Right, turn back with me then
to John chapter 17. Now, we looked in the first five
verses last week at heavenly war room councils. The fact that
here is a man who is God, speaking with his Father in heaven, who
is spirit that no man can see or has ever seen. And there were
some people, 11 lowly men of low learning and occupation,
just fishermen and tax collectors, the 11 apostles that were left
with him, listening to the man who is God, looking like a man,
speaking. in heaven with his father. Amazing
thing. And coming back to it, I was
thinking about moving on, but these verses are too rich to
leave after just one message. So please bear with me if we
spend some more time, a little bit of time, here in these verses. Particularly, I want to come
back to verses 2 and 3, where the Lord Jesus Christ prays in
the hearing of his disciples to his Father and says, he said,
well, in verse 1, the hour has come, glorify thy son that thy
son also may glorify thee. How? As thou hast 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, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. You know, there's religion going
on all over the world. There's church services within
a mile or two of where we are now. And I guarantee you, nobody
will be talking about the heavenly truth that is in these verses. These are rich verses. The object
is the glory of God. As Christ is glorified in his
redeeming grace, so God the Father is glorified. That's how God
is glorified. It's by Christ in his redeeming
grace. His redeeming grace is the paying
the price for the forgiveness of sins. God doesn't just forgive
sins. He doesn't just sweep sins under
the carpet. They're paid for, and it was
Christ's precious blood that paid that price. God's glory
is in the salvation of sinners. God's glory is in the qualification
of those who are sinners and hell-deserving for eternal glory. The whole triune Godhead is glorified
in the just salvation of hell-deserving sinners. You see, the triune
God, one God, but in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Spirit, and the Father chose a people, in Christ, before time,
in sovereign grace, driven purely out of love. Nothing else, nothing
to do with dessert, nothing to do with wages earned, for the
wages of sin is death. This is the gift of God, eternal
life. The Father chose a multitude
that no man can number. He chose, you say your doctrine
of election is so narrow, The Scripture constantly talks about
a number that no man can number. As innumerable as the sand on
the seashore is innumerable. Now that's quite a lot, isn't
it? The triune Godhead is glorified in that. The Father chose them.
The Son became a man. Why? To satisfy divine justice
for the multitude of people, mankind, that the Father chose.
The Father, God, in the essence of His spirit nature, cannot
paid the price of the sin of man. He had to become man to
pay the price of sin, to satisfy the law, so that as Galatians
tells us, Galatians chapter 4, no, sorry, 3, 13, isn't it? How
was it that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law? The
curse of the law, the soul that sins, it shall die. How has Christ
redeemed, paid the price for His people from the curse of
the law? he became that curse for them. He was made that curse
for them when he was crucified on the cross of Calvary, bearing
the sin of his people. He became man to satisfy divine
justice for the multitude that the Father chose. And the Spirit
of God, the Holy Spirit of God, gave life to each and every one
of them. in quickening grace, so that you who were dead in
trespasses and sins, says Ephesians 2 verse 1, he has quickened,
he has made alive, the Spirit came and made alive. This is
just what 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 2 says of the people of
God, that they are Don't go telling me that this doctrine of election
is a narrow doctrine, and if you must be some weird crank
at the extreme of Christianity you'll believe it. Listen to
1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 2, speaking to the people of God.
Are you amongst the people of God? Well, you're elect according
to the foreknowledge of God the Father. That doesn't mean that
he knew beforehand who would choose him. That foreknowledge
is a foredetermination. elect according to the foreknowledge
of God the Father, through how? The sanctification of the Spirit.
