Good morning. It's good to be
here again and to have the honor, and it is an honor, to stand
and minister to God's people. I love God's people. I don't
care if it's here, Rescue, Madisonville, where the saints meet together,
it's just special. And I'm honored to be standing
before you. I know your pastor would let
anybody stand here. And so it's a double honor. So
I'm thankful, very, very thankful. Judy and I had a long trip yesterday. I didn't realize it was quite
as far as it is, but we made it, thank the Lord, and we have
to get back. Right after the services today,
we have to leave. And I apologize. Mr. Coffey has graciously invited
me to lunch, me and Judy, and I told him, We're flying out
Thursday for Sacramento, California. I'm scheduled to preach next
Sunday at Rescue, and then the following weekend during the
conference. And Judy's not ready. Neither am I. But anyway, we're
going to leave right after the services. Keep us in prayer.
Appreciate your prayers. I'd like to bring some thoughts
from the 17th chapter of John, if you would like to turn there,
please. Back in old eternity, God purposed
that Jesus Christ would be the object of all worship and praise,
the God-man. There's only one God, and we
know that. But there are three divine persons,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And back in old eternity, it
was purposed that Jesus Christ would be born of a virgin. He
would take on the body of a man. He came to do his father's will,
by which will we're sanctified to the offering of the body of
Jesus Christ once and for all. And there's a glorified man on
his throne in heaven right now, been there for over 2,000 years.
running this show, ruling and reigning over this whole universe
and everything in it. And in old eternity, God purposed
that there would be a particular people who would give Jesus Christ
all the worship and all the praise. And when we worship Him, we're
worshiping the Father and we're worshiping the Holy Spirit. If we don't honor Him, even as
we honor the Father, we don't honor God at all. And so, what
a blessing to know that in His purpose, in God's purpose, we
were included in that number who would be recipients of His
amazing grace, through the finished work of Christ our Savior. And
here in John 17, our Lord is praying to his Father as if he
had already gone to the cross, as if he had already finished
the work. He hasn't gone there yet in his prayer, but he prays
as though he had already finished the work. And the finished work
was as certain as God himself, so there was no doubt that he
was going to do what the Father sent him to do, and that was
to lay down his life for the sheep. Now there's no other name,
none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved. There's no doubting the fact
that This is a mystery concerning our salvation. A mystery that
only God can reveal to his people. It's a great mystery. Great is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. So it's a great mystery. But
our God, the Lord Jesus Christ, is the creator of everything. He created all things for himself. Even the wicked for the day of
evil. And this religious generation absolutely hates the doctrine
of our God's absolute sovereignty over all things. They hate it. And we did too, until the miracle
of the new birth was performed. God delivering us from the power
of darkness and translating us into the eternal kingdom of Jesus
Christ. So all the glorified saints in
heaven sing this new song to our glorified, exalted King.
Thou art worthy to take the book and open the seals thereof, for
thou was slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of
every kindred and tongue and people and nation. So Christ
is worthy. He's worthy to receive all praise
and all honor and all glory and you won't find not one enlightened
saint who would argue that. We love him because he first
loved us, yes, but we do love him. I was talking to the pastor
of the Church and Rescue Thursday morning and I said, I heard this
years ago If the doctor's performing a procedure on you, there's one
word you don't want to hear and that's, oops. And then I said this, oops is
not in our Lord's vocabulary. He has never made a mistake and
he never will. He's perfect in everything and
it's wonderful to know that we're in his hands as we go through
this life waiting for our time of departure or the return of
our Lord Jesus. Because there are a lot of things
that happen that we might scratch our head, but God assures us. He assures us. that all things
work together for good to them that love God, to them who are
the call according to his purpose. So we can rest in our Savior.
Now he's praying. This is God himself praying to
God, but he's praying in his state of humility. He humbled
himself and became a man. And as he prays, John recorded
this prayer for our learning. And there's so much here. I encourage you to just take,
and you probably have already done it, but do it again. Take
a little time to just read this through in one setting, and then
go back and read it again, and then go back and read it again.
