Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of John, the gospel as recorded by John, chapter
17. John 17. Let's pray together. Our Father, can by your Spirit bless this
service to our hearing and understanding and refreshing and enjoyment
and joy and peace and comfort. For Christ's sake, would you
do so? For these things we ask in His
name. Amen. is speaking in this chapter to
his father. And this is the chapter that
we refer to as the High Priestly Prayer. There is recorded in this chapter
the very heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is bare in His heart. He is speaking to His Heavenly Father. And the
Spirit of God has graciously and mercifully recorded through
John the words of our Master. These words give us great understanding
as to our peace, comfort, security in Christ. I'd like to look at
two verses for just a very few minutes. It's concerning the Father and
the Son being glorified. That's what I've named this.
The Father and Son glorified. God Almighty spoke to Moses and
told Moses to tell Aaron the high priest in Leviticus 10. He said, I will be sanctified. I'll be set apart in honor. I'll be honored by them that
come nigh me." If God allows us to come near to Him tonight
by faith, that is a great honor. This is a weighty time. This is a weighty hour, 30 minutes,
45 minutes, just being able to be here. and to hear. I will
be sanctified in them that come nigh Me, and before all the people
I will be glorified." Now, glorified, that is, honored by having His
thoughts and His opinion and His will Known. That's what it is. Glorified.
I will be glorified. Having God Almighty's will and
purpose, thoughts, opinion, His judgment, having that known. That's how God is glorified.
I will be glorified before all the people. Psalm 19, verse 1
says, "...the heavens declare..." or are declaring, the glory of
God and the firmament showeth His handiwork. The heavens declare
the controlling, planning, sustaining power of
God, how God thinks all things are in order. That's what the
universe is saying. Sun comes up, sun goes down.
Comets come by every so many years. Everything is in order. Everything is in order. Hurricanes that come through,
tornadoes and stuff, that's not chaotic. They're ordered by Almighty
God. He does all things well. The heavens declare His glory.
His opinion. His thoughts. The Lord is glorified
in His providential dealings with this world. Listen to Exodus
15, 6-7. Thy right hand, O Lord, is become
glorious in power. Your authority. Right hand. Thy right hand, O Lord, hath
dashed in pieces the enemy, and in the greatness of Thine excellency
Thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee. Thou sentest
forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble." God's opinion,
judgment, wrath against ungodliness is set forth. His glory is known
in His providence. God raises up nations and puts
them down. God does as He will. That's His
glory. He does what He does. Nebuchadnezzar
says, He doeth as He will in the army of heaven among the
inhabitants of the earth. That's His glory. His abilities,
power. But here in John 17, verse 4
and 5, the Lord Jesus Christ reveals in this high priestly
prayer, something of God being glorified that is only accomplished
by Himself. He says in verse 4, I have glorified
Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
Thou gavest Me to do. The Lord Jesus Christ has obediently
accomplished the will, the thought, the purpose of Almighty God. I have glorified You on the earth. How has He done that? He says,
I finished the work that You gave Me to do. John 6.39 says,
This is the Father's will which hath sent Me that of all which
He hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day." This has been God Almighty's eternal
opinion. This is His eternal thought. This is His glory. I will have
mercy on whom I'll have mercy. Remember, that's what Moses asked
Him. Show me Your glory. Show me Your thought. Show me
Your opinion. For the Father to have mercy and compassion
on a sinner, on an object of His mercy, that object of mercy
must have one to stand and to answer for Him. He must before
Almighty God. Because all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. We've all fallen short. We've
all missed the mark. We just can't do it. I have glorified
you on this earth." God sent the Lord Jesus Christ into this
world as the representative of all that the Father chose in
mercy, in Christ, before the foundation of the world, Christ
came into this world to answer before the law of God for them. He answered. Galatians 4, 4 and
5 says, But when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption
of children. For whom did Christ come? He
came for the elect. He came for the sheep. He came
into this world to obey the law's demand for them. All that the
law demanded for them. before God Almighty. That's what
He did. He obeyed. He was their eternal
surety. Never was there a time... Really,
I've used this illustration myself. And it's not even a good illustration
really for the reality of the suretyship of Christ. I take out a loan. and someone
cosigns for me, and I'm responsible as long as the bank thinks I
can pay. I'm only not responsible after
I prove myself to not be able to pay. The suretyship of Christ,
I was never answerable. I've never been answerable. Because
if I was ever answerable, then God changed right there. You
see what I'm saying? He looked at me, then He looked
at Christ as the surety. He has eternally
stood as the one responsible. Never have the sheep ever been
responsible. He came into this world to redeem
those for whom He has eternally stood as the surety, as the answerable
one. The Lord Jesus Christ, with absolute
perfect knowledge of the law's demand for obedience, declares
before His Father and says, I have glorified you on this earth.
