Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening. And
now for today's program. Welcome to our program, I'm glad
you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching from the Gospel
of John, chapter 17. And this chapter is truly an
amazing thing because what it is, in reality, it is the Lord's
Prayer. Now let me give you the title
of the message as we begin because There's 26 verses here in the
King James Version. I'm not going to be able to get
through all of them in one message. So I'm going to divide them up.
And the first message, beginning at verse one, is the glory of
the Father and the Son. That's the title of this message.
The glory of the Father and the Son. Now, as I said, this is
the Lord's Prayer. Now, somebody might say, well,
wait a minute. Now, I thought Matthew 6 was
the Lord's Prayer. And it starts out, our Father,
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come,
thy will be done on earth as. That's not the Lord's Prayer,
that's the model prayer. That's a prayer that Christ stated
in teaching his disciples to pray. That's what they said,
Lord teach us to pray. And he told him how to pray.
He told him, you know, about trying, you know, don't make
it a public spectacle of yourself when you pray. Don't do it to
be seen of men. Don't repeat words over and over
again as if with your much speaking, you can persuade God to do something
that he was reluctant to do. That's not prayer. Prayer is
praying unto the Father through the Son on the basis of His blood
and righteousness, the grace of God, and praying, Thy will
be done in all things. So that's the model prayer. But
the Lord's prayer is the Lord Jesus Christ praying to His Father
for His people. And that's what he's doing here
in John 17. He'd been teaching his disciples and now he prays
to his father, the Lord's prayer. And listen to what he says. Now,
this is the first message of this section, the glory of the
father and the son. Listen to verse one. These words
spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father,
The hour is come, glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify
thee. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. Now this thing of glory and glorifying,
what is that about? The glory of God is the revelation
and working out of His nature, His attributes. And the greatest
glory of God is seen in the glorious person and finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ to redeem His people from their sins and bring
them unto heaven, bring them unto glory. To glorify the Father
and the Son is to tell the truth. of both of them. If what I say
about God is not true, then I'm not glorifying God. If what I
say about Jesus Christ, who He is, what He did, why He did it,
where He is now, if it's not true, then I'm not glorifying
Him. Many, many people are going to
churches where the true and living God is not preached in all of
the doctrines of God that teach us who He is. Many people deny
or ignore passages of Scripture where God reveals Himself doing
things that they don't like or they don't think is fair, like
election. The Bible talks about God chose
a people to save before the foundation of the world and gave them to
Christ and sent Christ to save those people. Christ did not
come to save every individual. And you say, well, I don't like
that. Well, that's the God of this book. And you may deny it,
but you're not glorifying God, you're glorifying yourself is
what you're doing. But here, Christ is getting ready
to go to the cross. He's very close to that time
when he's going to be in the garden of Gethsemane, sweating
great drops of blood, revealing the sinless infirmities of the
flesh because he's about to go through some pain and suffering
that he had never experienced before. That's why he said, Father,
if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, thy
will be done. He's just simply showing the
weakness and infirmities of sinless humanity. And so He's going to
the cross. What is it all for? Yes, it's
to save His people from their sins, but ultimately, it's to
glorify the Father by glorifying the Son. And how's He going to
glorify the Son? through the accomplished, finished,
complete, successful work that he would perform on the cross
to save his people from their sins. And listen to what he says,
look at verse two. He says, as thou hast given him
power over all flesh. Now Christ has power over all
flesh. Now as God, the Son, in his deity,
he always had all power over all flesh. All things. But this is a power, this is
an omnipotence that is given to Him because He earned it as
God in human flesh, God-man, the Redeemer of His people. This
is a power and a glory that's given Him because of what He
accomplished on the cross to save His people from their sins,
to redeem them, to put away their sins, to make certain their salvation,
to bring forth an everlasting righteousness of infinite value
whereby God could be just to justify them, a just God and
a Savior. There's the glory of God. And
it's on the basis of the blood of Christ, the righteousness
of Christ freely imputed to His people. So here, let me show
you the connection here now. Look at verse two. As thou hast
given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. Did you see that? Christ, the glory of the Father
and the Son, is wrapped up in Christ giving eternal life to
as many sinners as the Father gave to Him. And when did the
Father give Him that glory or give Him those people? Before
the world began. And that's what He's going to
say. They were given Him, God chose a people before He created
this world. And he gave them to Christ. This
is the covenant of grace. He placed all of the responsibility
of their full and final salvation and complete salvation upon the
son. And his son willingly took that
task and said, I will, I'll do what is required. So He's going
to give eternal life to as many as the Father had given Him.