I can't begin to tell you How many times something has jumped
out when I've read this again and again. It seems like there's
something new every time I read it. Something I didn't catch
before. Our Lord Jesus says in verse
1, well we read this in verse 1, these words speak Jesus and
lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has
come Glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee." And this was his prayer, that
our Father, our Heavenly Father, would glorify him. Well, he did. He did. We read in Philippians
chapter 2, that because Jesus Christ was
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, God has highly
exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven,
things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father." So this isn't the only place where we read about the
exaltation of Jesus Christ. And He is glorified. He finished
the work the Father gave Him to do. And we read in verse 2
that God the Father has given Jesus Christ power over all flesh
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
him." So this prayer includes a particular people
who were given to Jesus Christ by God the Father, and his glorification
also points to the fact that he, in his state of glory after
he is risen from the grave, would be while he's on his throne in
glory to give eternal life to as many as God the Father gave
him. No more, no less. That's what I was saying earlier.
This is something that should grab a hold of us in such a way
that we can't help but be filled with praise to the one who loved
us and gave himself for us. Because this, this eternal life
that we have received is a gift from our Lord Jesus based upon him fulfilling all the conditions
of the eternal covenant. And that's what he did. While
he was here on this earth, He did everything that the Father
sent him to do. No oops. Everything was done
just as perfect as could be. When God does something, it's
perfect. And it was done for a people
that God loves with an everlasting love. Therefore, with love and
kindness, he draws us to himself. So Jesus Christ in his prayer
is pointing to this. that God the Father has given
him power over all flesh, all flesh. We're not even to say
that we're going to town to buy or sell unless we say God willing.
That's how important this is, to know that Jesus Christ is
in control, not just over a few people out in rescue, but over
all the people We're going into Mexico City, coming out of Mexico
City, New York City, coming out of New York City, Los Angeles,
you name all the big cities and every little town, every little
village. Our Lord controls every heart.
That's good to know. That's good to know because out
in California there's some crazy drivers. And I'm thankful that
God's got them in control when I'm meeting somebody on the road
out there, because they just love to swerve right over into
your head-on collision course. So I'm thankful. Someone asked me earlier, you
don't fly, do you? I said, well, I do. I'm not crazy about flying, but
we have flown. But I'm thankful when that plane
leaves the ground that my Lord Jesus upholds all things by the
word of his power. And so we need to be reminded
of that. Look at verse 3. This is life
eternal that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent. Now this is life eternal, knowing
the true God. So this is important. I want
to know about this. My eternal life depends on something
that I know. And we need to know God. We need
to know the true and living God. Jesus Christ is the true and
living God. And it's life eternal when he
reveals himself to his people under the preaching of his glorious
gospel. You're telling me that that little
baby that was born of a virgin, that young man that worked in
a carpenter shop, That man they crucified, murdered with wicked
hands, you mean to tell me he's God Almighty? That's exactly
what I mean to tell you. And this is life eternal, knowing
him. Now I know this is by faith,
I know that. And God has to give us that faith
to embrace him as he is recorded on the pages of Holy Scripture.
There's another Jesus being preached today, another spirit being received,
another gospel being preached, and this Jesus that the modern
religions are worshiping doesn't even remotely resemble the Christ
of Holy Scripture. And as we ponder this wonderful
truth that Jesus Christ is the true and living God, Then we
know, as he says in this third verse in his high priestly prayer,
that God's the one who sent him, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent. So all the way from Adam and
his fall, all through the Old Testament eras, all through the
time when our Lord walked on this earth, it was purposed. It was purpose that he would
come into this world, and that he would do the will of God the
Father. And while he was here, he glorified his father in his
public ministry by revealing this wonderful truth to his chosen
people, who Jesus Christ is and who sent him. We read in verse
4, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work
which thou gavest me to do, And now, O Father, glorify Thou me
with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before
the world was." And so there's something in divine revelation
to God's chosen people that our Lord is referring to that glorifies
the Father. And He revealed Himself to the
apostles, to many of His disciples, And that's brought glory to God
the Father. Well that's what he's doing right
now, bringing glory to God the Father by revealing these wonderful
gospel truths to a particular chosen people. We come under
the preaching of the gospel. I don't know how it was with
you, I just know how it was with me. I had never attended the
church, I had no religious background, I had no views that I had to
get rid of, false doctrines or whatever. I heard the true gospel
when I first started going to church by one of God's preachers. And it just absolutely floored
me. I didn't know anything about
redemption, I didn't know anything about Jesus Christ taking care
of the sin debt of his people. I didn't know that when he hung
there on that cross, God was pouring out his unmitigated wrath
on his darling son as my substitute. I didn't know that. It just overwhelmed
me. But you know what God did first?
