Greetings to each one of you today in His worthy name. Welcome to each one of you as we consider His revealed Word. If you would, open your Bibles to John chapter 12. The Gospel according to John in chapter 12. You know, it really stood out to me, I think there in Psalm 29, where you were reading, Gerald, about the Word of God, how it thunders to us. Truly, truly a I believe that if we struggle, if we find ourself in difficulty, it is because we have somehow not availed ourselves of his provision, primarily given to us in his word. Somehow, ultimately, we've fallen short of accessing the bread which comes down from heaven. And I am challenged, time and again, when I get into this scripture, into these passages, how it feeds my spirit. And truly, it's a blessing. Well, it's been a little bit since we were in the Gospel of John, and today we'll be looking at John 12. beginning in verse 27 through verse 36. And the context of this is right following the triumphal entry of Christ and there into Jerusalem. And I want to read the text and then we'll get just a bit of backdrop before we begin. So let's read John 12. beginning in verse 27 through verse 36. Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this purpose I came to this hour. Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. Therefore the people who stood by and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, an angel has spoken to him. Jesus answered and said, this voice did not come because of me, but for your sake. Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. This, he said, signifying by what death he would die. The people answered him, we have heard from the law that the Christ remains forever. How can you say the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? Then Jesus said to them, a little while longer the light is with you. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. He who walks in darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light. These things Jesus spoke and departed and was hidden from them." Let's just bow our heads for a word of prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, We take this scripture, we take this text as your revelation to us, and how that you're teaching us from this passage. Father, I pray that this passage would become bread for us, that it would be that which strengthens our spirit, it would give us the grace, it would minister grace, to our needy hearts, Father, that we would be given strength to stand in this evil day. Father, we pray that these words and these truths would be realized in our own hearts by faith, that your Holy Spirit would apply them. Lord, give us understanding and give us utterance according to your will. Through Christ we pray. Amen. So last time we spoke here in the Gospel of John. I had it titled, The Humble King, and if you remember, that was from chapter 12, verses 12 through 26. Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Monday of Passion Week. Remember this passage in the rest of the Gospel of John. is actually the end of this chapter closes his public ministry and it goes into chapters 13 through 17 or at least through 16 are all private direction and teaching to his disciples. Chapter 17 is the High Priestly Prayer, is what is known as the High Priestly Prayer. But this chapter, in chapter 12, reflects the closing of his public ministry and of his invitation to the world in general, or to, yes, whoever would hear Him. And it changes into a private ministry with His disciples. So this was, I believe, this triumphal entry, I believe was Monday of Passion Week, and this entry marked the setting apart of the sacrificial lamb setting apart or the public decoration by God. Here is your Passover lamb, Israel. Here is your sacrifice. And if you go back in Exodus, you remember that they were to take this lamb apart, a lamb without blemish and without spot, and dedicate it for the Passover, but they were to kill it on Friday, but it was set apart from Monday. And so, it's very interesting to me that this is the chronological order that we see here in John 12. That Christ came out in a public way from His hiding, as we've seen in the last part of chapter 12, 11, And he came and was publicly presented, we might say, as the king. coming. Fear not, daughter of Zion, behold your king is coming, sitting on a donkey's colt." So it was the humble king and our text here that I've read this morning, beginning in verse 27, continues the teaching that Christ had begun in verse 23. That is, the hour has come. The hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Now, here in the latter part of the previous message, we spoke about this kernel of wheat, this grain of wheat, or this kernel of wheat. He says in verse 24, most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone. And we know that if you put a seed on a shelf and just look at it and admire it, it will never produce for you a crop. It has to go into the ground and break down and die. And out of that death comes profit there becomes a multiplication he introduces this concept of dying produces so this kernel of wheat does not remain alone if it dies it produces much fruit and the principle is to focus on what is gained and not on what is lost you see you give up the kernel to gain the head of grain. You surrender your life in this world, as it says in verse 23, you surrender your life in this world to gain eternal life. He who loves his life will lose it and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Then Christ defines this principle even more narrowly. If you serve me, the end of