Open your Bibles if you would
to John chapter 17. The name of the message is Glorify
the Son. John chapter 17. Beloved of God, what a great
honor it is and a privilege that we have the scriptures. What
an honor, what a privilege that we have the scriptures. And what
an honor and a privilege that by God's grace we have an understanding
of the scriptures. Now what we know is a little
scratch on the surface, but don't we wonder in awe at what we know
about Christ and what he's revealed to us? Is it not honey to our
soul? I'm going to ask you a couple
questions here. Have you ever doubted your salvation?
I think every one of us has doubted our salvation. I think every
believer at some time has doubted their salvation. Have you ever
become anxious about things occurring in the world? Yeah, we get anxious
when we see things going on. Have you ever been so overwhelmed
in your life that it seemed that you had no hope? That the walls
are crashing in? Yeah? Well, rejoice so, beloved. Rejoice. In this wonderful prayer, in
this wonderful prayer, we see the great plan of salvation.
The old-timers used to call it the scheme of salvation. You
don't hear that very much anymore. The scheme of salvation, the
plan of salvation. And it's God's plan. It's God's
plan. And it was put together and thought
of and planned all by God in eternity. And then in time, that
which was purposed and planned came to pass in time. When Christ
Jesus our Lord entered into time, remember he was outside of time
and eternity. I read one commentator this week,
Martin Lloyd-Jones, and he said, time was invented so Christ could
come into this world and redeem our souls. So he could come in and redeem
his people from their sins. Wonderful thought. Wonderful
thought. But there's a great plan of salvation
unfolding as we read this And as we go through this prayer,
Christ is unfolding that plan too before us. He says, first
of all, he prays for himself in the first five verses. And
we're looking at verse one tonight. And then the second break is
he prays for the apostles. And then the third section of
this prayer is he prays for the church, who will hear the gospel
from those men by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. And Christ has finished the work
that God sent him to do. It is accomplished. He obtained
the eternal redemption. If you're a believer, if we're
believers, he obtained that for us. He obtained it, and we have
it right now while we're here on this earth. We have it right
now. Right now. And we see a blessed
fact brought forth in this prayer. The Son of God, the Word of God,
has prayed for us. Brother Dave, 2,000 years ago,
Christ prayed for you. Sister Dee, 2,000 years ago. Sister Ann, 2,000 years ago.
He prayed for us. He prayed for us. And you know
what he did? Again, Martin Lloyd-Jones brought
a beautiful fact out. He said that he gave us back
to the Father. And he prayed, Father, keep them.
Keep them. They're given to him. He's redeeming
them. And he says, Father, keep them.
Placing us in the Father's hands. Oh, my. It's incredible. So think of this, with hearing
that, what security we have. We doubt what security we have. See, I learned something today. When Satan attacks my mind, which
he does, when I doubt or when I get anxious, I'm going to say,
Christ prayed for me. Christ prayed for me. I don't need to
be anxious about the situation, because God himself prayed for
me, and he gave me to the Father's safekeeping. So when we're going
through things, when things seem to be crashing all around us,
just remember that, beloved. Christ prayed for you. No matter
what's going on, Christ prayed for you. And he's the, think of this too,
he's the one mediator between God and man, right? The man Christ
Jesus who gave himself a ransom for all. He gave himself a ransom
for all his people, all the elect of all the ages. See, that's
the verse that shook me out of Catholicism. There's one mediator. There's not multiple men who
you go to and say your words and they give you 10,000 prayers
to repeat. Number one, in repetition. God
doesn't want us praying in repetition, does he? And number two, that
man is just as lost as the person going to him. They can't help
him. He needs to be saved from his
sins, too. My, my, but what security. We who are the redeemed, what
security we have. Look at this in verse 24. Father,
I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with thee where
I am. He's giving us to the Father.
right that they may behold my glory which thou has given me
for that allows me before the foundation of the world he's
giving us to the care of the father verse 24 my it's wonderful beloved absolutely
wonderful so with these wonderful truths the security that we who
are the redeemed of the Lord have in Christ. Let's read the
first five verses here. 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. See, the Father has given Christ
all power over all flesh. He's the final judge. He's the final authority. My,
that he should, look at this. See, people say, well, eternal
life's as easy as just praying a prayer. No, it's not. You've heard me say many times,
can a dead man make themselves alive? Can a dead man pray a
prayer? Can a dead man walk an aisle?
No, not at all. We're dead spiritually. Absolutely
dead. Graveyard dead. But look at this.
