John. Turn if you would to John
chapter 17. The name of the message is God
given. God given. Now we as the people
of God, we have much to rejoice in, don't we? Very much. Much to rejoice in. When we consider
the things that God has given to us. And he didn't have to. He gave us these things that
we're going to consider all according to his will and
all according to his purpose. There was nothing in us that
would cause him to give us anything. And think of the things that
we take for granted. We have air to breathe. Every breath we take is a gift
from God. It is. It's a gift from God. The very
air that we breathe is a gift from God. We have food to eat, provided
by the Lord. Again, as we looked at one scripture
in Sunday School, right? When Paul was talking about the
Word of God and preaching, and he says, some plant, some water,
but God gives the increase. You know, it's the same for crops.
Man plants his crops, but it's God who gives the increase. It's
God who does it. So everything we have comes from
Him. We got clothes to wear. He provides it all. It's all
from something. Everything we have is provided
to us by something that He's made. Something He's made. We have people to share our lives
with. We have our own families, plus we also have the Lord's
family. The best family, yeah, amen. Isn't it wonderful? All
coming by His hand. All while we're on this earth.
And then He gathers us home to see Him face to face. And
to still be in fellowship with those who are born again, blood-washed
saints on earth. We're going to see Him again
in glory. It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. And that which makes we who are
the people of God marvel the most is the salvation that's
been given to us. That salvation, it comes in and
through the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's a full salvation. It's
a free salvation, given to God's people all according to his grace
and mercy. And there's nothing in us that
would merit this, but it's given to us by his grace. all according
to His will and purpose. We who are sinners by birth,
nature, and choice do not deserve this, but it pleased the Father
to give it to us. To give it to us. My, it's just
absolutely incredible. You know, God gave His Son for
us. God gave His Son for us, beloved. He gave His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, the Word of God, the second person
of the Trinity. He gave Him for us to die in
our room and place on Calvary's cross, to purchase
our eternal souls. It's marvelous. It's absolutely
marvelous. How did He purchase our souls?
With His precious, precious blood. We have redemption, salvation
through the precious blood of Christ. And all that was accomplished
according to the will of the Father. And you know, we've also been
given all spiritual blessings in Christ. Our justification
before God comes to us through Christ. Our redemption, eternal
life comes to us through Christ. who the Father gave. The righteousness that we are
clothed in as believers, that allows us to be in the presence
of God, is the righteousness of Christ. And it's the Father
who clothes us in that righteousness. He gives it to us, beloved. How do we know that? Well, when
the father, the prodigal son was coming, the father said,
bring forth the best robe. And who put it on him? The Father
put it on him. That represents the perfect,
spotless righteousness of Christ put on the prodigal. My. And a perfect salvation. We've
been given a perfect salvation all by and through and in the
Lord Jesus Christ, by God the Father. Remember he sent, he
sent, he sent the Son. to die for our sins. And who were our sins against? Yeah, they were against God,
weren't they? You know, we may have people sin against us, but
ultimately, who are they sinning against? Whose law are we breaking,
ultimately? Even when we sin against either
a fellow believer or a friend. Who are we really sinning against?
Remember what David said? David said, Yeah, he said, first
of all, he said to Potiphar's wife, you're trying to make me
sin against God. And then you're trying to make
me sin against Potiphar. But the first he said, God, that's
who our sins are against, beloved. That's why the scripture declares
that we were enemies in our minds with God by wicked works. But
beloved rejoice, the perfect salvation has been wrought out
for us. For we who are the people of
God, for we who were the Father's choice. That's just amazing,
isn't it? And that came by the sacrifice
of Christ. And that sacrifice was so complete, so perfect,
so complete and so perfect, beloved, that God says to His people,
I won't remember your sins anymore. My! So all these things have
been given to God's born again, blood washed people in and through
Christ alone. And then there are many more
blessings given to us. You know, the scripture declares that we
are daily loaded down with benefits. Who gives us those benefits?