verse 26, if anyone serves me, him my Father will honor. So if you lay your life down and serve Christ, it will bear fruit in eternity. And it will bring forth, or the Father will honor this one who does this. Now as we come to our text today though, we see in verse 27 and following that the King also took part in this principle. While I want to not forego this as an example for us as believers. I want to, and we may come to that, but I want to teach this from a, maybe we might say a theological And let's see Jesus here in this passage. Today the title would be The King Triumphant. And that is almost a, it might be a stretch for us here in the first part of this message because point number one that I wanted to consider is Jesus counting the cost. The second point I want to present to you is winning what was lost. So it's primarily these two that I want to point out of this passage, of this text today. Now, notice what he says here. As he begins, he says, Now my soul is troubled. This word trouble is a strong word. It is a word that speaks of, it simply means to stir or to agitate. And it is something that is stirring under the surface and we might say is roiling the water. It is like there's a boil on top of the water, but there's something going on underneath that is really stirring this up. And Jesus is saying here, now my soul is troubled. And I think we understand this, is that if you see water being roiled or stirred, that there has to be something going on underneath of that to create that disturbance. So it is a strong word that is speaking of trial and trouble. Jesus is counting the cost here, and notice what he says. He says, And what shall I say? It is almost like he's saying, I'm at a loss as I consider what is before me. And he says, Father, save me from this hour. He says now, in verse 27, now. And I believe what he's saying, he's referring back to verse 23 when he says, the hour has come. That, you know, before in John, you would occasionally come across this, where especially, I think, the first occasion I think about it is in, when Jesus made water into wine, and Mary came to Him and says, hey, you know, they're running out of water, they're running out of wine. He said, well, what is that to do with me? My hour's not yet come. And you read of that occasionally, where He responds, well, my hour is not yet come. Now He is saying, the hour has come. The hour has come, and here He is, maybe somewhere, I mean, He's within two or three, probably, maybe four days of His crucifixion. And He says, the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. And so, as He considers the fact that His hour is here, He says, my soul is troubled. My soul is trouble." And we see here the Lord's humanity very clearly. We see it clearly here that the one who could calm the wind and the waves of the Sea of Galilee with a spoken word was agitated in his heart. He was even anxious at heart. And you might say, Hmm. You know, how can that be? Mark 14, 34 says, my soul is exceedingly sorrowful. Exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. You know, he is so distraught that he says it is even to death. Matthew says, deeply distressed. Luke says, and being in agony. This was all consideration, this is not the physical part of his suffering where he was on the cross and suffering the piercing of his hands and feet. No, this was a consideration of what was coming in his hour. This was the garden of Gethsemane. This was And here, while he's not necessarily in the garden, this is an account of, this is in a way, in a sense, a beginning of his travail. Now my soul is troubled. And I think this should really speak to our hearts in that the nature that Christ had taken on, which was human nature, right, our nature, It conflicted with the mission that he was on. That there was this tension between what he had to do and who he had literally lowered himself, as Philippians 2 said, and he took upon himself the likeness of man. And he had taken this humanity upon him. And in his humanity, he was agonized. And we could say even traumatized by what he faced. He says here, what shall I say? He understood that this hour, this hour that he faced represented a break in his relationship with his father. That is something that from eternity past had never occurred. This gospel describes Christ as He who is in the bosom of the Father. He has declared Him. This Jesus was in the bosom of the Father from eternity past. Now as he reflects upon this coming hour, or this hour that is at hand, you know, we might say, well, his hour was not right now, but he does say, now my soul is troubled. And it is as if we could say that he knows that his time is here. Well, why did this hour represent a break in his relationship with his father? Why? Because of his father's holiness. Though Christ was a lamb without blemish, yet he was our sin-bearer. He was our sin-bearer. And I believe his soul recoiled from the cup of divine wrath. Truly, I don't think Saman knew that I was going to go to Isaiah 53. But I want to go there a bit. I didn't know he was going to go there either. So, Isaiah 53, I want to read the last three verses. And I want you to reflect here with me. Notice what our text today says, now my soul is troubled. Well, notice what he says in Isaiah 53, Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. Isaiah 53 verse 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise him. He has put him to grief when you make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Verse 11, he shall see the labor of his soul and be satisfied. I think the King