Why does God do what he does? Why is God doing? Why is this
world turning as it is? The Lord Jesus Christ tells us
very, very plainly, doesn't he? Again and again and again as
he comes to the cross and its shadow, as it were, falls across
his life and his words and he knows what lies before him. It's all about the glory of God,
isn't it? He says, Father you glorify thy
name. John 12, 27, 28. Glorify thy
name. He continually talks about his
glory, the glory of God. Why does this creation exist? For the glory of God. Where do
we see the glory of God? In the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Where is the glory of God exhibited
most wonderfully and most clearly? of the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ, which is why he prays, doesn't he? He says, Father,
the hour has come, this is his high priestly prayer, and John
said, the hour has come, glorify thy son, that thy son may also
glorify thee. the day after these words that
we read here. The Lord here is with this band
of his believers, a picture of him with his elect people, and
in the midst of his house, and in the midst of the company of
the chosen, he reveals himself. And he reveals himself in ways
that he doesn't reveal himself to the world. And the world is
100% responsible for the fact that he doesn't reveal himself,
and they won't have him. What does he say about the world? They loved darkness rather than
light. They actually had a love. It's
about love, isn't it? That's in chapter 3 verse 19. Judas asks a question over in
John 14, just a few verses on. He says, why are you going to
reveal yourself to us and not to the world? And Jesus' answer
in John 14 verse 23 is a wonderful answer, isn't it? If any man love thee. What's the world doing? Loving
the world. What is the flesh of all mankind
doing? Loving itself. What's the first
word that comes out of their mouths when they talk about their
religious activities? I? Always, isn't it? It's I. If you don't think that
you're the center of your universe, next time you get to look at
a group photo, Where do your eyes go? Who are
you looking for? You don't have to tell me because
I do it myself. I'm not here saying I'm above you people.
I'm just a beggar. I'm just a mercy beggar who's
found some bread. Found some bread to live on. I found some blood that washes
me clean. Here we have the glory of God
revealed and the wonderful thing about the Lord Jesus Christ is
that he is completely other-centred all of the time. We have here
a glorious picture of the Trinity, and we'll look at it a little
later on, but they're all completely other-centered, aren't they?
The Holy Spirit has one purpose, isn't it? To glorify the Son. The Son has one purpose, isn't
it? Father, glorify your name. The Father has one purpose. Glorify
the Son. And all of that glory is here
going to be revealed in the most extraordinary events that this
world has ever seen. I want you to be reminded and
I want to remind myself that this universe exists so that
the Lord Jesus Christ who is the creator of this universe
can come to this earth and die on a cross. This universe still
exists Is it shakable? We read it in Hebrews chapter
12. Can it be shaken? Can the universe be shaken? Why does this universe still
exist? There'll come a shaking time,
won't there? There'll be a shaking time that comes to this universe. There's a shaking time that comes
to all of humanity. And maybe when the shaking time
comes, maybe we'll be found hiding in a rock. Here we have, once again, the
glory of His being, the glory of God and man in human flesh. Here we have holiness in all
of its purity, dwelling with sinners and not consuming them. Salvation is to be in the very
presence God manifests in the flesh. He's tabernacling with sinners.
He's dwelling with sinners. Have you beheld His glory? Have I beheld His glory? Can we ask, as Moses did at Mount
Sinai, Lord, show us your glory. Show us your glory. Show us who
you are in the glory of your Son, in the glory of who he is. Can we behold his glory and rejoice
that he is full of grace and truth. He laid aside the glory
of heaven, our Saviour, and here he is before man, so much like
a man that people couldn't imagine his God in any way at all, and
yet behaving as God alone, alone can behave and act and speak. So much so that you would doubt
that he could possibly be a man. But this is the glory of salvation,
isn't it? That God became flesh and dwelt
among us. And that's how John begins, is
that we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of
the Father, full of grace and truth. That's the only way you'll
ever behold Him and rejoice in His glory, when you behold Him
and He comes to you full of grace, full of grace and full of truth. Those who beheld His glory, these
11 men, they all laid aside their lives like the Apostle Paul did. One of the martyrs, to be burnt
at the stake, he said, to be martyred for Christ. It's an honour that I do not
deserve. An honour. What a glorious, glorious
honour it is to have this God as our God. and to have this
time, this little time that we have here to live for His glory,
to rejoice in the fact that He has taken His people, He takes
His people out of this world and out of the love of the world
and out of the snares of Satan and out of the entanglements
of man-made world and its religion and its enticements and causes
us to have our eyes just fix on Him, to behold Him, to behold
His glory. He says in verse 6, as we saw
in the last couple of weeks, He says, I am the way, John 14,
6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Anyone who thinks that they get
into the presence of God but by the Lord Jesus Christ, as
revealed here in the scriptures, doesn't get there. You get there
with Him. You get into Heaven's glory. You get into the presence of
God Almighty in the Lord Jesus Christ. I met a man yesterday
who claims to be someone who goes around preaching about God
and preaching about Jesus. You might encounter him at some
stage. Anyway, then immediately he told me that he'd gone on
a trip to America and he'd met a Hindu guru over there who'd
opened up his eyes to see wonderful things about Jesus. No, he hadn't. No, he hadn't. He is just like countless multitudes
who have experiences and been deluded. God willing, he'll come
and we'll talk some more and start reading some scriptures
together. He says in verse 7, If you had known me, you should
have known my father also, and henceforth you know him and have
seen him. To know, the knowing here is
much more than a physical knowing, isn't it? It's much more, it's
a knowing by revelation. This Holy Spirit in John chapter
3, He blows where He wishes. You can't control what He does.