God. We don't even see them. But the
scripture declares we're daily loaded down with benefits. And
you also know that the scripture declares that God's mercies are
what? New every morning. His mercy towards us is new every
morning, beloved. Isn't that wonderful? That's
so comforting to our souls, isn't it? So comforting. What a Savior,
what a Redeemer is Jesus Christ, our Lord. And how gracious is
our great God to us. He saves us by His grace. He
gives us faith to believe. shows his mercy upon us. So with
that in our minds, let's read John chapter 17 verses 1 to 7. Our text will be found in verse
7 tonight. Scripture declares, 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. As thou has given him power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. 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. I have manifest
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. My! Take notice that our scripture
tonight in verse 7 brings forth that that we now know as born-again
blood-washed believers that all things whatsoever thou has given
me are of thee. We know that all things that
are given to Christ come from the Father. Come from the Father. Now in our natural state, we're
born into this world. We do not know God. We do not
know God at all. We really have no real understanding
of who God is. I believe that that goes on until
we're born again. We really don't have a true understanding
of who God is. We may have heard of him, but
until we're born again, we really don't understand how he works
and his ways and who he really is, because he hasn't revealed
himself to us yet. And the scripture declares this
of the one true God, and this is why I believe that. Listen
to what the scripture says of the one true God, that He only
hath immortality. Dwelling in the light which no
man can approach. See, we can't even approach Him
outside of Christ, beloved. We can't approach Him. Now, in
Christ, we can come boldly to the throne of grace, right? Praise
God. But in our natural state, we can't even approach God. And
it says, whom no man has seen. But we've discovered in our studies
that Christ has seen the Father, hasn't He? And He reveals Him
to whomever the Father is pleased for Him to reveal Him to. Nor
can see. See, we can't see Him in our
natural state. Scripture there declares, whom
no man has seen, nor can see to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. So in our natural state,
we can't know God. I did not know God before I was
born again. I had no idea who he was. Now
I had a religious experience and I thought I knew who God
was, but I found out years later that I didn't know who God was.
But then he saved me by his grace. Hallelujah, he did that didn't
leave me in that religious bondage that I was in in Marvel at the
fact that Christ who is God in the Manifest in the flesh that
he was Matt. Do you know he's manifest to
take away our sins and in him is no sin He's sinless And yet
he's a manifest to take away our sins. We sinners the just
one His manifest to take away our sins And you know, the fact that he's
manifest to take away our sins is a mystery. Scripture declares
this in 1 Timothy 3.16, it says this, and without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
God himself. God was manifest in the flesh,
and this is who's speaking to us through his word tonight,
right? In John 17, it's him in this high priestly prayer. God
in the flesh is speaking these words to the Father. Scripture
declares God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit,
seen of angels. Angels saw what... Could you
imagine the marvel the angels had? Look at the master. We bow before him and he's down
here being despised by these pieces of dust. How can that be? How can that
be? Oh, it's all according to God's
plan and purpose. And then it says, preach unto
the Gentiles. Hallelujah. I'm so thankful. that he's preached
among the Gentiles, because that's what I am, believed on in the
world. And that's the gift of God, isn't
it? Another thing given, faith. God-given faith, true faith is
God-given faith. Believed in the world and received
up into glory where he's seated right now, beloved. And he's
our mediator. Now this prayer is full of his
mediation. He's in mediation for us. The one true mediator
between God and man is the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself
a ransom for all. He gave his life a ransom for
all his people. That's not all the world, but
it's all his people. Everyone who what? The Father
gave him. The Father gave him. Now, I was
thinking about this today, and the false gods of man, the false
gods of man always want something for you to do. You know, I read a lot of history
books and I'm reading some books about the Vikings right now,
and they were constantly in fear that they had upset their gods.
And they had to do all these things to please them. And we
know they're false gods. The Romans did the same thing.
They had Jupiter and Mars and all these other gods. They had
Fortuna, which was the god of luck and fortune, which we know
There's only providence. But they always had to do something.