James says the travail of his soul. He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he poured out his soul unto death. There you have it again, his soul unto death. And he was numbered with the transgressors and he bore the sin of many and he made intercession for the transgressors. You know, it is almost difficult to comprehend that God the Father was pleased to bruise his son. He was pleased to bruise him. He was pleased to bruise him. Well, as he contemplated, this coming hour, his soul was troubled. And what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour." Now this, in the New King James, it reads that, Father, save me from this hour, as a question. Father, save me from this hour, is that what I should ask? Is that what I should say? Father, save me from this hour? The commentaries gave thought on this that, It should just simply read that this was a petition that he gave to his father. Father, save me from this hour. And we know that this is a prayer that he made in the Garden of Gethsemane. Father, deliver me from this hour if it would be possible, but if not, let thy will be done. And here, the equivalent is, glorify thyself, Father. But he says, Father, save me from this hour. You know, Matthew Henry makes this comment. He says, the sin of our soul was the trouble of his soul. And so here we see the start of his travail. And to pray for deliverance is not inconsistent with surrender. It is not inconsistent. The prayer could simply be, help me through this. Save me in this hour. Save me from this hour. Help me to go through this hour. Because in the next breath, our Lord said, but for this purpose I came to this hour. Truly, for Christ to count the cost here. He recognized that this is the purpose that I have come to this point. I've come to this hour. But He was counting the cost. Think about it this way. The sin of the world. The death of the cross. The wrath of God. upon the sin and the resulting separation from His Father in this hour, I believe, abhorred Christ. I believe it was something that He recoiled from. But yet, let me point something out. There was something worse than that. For Christ, there was something worse than going through with the death on the cross, the wrath of Almighty God poured out upon him, the sin of the world resting on his pure and undefiled shoulders, or something worse. And that is to draw back from fulfilling his Father's will. That is worse in Christ's eyes. That would have been worse then. And so as he counted the cost and he reflected on what it was going to be like and how he was going to deal with it. To come short of complete submission to his father's will was worse. That's what we see here in verse Verses 27 and 28. But for this purpose I came to this hour. And he says, Father, glorify yourself. Father, glorify your name. Isn't this something that should kind of rattle our chain a bit? He was volunteering to do this for us. And so to come short of this complete submission, this was the price that he paid. But when we come to verse 28, Father glorify your name. We come to this place, we see that the great battle is won. The battle is won here. He says, Father, not my will, may you be glorified, may you be exalted out of whatever I go through, may you glorify your name. For this purpose, I came to this hour, Father, that you might be glorified in this hour, you see. He consecrated the hour of his suffering to the glory of God. He did. Now, as we consider this, the Lord's desire that God would be glorified, I want to just think a little bit about. In our sin, we've wronged a holy and a glorious God. As the Scripture says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. I think that's what sin is. It is falling short of the glory of God. It is missing the mark. It's falling short of that. So now that we have fallen short of the glory of God, we are unable to make right this treason. We are unable to appease Him whose honor we have trampled on. We await the justice and the sentence from a thrice holy God. Holy, holy, holy. This treason that we've committed, we have literally, that's what treason means, is that we've given our allegiance to the enemy. That's what treason is. Our allegiance is now to the enemy. And so, He says, Father, glorify thyself. This heavenly Father, this great and holy God, is one who will vindicate His honor through our destruction if no other way is found. Think about that. God in His holiness, had to deal with sin. He had to. Herein is Christ's purpose revealed here. He prayed, Father glorify your name as it were in my sacrifice. Maintain your honor, your integrity, Your holiness, your glory through this hour of my suffering. You understand that Christ was saying, vindicate your holiness and your perfection in my sacrifice. Maintain your integrity. Pour it out on me, He says. Father, glorify Your name. You see? An amazing statement. I just want to consider here, as we think of this huge principle of renouncing self, dying to self, denying self. The scripture, the Lord teaches a lot on this, to deny self, to take up your cross and follow me. Well, consider what's going on here. Our Lord did the same and much more. He's not asking something from us that He's not giving us an example in. And by the way, He did this while we were yet enemies, right? While we were dead in our trespasses and sin, He did this for us. And so now, He is asking us to serve Him. But I would like to just ask you, and I would just like to, I recognize here, you can look out over this group of people, And I promise you that there is agitation somewhere here. There