I quoted this last week, John 6, 37. All that the Father giveth
me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out. He said, this is the will of
Him that sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should
lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day. He died
for His sheep and He said, His sheep hear His voice. They come
unto Him, they follow Him. They won't follow another. And
He said, they'll never perish. You see, if one sinner for whom
Christ died were to perish, that would diminish or deny the glory
of the Father and the Son. And that cannot be. So he said,
he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
And then look at verse three, he shows us the nature of eternal
life. How do I know that I have spiritual eternal life? How do
I know that I'm saved by the grace of God? Well, look at verse
three. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. Do I know the only true God?
Listen to me now. Do I know the only true God?
As He reveals Himself in this Bible. This is His revelation
of Himself. The sovereign God of all grace. The sovereign God who chose a
people, elected us before the foundation of the world. The
sovereign God who sent His Son to redeem His people and to secure
their salvation. the Christ who died, not to make
salvation possible if sinners would cooperate, because sinners
won't cooperate by nature, but to preserve, to save and preserve
and glorify His people. That's what this is all about,
to know God. The only way we can know God
is as He reveals Himself to us. Over in the book of Matthew chapter
11, we have a wonderful passage that speaks of this when he says
in verse 27, well, let's go back to verse 25, Matthew 11, 25. It says, at that time, Jesus
answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and
the prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Now the Bible
teaches that we are all, in our own view, wise and prudent. What he's talking about there
is worldly wisdom that denies God. It's not humble. There's no dependence upon Christ.
But he revealed them unto babes. When God reveals himself to a
sinner, that sinner becomes totally, realizes that he's totally dependent
upon God alone and his grace for salvation. That's what the
babe is there. And so he says in verse 26, even
so father for so it seemed good in thy sight. Now listen to verse
27. All things are delivered unto me of my father. This is
what Christ says. And no man knoweth the son but
the father. Neither knoweth any man the father
save the son and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. No man
knows the Son but the Father. Well, the Father reveals the
Son in His Word. And no man knows the Father except
the Son. The only way you know God as
a heavenly Father, one who is both a just judge
and a heavenly, loving, gracious, merciful Father, is through Christ. Without Christ, God is not a
loving Father. Without Christ, He's a just judge
who must punish all sinners to whom sin is charged with eternal
damnation. You see, and my sins have to
be charged to Christ and His righteousness to me. And in Christ,
God is my Heavenly Father, not without justice now. See, His
glory is the glory of one who is both a just God who punished
all my sins in the person of my substitute, my surety, my
redeemer, Christ, a just judge and the loving Father who saves
me in mercy and grace from my sins. We'll go back to John 17
now. So this is life eternal. We'll
look at verse four. Here's the ground of the glory
of the Father and the Son. Christ says, I have glorified
thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. The glory of the Father and the
Son is the glory of a finished work. And that's what Christ's
work on the cross was. In John 19.30, when he was on
that cross, getting ready to give up the ghost, to die. He said in John 19 30, it is
finished. It's done. The work was completed. He saved his people from their
sins. He secured their salvation, their
spiritual life, their final glory. He brought forth an everlasting
righteousness of infinite value, whereby God was just to justify
them. And from Him comes life everlasting,
spiritual life, faith, repentance, perseverance, all the blessings. Blessed with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ. Finished work. Romans 10 verse
4 says, for Christ is the end of the law. The finishing of
it, the perfection of it. the keeping of it, the completion
of it, the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that
believe it. For by one offering he hath perfected,
finished, completed forever them that are sanctified, those who
were set apart by God before the foundation of the world and
given to Christ. It is finished. Now, he's speaking
here in anticipation of the cross, the finished work. But he speaks
of it in past tense because it's a done deal. There's no possibility
that he would not have gone to the cross and done the work.
He says, I have glorified thee on the earth. Well, up to this
point in his life on earth, he had glorified the Father most
definitely. But the glory He's speaking of now is the finished
work which the Father gave Him to do. And that's to go to the
cross and die for the sins of His people. You see, that's what
grace is all about. Grace is eternal life freely
given to God's people on the ground of the righteousness,
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. So he speaks of it in past tense
because it's a work of God. All the promises of God in Christ
are yay and amen. God speaks of those things that
are not as though they already are. Because there's no possibility
of failure. Satan would love to have stopped
him. And even men would love to have
stopped him. But there was no stopping him.
And so look at verse five. And now, O Father, glorify thou
me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. Christ, in his deity, had a glory
with the Father, which was there before the world was, which is
eternal. And then as he was set up in the covenant to be the
mediator of his people, he had that glory. And that glory was
manifested. And though man by nature didn't
see that glory as he walked on earth, because as Isaiah 53 says,
you remember the passage in Isaiah 53 when Isaiah was speaking of
the suffering Messiah, listen to what it says in verse two
of Isaiah 53. He shall grow up before him as
a tender plant, And as a root out of a dry ground, he hath
no form nor comeliness. When we shall see him, there's
no beauty that we should desire him. Verse three, he is despised
and rejected of men, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief. We hid as it were our faces from
him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. But that manifested glory was
always there. And it will be there in glory
mainly as we see the progression of all the accomplishment of
redemption in his resurrection from the dead. Now when he died,
there were manifestations of the glory of God on earth. The
earth shook, the sky darkened, all of that. Even many who had
died were raised out of the grave, just like Lazarus was raised.