Whether they bought a charm to them and wore it around their
necks, they always had to do something. There was always something
they had to do. Always something they had to offer. Always. And all false religions are like
that. Right? Think of the false religions
in this world. Nothing's changed, has it? It's just got a new name
on it. Right? Some say you can't worship
on Sundays, you've got to worship on Saturday. Some false religions
say you have to be baptized to be saved. Some false religions
say there's no hell at all, only heaven. That's false. Some deny the Trinity. Right.
Jehovah Witnesses, they deny that the sun is God, and they
deny the Holy Spirit. My! And then you just have regular
pagan religion that worships trees and rocks and stumps and
all kinds of things. Puts rocks in a river so they
can make their little tower up there and pay homage to the rock
god, I guess. I don't know what it is, but
it's just foolishness, isn't it? absolute foolishness. They're worshiping the creation
rather than the Creator, beloved, like Romans brings forth. Their
mind is full of darkness, and I can say that because I was
there. But for the grace of God, He saved my soul. There's always
something you have to do to be saved. Always something you have
to do in man-made religion to gain merit and favor with whoever
they worship. But our great God, beloved, our
great God is the one true and living God. He's the one true
living God. And note, He doesn't say you
have to do this to be saved. He gives His Son. He gives the
Son of His love. He provides the Passover lamb.
He provides the salvation for us. Because it's not based, Scripture
says, not by works of righteousness which you have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us. Right? Do you see the opposite? Man-based religion says, you
gotta do something. God-based religion, true God,
the one true living God says, just look to my son. Just look
to him. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ
and live. And live. Look and live. My. And think of this, too. The one
true living God sent his Son to die for us, to shed his blood
for us. My, oh my. And he was again manifested. 1 John says he was manifested
to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. Not even a spot. He's the perfect lamb, isn't
he? Just like we saw in Exodus on the weekend. They offer up
that perfect spotless lamb, right? The blood's shed. Blood's put
on the lentil and the doorpost, isn't it? When I see the blood,
I'll what? I'll pass over you. Oh, when
God sees the blood of Christ on one of his people, he passes
over them. The wrath of God, don't even
touch him. Don't even touch him, because it was poured out on
the Savior. And we looked at it a few weeks ago. We were the
fathers. The Father gave us to Christ. Now think of how much the Lord
prizes us. Think of that too. Think of the
great love that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit has.
And think of how much the Father treasures those whom he gave
to his Son. And then think of how much the
Lord Jesus Christ treasures those who were given to him by the
Father. We're treasured by God, beloved.
Isn't that amazing? Imagine the thing that you love
the most in this world. And He treasures us even more
than that. Even more than that, He treasures.
I can't, I don't think I'm ever going to get over that, beloved.
That's just incredible. We're His bride. We were given
to Him by the Father. And He treasures us so much.
The Lord Jesus Christ treasures us so much that He went to Calvary
and purchased our souls with the shedding of His blood. You know, the Father gave us
to Christ, like we've looked at in the past couple of weeks.
You know, He also preserves us. He gave us to Christ and the
Father will preserve us, won't He? He keeps us. Yeah, he keeps us. We would fall
so much in one day if it weren't for the Lord keeping us. We would
be in a world of trouble. But he keeps us. And you also
see watches over us. Do you ever imagine that? Can
you? We can't always fathom that, can we? We get caught up in the
things that we're doing during the day, and God's got his eye
on us the whole time. Just ever watching over us. with
love too. Not with a stick ready to beat
us, but with love. With love. He's watching us with
love, beloved. My! It's just incredible. And at the end of our time on
this earth, here pick us like a rose out of a garden and take
us home to where he lives. Isn't that incredible? It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. And there we will behold. You
know what we'll behold? We'll behold the glory that God
the Father had given him. From before the foundation of
the world. We'll behold Christ in all his glory, beloved. And
we'll be with him forever. And don't let the truths in this
sweet prayer pass by overlooked. Look how much the Lord Jesus
Christ dwells on the fact. And we're going to see this as
we go through. I'm just going to bring these first two verses
up in what we've read. But there's even more where he
keeps talking about how we were given to him by the Father. Notice
how he dwells on the fact that we were the Father's possession.