Look what it says here. Isau has given him power. So
Christ has all power. Our Redeemer has all power. That
he should give what? Eternal life. He's the one. He's the giver of eternal life.
Because he has all power. So if he has all power, beloved,
can he keep us? No matter what this world throws
at us, no matter what circumstance comes at us, can He keep us? Absolutely He can, can He? Absolutely. Oh, look at that. And then who
is He going to give eternal life to? Well, the Armenians tell
you He gives it to everyone. They just have to choose it.
But that's not what the Scripture says. Look at this. To as many as thou hast given
Him, My, that means that there was a people who were given to
Christ by the Father, when? In eternity, before the world
began. Did we have anything to do with
that? No? We weren't even around, were
we? But see, He knows the end from
the beginning. He knows everyone who's ever gonna live on this
earth, He knows every event that's ever going to occur on this earth.
And you know, it's all going to happen. It's all going to
happen for our good and for His glory. So even the events we
see that we go, what is going on? It's being worked out for
God's glory. Somehow. Somehow. We don't see it all the time.
Henry Mahan said this, God will start a war to save one of His
lost sheep. That's what he said. to have one of his lost sheep
hear the gospel. Isn't that amazing? He'd have, that's incredible. Our God is absolutely sovereign,
beloved. So think of all those folks being
displaced from Ukraine. It's horrible what's going on
over there, isn't it? And you got soldiers on both sides dying
because of men in power, right? But what if God's heaven not
occur? So that one of those either Ukrainian people or maybe a Russian
soldier gets hurt and ends up going back, here's the gospel. See, we don't look at the big
picture, do we? Think of how he moved our grandparents. My
grandparents came from France to England, or from France to
Scotland to England, Canada and now here I am in the u.s. And
the Lord saved me by his grace under the preaching of a grace
preacher here When I heard him preach the gospel And now I'm a preacher which
I never thought I would ever be Wonder of wonders look what
he's done moving my family all those years and I had no idea
and they had no idea but God knew exactly where they were
going to be and all to bring me to this point now here preaching
to you in Alma. Isn't that incredible? Heaven,
our hearts all knit together in love. God's amazing. He's absolutely incredible. And then it says, and this is
life eternal. So what is eternal life? That they might know thee,
know God, the only true God. There's one true God, right?
Vicki and I were talking about how the Greeks and the Egyptians
and the Romans, they had all these intricate gods. You know,
the Romans had Mercury, the god of war, and they had, Greeks
had Zeus as the main god, and all these other demigods underneath
them. The Egyptians, same way, they had Ra, they had all these
other gods. Ra, I guess, was the god of the
sun. He was kind of like the Zeus of Greece. All false gods, beloved. And
you know something? You know something I noticed
about these gods? They always required man to do
something. And they were never satisfied.
Because they always had to keep doing something. Now think of
this. Our God's already satisfied. Amen. He's satisfied with the
death of Christ in our place, beloved. There's nothing we have
to do. We receive the gift, don't we?
But that's by God's grace too. Because we're born again in the
Holy Spirit of God. That's absolutely incredible,
beloved. Oh my, so this is a life eternal, that they might know
thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Christ was sent by God on a mission. We'll see that a little bit later.
He was sent here for a specific reason. And look what he says,
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. This is the God-man. This is
deity in the flesh, beloved. This is the sinless sacrifice.
Now, our Lord told the disciples that when they prayed, they were
to go They would go to go in their closet, their prayer closet.
And your prayer closet, I'll tell you what, your prayer closet
could be you in the car driving down the road. Could be you at
work, working away. I used to pray all the time when
I was on the construction site, praying all the time. Listening
to sermons, it was awesome. I got to listen to so many sermons.
It was like I went to Bible college, it was incredible. Listening
to sermons, listening to songs, praising the Lord, it was wonderful. Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Dave, you know what that freedom's
like. It was such a free job that way that I could do whatever
I wanted to, and it was wonderful. My. And when we think about these
things, our Lord said, but when thou enterest into thy closet,
and when thou hast shut the door, pray to the Father. We don't
have to pray in public. We don't have to stand on the
street corners and pray like the Pharisees used to do. We're
not praying to be seen of men, are we? When I ask you to pray
for me, I know you're praying for me at your home or wherever
you are. I know you're lifting me up. Again, Martin Lloyd-Jones
said, you want to know power in preaching? Look at all the
folks praying for the preacher. I have that here. You guys pray
for your preacher. I'm so thankful. I can't tell
you how thankful I am. My, oh my. But he said, when
thou prayest, when thou hast shut the door, pray to the Father
which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth thee in secret shall
reward thee. This is Matthew 6, verses 6 to 8. He said, but
when you pray, use not vain repetitions as the heathen do. Well, there's
a certain church that tells people to go pray 10 of this prayer
and 10 of that prayer. Is that not vain repetition like
the heathens do? We pray from our heart, don't
we? And you know, our prayer can be just like the publicans.