You have these churches that I've heard, it's just unbelievable.
They say, we invite the Holy Spirit to come and minister here. Now, no you don't. The Holy Spirit
blows where He wishes. Knowing, knowing Him. is the verse that I've quoted
so many times. This is eternal life, John 17,
verse 3. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou
hast sent. This is eternal life, says in
the original, this is eternal life which He has to give that
they whom thou hast given me may know thee. So here he is, our blessed Saviour,
saying these words, if you've known me, you've known the Father.
If you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And then he goes
on to say, from henceforth you know him and have seen him. God Almighty, in the Lord Jesus
Christ, says to these frail, fallen, ignorant, unbelieving
men, who that particular night are going to run scared and spend
the next three days hiding away from the world and the Romans
have come, they think, to get them. He says, you've seen God. You've seen God. You have seen
God. For three and a half years you
have been walking and talking and hearing. You have seen God. And if you've seen me, you have
seen the Father. We see Solomon asked a great
question when the temple was commissioned. I'll just read
it to you. I love the events of the commissioning
of the temple, this temple that the Lord Jesus Christ had come
to visit. Solomon asks a great question. When they finished putting the
temple together and getting everything effective and the priests were
in there and the music was playing, the cloud of God's glory filled
that temple and they couldn't continue doing what they're doing.
And Solomon prays in 2 Chronicles 6. But I love one part of his
prayer where he says, but will God in very deed dwell with men? on the earth. Will God dwell
with men on the earth? And then he goes on to explain
how big his God is. He's a much bigger God than the
gods that are running around this world. Behold, the heaven
and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee. How much less this
house which I have built. Can God really dwell on this
earth? How do you say it? God tells us in Ephesians 1,
He says, Wherefore I also after I heard of your faith in the
Lord Jesus Christ, and love unto all the saints, cease not to
give thanks to you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the
God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give
unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of him. How do you get to know him? When
he reveals himself. Simple as that. When he chooses
to reveal himself. And listen to what happens in
verse 18. He says, that the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. Being enlightened. all of the
eyes of all of the people who are enlightened by God, they
are enlightened to see the glory of God in the face of the Lord
Jesus Christ. They have faith in Christ and
they have love for His people. It's a very extraordinary word,
the verb in the Greek, having been enlightened. It means something
that God alone can do and has done and God himself cannot undo
it. It's remarkable. I remember when
I was studying in India, my friend who had just finished his PhD
in New Testament Greek, and he had his Greek New Testament and
I had my NIV Bible. And he'd never seen an NIB Bible
before. And we got to that word when
we were doing our studies in the Greek. And he just, his jaw
dropped. He said it is absolutely impossible
to be honest and use the NIV translations. It's impossible.
They had to just see what the Word said and twist it to make
it something that man might possibly be able to do rather than this
glorious work of God. God enlightens the eyes of His
people. Philip asks this question, and
I want to spend a little bit of time looking at it. He says,
Lord, verse 8, Lord, show us the Father. I'll be satisfied
if I actually see the Father. How gracious our Lord, how wonderfully
sovereign He is to have elicited this question from Philip. How kind He is. All through John's account of
the Lord Jesus Christ, he declares himself to be one with the Father. Over and over again he says,
I and my Father are one. Why did the Jews, what was their
determination about stoning him? We're not stoning you, John chapter
8, we're not stoning you for all the good works you've done.
