Our Expectation
(No. 2186)
DELIVERED BY
C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"He shall see His seed." Isaiah 53:10.
THE first thought suggested by this text is that Jesus is still alive,
for to see anything is the act of a living person. Our Lord Jesus died.
We know that He died. We are glad that there is overwhelming evidence
that, not in appearance, but in fact, He died. His side was pierced. He
was given up by the Roman authorities for burial–the imperial
authorities were sure of His death. The soldier had made assurance
doubly sure by piercing His side. His disciples buried Him. They would
not have left Him in the cave if they had felt any doubt about His
death. They went in the morning after the Sabbath to embalm Him. They
were all persuaded that He had really died. Blessed be the dying
Christ! Here our living hopes take their foundation. If He had not
died, we must have died forever. The more assured we are of His death,
the more assured we feel of the life of all who are in Him!
But, my Brothers and Sisters, He is not dead. Some years ago, someone,
wishing to mock our holy faith, brought out a handbill which was
plastered everywhere–"Can you trust in a dead man?" Our answer would
have been, "No. Nobody can trust in a man who is dead." But it was
known by those who printed the bill that they were misrepresenting our
faith. Jesus is no longer dead! He rose again the third day. We have
sure and Infallible proofs of it. It is an historical fact, better
proved than almost any other which is commonly received as historical,
that He did really rise again from the grave. He arose no more to die.
He has gone out of the land of tears and death. He has gone into the
region of immortality. He sits at the right hand of God, even the
Father, and He reigns there forever. We love Him that died, but we
rejoice that He who died is not dead, but always lives to make
intercession for us!
Dear children of God, do not be afraid that Christ's work will break
down because He is dead. He lives to carry it on. That which He
purchased for us by His death, He lives to secure for us by His life.
Do not let your faith be a sort of dead faith dealing with a dead
man–let it be instinct with life, with warm blood in its veins. Go to
your own Christ, your living Christ–make Him your familiar Friend, the
Acquaintance of your solitude, the Companion of your pilgrimage. Do not
think that there is a great gulf between you, a living man, and Him.
The shades of death do not divide you from Him. He lives, He feels, He
sympathizes, He looks on, He is ready to help, He will help you even
now. You have come in to the place where prayer is known to be made,
burdened and troubled and you seek relief. Let the thought that your
Lord is a living Friend ease you of your burden. He is still ready to
be your strong Helper and to do for you what He did for needy ones in
the days of His sojourn here below. I want even you, who do not know
Him, to remember that He lives, that you may seek Him tonight–that
before another sun shall rise you may find Him and, finding Him, may,
yourselves, be found and saved. Do not try to live without the living,
loving Friend of sinners! Seek His healing hand, then beg for His
company. Get it. Keep it and you shall find that it makes life below
like Heaven above! When you live with the living Christ, you will live,
indeed! In Him is the Light of God and the Light of God is the life of
men!
And now to the text itself, with brevity. I have to observe upon it,
first, that Christ's death produced a posterity. "When you shall make
His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed." Evidently the
death of Christ was fruitful of a seed for Him. Secondly, that
posterity remains. Our Lord Jesus Christ does not look, today, on
emptiness–He is not bereaved of His household, but He still sees His
seed. And, thirdly and lastly, that posterity is under His immediate
eyes at all times, for, "He shall see His seed."
I. Well, first of all, THE DEATH OF CHRIST HAS PRODUCED A POSTERITY. We
do not read, here, that the Lord Christ has followers. That would be
true, but the text prefers to say He has a seed. We read, just now,
that the Lord Jesus has disciples. That would be distinctly true, but
the text does not so read. It says, "He shall see His seed." Why His
seed? Why, because everyone who is a true follower or disciple of
Christ has been born by a new birth from Him into the position of
disciple. There is no knowing Christ except through the new birth. We
are naturally sold under sin and we cannot discern the spiritual and
real Christ until we have a spirit created within us by the new birth,
of which He said, "You must be born again." This is the gate of
entrance into discipleship! None can be written in the roll of
followers of Christ unless they are also written in the register of the
family of God–"this and that man was born there." Other men can get
disciples for themselves by the means that are usual for such ends, but
all the disciples of Christ are produced by miracle. They are all
discipled by being newly-created! Jesus, as He looks upon them all, can
say, "Behold, I make all things new." They all come into the world, of
which He is King, by being born into it. There is no other way into the
first world but by birth–and there is no other way into the second
world, wherein dwells righteousness, but by birth– and that birth is
strictly connected with the pangs of the Savior's passion, "when you
shall make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed." See,
then, the reason why we have here the remarkable expression–"His
seed."
