they took note of them
and they marveled.
They took note that they'd been with Jesus.
This is what we are longing for anyways,
right?
It's to be with Jesus.
This is the satisfying life that God has
extended to us.
It's to be in His presence.
Is that the single, pure desire of our
heart this morning?
To be and delight in the presence of
God?
You know, God did make us with a
desire for pleasure.
There's nothing wrong with that.
But what is wrong is when we corrupt
that desire and we live for it according
to the impulses and desires of the flesh,
when we seek fulfillment of that desire outside
of the will of God.
That is when it becomes corrupted.
But where Jesus is, there also shall the
servant be.
And if any man serve Me, here it
is, him will My Father honor.
Many men are seeking honor for themselves, but
the one that's truly willing to be a
nobody, to just be a humble servant, to
just worship the living God with a pure
heart, to seek nothing other than to covet
the approval and praise and blessing of God,
to measure everything by this question, by this
test, does it please God?
Will this bring glory to God?
That person, He says, the Father will honor.
Now is My soul troubled, Jesus says in
verse 27.
And what shall I say?
Father, save Me from this hour?
You know, there is a price to pay
to have the light really shone in our
hearts to expose our real motives, our real
desires.
To have that put to the test and
have it shaken to the core to really
be faced with how much resistance there still
might be to submitting to the will of
God.
But can we say, God, deliver us from
this?
Can you and I say, Oh God, do
it some other way?
There is no other way.
How much is it costing you to follow
Jesus today, my friends?
Everything!
Amen!
There's no other way.
It's got to cost you everything.
But for this cause came I unto the
hour, Jesus says.
Now here again, where we started off.
This is the heart motive of the Christ.
Father, glorify Thy name.
Can I just bring us right back to
that?
May this be the purpose for which we
are living today.
Father, glorify Your name.
Father, You have bought me.
Possessed me wholly.
Glorify Your name through my life, through my
body, through my spirit.
Perfect Your nature in me, God.
Glorify Your name.
Not for my sake.
For Your name's sake, Lord.
Can we be done with self-pity, my
friends?
Can we be done?
This is not hating our life.
This is loving our life.
Can we face our own undone-ness?
Do we see that the way of the
cross is the way that leads home as
the song says?
Let's pray.
Father in Heaven, glorify Your name.
You are worthy, Lord.
I bless Your name, Father.
I pray that this word would impart life,
God.
God forbid, God forbid that we would feel
condemned, Lord, by Your word.
This word is life.
It's not a vain thing.
It is the way to life, Father God.
I ask for Your blessing on these young
people, God.
God, You know every heart here.
You know the circumstances that they're in, Father.
I pray that whatever the circumstances they might
find themselves in, they could look to You,
Lord.
That You offer them a path to life.
I do pray for Your blessing as they
would leave here, Father.
That they could keep what You have deposited
in them, Father.
And that it would be in them and
abound.
Have Your way through the rest of this
service today, Lord.
May the worship be true and pure and
bring pleasure to You.
As we behold Your beauty, in Jesus' name,
Amen.