It don't have to be some long, drawn-out prayer, beloved. Folks
think they gotta go and pray for hours. Well, if you wanna
do that, then go ahead. That's wonderful. But our prayer
can be as short as the publicans saying, God, be merciful to me,
the sinner. Now, that was a prayer God heard. The Lord said, the
Lord heard that prayer. God heard that prayer, and that
man went home justified. It's wonderful. You start studying
Paul's prayers. They're not real long prayers.
Even this, this is what truly can be called the Lord's Prayer.
The prayer that we call the Lord's Prayer is a model prayer for
us. But this is a true prayer of the Lord, and it's only 26
verses long. Wonderful. Wonderful. Now, again, I'm not
against anyone praying as long as you want to. That's fine.
You know, I stop through the day and just talk to my king
whenever I want. Sometimes I just praise his name.
Get so excited about something, just give him praise. That's
all. But go in your closet and do
that. You don't have to be seeing a man. And it says, it says of
those that use vain repetition as the heathen do, for they think
they shall be heard, for they're not speaking. Their prayers are
bouncing off the roof. God don't hear them. He don't
hear them. It says, but And then it says,
be not ye therefore like unto them, for your father knoweth
what things ye need of before ye ask him. He already knows
what we need, beloved. Do you know he's made provision
for us for our whole journey through this earth? He's already
made provision for us for our whole life. It's all in Christ. And then he's made provision
for us for everything we go through. And it's not always what we want,
no, because then we'd destroy ourselves. but it's always what
we need. He always gives us what we need. So think upon this, that God's
plan of salvation is from eternity. He planned our salvation from
eternity. I want this, oh this is wonderful. Think of this, nothing in time
can alter that plan. God's plan of salvation for us
is from eternity, We were chosen in Christ from eternity. And
think of this, nothing in time, no circumstances, no wars, nothing can alter that. That is comfort. Isn't that wonderful? That is peace. Nothing in time,
nothing occurring in this world, can alter God's plan of salvation
for his people. Nothing. Not even us. Oh, praise
God, eh? Oh, praise God. That's wonderful. Now, I ask you, can you imagine
anything more comforting than that? That's comfort, eh? That's comforting. To know, and
also, think of this. Here's something else that's
more comforting, too. Christ is the vine. We're the branches. We're attached to Him, beloved.
We're attached to Him. Nothing can alter, nothing can
alter the plan of God's salvation. So our Lord in His life, He went
off, He went off and prayed by Himself to the Father. But here,
here we see Him praying after He's preached the sermon. Now,
I said, I think I said this last week, Read chapter 14, 15, and
16. That is the sermon by the Lord.
That is the greatest sermon that's ever been preached by the greatest
preacher in this world. Someone says, oh, such and such
is a great preacher. He ain't greater than Christ. The greatest
preacher in the world preached the greatest sermon in John 14,
15, and 16 that this world has ever heard. It's wonderful. Oh my, and he preaches it to
his disciples. And then here he cops it off.
Think of this too. The greatest preacher preached
the greatest sermon in the world, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he
cops it off with the greatest prayer ever uttered by a man. All our prayers are tainted with
sin. He's the sinless one. We see here the sinless man of
God. the sinless substitute praying to the Father, the greatest prayer
ever uttered by the greatest man. Oh, it's wonderful, beloved. Absolutely wonderful. He alone is sinless. And in chapter
14 to 16, our Lord and Savior tells his disciples that he goes
to prepare a place for them. In chapter 14, he says, I'm going
to go prepare a place for you. And where I am, there you'll
be too. You're going to be there. Sure as the sun comes up in the
daytime, we're going to be there. He's the head and we're what?