And we were given to him according to God's eternal love and mercy
and grace. Look at verse 2. As thou has given him power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
has given him. Then he says, I have manifested thy name unto
the man which thou gavest me out of the world. Verse 6. I
have manifested thy name unto the man which thou gavest me
out of this world, of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, and they have kept thy word. This is just the beginning
of this beautiful prayer. He continues to say that we were
given to Him by the Father. My, oh my. And now take note
of our verse tonight. Again, we cannot know God on
our own. We just can't. We saw that in
the text that I read about how He dwells in immortality. And we can't know Him unless
He reveals Himself to us, right? And how does he reveal himself
to us? Through Christ. And it's Christ who reveals the
Father to us. So everything we know currently
about the Father, and everything we will know up until the day
we die, has all been revealed to us. We can't even take pride in what
we know, can we? Because it's all being revealed. But that's
good, isn't it? That's good. We don't want to take pride in
what we know. We don't want to say, well, I
know all this. No. That's not a humble spirit,
is it? No. We marvel like this, oh my
gosh, look what the Lord taught me. Don't we? That's the spirit
we have. Look what he's taught me. Look
what he's taught me by his grace and by his mercy. Now, again,
he must be revealed to us or we'll never know him. See the
word, the word knowing in verse seven, now they have known that
all the things whatsoever thou has given me are of thee. Now,
that word gnoska is defined in the Greek is to learn, to come
to know. We've come to know who the father
is, haven't we? Not by any learning, on our behalf, our behalf. He's
being revealed to us, hasn't he? Just as Joseph revealed himself
to his brethren, who he really was, the Lord Jesus Christ has
revealed the Father to us. Because in him, right, all the
fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily, right? He said, if you've
seen me, you've seen the Father. Oh my, it's wonderful. It also
means to get a knowledge of. We now have a knowledge that
we didn't have before. And as little as it is, right? We marvel
in it, don't we? That we now know these things.
We know that the Father sent Christ. I didn't know that before. Not even when I was way back
in my religious days as a Catholic, I had no idea about that. I just
knew they said He was the Son of God. But they never said the
Father sent Him. Isn't that wild? Yeah, it was
all about, yeah, it was all about her. Yeah, all about marrying
and stuff, all that stuff. It was awful. Yeah. But just think of this too. It
means to get a knowledge of, to perceive, and it's used in
the Greek of speaking about the intimacy between a husband and
a wife. Because only your husband and only your wife will truly
know who you are, other than God. God, of course, knows us
intimately, doesn't he? Intimately. But only a wife truly
knows her husband, and only a husband truly knows his wife. Now look, let's read that verse
again. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou has
given me are of thee. Again, before we were born again,
we didn't know who God was. We couldn't perceive him. We
had cooked in our mind who we thought he was, but it turned
out to not be who he was at all, right? And again, we can't come to this
knowledge on our own. Right? Knowledge that comes to
us on our own, what does it do? It puffs us up. This knowledge humbles us. This
knowledge brings us low. Because we know that the great
God and the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords has saved us. And you know why we can't come
to this knowledge? Because the scripture declares
we were enemies in our minds by wicked works to God. That
was our natural state. So how can one who's an enemy
in their mind, did you, I'll testify this too, did we even
want to know who God was before he saved us? I had no interest,
did you? Did we even want to know the
things of God before he saved us? No interest at all. Now, that's all we want to know
about, isn't it? Tell me about Christ. Tell me
about the Father. Tell me about the great love
for me that they've had for me from eternity, which still makes
our mind just fizz, doesn't it? But it's true. We could not have
this knowledge that all things whatsoever thou has given me
are of thee without God revealing this truth to us. And had God not been pleased
to reveal himself to us, we'd still be groping around dead
in our trespasses and sins. And the scripture says, aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenant
of promise having no hope and without God in this world. That
was our state. Now we have a hope, don't we?