He broke my heart. I heard for the first time that
I was a sinner in need of a savior. I didn't know that. I thought
I was good. I thought my good would
outweigh my bad. I did. I thought that even though
I sold a few wild oats, well, maybe more than a few, but I
didn't think I was that bad. And all of a sudden, it dawned
on me I deserved God's eternal wrath. And so my heart was broken. But then I heard about my Lord
Jesus taking care of my sin debt. And I'm going to tell you, I
sat up on the edge of the pew. I wanted to hear more. And the
Lord revealed to me, under the preaching of his glorious gospel,
that because He bore in His own body my sins while He was on
that cross, and that God punished Him in my room and in my stead,
and God could not punish me if I was punished in Christ, when
I heard that nothing could be laid to my charge, there's therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, I rejoice with joy unspeakable
and full of glory. And like they say in the vernacular,
it ain't over yet. I still rejoice. I still rejoice
in the finished work of Jesus Christ. And look at what verse
5 says again. Our Lord says, Glorify thou me
with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before
the world began. Now our Lord has always been
God. He hasn't always been a man,
but He's always been God. And if we want to know what glory
He had with the Father before He came to this world, All we
have to do is look at what the scriptures say about God in the
Old Testament. All the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing. And God does according to his
will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the
earth. And none can say unto him what doest thou, can even
question him. That's the glory Jesus Christ
had before he became a man with his Father in heaven in control
of everything. Our God is in the heavens, he
hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. That's what he's doing
now. He's doing what he was doing before he came to this earth.
Whatever pleases him. Aren't you thankful? Paul said,
will it please God who separated me from my mother's womb and
called me by his grace to reveal his son in me? It pleased God
to do that. And when we knew, and I gave
you a little personal testimony of how the Lord opened my eyes,
Christ was already here. It takes the power of Jesus Christ
and the person of God, the Holy Spirit, to enlighten the mind
of these truths. That's why God sends his Spirit
into our heart, to reveal the things of Christ to us. The Holy
Spirit doesn't even speak of himself, he speaks of Christ.
And so, when he, my wonderful God, sent the Spirit of his Son
into my heart, He cried, Abba, Father. Flesh had nothing to
do with it. That was the Spirit of Christ
in me, crying, Abba, Father. So that we know, not only by
what the Word of God says, but by personal experience, that
the new birth is a miracle of God's grace. That's a miracle. It didn't just happen at random.
It didn't just happen because I decided one day that I was
gonna make a decision for Jesus. No, I experienced, and if you're
a Christian, you've experienced the same thing. And sometimes
we don't know, we don't know when that miracle takes place. We have six children and all
but two we know are Christians, but they grew up under the preaching
of the gospel. They cannot pinpoint a time or
a day when they were given faith to believe on Christ. They just
know that their faith is in Him, and they prove it. Because they
keep looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of their faith.
But I experience it in a way where I can almost tell you when
the Lord enlightened my mind to the things concerning Christ
for the first time. What's important is believe on
Him. That's what's important. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, how are they gonna call
on Him if they don't believe? And how are they gonna believe
if they don't hear? And how are they gonna hear if
God doesn't send them a preacher. You see, these people who are
believing in free will and universal redemption, they'll take a verse
in Romans 10, like, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved, and they'll just take that by itself and
take it to seed and ignore those scriptures that follow. Brethren,
we were predestinated unto the adoption of children. God predestinated
us to be conformed to the image of His Son. I'm not ashamed of that, are
you? He chose me in Christ before the foundation of the world.
I read in 2 Timothy where God has saved us and called us with
the holy calling not according to our works but according to
his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. God planned it all and he executes
it all. He's not waiting there wringing
his hands hoping somebody might allow him to do something. He does what pleases him and
I'm thankful it pleased him to call me out of darkness into
his marvelous light. I have to quit. I'm sorry, but
I have to quit. My time is up. Where did that
half hour go? Anyway, I leave you with this. Verse 9, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine." He was
praying for his own chosen people in this high priestly prayer,
and he wasn't praying for the whole world. How can anybody
read those words and believe in universal redemption? God
loves us with an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness
he draws us unto himself. He doesn't love everybody. I'm
surprised he loves anybody. But I'm thankful, I'm thankful
to my wonderful God that he loves me with an everlasting love. And I know that love's in Christ
Jesus. I know that. And nothing can separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Thank you.