They died later on again, but they were raised just like Lazarus.
But when He arose from the dead, what a glory was manifested in
His face, the face of Jesus Christ. When He ascended unto the Father
into the clouds, this is the glory that He has. And now, when
God the Holy Spirit brings a sinner to salvation, He literally reveals
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. We see His glory. The glory is of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth, the Savior of sinners,
the Lord our righteousness. And then he's coming again in
his glory to receive his church unto himself and to judge the
world in righteousness and to take his people home. Well, look
at verse six. He says, I have manifested thy
name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Now
to manifest his name is to reveal who he is. It's not just to say
a name, a title, like some mantra, like just simply saying praise
the Lord or praise Jesus. You see, who is Jesus? The reason
he got that name from God, the Father, through the angel who
spoke to Joseph. They said, you shall call his
name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. That's
what that name means. So to call upon his name, the
Bible says, whosoever shall call upon his name shall be saved. Well, that's true, but what is
his name? Well, if you just say Jesus without
knowing what that means, who He is, what He did, why He did
it, where He is, who is He? He's God manifest in the flesh,
Emmanuel, God with us. Who is He? God, man, the Messiah,
the Savior, the surety, the substitute, the Lord, our righteousness.
What did He do? Well, He saved His people from
their sins. He didn't die to make salvation
possible, if you would cooperate. Left to ourselves, none of us
would cooperate. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. So what did He do? He redeemed
His people from their sins. He secured their salvation unto
glory. He didn't die for those who perish.
He died for those who will be brought to faith in Christ in
repentance of dead works and who will persevere by the grace
of God unto the end. And all by the grace of God.
Grace, grace, grace. That's all it is. Why did he
do it? He did it for the glory of God.
and the glory of himself. That's what he says, glorify
the glory of the Father and the Son. It was for the glory of
God. Now, there were other reasons, but they all find their fullness
in the glory of the Father and the Son. And where is he now? Well, what does the Bible say
in Romans 8.33? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justified. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
He's risen from the dead and seated at the right hand of the
Father, ever living to make intercession for us. He's in heaven at the
right hand of the Father, being the advocate of His people, praying
for us, preserving us, and waiting for the appointed time when He'll
come again and bring us unto glory. That's who he is. Oh, my soul, manifested thy name.
Go back to verse six. I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Some commentators
say, well, that's just the 11 disciples here. No, it's all
of God's elect. That's what Christ does. He manifests
the name of God to all whom the Father gave him out of the world.
And he says, thine they were, and thou gavest them me. That's
covenant language. God chose them, made them his
own, adopted them as children, and gave them to his son. Put
all of the responsibility of their salvation upon his son,
and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. They
believe. Does that mean they never doubt?
No, they do. It's the sin that so easily besets
us, the writer of Hebrews said. But their life is marked generally
with God-given faith in Christ. That's what it is to keep His
word, to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, repent of dead
works, to follow Him, cling to Him. When he says they've kept
thy word, you know, a lot of people say, well, it means they've
kept the law. Well, we haven't kept the law. We've broken the
law. We're sinners. You're either a sinner lost in
your sins or you're a sinner saved by grace, but you're still
a sinner. And you cannot attain in your
obedience the perfection of the law. The perfection of the law
can only be found in Christ. that's what it is to keep His
Word, His Word of grace, His Word of faith, His Word in the
gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and you shall be saved. Cling to Him, rest in Him, live
your life looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our
faith. And in verse seven, he says, now they have known that
all things whatsoever thou hast given me are thee. Back over
in John 16, he made that statement. When he says, when they, or they
made that statement, when they said in verse 30, now are we
sure that thou knowest all things and needest not that any man
should ask thee? By this we believe that thou camest forth from God. They knew that this person named
Jesus whom they followed was the Messiah, the God-man, the
Savior, of whom all the prophets spoke, of whom the law pointed
to, of whom all the Old Testament was about. They knew this is
the one, this is the one. And he said in verse nine, he
said, I pray for them. We'll pick up there next week.
But he said, I don't pray for the world. I'm not praying for
those who are not mine. That's what he means, and I'll
deal with that next week. He said, I pray for them. Oh,
I tell you, I remember when he told Peter that Satan desired
to sift him this week. He said, Peter, I pray for you.
If he prays for his people, they're saved. I hope you'll join us
next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
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today and may the Lord be with you.