What a hope we have! What a hope! Jesus Christ our
Lord, what a hope we have! The Lord Jesus Christ, and we
have God in this world. He's guiding us and directing
us and leading us. He always was, but we didn't
know it. Again, because we were enemies in our minds with Him.
And oh, how precious, how precious we are! Contemplate this week,
meditate upon this week. And how precious we are to Christ. How precious we are to him. We
don't think about that, do we? We get bogged down in our sin.
And we get we get. Low in the mouth, right? Oh Lord, I'm such a sir. Yeah,
we are. Yeah. But think upon how precious
we are to Christ. Think of the, we're so precious
to him that he redeemed us. That he gave his life for us.
That he shed his blood for us. That's how precious we are to
him. And think of how precious we are to the Holy Spirit. Here
we are dead in trespasses and sins, right? And he comes to
us. He comes to us, he finds us,
he finds God's lost sheep dead in trespasses and sins, love
and sin, hating God by our actions. We might not have ever said that,
but by our actions, that's exactly what our actions were declaring.
And he finds us in that state, beloved, and he doesn't leave
us there. He regenerates us. He gives us
faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And then think
of how precious we are to God the Father. Think about these
things this week. We're so precious to the Father
that he gave us to the Son, the Son of his love. He wouldn't just give his people
to anybody, would he? He gives them to the Son of His
love. He gives them to the Word of God. God the Father gives
us to the Word of God, who became flesh and dwelt among us and
died for our sins. And then He gives us to Christ,
and then He sends the Word of God into this world to die. to give his life for us, to die
in our room and place, to purchase our eternal souls with his blood.
And we who want enemies in our mind, you know what the scripture
now declares? That we're bought nigh by the blood of Christ.
Bought nigh, bought close to God, in fellowship with him again. We lost that fellowship when
Adam fell, didn't we? Now we gain that fellowship with
God in Christ, beloved. Oh, it's wonderful. God, the
Holy Ghost, who is he who is of pure eyes and to behold iniquity,
yet he condescends, the Holy Spirit condescends even, to make
the bodies of these poor sinners redeemed by the blood of Christ
his temple. Turn, if you would, to 1 Corinthians
chapter 6. Oh my, we're born again by the
Holy Spirit of God, aren't we? Oh my, look at this. Do you know
where the temple? The temple of God, beloved. Look
at this. 1 Corinthians 6, 19 and 20. What? Know ye not that your body is
the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you? He dwells in
us, beloved. Which ye have of God, Well, what
does that just say? We have that because of God.
The Holy Spirit's given to us because of God. Right? And you are not your own. We're
not our own anymore, beloved. There was a time when we lived
for self, wasn't there? Now we live for Christ. Isn't
that amazing? Look what it says. For you're
bought with a price. And oh, what a price, beloved. See, our salvation did cost someone. The Lord Jesus Christ shed his
blood. We're bought with the precious blood of Christ, beloved.
We're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. Therefore, glorify
God in your body and in your spirit, which are, what? Gods. We're gods by creation. We're
gods by choice, beloved. and were given to Christ by God. My, let's read verse seven again
in John chapter 17 with that in our minds. Let's go back to
John 17, seven. It says then, now they have known
that all things, that means God's people, that all things whatsoever
thou has given me are of thee. Remember last week I said God
put all his eggs in one basket? He sure did, didn't he? All in
Christ. And note that he was manifested to manifest God's name. Look
at verse six. I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world, thine they
were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word.
See where it says, they have kept thy word. That means we
believe the gospel. John Gill bought that forth.
That means we believe what Christ said. We believe the declaration
of our Lord. That he came from the Father.
We believe that. And that ties right in with our
verse, which says again, now they have known that all things
whatsoever thou hast given are of thee. He was manifested again. He was manifested. to reveal God to us, to those people whom the Father
gave him. And again, we've kept his words.
It says in verse six, again, that means to believe the gospel.