The Spirit set us apart and made us alive unto obedience and sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus. The Spirit set us apart for sprinkling
of the blood of Jesus Christ, which, as all of the Old Testament
sacrifices shows, is the means by which symbolically the sin
of the people is taken away, and thereby those people are
qualified for eternal glory. This really is the summary of
all the revealed purposes of God, and you contrast that with
the error of religion, with its exaltation of man and the will
of man. God is glorified in the salvation
of his people by sovereign grace and grace alone, not of works
lest any man should boast. But in verse 2, our Lord Jesus
Christ says this, and the disciples heard him say it, as thou hast
given him, the Son of Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, as thou hast
given him power over all flesh, power over one man, power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given him. Think of the situation. Here
he is, they've had the last supper. Judas Iscariot has gone out to
betray him. Here he is, a seemingly weak
man. There he is. Isaiah tells us
there was no comeliness that we should desire him. He didn't
look like some supreme example of strong, bounding, supremely
strong humanity. A seemingly weak man. A man soon
to be bound, tied up. A man soon to be mocked. by the
Jews and by the Roman soldiers, a man soon to be spat upon, and
scourged with whips, and nailed to a cross and crucified. This
seemingly weak man, this is Almighty God, manifest in a human body. The fullness of the Godhead dwelt
bodily in him, Paul tells the Colossians, Colossians 2 verse
9. The fullness of the Godhead, Not just a little bit of it,
not glimpses of it, the fullness of the Godhead dwelt bodily in
him. And here he is speaking intelligible
words in the hearing of fallen mortal men, those that were his
apostles around him. Many say there is little or no
evidence for the reality of God, but the knowledge of God is by
revelation. It's by revelation. If God is
pleased to reveal himself to you, then you will know him.
Romans 10 verse 20 quotes Isaiah. God says this, I was found of
them that sought me not. Are you a believer? I guarantee
you can remember a time when you did not seek God, and yet
God was found of you because he caused you. You know that
hymn that we haven't sung for a while? I sought the Lord and
afterward I knew he moved my soul to seek him seeking me. God says I was made manifest
unto them that ask not after me. You know, people who have
no interest in the things of God, he comes and he reveals
himself. He revealed himself to these
apostles. He reveals himself to his people in these days.
So here he is, the Son of Man, God clothed in human flesh. The
eleven apostles had finally seen, you know, he taught them and
taught them three and a half years, but they'd finally seen
and understood in a measure the reality of this teacher's origin
and destiny. Look at verse 30 of chapter 16.
Now, they say to Jesus, 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. Jesus answered them. Do you now believe? Yes, they
did. They understood. They understood what he'd said
to them. Look in chapter 17, verses 6
to 8, Jesus says, I have manifested thy name, the name of God, 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. For I have given unto them the
words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and
have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have
believed that thou didst send me. They testified of that in
the previous chapter, verse 30 of chapter 16. So though appearing
weak, yet he, this man, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ,
yet he is given power from heaven by God over all flesh. Oh, surely you say, no, not all
flesh, I mean, look how much of it rebels against him. No,
power over all flesh. What power? The power to give
eternal life. eternal life. What is life? What is the meaning of life?
What is it? This consciousness, what is it? This life force that
dwells in these bodies that we are. You look out of the window
on a day like today, it's a glorious sunny day here, and spring is
bursting forth on the equinox today, and the flowers are blooming. The handiwork of God is absolutely
everywhere. I find it staggering. It's only
the blindness of unbelieving man that persuades him to think
that this put itself together. You know, like an explosion in
a builder's yard, all the bricks fly up in the air and they come
down a perfectly furnished mansion with all the pipe work and the
electricity doing everything that it needs to do. Would you
ever believe anything so nonsensical as that? Of course you wouldn't.
Well, why do you believe what these unbelieving people tell
you, that this world and it's this creation put itself together?
Of course not. God did it. This One who is in
control over all things, He has given to the Son power over all
flesh, the power to give eternal life. You living people, but
mortal people, people who are going to die, we're all going
to die, conscious creatures appointed to die and face God's justice.
It's appointed to man to die once and then the judgment, says
Hebrews 9.27. If you would have the eternal life of God, not
just a fleeting life here and now, and then the candle's blown
out and that's the end of it. If you would have eternal life,
life without any constraint of time, He, God, must give it to
you, and God the Father has delegated to God the Son that power to
give eternal life. To whom? To whom? You see, you
can't earn it, you can't demand it, you can't merit it, He must
give it to you. But He only has power, look what
it says in verse 2, that He should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given Him. He cannot give it to anybody
other than the ones that the Father has given to the Son.