The body, right? Oh wow, where the head is, we're
going to be there too, right? Absolutely. And he also tells
them that he alone is the way, the truth, and the life. He's
the only access to the Father. He tells them that too. And then
he tells the disciples The apostles in, still in chapter
14, he says, I'm not going to leave you comfortless. I'm going
to send you the comforter. I'm going to send you the Holy
Spirit. And you know what he's going to do? He's not going to speak of
himself. He's going to guide you into all truth. Who's the
truth? Christ. Who's he going to point
us to then? Christ. Oh my, it's wonderful,
isn't it? He's going to teach us about
Christ. He's going to teach us the things of Christ. He's going
to show them. He's going to reveal the things of Christ to us in
the scriptures. And then in chapter 15, he brings forth the blessed
truth of the intimate union of Christ and his people. He's the
vine and we're the branches. This is all the same sermon that
he's preaching. See, I admit, I didn't see this
until I started studying this, and this is wonderful. It's all
one sermon. And he says, I'm the vine and you're the branches.
Then he says this, without me you can do nothing. Oh, amen. We admit that, don't we? We admit
that. I can't do nothing without you, Lord. Nothing, nothing without
you at all. My, oh my. And then, having told them this
precious truth of I'm the vine, and you're the branches, in chapter
15, then he says to them, the world hates you, and you're gonna
suffer persecution. But be of good cheer. I've overcome
the world. See, he first, I love this, because
look what our Lord does. First of all, he talks about
the blessed union that he has with his people. I'm the vine
and you're the branches. Right? We can't do anything without
him. Then he says, the world's gonna hate you. It hated me,
it's gonna hate you. Okay? But be of good cheer. I've
overcome the world. It's wonderful. And again, this
is all the same sermon. This is all the same sermon. And note how the Lord Jesus Christ
spoke of the union here with and before He told them about
the fact that they would be persecuted. So he tells them, you have a
vital union with me, and you're going to be persecuted. But don't
worry. I've already overcome the world.
So what comfort this would give them. You know, when I read this
and saw that tie-in, you know what came to my mind? These words
of Paul in Romans chapter 8. He said, for I am persuaded.
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature should be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Do
you know why? Because Christ prayed for us. Christ prayed
for us. He gave us to the Father and
gave us back to the Father. Because of that, because of that
vital union, nothing can separate us. Paul listed everything there,
didn't he? He listed principalities, the
spiritual things, and he listed the things upon this earth. Not even death, not even death
can separate us from Christ. It actually brings us into a
greater union with him. We get to see him in glory. Our
faith becomes sight. Oh my. And think upon this, God's
plan of salvation, the old-timers used to call it the scheme of
salvation, which means the plan of salvation, is from eternity.
Therefore, nothing can alter it. Absolutely nothing can alter
that plan. If it's from eternity, and it
is, and God's eternal, nothing, beloved, can alter that plan.
Nothing. And nothing happens in this world,
and I mean, there's stuff in this world that makes us tremble,
isn't there? Nothing in this world can alter that plan of
salvation. Absolutely nothing. Again, can you imagine anything
more comforting? My, oh my, Christ is the vine, we're the branches.
This is comforting truth, isn't it? This is comforting truth. It's comforting to know that
God the Son, God incarnate in the flesh, prayed for us. That God would keep us. Is anything
too hard for the Lord? Nothing. Oh, what peace floods
our souls, beloved. What security, what assurance.
What security and assurance. So nothing can alter God's plan
of salvation. This is wonderful truth. So let
we who are the born-again, blood-washed children of God rejoice. Let
us rejoice over this wonderful truth. May it fill our hearts
with praise for what he's done for us. We were maggots in a
dunghill. I remember Henry Mahan saying
that. We were maggots in a dunghill. And the Lord picked us up and
said, you're mine. You're mine. I redeemed you with
my precious, precious blood. shed at Calvary's cross, and
the Father raised me for your justification to show that he's
satisfied with my sacrifice. Oh, praise be to the Lord Jesus
Christ. And think again that we who are
the born-again, blood-washed saints of God are safe and secure
in the Father's hands, in the Son's hands. We are kept by God
Almighty. And in this high priestly prayer,
we see again the whole scheme of God's salvation unfolding.