And we believe the gospel, don't we? We believe it. And our Lord, he emphasized that
the words which he spoke were the words of the Father. He emphasized
that all through the Gospels, and that the works that he did
were the Father's works. He always gave glory to God the
Father. And he also emphasized that he
came to do the Father's will, didn't he? Turn, if you would, to Hebrews
chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5. Do you know he didn't take upon
himself, he didn't make himself a high priest. God made him a
high priest, do you know that? God made him the high priest
of his people. Because the apostle wrote this,
in Hebrews 5.5, So also Christ glorified not himself to be made
a high priest, but he said unto him, Thou art my son, today have
I begotten thee. See, God the Father made him
a high priest of his people. He always sought the Father's
will, beloved. He always sought to glorify God,
the Father. And when the Father raised Him
from the dead and exalted Him, He gave assurance to all that
Jesus Christ is His anointed, ordained, and designated Redeemer. Scripture declares this. In the
times of this ignorance, God winked at, but now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent. Because he hath appointed a day
in which he will judge the world in righteousness. There's a great
day coming. There's a great day of judgment
coming. By that man whom he hath ordained, that's Christ, all
judgment is in Christ's hands. Wherever he hath given assurance
unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. That's
Acts 17 verses 30 and 31. Now look at Hebrews chapter 10. May we let all know that all
things such as all power. Now think of this. All power
has been given to Christ by who? The Father. All power over all
things, all spiritual gifts have been given to Christ. And all things pertaining to
the kingdom of God are of the Father. And they're His by appointment. His by appointment. His by decree. His by His divine will. So not only did God purpose and plan our salvation,
but it was all according to His divine appointment. And all according
to His divine decree. Isn't that amazing? He purposed
this in eternity. And what God says He's going
to do, He will do, won't He? And He shall not fail. So may
we let all know, all we meet, all who the Lord opens the door
for us, may we let them know that Christ is all power. All
power. And they're all His by appointment,
decree, and according to God's will. Look at this in Hebrews
chapter 10, verses 5 to 14. Wherefore, when He cometh into
the world, He saith, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldst not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. Now, all those Old Testament
sacrifices couldn't take away sin. They were pointing to the
One, the Passover Lamb of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who would
take away the sins of His people. Look what it says, in burnt offerings
and sacrifices for sin, thou had no pleasure. He wasn't satisfied
with them. Who's he satisfied? Who's God
satisfied in? Christ. He's satisfied with his
sacrifice, isn't he? In our room and place, beloved.
It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. And
then it says, then said I, lo, I come in the volume of the book.
It's written of me. This whole book is written about Christ. It's all about Christ. Why did
he come? To do thy will, O God. He came
to do the will of the Father, beloved. Now we believe that,
don't we? You know why? Because he's revealed
God the Father to us. And we believe what Christ says.
We didn't believe what he said before the Lord saved us. Now
we believe every word this word says. We believe it. I don't
understand it all, but I believe it all. My it comes from my king
It's authored by the Holy Spirit of God Look what it says above
verse 8 above when he said sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings
and offering for sin Thou wouldest not neither had his pleasure
therein which are offered by the law Then said he Again, he's
saying it. Hello. I Come to do thy will
Oh God He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. By the witch will, we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Once for all of God's elect. Once. One sacrifice for sin. The Lord Jesus Christ. See how
there's nothing we can do? Nothing. Christ offered himself
up once for all the sins of all his people. Once. And every priest standeth daily
ministering and oftentimes the same sacrifice, which could never
take away sins. Look at that, all those Old Testament
sacrifices could never take away sin. I once had somebody tell
me, I was talking to them one time, I couldn't believe this,
that they said this, But they told me, they said, God's people
are saved by the blood of Christ, but the Jews are saved by the
sacrifices. And I said, no, they're not.
Sacrifices can't save no one. Oh, no, they are. They're saved
by the sacrifices. I said, no, the scripture plainly declares.