is. If it's not out there, it's back here. There's turmoil. Each one of us represents some trial in this hour, truly. Truly, each of us has our hour of trouble, of suffering. Now while I may look out there and not see a lot of waves or anything, but there is unrest underneath. It's the nature of our lives. It is. We go through these, especially there's periods of unrest. There's exceptional periods of trial. And I want to recognize that that's probably, that is here today. I can't see it, but it's there. Various different ones of us have different things that we're struggling with. That is our hour of trial. I mean, you know what it is. You know what you're dealing with. I could name two or three or four different families that I know here that have a trial currently going in their lives. A current trial. What do you do with that? My soul is troubled, he says. But then he goes in John 14 and he says, Let not your heart be troubled. Why should you be troubled if I am troubled? I am bearing this burden for you. Let not your heart be troubled. And then verse 27 of John 14 he says, Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. Trust in Him. Trust in Him. This is maybe the hour of your trial. We sang this song, I picked this hymn, hymn number 112, because a lot of these things reflected the truths of this passage. You know how the stroke of justice fell on Christ. It was aimed at me, but Christ interposed. He intervened and He took that blow that was aimed at me. To prove His love, my heart to win. You see, Christ gave Himself for me. And we begin this hymn, down to the depths of woe, Christ came. He did. He came down to set me free. And then the last verse. The last line here, Yes, soon this waiting hour on time's swift wing shall flee. Soon he will come in glorious power, Jesus himself for me. One thing that is important if you are in a time of trial, in this burden that's heavy on your heart, that is causing you unrest of spirit and heart, is to recognize it's just for an hour. It's just for an hour. Jesus said, I came for this, I came for this purpose, I came to this hour. I want to tell you, there is purpose in your hour too. There's purpose. There's purpose for you. And it is a short time. This waiting hour will soon fly away on swift wings. And you and I must understand by faith that this is an hour now. It is now, yes. But this is a season of time. By the way, this hour is a time frame that Jesus would pass through. It is a set time, yes. It is a set time, but it is a short time. It is a short time. It is not forever. And so, whatever your trial is, Come to your Father, as it says here, Father save me from this hour. Make your appeal to the one who is your Father and recognize and submit yourself to this purpose that He has for this hour. You know, this is probably one of my greatest challenges, is to be willing to submit to the purpose that God has for whatever trial I'm in. The trial is not one of my choosing. And it's not one of your choosing. But there's purpose in it. And if we recognize that God has a purpose, he's sovereign. And it is just for a season, dear ones. It's just for a season. Let's continue here. The second point I want to bring out is has to do with this purpose, obviously. For this purpose I came to this hour. But that is winning what's lost. Winning what's lost. And as we go down, in verse 30, by the way, this voice came from heaven saying, I have glorified it and will glorify it again. I think that is probably referring back to his baptism and his transfiguration. There were three occasions where this voice came from heaven. And Jesus simply said, this voice was for your sake. It was to bless you guys. It was not because of me, but it was for you. But then in verse 31 he says, now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. How do we understand this great statement? How do we understand these twin declarations? Now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Well, I want to think with you a little bit. When God created the world and man, He made man His representative in the earth. He made him his representative in the world. He was given God's image. We bore and we do bear the image of God. It is marred, obviously, but it was not so when God created him. He was created perfect and whole. And he was given the responsibility of the earth, and man committed treason. against God by obeying God's enemy, Satan. That's what happened. Now think with me. Man gave his allegiance over to the devil. He did when he sinned. He obeyed the enemy. He committed treason against God. I believe that Satan began to govern man. and what had been entrusted to man, the earth. As long as this state of treason existed, Satan had a rightful claim to the world and to man. We might have a bone to pick with that. I'm happy to discuss that. But I believe Obviously, when man obeyed Him, He surrendered to Satan's governance and man fell. And as long as this offense against the Creator existed, the imposter was in power on the earth. He is called here the ruler of this world. Now, an interesting passage is found in Luke chapter 10, and you don't have to turn there. I'll just read a few verses in Luke chapter 10. This is the account where the 70 that Christ had sent out to minister were returning. This is what they said in Luke 10 and verse 17. Then the 70 returned with joy saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name. And he said to them, in verse 18, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Amen. Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Now, I want to just simply point out that Christ said, I saw Satan fall from where? He's seen Him fall from heaven. And if you go to Isaiah, I wrote that text down somewhere. I believe it was in Isaiah 14. Let's see if I can find that for you. Yes. He says, I saw Satan fall and he said here in Luke from heaven. And in Isaiah 14 verses 12 through 15, you don't have to turn to there now, but just for your consideration, that's an account where Lucifer had risen up in his heart and said, I'm going to be like God. And he glorified himself and he rose up in pride and he was cast out of heaven. Now, interesting that Jesus said, well, I saw him fall out of heaven. Is it any stretch for my followers to then see his demons be subject to you guys? You know, that's kind of the logic here. I saw him being thrown out of heaven, but now here in our text, He says, now is the judgment of this world, now the ruler of this world will be cast out. I believe this is speaking of a different casting out. Satan was cast out of heaven onto the earth, and that's where he is rampaging. But in the death of the Lord Jesus, here, in Christ's atonement for sin, he won back what was lost. Here it says, the judgment, now is the judgment of this world. This word judgment simply means decision. Now the verdict is in. The judgment on the earth is fallen. The sentence is not fully implemented, dear ones. But we're still dealing with this enemy. But he is a defeated enemy. The judgment that Christ won here in His hour of trial, this hour that He's referring to. He says, now is the judgment of this world. Now the ruler of this world is cast out. This judgment of this world and its ruler is accomplished by the sacrifice of Christ. Dear ones, this is a truth that we must get a hold of. You're not obligated to sin. You're not. And that is, in a sense, why when you were unconverted, you were a slave to sin. For you to sin now is committing treason again, isn't it? It's almost worse for a believer to sin, if there's such a thing. It's almost because he is no longer a slave to sin. He's no longer a slave to his appetites. He is no longer a slave to the enemy, to Satan, because he's been delivered. This judgment of this world and the ruler being cast out, that was accomplished on the cross of Calvary. The verdict is in. This is the fulfillment of Genesis 3.15. This bruising of Christ's heel was this hour of suffering that he was meeting. That was the bruising of Christ's heel. But what did it accomplish? He bruised the enemy's head. Satan was dealt a death blow on the cross. Praise God for that. Satan was dealt a death blow. Now is the ruler of this world cast out. He is cast out from his place of prominence. His administration is handicapped. His administration is not even applicable. I mean, we are, as children of God, free from his dominion. We are translated out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. We are under, praise God, a new administration. We're under the administration of the Lord Jesus. You know, before that, we were under Satan's administration. Remember in Matthew 4, in the wilderness temptation, Satan wanted to bargain with Christ. Do you remember that? Satan wanted to make a trade. He said, I will give you all the kingdoms of the world and their glory if you just simply commit treason. If you would just simply worship me, Satan said to Christ. Christ said, I can't, you know, I can't do that, that's reserved for God only. God only is the one that you're to worship. And by the way, He could have said, I don't need to negotiate with you, I'm going to take them away from you. Because He did. I will take them away from you. show you some scriptures out of Colossians 2. If you would please turn there to Colossians 2 and verse 13 through verse 15. There are a few scriptures here that I want to point out for our consideration. For us to understand that this is current, this is our position currently. Yes, the sentence against Satan is not fully implemented. I understand that. But we are under the administration of Christ and therefore that is a current administration. Notice in verse 13 of Colossians chapter 2, And you, being dead in your trespasses and uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, that would be Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses. Verse 14, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. Now, what is that handwriting of requirements? It's the debt that you owed God. That's what it was. You owed God Everything that you could have possibly done and more to make right your treason. He said, he had my name up here. That said, he owes me. I have a debt against him that I could never pay. Right? Because I had committed treason. I had committed treason against God. I had given my allegiance to the enemy. And this was a, this was written down. This was a handwriting against me. But here he says, having wiped out this handwriting, he blotted out the ink of my indebtedness, of that document that said, of my mortgage. Okay? Handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And he has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Now get the next verse. having disarmed principalities and powers. He made them a public spectacle. He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it." You see, Satan used that debtedness to keep me in bondage. He was always saying, look, you owe God this. And he was saying it, he was telling the truth for one time. But when Christ came and died on the cross, that certificate of debtedness was wiped away and that disarmed, you see, that disarmed our enemy. He had no rightful claim to me