We're going to see that as we study this wonderful, wonderful
prayer. The Father gave a people to the
Son. The Son finished the work. The Holy Spirit regenerates and
draws us to Christ. And then God makes sure, keeps
us, and we go to glory. Spurgeon used to say, if I could
lose my salvation, I'd lose it a thousand times a day, just
in the morning, from my bed to my breakfast table. That's how
sinful we are, beloved. That's how sinful we are. Oh
my. So he's manifested the Father's
name to the apostles, then he prays for the preservation of
his saints, of all the church, of all the elect, of all the
ages. Remember he said, remember he
told Peter, Satan's desire to sift you like wheat. But what
did he say? But I prayed for you. Oh my! Peter denied Christ three
times, and Christ says, Peter, do you love me? Peter, do you
love me? Peter, do you love me? Not one
word of condemnation. He prayed for him. Well, John
17 says he prayed for you and I, beloved. Oh, my. Brings it home, doesn't it? Peter
was constantly sticking his foot in his mouth, just like us, right? My, oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, it's wonderful. God's grace
is just incredible. Glory be to God. What a God.
What a Savior is Christ our Lord. Now let's read verse one again,
keeping all that in our mind. These words spake 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. So let's contemplate
who the gracious speaker is. This is none other than God in
the flesh. This is none other than the word
of God. John tells us the word of God
was with God and was God in the beginning, right? And then the
word became flesh and dwelt among us. This is who it is. This is
the Lord Jesus Christ. What a glorious speaker. And
he's unfolding his heart before us. He's unfolding His heart. We see He has a heart for the
Father, doesn't He? But not just Him, He has a heart
for the apostles, and He has a heart for you and I. We see
in the latter parts of this prayer. Oh, His heart just pours out
in love for His people. He loves us so much He gave His
life for us. Gave His life for us. So again, he's been unfolding
his heart in the fullness of his love to his people all through
chapter 14 to 16. He's been talking to them about
eternal matters. And now we see his heart, he
opened his heart in these first five verses to the Father, whom
he loves. Whom he loves. And remember also,
he's our great mediator, right? And we see that in the middle
of this prayer, in the end of this prayer, as he's interceding
for his people. When it says he prayed for us,
he's interceding for us. That's what he's doing right
now. He's a mediator right now between God and man for us. He's
mediating at the Father's hand. See my blood, Father? See my blood? Oh, my. That's why the saints are saying,
worthy is the Lamb. Oh, he gets all the glory and
honor and praise. And this is our great mediator
praying this prayer. So let this be a source of comfort
for us again. And I'm going to keep saying
this through the study, Christ prayed for us. Christ prayed
for his people, the redeemed of the Lord. We're part of that
great number that he mentions. So the speaker here then is the
second person of the Trinity. Six times in this prayer, he
says, Father. The first one is what we just
looked at in verse one, right? Then 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. Then in verse
11, And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world.
And I come to thee. Holy Father, he calls them. He's
the Holy One, isn't he? Holy Father, keep thou thine
own name, those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one
as we are one, as we are. And in verse 21, that they may
be one as thou, Father, art in me, I in thee, And they also
may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent
me. There's the oneness. I'm the vine, you're the branches.
There it is. And then verse 24. Father, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory which thou gavest me. which thou has given me,
for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. And
then verse 25, six times, O righteous father. Now he calls, he called
him Holy Father, which is a wonderful title of our God. Now he calls
him, O righteous father. And remember, this is the righteous
one. This is the just one, scripture says, which means righteous.
This is the righteous one praying to the righteous father. The
sinless sacrifice. And remember, he's in full submission
to the Father. He's in full submission to the
Father. We see it here, don't we? We see it here. But he says,
O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have
known thee. When did he know him? In eternity.
In eternity. And these have no one that thou
has sent me. We believers, do we not know
that God sent Christ? That's a revelation, beloved.
Not everybody in this world knows that. We rub shoulders with people
all the time who have no clue that God sent Christ into the
world. And you know what, Brother Dave,
you and I can testify, we did not know Christ was sent by the
Father before we were saved. Because I had a God cooked up
in my imagination. I thought I knew who God was, but he is
God in my imagination. He turned out to be a penitent
God, like Henry Mahan said. He couldn't do nothing unless
I let him. Not so with the God of the Bible. Oh, my. He does what he will, when he
wills, and the armies of heaven and all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing before him. And yet He has mercy
on those that are considered nothing before His eyes. We who
are the people of God. We're something in His eyes.