And look what we see right here. In every priest standeth daily
ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, right? So
those ordained sacrifices that God had had those people offer,
right? He told him, you offer this for
this, you offer this for this, right? But they could never take
away their sins. They were pointing though. They
were pointing to the great one. They were pointing to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look at verse 12. But this man,
this being Christ, Jesus our Lord, after he offered one sacrifice
for sins. Now think of that. Look at that. One sacrifice for your sins,
Dave, for my sins, for Jill's, for Dee's, for all the elect
of all the ages. Think of that. One sacrifice
for all our sins. Now we have enough sin in us
to condemn thousands of souls to hell, don't we? Millions,
yeah, millions. And look at this. He offered
himself up for our sins once. And not just ours, but all the
life, all that the Father had given him. A number that you
can't even number. Can't even come close to numbering.
He offered himself up for all their sins. That's what the scripture
declares here. Look at that. Once. Offered up
one sacrifice. One. There was multiple sacrifices
in the Old Testament, right? Thousands of sacrifices. Could
never take away sin. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man,
God incarnated in the flesh, offered himself up once for sins. Look at this. Forever, too. Forever.
One sacrifice and our sins are forgiven forever! Isn't that
wonderful? Never to be remembered. ever
again by God. Oh, and then what did he do?
He sat down on the right hand, right hand of the Father, right
hand of God. You know why? Because it's finished.
There's no more work to do. That high priest, he had to keep
going, right? There's no chair in the Holy of Holies. But Christ,
he's done. He's finished the work and he's
sitting down. It's done. There's absolutely
nothing to be added to that work. And then look at this, from henceforth
expecting until his enemies be made his footstool, for by one
offering, look at this, hath he perfected forever them that
are sanctified. Now, we're still sinners, aren't
we? But in God's eyes, are we still sinners? Nope. We're clothed
in the righteousness of Christ. Perfect. In God's eyes. Isn't that amazing? And yet here
we are, we're still sinners going through this world. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Let's read verse 7 again of John
17. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. So we know, beloved
of God, by revelation of God, that all things that the Father
has given him were the Father's possession. and he's given them to Christ.
Think of this, all the temporal things in this world, all the
things that we see, all the galaxies that we don't see, all the fullness
of this world, all the fullness of heaven, all the fullness of the earth,
all power and governing in this world, All power and governing the whole
universe, everything that we see and that we don't see, everything
visible and invisible, is in Christ's hand, because it was
given to him by the Father. All power is our mediator, right? There's only one mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. God the Father gave him that,
that mediatorial office. My, all spiritual things are
found in Christ, the covenant of grace, with all its blessings
and promises. Even the Spirit of God is given
to us by him. Oh my, all his gifts, all his
graces, all his mercies towards us, eternal life in glory, everything
relating to the office of mediator of Christ being the one mediator
between God and man were given to him by the Father. All power, think of this too,
all power to perform the miracles that he did, right? He always
gave glory to God for them, didn't he? He always gave glory to God
for them. All knowledge, all knowledge
and wisdom that we have to preach as preachers has been given to
us by the Father through Christ, through Christ. All gifts that
God's people have been given to us through Christ by the Father. And think of this,
the strength for Christ to accomplish the salvation of his people was
given to him by the Father. The fact that Christ is the head
of the church was given to him by the Father. And the final
judgment of all the world was given to him by the Father. All these things, including we
who are the elect, we were given to Christ by the Father. My! And you know how all those things
happened? According to the good pleasure
of His will. Of the Father's will. All done
also by the Father's appointment. and all because of the great
love that God has for his son and the great love that God has
for his people who he gave to Christ. Why? That he might receive all the
glory and all the honor and all the praise, beloved. And he gets
it all from us, doesn't he? He gets it all. He gets it all. God receives all the glory from
his people. And even Christ sought to glorify
the Father while he was on this earth. That's what he did. My,
oh my. So this week, let us meditate
upon the fact of all these things that have been given to us through
Christ. It's remarkable, isn't it? It's amazing. One might say,
it's almost too good to be true. No, it's not. because it's given to us by God,
beloved, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And all we can
say is hallelujah, right? Praise his mighty name.