Learn from this that all who truly follow Christ and are saved by Him,
have His life in them. The parent's life is in the child. From the
parent that life has been received. It is Christ's life that is in
every true Believer–"For you are dead and your life is hid with Christ
in God; when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you,
also, appear with Him in glory." We have our natural life and this
makes us men–we have our spiritual life and this makes us Christians.
We take life from our parents–this links us with the first Adam. We
have taken life from Christ–this joins us to the second Adam. Do not
mistake me, that same life which abides in Christ, at the right hand of
God, is that everlasting life which He has bestowed upon all those who
put their trust in Him. That water springing up into everlasting life
He gave us. He made it to be in us a well of water springing up. The
first drops of that living spring, the whole outcome of the spring, and
the spring itself, came from Him!
Let me put it to you, Beloved Hearers. Do you know anything about this
new birth? Do you know anything about this Divine Life? There are
multitudes of religious people, very religious people–but they are as
dead as doornails! Multitudes of religious persons are like waxworks,
well-proportioned and you might mistake them, by candlelight, for life.
But in the Light of God you would soon discover that there is a mighty
difference, for the best that human skill can do is a poor imitation of
real life. You, dear Hearer, dressed in the garments of family religion
and adorned with the jewels of moral virtue, may be nothing beyond "a
child of nature finely dressed, but not the living child." God's living
children may not seem to be quite so handsome, nor so charmingly
arrayed as you are and, in their own esteem, they may not be worthy to
consort with you, but there is a solemn difference between the living
child and the dead child, however you may try to conceal it! Righteous
men know themselves to be sinners–sinners believe themselves to be
righteous men. There is more Truth of God in the fear of the first than
there can be in the faith of the second, for the faith of the second is
founded on lies. Beloved, we become, I say again, the followers of
Christ by being made partakers of His life–and unless His life is in
us, we may say what we will about Christ and profess what we like about
following Him–but we are not in the secret! We are out of the
spiritual world altogether–that world of which He is the Head, the
Creator, the Lord. You see why the word, "seed," is used? We come to
Him by birth–we are partakers of His life.
Furthermore, Believers in our Lord are said to be His seed because they
are like He. I wish that I could say this with less need to qualify it,
but the man who really believes in Jesus and in whom the diving life is
strong and powerful, is like Jesus and especially like Jesus in
this–that, as the Christ consecrated Himself wholly to God's service
and Glory, so has the Believer done. And as the Christ founded His
successes on being dead and buried, surrendering honor, comfort and
life, itself, for His work, so should the true Believer be willing to
give up anything and everything, that He may achieve His life-purpose
and bring glory to God.
"As He is, so are we in this world"–that is, we are bent upon the
glory of God, filled with love to men and anxious for their
salvation–that God may be glorified thereby. You know best, Brothers
and Sisters, whether this is true of you. But if we have not the Spirit
of Christ, we are none of His. If we are not like Christ, it is not
possible that we are His seed, for the seed is like the parent. Surely,
children are like their father–not all to the same degree–but still,
there is the evidence of their sonship in their likeness to him from
whom they came. Our Lord's true people are like He, or they could not
be styled, "His seed." Alas, the old nature blots and blurs the
resemblance! The stamp of the first Adam is not altogether removed, but
it ought to grow fainter and fainter while the lines of the Divine
portrait should grow stronger and
clearer. Is this the experience of our life in Christ? I pray that it
may be so. It should cause us great searching of heart if there is not
in us an increasing likeness to our Lord.