He only has power to give eternal life to those that the Father
gave to him in electing grace. Before time began, before the
world was created, an innumerable multitude of humanity to come
was loved by God with everlasting love, betrothed by the Father
to the Son as his bride for eternal matrimony. Ephesians 1 verse
4, you know it well. According, says Paul, as He,
God, has chosen us in Him, Christ Jesus, before the foundation
of the world, that's when it was, before the first second
of time ticked by, before then, chosen in Christ. 2 Timothy 1
verse 9, God, who has saved us and called us with an holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began. Why am I telling you these things?
Why am I preaching such a narrow thing as the doctrine of election,
which is so clearly here in the word of God? Surely it's going
to shut multitudes out of heaven, isn't it? That's what religion
says. No, not at all. Not at all. Is God calling you?
Are you hearing him call you? If that's the case, he's determined
to save you. And how do you know that you're
not amongst the multitude that he's saved? If he's calling you,
he says, come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. He says that it's the Father's
will that all that he's given him should come to him, and he
who comes he will in no wise cast out. Come to Christ, believing
him, trusting him, Lord, speak to me, show me your truth, cause
me to believe. We can plead mercy, we cannot
earn, we cannot demand eternal life, but we can plead mercy
from God that he be gracious and show us that we're in the
Lord Jesus Christ and that we were redeemed by the Lord Jesus
Christ when he died in our place on the cross of Calvary. So in
what is Christ's power given by the Father vested? In what
does it rest? It rests in his obedience, we
read it in 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 2, his obedience and blood
sprinkling. In that, that he was obedient
unto death, even the death of the cross. He was obedient to
his father's will. The cup of the eternal wrath
of God against the sins of his people that must be drunk down
to the very last dreg. If the people are to be saved,
he drank it. Nevertheless, not my will but
thine be done. He drained that cup to the dregs,
to the end of it. The cup of the wrath of God.
To pay the price of liberty from the curse of the broken law.
To pay the price of liberty. But it's only for the multitude
given by the Father to the Son. Only for that multitude. You
say, it's a multitude. Yes, I know, it seems like a
contradiction in terms, doesn't it? It's only for the multitude
given by the Father to the Son. There is an error going around.
It's been going around for hundreds of years. And the error is this,
that Jesus Christ died for sins. He died for the sins of the whole
of mankind. and that mankind makes that death
effectual for themselves only if and when they believe it.
That is not what the Scriptures teach. It isn't. It isn't. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't
die for everybody that ever lived. He died for the multitude that
the Father gave to the Son before the beginning of time. That blood
was not sprinkled to make redemption a possibility for all. It was
particular redemption. It was limited in extent to that
elect multitude that no man can number, who are manifested, look
at verse 20 of chapter 17, neither pray I for these alone, but for
them also, which shall believe on me through their word. They're
manifested the great multitude, by their belief of the gospel
preached. How did Paul know the Thessalonians
were elect of God? We're bound to give thanks to
God for you, beloved, because God has from the beginning chosen
you unto salvation through sanctification of the Spirit, there it is, what
Peter said, sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the
truth. Your belief of the truth shows
that you're among that great multitude that no man can number. And so what do we cry? Are you
warmed? Are you moved? Do you want to
know the assurance of eternal salvation? Do you want to know
that it is well with your soul? Do you want to know that when
the day comes, when you're taken from this life, to be absent
from the body is then to be present with the Lord? Do you want that?
Do you want that? Cry to Him for mercy. There's
a hymn that says, Savior, dear Savior, hear my humble cry. While on others thou art calling,
do not pass me by. Oh please, I can't call out anything
else. Have mercy on me, like those
begging by the wayside, begged of the Lord Jesus Christ. Master,
have mercy on me. Election, the election of God,
is unto eternal life. You have given him power over
all flesh that he should give. Eternal life to as many as thou
hast given him. It's unto eternal life, but what
is eternal life? The gift of eternal life. This
is life eternal. This is the gift that God in
Christ gives to his people, to those that the Father gave to
the Son. This is eternal life, that they might know thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Knowing
the only true God, and Jesus Christ. What does that mean?