now. You referred to, Brother Chris, that scroll being that deed, that deed of, I'm not sure, You know, what I think of that, but that, to me, that sounds, that rings true with the fact that there was a deed that was handed over to the enemy. And Christ bought it back, and it was through His death on the cross, having nailed this notice of debtedness to the cross, and He completely disarmed principalities and powers. Now, we have another scripture very similar to this in Hebrews 2.14, where He says this way, Inasmuch then as the children had partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." You see, because we were always afraid to die, There was this fear that controlled our lives. We were afraid to die. And there was a reason for that. We were afraid to meet God because we committed treason. We committed treason. And if that treason has never been made right for you, you should be afraid to meet God. You should be afraid to meet God and I would say that you are afraid to meet God if that treason has never been made right through the blood of Christ. Scripture in Revelations 11 15 It says this within the seventh angel sounded and there were loud voices in heaven saying the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of Our Lord and of his Christ and he shall reign forever and ever You know truly As we look at this passage in John 12 Jesus is telling us that that this hour of His trial, this hour of His suffering, He is looking through that, and He's considering what He's winning back. He has counted the cost, and now He is winning what's lost. He has looked at the cost, He's willing to pay that price, that price of suffering, all that He gave, that we understand that he gave, that we celebrate here every Lord's Day. But he is saying, it is not for nothing, I am winning back what was surrendered to the enemy, and I have won it back. But Christ continues here in verse 32, and he says, and if I, and I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to myself. You know, in the hour of his suffering, he dismantled Satan's administration. He disarmed him. And He wrested us away from Him. And now He is drawing His people to Himself. If I am lifted up, that is speaking about His crucifixion. That lifting up, that despicable thing that is saying He's not good enough for heaven or earth. He's between. He's lifted up between heaven and earth. And the earth has rejected Him, and even His Father has forsaken Him because He is our sin bearer, lifted up from the earth. But as He disarmed the enemy, Notice he's drawing his people in. I will draw all people to myself. And I want to point out something. Not only is the salvation of Christ through Christ, but it is also to Christ. I will draw all people to myself. Here is the unity of the church of Jesus Christ. that every one of us who has been drawn by Christ, by his lifting up from the earth, by his crucifixion, he will draw all peoples, he says, to myself. He will draw all to myself. This, he said, signifying by what death he would die. The people, in verse 34, just quickly want to comment a little on these people. It seems like these people are actually antagonistic. They said, we have heard from the law that Christ remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man? And if you go down to the end of this passage in verse 36, these things Jesus spoke and departed and was hidden from them, almost like He hid Himself from them. They understood from the law that Christ, that the Messiah would have an eternal kingdom, but the same law also spoke of a suffering servant and one whom God would raise up. He would not let his soul suffer corruption. He would not let him in the grave. It seems like, and this is something Matthew Henry pointed out in his commentary, that they seem very selective. Well, how would you, who is this son of man? This Messiah should not be dying. He remains forever. And true, he does remain forever, but he was resurrected. Praise God. So these did seem to be antagonistic. And we'll see next time as we look at verses 37 and following, how that even though He had done many signs, they would not believe in Him. But I want to close with a reading out of Ephesians 6 as we think about our great position in Christ, what this suffering hour of the Lord Jesus accomplished. I want to remind us that we have great reason to have hope. In Ephesians 6 and verse 10, I want to close this passage. This is what it says, Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities and against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Brothers and sisters, we do wrestle, don't we? We do wrestle against principalities and against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against hosts of spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, but they're all defeated. They're actually as, what was it, in Pilgrim's Progress, the lines are chained. They're chained, brothers and sisters. We can move past them. We have a defeated foe. And let's take courage. Let's take on the whole armor of God that we might be able to stand. And just consider, as we close, consider this example of the Lord Jesus. In each of our personal trials, whatever it is that you or I are facing, notice once again what Christ did. He took them to his father. But then he submitted to the purpose that his father had for him. And then even more than that, he said, As it were, Father, glorify Yourself in my trial. Glorify Yourself in my hour of struggle. And so, may the Lord bless each one of you as we consider this passage. Thanks for your kind attention, and we'll be dismissed.