There is also this to be said for those who are called His seed–that
they seek the same ends and expect to receive the same reward. We are
towards Christ, His seed, and thus we are heirs to all that He
has–heirs to His business on earth, heirs to His estate in Heaven. We
are to be witnesses to the Truth as Jesus was–and to go about doing
good as He did– and to seek and save the lost after His example. This
we must inherit, as a son follows his father's business. All that
Christ has, belongs to His seed. As a man hands down to his posterity,
his possessions, Christ Jesus has made over to His people all that He
is and all that He has–and all that He ever will be, that they may be
with Him, behold His Glory–and shine with Him as the stars forever and
ever! We are His seed in this respect–that He has taken us into His
family and given us the family patrimony–and made us partakers of all
things in Himself.
Now, Beloved, this is all through His death. We are made His seed
through His death. Why principally through His death? Why, because it
was by reason of His death for us that the Father could come and deal
with us, and the Spirit could breathe upon us and new-create us! There
was no dealing with us by a just God until the atoning Sacrifice had
rolled away the stone that blocked the way, namely, the necessity that
sin should be punished. Christ, having died for us, we came into
another relation to justice and it became possible for us to be
regenerated and brought into the household of God. Beloved, I think
that you know, in your own experience, that it was His death that
really operated most upon you in the matter of your conversion. I hear
a great talk about the example of Christ having great effect upon
ungodly men, but I do not believe it and certainly have never seen it!
It has great effect upon men when they are born again and are saved
from the wrath to come–and are full of gratitude on this account–but
before that happens, we have known men admire the conduct of Christ and
even write books about the beauty of His Character, while, at the same
time, they have denied His Godhead! Thus they have rejected Him in His
essential Character and there has been no effect produced upon their
conduct by their cold admiration of His life.
But when a man comes to see that He is pardoned and saved through the
death of Jesus, He is moved to gratitude and then to love. "We love Him
because He first loved us." That love which He displayed in His death
has touched the mainspring of our being and moved us with a passion to
which we were strangers before. And, because of this, we hate the sins
that once were sweet. And we turn with all our hearts to the obedience
that once was so unpleasant. There is more effect in faith in the blood
of Christ to change the human character than in every other
consideration. The Cross once seen, sin is crucified! The passion of
the Master once apprehended as being endured for us, we then feel that
we are not our own, but are bought with a price. This perception of
redeeming love, in the death of our Lord Jesus, makes all the
difference– this prepares us for a higher and a better life than we
have ever known before. It is His death that does it!
And now, Beloved, if by His death we have become His seed, (and I think
I speak at this time to many who can truly say they hope that it is so
with them), then let us consider the fact for a minute. We are His
seed. They speak of the seed royal. What shall I say of the seed of
Christ? Believer, you may be a poor person living in an obscure lane,
but you are of the imperial house! You are ignorant and unlettered, it
may be, and your name will never shine in the roll of science, but He
who is the Divine Wisdom acknowledges you as one of His seed! It may be
that you are sick–even now your head is aching, your heart is
faint–you feel that, by-and-by, you will die. Ah, well, but you are of
His seed who died and rose and is gone into Glory! You are of the seed
of Him "who only has immortality." You may put away your crowns, you
kings and emperors–earth, yellow earth, hammered and decorated with
other sparkling bits of soil–you may put them all away, as altogether
outdone in value! We have crowns infinitely more precious and we belong
to a royal house tran-scendently more glorious than any of yours!
But then it follows, if we are thus of a seed, that we ought to be
united and love each other more and more. Christian people, you ought
to have a clannish feeling! "Oh," says one, "you mean that the Baptists
ought to get together!" I do not mean anything of the kind! I mean that
the seed of Christ should be of one heart and we ought to recognize
that wherever the life and love of Jesus are to be found, there our
love goes out! It is very delightful, at Christmas time, or perhaps at
some other time in the year, for all the family to meet. And though
your name may be, "Smith," or, "Brown," yet you feel there is some
importance in your name when all your clan have met together. It may be
a name that is very common, or very obscure, but, somehow, you feel
quite great on that day when all the members of the family have joined
to keep united holiday. Your love to one another gathers warmth as the
glowing coals are drawn together.
So may it be in your heart towards all those that belong to Christ! You
are of the blood royal of Heaven! You are neither a Guelph nor a
Hohenzollern, but you are a Christian! And that is a greater name than
all! He has a seed–even He whom, unseen, we, this night, adore. My
inmost soul glories in the Head of my clan–in Him of the pierced hands
and the nailed feet–who wears for His princely star the lance mark in
His side! Oh, how blessedly bright is He! How transcendently glorious
are the nail prints! We adore Him in the infinite majesty of His
unutterable love! We are of His seed and so we are near akin to Him. Do
not think that I am too familiar. I go not beyond the limit which this
Word of God allows me, no, I have scarcely come up to the edge of it!