We're His jewels, beloved. He looks at us, when it says
precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of a saint, that
word precious is like a precious jewel. Remember when I was preaching
Brother Richard's funeral and that came up when I was studying
that. That's like a precious gem. We're
like precious gems to the Lord, beloved. My, oh my. He died for us. He bled for us. Note in verse one, he lifts his
eyes to heaven. Look what it says here. 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. You know why he lifted his eyes
up to heaven? He's looking homeward. He's looking homeward. He's looking
to where the father has his throne. He came from there. He left home. He left eternity to come to the
sin-cursed world to die for you and I. Now he's looking homeward. Father. He says, Father, the hour has
come. He's lifting his eyes homeward, beloved. He's laid aside his
glory while he was here on this earth. And now he's looking homeward. You ever been on a long journey
and you get close to home and you're looking and you see your
house, you see your home and you're like, home. Sister, you and Jim were in Egypt
for years sometimes. You come back to home. Home. When my mom was alive, she was
in the house that I was raised in. And she lived there until
just before she died. And when I went home, I tell
Vicki, when I went home, I went home. I went home to the house I grew
up in. Well, the son's looking. He's laid aside his glory. He
came to this world to save his people from their sins. And now
he looks homeward. He looks to where the Father
is on his throne. The cross is set before him.
He knows the time's short. He knows the time is short, beloved.
He knows what's going to happen. He knows what He's facing. And
just as He willingly gave up His life, He willingly goes to
that cross for us. And this also indicates, when
He lifts His eyes to heaven, it indicates His soul and His
heart is dedicated to God. Looking to the Father. Lifted
up to the Father. He's lifting up his head to the
seat of divine majesty. That's where the father is. The
throne of his father. And this shows again the affection
that our king had for the father. That our Lord had for the father
and has for the father. And it also shows the confidence
that he has of divine favor from God. It shows that his mind was filled
with devotion. and faith, and was void of shame
and fear. Why? Because the redemption of
His people is set before Him. It's set before Him. The way
of the cross is set before Him, and He's ready to do that which
the Father sent Him to do. He's ready to do it. Why did He come here? Well, look
at the next part of the verse. We see the next part of the verse
proclaims, Father, the hour has come. Now one may read this and
say, what hour? What hour? I know before I read
the scripture, or before the Lord saved me, reading the scriptures,
I would ask that question, what's this hour? What's this hour? Do you know time's been ticking
since the fall of Adam? Do you know time's been ticking
since the fall of Adam to this great moment? To this great moment? This grand
and momentous moment when the Prince of Life would hang upon
a cross and die for us? Do you know that this is the
greatest event of all time? This is the greatest event in
the scripture, or in this world. Greatest event this world has
ever seen. The greatest accomplishment, also, that the world has ever
seen. Of which the Lord of Hosts referred
to when He said, I will remove the iniquity of that land in
one day. Has He not removed our iniquity? And what's the reason for this
hour? Well, Matthew 1.21 says this,
and she, being Mary, shall bring forth a son. And this is an angel
speaking to Joseph, and he said, and thou shalt call his name
Jesus. You know what it says next? For he shall save his people
from their sins. He shall. Now, you've heard me
say many times, big doors swing on little hinges, don't they?
This is what you call a hinge word. Big truth swinging on one
little word called shall. He shall save his people from
their sins. And he did it, beloved. Praise
be to God. He did it. When he cried, it is finished.
It's perfect. It's brought to perfection. Oh,
what a Savior. And how will he save his people
from their sins? By the giving of his life on
Calvary's cross. By the shedding of his precious
blood to ransom the souls of his people. To make himself an
offering. He offers himself up to God in
our place, beloved. This is what the plan of salvation
had purposed and planned. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit purposed this in eternity. Here's Christ. He's come to this world and there
he is dying in our room in place Giving his life for us He must go to that cross notice
notice in John 17, he's not saying well, I don't think I can do
this He knows he must go to the cross he must go that Wayne Boyd
would be redeemed He must go that Dave would be redeemed,
that Anne would be, that Dee would be redeemed. He must go.
He must. He must go to redeem our eternal
souls, beloved, to obtain eternal redemption for us. Because we
can't attain eternal redemption, can we, by anything we do? We
can't even pay for one sin, let alone billions. Oh, he paid it
all, beloved. And he gave his life all according
to the plan of salvation. which was purposed before time
began. Before there was ever time, God
had planned this all. Time was made so Christ could
come into this world, beloved, to redeem us from our sins. And
you know what? When it's all done, there'll
be no more time. God's out time, he's outside. I remember the
old times, I was reading one old time, I almost fell over
one day because I never even thought of this. He said, God
dwells outside of time and space. There's no time with God. He's
in eternity. Our loved ones who's went to
be with the Lord are in eternity. There's no time where they are,
beloved. They will be rejoicing with the Lord and we soon will
be too, forever. Can you put any time on forever? What are we saying? Amazing grace, how sweet the
sound. What's that one? When we've been there 10,000 years,
bright shining as the sun, we've no less days to sing God's praise
than when we first begun. I remember hearing, I think it
was Spurgeon said, it's like one bird, one little chickadee
bird, moving a mountain one pebble
at a time. You can't measure that, can you?