What is it, to know the only true God and Jesus Christ? Because
in that, you have eternal life. If you don't know Him, you don't
have life. We read it in 1 John chapter 5 earlier on. You must
have the Son to have eternal life. You must have, be in, the
Son of God. God is spirit. hidden from the
natural man. You know the things of God, they're
not known. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, they're foolishness to him, neither
can he know them. Why? Because they're spiritually discerned.
You cannot as a natural man in your flesh, the state you're
born, know God. How are we going to know God
and Jesus Christ whom he has sent? You know, in Exodus 33,
where Moses was shown the glory of God, God stresses, there shall
no man see me and live. Look at, just as an example of
this, look at Judges chapter 13 and verse 22. And Manoah said unto his wife,
we shall surely die because we have seen God. This is the father
of Samson, you know, in the book of Judges. And they were told,
you know, the land was in a bad state with the Philistines and
Israel was subdued because of its evil, because of its sin. And Manoah and his wife were
visited by the angel of the Lord, which is a pre-incarnate manifestation
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the manifestation of God.
No man's seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who is
in the bosom of the Father, he has manifested him, he has made
him known. And he came to these two in these days. and they realised
that they had seen God. And Manoah said, knowing the
scripture, knowing what the books of Moses, he said, we shall surely
die because we have seen God. That was the expectation. You
cannot see God and live. No man shall see me and live.
And yet we must see God. We must know God. This is life
eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. We must know Him. We must
know God and possess the life of God to be as Peter again,
2 Peter 1, verse 4, talks about his people, the believing people
of God, being partakers of the divine nature. We must know God,
who is the source of life, who is inherently unknowable to sinful
man. And he is unknowable except for
one thing only, and that is the manifestation of God by his Son. I've already said it, here it
is again, John 1 18. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. So that
Jesus the man said to his disciples, if you turn back a couple of
pages to John chapter 14 and verse 8, you know I often quote
this, Philip, it's the same conversation that started in chapter 13 and
runs right through to where we are in chapter 17. But in John
14 verse 8, Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father
and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I
been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And how sayest thou
then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am
in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak
unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth
in me. He doeth the works. How do we know, how do we see
the invisible, unseeable God who no man shall see and live?
We see him in the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the manifestation
of God. Who was it that Manoah and his
wife, Samson's parents, saw? It was the Lord Jesus Christ
before his incarnation. That's how he saw God and lived,
that's how. Eternal life is experienced in
knowing. the only true God. Not knowing
about the only true God, but in knowing the only true God. And he is only knowable in the
Son of God. For the Son of God is the Word
of God. John 1 verse 1. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with
God. All things were made by him, and without him was not
anything made that was made. So he's not a created being.
He is God, manifest, the Word of God. He spoke in John 17,
we're reading these words. The eleven apostles that were
there audibly heard him, and the Spirit of God brought the
record of the conversation back to John sometime later when he
wrote this gospel. And we who believe hear him now
through his written word. For these, said Jesus, these
words in this book, from cover to cover, from Genesis to Revelation,
this word speaks of him. It is his manifestation of God
to his people. This is how we know him, through
his word, through him speaking to us, through the Spirit applying
it in our hearts. We don't know about him, we don't
major in the doctrines, but they're in our very being by the fact
that we know God. The essence of knowing someone
is communicating intimately with them, isn't it? Isn't it? You
think about the people that you can truly say you know. There
may be lots of people that you've come across, that you've crossed
paths with. There may be lots like that,
but you don't really know them. You know the ones who you communicate
with intimately, who you share secrets with. He, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Word of God, is the one from God who has told us
the secrets of eternal redemption. In John 15 and verse 14, he says,
Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call
you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth.