We are truly of the seed of Jesus, even as the Jews are of the seed of
Israel–not born after the flesh, for He had none born to Him in that
way–but born after the Spirit, wherein His seed is as the stars of
Heaven! We rejoice with exultation as we read the text, "He shall see
His seed."
Thus much on our first point.
II. Now, my second point is THAT POSTERITY OF HIS REMAINS. Our Lord
always has a seed. That seems to me to be clear from the indefiniteness
of the text. It does not say that He shall see His seed for so long and
then no longer, but it stands as a prophecy fulfilled, always
fulfilling and always to be fulfilled–"He shall see His seed." Christ
will always have a seed to see. His Church, then, will never die out
while the world stands and, throughout eternity, that seed must still
exist in the endless state, for world without end our Lord Jesus shall
see His seed!
I notice that the word is in the plural–"He shall see His seeds," as
though some were truly His seed and yet, for a time, at least, differed
from the rest. Our Lord said of those not yet converted, "Other sheep I
have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring." And again,
"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe
on Me through their word." Christ will see generation after generation
of those redeemed by His blood who shall be born into His family and
shall call Him blessed! Instead of the fathers, shall be the children,
whom He will make princes in all the earth! The Septuagint reads it,
"He shall see a long-lived seed." Though I do not think that the
version is correct, still, it shows that it was thought and believed
that the Messiah would have a perpetual seed. Certainly it is so.
Beloved, if it had been possible to destroy the Church of God on earth,
it would have been destroyed long ago! The malice of Hell has done all
that it could do to destroy the seed of Christ–the seed that sprang
from His death.
Standing in the Coliseum at Rome, I could not, as I looked around on
the ruins of that vast house of sin, but praise God that the Church of
God existed, though the Coliseum is in ruins! Anyone standing there,
when the thousands upon thousands gloated their eyes with the
sufferings of Christians, would have said, "Christianity will die out,
but the Coliseum, so firmly built will stand to the end of time!" But
lo, the Coliseum is a ruin and the Church of God more firm, more
strong, more glorious than ever! Only read the story of the
persecutions under Nero and under Diocletian, in the olden times, and
you will wonder that Christianity survived the cruel blows. Every form
of torture which devils could invent was inflicted upon Christian men
and women! Not here and there, but everywhere, they were hunted down
and persecuted. It makes one tremble with horror as he reads of women
tossed on the horns of bulls, or set in red-hot iron chairs–and men
smeared with honey to be stung to death by wasps, or dragged at the
heels of wild horses, or exposed to savage beasts in the amphitheatre.
But I will say no more about it. The gallant vessel of the Church
plowed the red waves of a crimson sea, her prow scarlet with gore, but
the ship itself was the better for its washing and sailed all the more
gallantly because of boisterous winds. As to our own country, read the
story of persecutions here. You will have enough if you only read
Foxe's "Book of Martyrs." I wish that every house had in it a
large-typed copy of the "Book of Martyrs." Well do I recollect, as a
child, how many hours, how many days, I spent looking at the pictures
in an old-fashioned "Book of Martyrs," and wondering how the men of God
suffered, as they did, so bravely. I remember how I used to turn to
that boy of Brentford, who was first beaten with rods and afterwards
tied to the stake, to cheerfully burn for Christ's sake. I am reminded,
by the effect which it had upon my mind, of what was said of a certain
ancient Church in this city of London, which was greatly persecuted.
Many, many years ago, a number of persons were noticed to be going
towards Smithfield, early one morning, and somebody said, "Where are
you going?" "We are going to Smithfield." "What for?" "To see our
pastor burnt." "Well, but what, in the name of goodness, do you want to
see him burnt for? What can be the good of it?" They answered, "We go
to see him burn that we may learn the way." Oh, but that was grand! "To
learn the way!" Then the rank and file of
the followers of Jesus learned the way to suffer and die as the leaders
of the Church set the example! Yet the Church in England was not
destroyed by persecution, but it became more mighty than ever because
of the opposition of its foes!