I've seen some big mountains out in Oregon. I'll tell you
what. One pebble at a time? Oh my goodness. Oh my. Oh, it's amazing. So he must go. And sinner friend,
anyone who's listening to this who does not know Christ, sinner
friend, come beside we who are the redeemed of the Lord. Come
beside us. We who are but saved sinners. That's all we are. God's
people are just saved sinners, and gaze upon the sinless one.
Gaze upon the Lord Jesus Christ, giving his life for sinners.
Hear his great cry. It is finished. There he is, the sinless one,
dying for sinners, giving his life for us. Cast yourself wholly
upon Christ, just as we who are the redeemed of the Lord have
done. That's what we've done. That's all we've done is cast ourselves
upon Christ. Cast ourselves at his feet by
God's grace and mercy. See, we wouldn't do that by nature,
would we? Nope. Thy people shall be made willing
in the day of God's power. Hallelujah. Oh, what a Savior. So we talk to our friends and
we say, are you a sinner? Has God shown you you're a sinner
yet? Oh my. If he has, flee to him. There's
no other hope for sinners. We who are the redeemed will
tell you that. Again, we're just saved sinners.
We're no better than anyone else. As a matter of fact, we're probably
worse. Right? Amen. We are. My. And my, what a Savior. And we who are the beloved of
God, let us look at this and marvel this text, marvel that
the time is fast approaching when our Lord's praying this
prayer for our redemption, for the redemption of our souls.
It's fast approaching. Time was fast approaching when
our blessed Lord was going to suffer, suffer in our room and
place. when the full wrath of God would
fall upon him. The old timers used to say, God took out his sword, took out
his sword of justice that was due us and plunged it into the
chest of Christ, to the hilt. My, my beloved. What a Savior. And this hour,
think of this too, this hour that he's speaking of, was agreed
on by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in eternity. When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth his Son. When the fullness of time was
come, and the same thing is of his death, right? It was appointed
by the Father that he would die at the exact second. that He
died to redeem our souls. Nothing is by accident, is it?
Nothing is by chance. This is all planned and purposed
by God. And it was welcomed. Christ is welcoming this. You
know why? Because we're His bride. He's going to save His bride.
Those who the Father gave Him in love, He in love is going
to redeem them by the shedding of His precious, precious blood.
One commentator said he spoke with pleasure and satisfaction
that this would quickly be over. And think of that, this time
of great trouble, this time of great distress was going to soon
come to an end. And in all that, He never sinned.
He's perfect. Again, I've always said, in His
life, He's sinless, and in His death, He's sinless, beloved.
He's perfect. He's the God-man. Now let's read
verse 1 again of John chapter 17. It says, These words spake
Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father,
the hour is come. Again, that's the hour of His death. Glorify
thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. Look at the latter
part of this verse. Glorify thy son that thy son
may also glorify thee. Note these words. These words are spoken of by
Christ as the mediator of his people. He's the great mediator. He needs no glory. He's the son,
right? He needs no glory. Nothing can
add glory to the son. No one can add glory to the son.
He's already, he, oh my, nothing can be added to
him. So he's praying as our mediator here, beloved. He's praying as
a man. This is the man Christ Jesus
praying. So that God, and he's praying that God the Father would
uphold him and keep him at this coming hour. My, oh my. The cross is set before him.
The redemption of our eternal souls is set before him. He's
sent here to save his people from their sins. He says he shall
save his people. He knows he must go. And think of this too. He's going
to accomplish our salvation upon that tree. When he gives his
life for us, when he sheds his blood at ransom for our souls.