You know, the company doesn't tell its employees every one
of its plans, because they'd get out and the competition would
beat them. But he says, But I have called you friends. Why? What distinguishes them as friends
from servants? All things that I have heard
of my Father I have made known unto you. He's told us the secrets
of eternal redemption. He's told us the secrets of God's
eternal purposes for his people, for his kingdom. How is God known? How is God known? We live firmly
rooted on the earth, don't we? You feel that very much. We're
firmly rooted upon the earth. Our existence, our experience
of life is down here. We need its air to breathe and
its food and its water to sustain us. We need interaction with
other people. How will we mortals aspire to
heaven? How will we reach up to the heavenly
kingdom of God, to eternity? How will we experience eternal
life when this life is finished. How will we experience it now?
The answer is that we need a ladder from earth to heaven. That's
why we read in Genesis chapter 28, Jacob in his dream, this
is a long time ago, but you know it well, Jacob in his dream,
verse 12 of Genesis 28, he dreamed on a very uncomfortable place,
he's in a desert place, and the softest thing he has for a pillow
is a pile of stones. He dreamed, and behold, there
in his dream he saw a ladder set up on the earth, and the
top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God
were ascending and descending on it. And he said, the Lord
God stood above it at the top of the ladder, and said who he
was, the Lord God of Abraham, thy father, and the God of Isaac.
covenant God, the God of the covenant of grace, the God of
eternal salvation. And a promise is made to thy
seed. They'll be as the dust of the
ground, as innumerable as the dust of the ground. And I'll
give you this place and I'll do these things. And Jacob was
afraid and said, how dreadful is this place. This is none other
but the house of God and the gate of heaven. Look at John
chapter one and verse 51. Jesus is calling the first of
the disciples to him. And, you know, there's Philip
and Andrew and Peter, and Philip goes in verse 45 of chapter one
and finds Nathanael, who is a devout man who was praying under a fig
tree, and said to him, We found him whom Moses in the law and
the prophets did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.
We found the Messiah, basically. The whole of the Jewish scriptures,
to those that were serious and sought the Lord and not pharisaical
in their religion. God had revealed that eternal
life was in the seed of the woman who would come, the Messiah.
And Philip goes and says to Nathanael, we found him. We found him. We
found the one that the scriptures speak about. Nathanael said,
can anything good come out of Nazareth? Philip said to him,
come and see. And Jesus saw Nathanael coming,
and said, Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile.
Well, of course, Nathanael was a sinner, but Jesus said, In
him there's no guile. Why? Because Jesus in eternity
had redeemed Nathanael, as all his people, from the curse of
the law. And Nathanael said to him, Whence
knowest thou me? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Before that Philip called thee, When thou wast under the
fig tree, I saw thee. Jesus wasn't there, but he saw
him there. Nathanael answered and said unto
him, Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, I see clearly you are
the Son of God, you are the King of Israel. Jesus answered him
and said, because I said to you I saw you under the fig tree,
believest thou, thou shalt see greater things than these. What
things will you see, Nathanael? And he said unto him, verily,
verily, I say unto you, hereafter ye shall see what Jacob saw,
ye shall see heaven open. and the angels of God ascending
and descending, not upon a ladder, but upon the Son of Man, who
is the ladder from earth to heaven. How are we going to know eternal
life? We need a ladder from earth to heaven. That's what we need.