Since then there have been laborious attempts to destroy the Church of
Christ by error. One hundred years ago or so, throughout the most of
our Dissenting Churches, a sort of Unitarianism was triumphant. The
essential doctrines of the Gospel were omitted, the pith of it was
taken away, the marrow was torn out of its bones. The Church of England
was asleep, too, and everywhere it seemed as if there was a kind of
orthodox heterodoxy that did not believe anything in particular, and
did not hold that there was a doctrine worth anybody's living for or
dying for–but that all religious teaching should be like a nose of
wax–that you might shape whichever way you liked. It looked as if the
living Church of God would be extinguished altogether. But it was not
so, for God did but stamp His foot and, from all parts of the country,
men like Mr. Wesley and Mr. Whitefield came to the front–and hundreds
of others, mighty men of valor– proclaimed the Gospel with unusual
power! And away went the bats and the owls back to their proper
dwelling place! The same mischievous experiment is being tried now, and
there will be the same result, for the living Christ is still to the
front. The King is not off the ground, yet! The battle will be won by
His armies. Jehovah has declared His decree, "Yet have I set My King
upon My holy hill of Zion." Our Lord shall yet see His seed on the
conquering hand.
Worldliness has gone a long way to destroy the Church of God. I judge
it to be the worst cankerworm that assails us. Persons come into the
Church with a profession which they never carry out. Have we not all
around us persons who say that they are Christians and are not, but
lie? And many who, we hope, are Christians, are but very
poverty-stricken specimens of the race, with little love, little zeal,
(indeed, they are afraid to be too zealous), little searching of the
Word, little prayer, little consecration, little communion with God.
They are enough to kill all hope of better things. The Lord have mercy
upon His poor Church when she comes to be neither cold nor hot, so that
He is ready to spue her out of His mouth! Yet, the lukewarm can still
be heated! The cause is not dead! "He shall see His seed."
Take it as a standing miracle that there are any godly people on the
face of the earth, for there would not be one were it not for the
exertion of miraculous power! Christianity is not a natural growth–it
is constantly a Divine creation. Christian life needs to daily have the
baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Church must perpetually receive fresh
light and life from above, or else it would die–but still stands the
promise, "He shall see His seed." While sun and moon endure, there
shall be a people who follow the Lamb! And even though they are so few
that Elijah might say, "I, only I, am left, and they seek my life to
take it away," God will reserve to Himself thousands that have not
bowed the knee to Baal!
III. And now I am to wind up with this third thought–THIS POSTERITY IS
ALWAYS UNDER THE IMMEDIATE EYES OF CHRIST. "He shall see His seed." Oh,
I like this, "He shall see His seed"! He sees them when they are first
born anew. I keep looking out from this pulpit for that small portion
of them that may be born in this place–and there are many watchful
Brothers and Sisters here who try to speak to all that come into the
place in whom there are movings of the Spirit. If there is an anxious
soul, they seek to find him out. We cannot see them all, but HE shall
see His seed! Sometimes it is a question whether they are His seed or
not–a very great question with themselves, but none with Him–He sees
His seed! Some are seeking–they have hardly found. They are
longing–they have scarcely realized the way of faith. Ah, well, He
sees your first desires, your humble breathings, your lowly hopes, your
trembling approaches. He sees you! There is not a child of His, born in
any out-of-the-way place, but what He perceives him at once! He
observes The first living cry, the first living tear. "He shall see His
seed." What a mercy to have such a Watcher! We poor earthly pastors are
of small use, but this great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, with eyes
that never miss a single new-born lamb of Grace–what a mercy to have
such a Shepherd to look after the whole flock! "He shall see His seed."
Yes, and ever afterward, wherever His seed may wander, He still sees
them. Some of you, perhaps, have lived long in England, but you are
contemplating going far away–to Australia or America. You wonder
whether you will meet with any friend who will help you spiritually. Do
not fear. "He shall see His seed." "Rivers unknown to song are not
unknown to God." And if you should have to dwell quite alone in the
bush, and have no Christian acquaintance, still go directly to the Son
of God, for, "He shall see His seed." The eyes of Christ are never off
from the eye of faith. If you look to Him, you may rest well assured
that He looks to you!