You know he's about to conquer all our enemies? our enemies. He's about to conquer all our
enemies. You know all our enemies have already been conquered? Every single one. Amen. Every
single one, brother. Every single one. You know how
He's going to conquer all our enemies? By His death on the
cross. He's about to conquer our sins,
isn't He? The sinless one is about to pay
the price that God demands for the ransom of our souls, and
not just ours, but the souls of all the elect of all the ages. He's about to pay for our sins
with the shedding of His blood. That's the ransom cost. Precious,
precious blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's what? No remission of sins. So Christ dies in the riven
place of his people and sheds his precious blood. And this
isn't the blood of any man, just a mere man. This is the blood
of the God-man. This is the blood of the God-man, beloved. There's
power in the blood. He's about to conquer all of
our enemies. You know who else is about to conquer? Satan. He's
going to crush his head. But Satan's only going to bruise
his heel. You know what that means? Just his humanity. He's
gonna crush Satan. And think, if Satan got all them
folks right up, crucify him, crucify him! Not knowing it's
gonna lead to his own destruction. Isn't that incredible? And all this is happening according
to the foreknowledge of God, according to the determined plan
of God. And He's also gonna conquer death
for us. Death has no more sting for the believer. Christ has
conquered it. He's overcome the world. He's
overcome the devil. He always had the power to overcome
him. He always was. But for us, He overcome them.
Now He's overcoming death, too, for us. Death has no more sting,
Paul wrote. Why? Because Christ died for
us. My oh my. He's about to attain eternal
redemption for all that the Father gave him. Sinners, from the top
of their heads to the bottom of their feet. Me, I'm included
in that number. Born a sinner, dead in trespasses
and sins, and made alive in Christ by the regenerating power of
God the Holy Spirit. Why? Why do I now cry Abba Father? Why do you guys now cry Abba
Father? Turn quickly to Galatians. Galatians. We're going to be hitting this
down the road. It's going to take us a while to get there. Galatians chapter 4. Look at
this. Verse 1. Now I say that the heir,
as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though
he be lord of all. Dead in trespasses and sins,
but yet a child of God. We just don't know it. but is
under tutors and governors until the time, what? What's the time? The time appointed of the Father.
You know, there was an appointed time when we heard the gospel.
And that time was appointed by the Father. That's what it says
right here. Even so, when we were children, we were in bondage
under the elements of the world. Oh, we were dead in trespasses
and sins. Look at this. But when the fullness of time
was come, God sent forth a son made of a woman, made under the
law to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. And look at this marvelous verse.
And because ye are sons, sons from when? Sons from eternity. God, look at this, hath sent
forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts. Look at that, God
did that. Not man by a decisional regeneration
praying some prayer. People say you have to have faith,
faith before regeneration, and then you're born again once you
have faith. You can't have faith unless you're born again. God
has to what? Send forth his spirit into your
hearts. You must be born again. And then
what? Then he's going to give you faith
to believe then. And then what are you going to
do? What are you going to do after that? Look at this. Crying. What do we cry now? I have a
father. Amen. I have a father. That's
what we cry now. Oh, it's wonderful, beloved.
We didn't cry that before. Now we cry it out to the Lord.
It's absolutely wonderful. So Christ is about to glorify
God by his death. He's glorified God in his life.
Now he's about to glorify God in his death. He's about to accomplish
that which he was sent forth to do, to save his people from
their sins. Remember, during his life, he's
weaving that perfect coat of righteousness for us by obeying
the law to the letter. in our place. So he's our substitute
in his life, isn't he? And then now he's going to be
our substitute in our death. In his death. My redeeming his people by his
perfect perfect sin atoning work on the cross perfect sin atoning
work Thereby saving his people from their sins, and he's soon
to ascend to heaven and what's he? What'd he do when he led
went to heaven he led captivity captive didn't he beloved? Oh,
he led captivity captive and And he was raised for our justification.
God saw the sacrifice of Christ and was satisfied. And he raised
him from the dead. We're gonna look at this this
Sunday. Oh, raised for our justification, beloved. My, it's wonderful. And then what happens after that?
When we're born again, what do we do? Now we're glorifying God,
aren't we? We're glorifying God now. Absolutely wonderful. So here we see our great high
priest, Praying for us, speaking to the Father as our great mediator. May the Holy Spirit of God comfort
us with what we've looked at tonight. I'll finish with this.
I'll finish with this. Let we who are the redeemed of
the Lord rejoice no matter what comes our way in our lives. No matter what we go through,
knowing that nothing can alter God's plan of salvation for us. If you're saved, you're saved
forever. Forever. I mean, God saves his
people and God keeps his people. No man can alter God's plan of
salvation. Satan can't alter God's plan
of salvation. Circumstances can't alter God's
plan of salvation. Nothing in heaven and nothing
in earth can alter God's plan of salvation. So let we who are
the redeemed of the Lord remind ourselves that the grasp of Christ's
hand never slackens. He has us in his hands. And the
power of Christ's arm never fails. Never. And the love of Christ's
heart towards us never changes.