In Acts chapter 7 and verse 56, as they were about to stone Stephen,
the first martyr, Stephen said, as they were just about to condemn
him, he said, Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of
Man standing on the right hand of God. He saw what Jacob saw. He saw that, as all the people
of God do. There is the Son of God in eternal
glory. That ladder is Jesus Christ the
Lord, from earth to heaven. Arthur Pink pointed out, and
I thought this was quite profound, in John chapter 13, just an hour
or two before these words, the Lord Jesus Christ stooped down
with a bowl of water and a towel and washed the feet of the disciples,
the lowliest of service jobs in a household. He washed the
dirty, unpleasant feet of the disciples. He stooped down, a
very earthly thing. In John 17, an hour or two later,
he ascends to heavenly realms with effectual interceding for
his people. Praying for his people. He's
praying for them. He prays for himself and the
hours to come and for his people. How has he made God known? How
has the Lord Jesus Christ made God known to his disciples? Look
at verse 6. I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me. This is a whole sermon or two
or three in itself. But he manifested the name of
God to his people. The name of God is the characteristics
of God. The Lord Jesus Christ makes his
people, these disciples, you and me if we believe in him,
He makes us to know the truth of the character of God in his
name. Think of the names of God. Here's
just a few. This is just to dip your toe
into this. Jehovah Hosinu, your maker, God
who made all things, to look on this earth, and not to puzzle
and muse, but to know that this is the handiwork of God. Jehovah
Rapha, the one who heals you. As Jesus healed those lepers,
he heals you from your sin. He is the healer of his people.
Jehovah Shalom, he is the one who makes peace through the blood
of the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ and applies it to your
soul so that you know that you who were enmity with God now
have peace with God. He is Jehovah Tzidkenu, the Lord
our righteousness, because you need righteousness. follow holiness,
pursue holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. How
am I going to have that? Jehovah Tzidkenu. This is the
name, says Jeremiah, won't be able to remember the verses,
but is it 6, 6, 6, 6, 30 and 16, 30? It's something like that.
In the first one, the Redeemer, the Messiah is called the Lord.
This is the name by which he shall be called the Lord. our
righteousness. And a bit later, his people,
his bride, this is the name by which she shall be called, the
Lord our righteousness. Exactly the same. You need righteousness
to see God. You won't see him without it.
But he, the Lord, is our righteousness. Jehovah Sid Canaan. He is Jehovah
Nisai, the banner over us. His banner over us was love.
The banner over his people. His people are protected by him. The banner over us is love. His
people are shepherded. He's Jehovah-Raha. The Lord is
my shepherd, I shall not want. He's Jehovah-Shammah, present
with you. Yea, though I walk through the
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for Jehovah-Shammah. Thou art with me. Thy rod and
thy staff, they comfort me. He is supremely Jehovah-Jesus. God our Saviour, the Lord who
saves you from your sins. For the angel said to Joseph,
espoused to Mary, the mother of Jesus, he said, you shall
call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. I'm not talking about head knowledge
alone, though you do need to know in your head these things.
You need to hear it. You can't believe on that which
you haven't heard. You can't know about it. But
it's heart experience, not just head knowledge, but heart experience.
To know him. I know him. I know him. I know
whom I have believed, said Paul, and have persuaded that he is
convinced that he is able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. This is not about doing. Religion tells you it's all about
what you do. and that your standing with God
depends entirely on what sort of a good person and good Christian
you are. That is not true. That is not
the message of the scriptures. It's not about doing. It's not
about being. But it is about looking. It is
about looking. It's about looking to the salvation
that God has accomplished. Look unto me, says God in Isaiah
chapter 45 and 22. Look unto me and be ye saved.
Who? All ends of the earth. Not just
Jews, all ends of the earth. For I am God and there is none
else. Just as Israel in the wilderness
with Moses, bitten by serpents because of their sin, they had
to look at the brazen serpent that Moses had made, and then
they would be healed. They had to look. They didn't
have to do. They didn't have to take medicine.
They didn't have to exercise. They had to look, looking unto
Jesus. Hebrews 12 verse 12, let us run
with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. It is by believing, it
is by faith that we know God. By faith, it's believing, that's
it. Believing God, believing Him. Without it, it is impossible
to please Him. That's what Hebrews 11 verse
6 says. Without it, it's impossible. The just, the justified ones,
shall live by their faith. This is how we live. I am crucified
with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in
me, and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the
faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. By
faith, by faith. Do you believe God? Do you look
to his Son for life? Do you rest in him for eternity? Do you have, as Paul writes to
Titus in chapter 1, verse 1, do you have the faith of God's
elect? If yes, then you have been given
eternal life from God for eternity. You are in that number that God
gave to the Son, for whom he died, to whom he gives eternal
life. Amen.