The beauty of it is that this look of Christ, whereby He sees His seed,
is one of intense delight. I cannot preach upon that most precious
topic, but I wish you to think it over–it is a Divine pleasure to the
Lord Jesus to look at you–it is promised Him as a reward for His
death! Mother, you know, yourself, what a pleasure it has been for you
to look at your
daughter and watch her grow up. You would not like to tell her all you
have thought of her–you have looked at her with intense delight. Now,
the Lord Jesus Christ looks at you in just the same way! Love is blind,
they say. Jesus is not blind and He sees in His people much more than
they ever will see in themselves! He sees their hopes, their desires,
their aspirations. And He often takes the will for the deed and marks
that for a beauty which now may be half-developed and, therefore, not
all we could wish it to be. It is, at present, the caricature of a
virtue–but it is well meant and will come right. And the Lord sees it
as it will be–and He rejoices in it! Oh, what blessed eyes those are
of His that can spy out beauties which only He can see! Since He has
created them and put them there, himself, He sees them! "He shall see
His seed." He suffered so much for our redemption that He must love us.
We cost Him so much that He must delight in us–
"The Son with joy looks down and sees
The purchase of His agonies."
"He shall see His seed."
Brothers and Sisters, our Savior will always behold His redeemed ones!
He will see all His seed to the last. When they come to the river which
divides them from the celestial country, "He shall see His seed." It
may possibly be gloomy with some of you, but it is not often dark at
death-time. Many of the Lord's children have a fine candle to go to bed
with. Even if they go to bed in the dark, they fall asleep the sooner.
But in either case, their Lord will see them if they cannot see Him.
When you can see nothing and the brain begins to reel–and thought and
memory flee–He sees His seed!
But what a seed He will have to see in the morning! I am not yet an old
man, as some suppose from the many years of my ministry, but I am often
looking forward to that blessed morning when all the sacred seed shall
meet around the Throne of God. I believe the Christ will come in to see
all His beloved purchased ones and He will search to see whether we are
all there. Then shall the sheep pass again under the hand of Him that
counts them–and He will count them, for He knows whom He bought with
His blood–and He will see that they are there in full tale. I think
that I hear the reading of the register, the muster roll. Will you be
there to answer to your name?
Dear Friends, all the Lord's seed will be there–all that were born
into His house with a new birth. They shall answer, "Yes, yes, yes, we
are here! We are here!" Oh, but the joy we shall have in being
there–the delight in beholding His face! Yet, if all our joys are put
together, they will not equal the joy that He will have when He finds
them all there for whom He shed His blood–all whom the Father gave
Him–all who gave themselves to Him–all who were born as His seed–not
one lost! "Of all whom You have given Me, I have lost none." Oh, the
joy, the delight, of our Well-Beloved in that day! Then shall He see
His seed!
And I believe that it will be a part of His Heaven for Him to look upon
His redeemed. He is the Bridegroom, they make up the bride–and the
bridegroom's joy is not in seeing his bride for once on the wedding
day, but he takes delight in her as long as they both live! A true
husband and a true spouse are always lovers–they are always linked
together by strong ties of affection. And it is so with that model
Husband, the Lord Christ and His perfect Church above. He loves His
people no less and He could not love them any more than when He died
for them, and so, forever, "He shall see His
seed."
Thus have I talked with you in a very poor and feeble way, as far as my
speech is concerned. But the doctrine is not feeble, the Gospel is not
poor! O you that are the seed of Christ, go out and magnify Him by your
lives! Be worthy of your high calling. Show the nobility of your
pedigree by the magnanimity of your lives!
And you that are not among His seed, look where you are! What can you
do? All that you can do will bring you no further–you must be born
again–and this is the work of the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God
works the new birth in His own way, but He works according to the
Gospel. What is the Gospel? "He that believes and is baptized shall be
saved." I give you the Gospel without mutilating it, just as I get it
in the Gospel by Mark, "He that believes and is baptized shall be
saved." Obey the precept and the promise is yours! God help you to
believe in the Lord Jesus and so to have eternal life! The moment you
believe in Jesus Christ you are born again. May He, by His Holy Spirit,
seal the message with His blessing to everyone in this house, for His
own name's sake! Amen.
PORTION OFSCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–John12:20-45.