Boy, what a bold statement, but a true statement and a good statement. I have. I have magnified your
thoughts to show mercy to the objects of your compassion. I
have done so. He is the accepted representative
of all that the Father has loved. I have finished. I have brought
to an end the work which thou gavest me to do. That is, to make. There was going
to have to be an end made to this work. And I finished it. I did it. I accomplished it. I made an end. I have finished
the work that Thou gavest me to do. Interesting word there. Do. It means to make a thing
out of something. To make a thing out of something. A little bit different than the
word create. The word create, like in the
beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. That word create
means to produce something out of nothing. Create. He made something out of nothing. This word, I have finished the
work that Thou gavest Me to do. That word, there to do, means
that obedience was made to be so for me out of someone else."
You see that? I am obedient in Him. He did the work. It's charged
to me. I have finished the work that
You gave me to produce for them. Something made out of something
else. What do I have to glory in for
obedience before God Christ? That's who I am. I am, in Him
alone, obedient before Almighty God. God's people are not declared
to be guiltless, or they're not declared to be obedient based
on an empty standard of just God saying, well, I'm just not
going to discharge you with it. God Almighty looked at His Son,
and His Son answered. I have glorified You on the earth. I finished the work which Thou
gavest Me to do." And verse 5 says, "...and now, O Father, glorify
Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with
Thee before the world was." The Master now reveals His desire. for the Father to do for Him
what He had done for the Father. He said, I glorified you. Now, I'm asking you to glorify
Me. Glorify thou Me with thine own
self. Don't forget the word glory,
glorify The heart of that word all has to do with the opinion,
to think, to suppose. The Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to lay down His life for His sheep. You know that.
He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came into
this world to be the propitiation, the satisfaction, the appeasement,
of the wrath of Almighty God for all of God's sheep. There was no wrath on God's sheep
ever and Him coming into this world. All of the wrath that
was due them, I'm not saying they weren't due the wrath of
God, but God's wrath was never on them. Always on the surety. Always look to the surety. He
is going to be glorified. That is to say, God's thoughts
and opinion toward Christ as the sacrifice is going to have
to come to an accomplishment. It's going to have to come to
pass, is what I'm saying. Glorify thou me. I glorified
you on the earth. I've obeyed your law, my law. For all that you've sent me,
I glorified you. You demanded obedience for them.
I've glorified Him. I've glorified you. Now, glorify
me. Render your opinion. Glorify me. Render your opinion. Render your thoughts of mercy
toward the sheep. Render your thoughts of mercy
and compassion. You said you'll have mercy and
compassion on whomsoever you will. I've always been the surety. We've always been in an everlasting
covenant. I've always stood as the one
that would answer for the sheep. I've always been the Lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. In your mind and will,
it's always been before you. Glorify Me now as I am the Lamb. that will lay down His life,
having always stood as the sheep's surety, always standing as the
One that's going to answer, always the One that's going to stand
before you in wrath and judgment for them. Glorify Me now. What must be done is what he's
saying. I've glorified You in obedience
to Your law. Glorify Thou me with Thine own
self that is drawn near in fellowship with me. Now listen. This is
the beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased. There's no doubt
about that. Though forsaken at Calvary, never
forget that the Father and the Son are one. One in purpose,
one in person, one in glory, one in... They're one. I can't
explain the Trinity. I can say the Father, the Son,
the Spirit. These three are one. One in all
things. But when He said, glorify Thou
Me, with thine own self." What he was saying is, draw near to
me. You draw near as the one that
will turn his back and forsake me. I am the one who is the surety. This is God dealing with God. This is God, as you said, brother
Scott, God doing something for Himself before He'd do anything
for me. God satisfied God. That's what Martin Luther said,
God forsaken God. How can this be? Glorify Thou
me with Thine own self in fellowship with, in drawing near, Glorify
thou Me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was." The glory, the opinion, the thought
that I had with you. What he was saying is, we've
always had this opinion. Glorify thou Me with thine own
self, with the glory, with the thoughts that I had with you
before the world was. This is an everlasting covenant.
This is oneness. This is God dealing with God. Here is the Lord God Himself,
the God-Man, praying to God His Father in absolute, bearing His
heart. I've glorified You on this earth.
I've accomplished for them. what you demanded. Perfect obedience
before the law. My obedience, their obedience. Charge to them. Now, glorify
Me. Set forth your eternal thoughts
toward Me as the eternal surety. Glorify Me as the surety. Set forth your opinion as the
one that will put away their debt in the actual shedding of
the blood. Glorify Thou me with the glory
which I had with Thee before the world was. The Lamb slain
before the world in the mind and will and purpose of God.
And here is the Lord Jesus Christ, the surety, the Lamb. laying down his life for the
sheep. In all that was accomplished,
God Almighty, Father, Son, and Spirit, was glorified. That is, God's thoughts set forth. God's opinion set forth. God's purpose to show mercy set
forth in the Lord Jesus Christ before He went to the cross,
praying, bearing His heart that we might read and understand
and perceive the depth of God's glory and God's honor in the
shed blood, broken body that we are about to remember. Remembering
Him. I'm going to ask if the men will
come forward and we'll partake of the Lord's table.