We're stoning you because you, a mere man, make yourself to
be God. Why did the Jews crucify the
Lord Jesus Christ? There is one reason the Jews
crucified the Lord Jesus Christ, for blessing, because of his
claims of deity, one with God Almighty. As I want to be reminded, the
ignorance of the appearance questions. If you have an issue with something
that God has said and something in his word, you ought to be
encouraged by these apostles to go and ask him. If you have
an issue in your life or a question, go and ask him. Ask Him, ask,
ask and it will be given to you. He says, verse 9, Jesus said
unto him, Have I been so long with you, yet thou hast not known
me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen
the Father. How sayest thou then, Show us
the Father? How glorious is our Lord Jesus
Christ. What a glorious mediator we have
between God and man. You've seen Him. You've seen
the Lord Jesus Christ. If you've seen the Lord Jesus
Christ through the eyes of faith, you have seen God Almighty. People
want to have experiences of God, don't they? Unbelief says, I want to have
an experience. Unbelief says, I need you to
prove who you are. That's unbelief, isn't it? Other
than the cross and the resurrection, what was the most glorious revelation
of the Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ the Apostle Saul? It was
on the Mount of Transfiguration, wasn't it? When God the Father
spoke to him, and Moses and Elijah were there speaking to him. And
his deity, as it were, shone through his humanity, and Peter
was left speechless there. And he says, this same Peter
who saw that said, We also, you've seen all that,
that voice came from heaven, 2 Peter chapter 1. That voice which came from heaven,
we heard that voice, we heard God Almighty speak. And we heard
Moses and Elijah speaking and they were only speaking about
one thing. They were speaking about the death of the Lord Jesus
Christ on the cross of Calvary and the death that He should
accomplish. They were speaking about an accomplished
work that He was going to do on the cross of Calvary. That
was the voice. They were the voices they heard.
We have also a more sure word, 1 Peter 1.19, a more sure word
of prophecy, where unto you do well that you take heed, as unto
a light that shineth in a dark place. What's more sure? Being on that mountain, listening
to Moses and Elijah and hearing the voice of God, and being given the simple faith
to believe what God says. That's the more sure word, isn't
it? We have something better than experiences, brothers and
sisters in Christ. To know Christ is to know God. To see Christ is to see God the
Father. To see the glory of Christ is
to see the glory of the Father. To be with Christ is to be taken
into the very presence of the Father, to be received. That's what he says in John chapter
14 earlier, doesn't he? He says, I'm going away and I'm
coming back and I'm gonna receive you unto myself. I love that,
I love that. To love Christ is to be loved
by the Father. To be received by Christ, as
I said earlier, is to be taken into the very house of God, be
taken into the very presence of heaven. To be with Christ
is to be with the Father. To hear the words of Christ is
to hear the words of God the Father. To see the works of the
Lord Jesus Christ is to see the Believest thou not? Lord, I believe. Will you please
help my unbelief? The apostle said, Lord, will
you increase our faith? Will you give me eyes to see? Will you give me a heart to believe? Believest thou not, verse 10, and 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. The works of the Lord Jesus Christ
are the works of God the Father. The words of the Lord Jesus Christ
are the words of God the Father. And the works and the words are
so knitted together, aren't they? Because all the works, all the
works of the Lord Jesus Christ are works that reveal His glory
and the glory of His Father. He says to Philip, He says, My
Father and I are one. He said it so many times, if
you go back and read John's Gospel, the number of times the Lord
Jesus Christ identified himself in union with his Father are
remarkable. John 10 verse 18 and verse 25,
he says, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. He says, I and
my Father are one, John 10. I and my Father are one. Here
the Lord Jesus Christ introduces us yet again to the glory of
the Trinity. Now I know the word Trinity is
not in the Bible, but the Trinity is what is revealed in the Scriptures,
that God dwells as one God Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And it's revealed so often in
the scriptures, isn't it? In John 14 we'll see God, the
Lord Jesus is going to talk to the Father about sending the
Holy Spirit to these people. John begins with this glorious
statement. In the beginning was the Word.
He's wanting you to go back to Genesis. He's wanting you to
go back to before Genesis. He wants to begin. He wants to
have a beginning. And the beginning of all of the
salvation of all God's people goes back a long, long way. In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. The Word
was in communication. The Word was face to face with
God, and the Word was God. And the Bible makes it abundantly
clear, hear oh Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Jesus Christ is God. I love to contemplate it, I love
to say it, I love the fact that this is God's truth. Jesus Christ,
the man, is God almighty. Why is the Trinity so important?
It's just who God is. It's just who He is. God is known only by revelation. He will reveal Himself, and when
He does reveal Himself, He will reveal Himself as God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Can man by searching
find out God? Says the Old Testament Ecclesiastes.
Can man by searching... No, is the answer. They can't
find out God. The Lord Jesus Christ says, I
am. And when he says, I am, the Jews
knew exactly what he was saying. He says, I am God. And every
time he says, I am, he's talking relationally with his father
and relationally with his people. And he's speaking about life.
He says, I am the bread of what? on the bread of life, John 6.35. I'm the living bread, I am. I am God Almighty, the bread
of life. I am God Almighty, the living
bread, John 6.51. John 8, chapter 12, he says,
I am the light of the world. And anyone who follows me, they
won't walk in darkness, they'll have the light of All of the
I Am's are about life, about life eternal. He says to those
Pharisees in John Chapter 8, he said, I said therefore unto
you, you shall die in your sins. I cannot contemplate how horrible
it must be to leave this world and remain surrounded by your
sins forever. For if you believe not that I
am, you don't believe that I am God Almighty, you shall die in
your sins. When you lifted up the son of
man, John, you shall know that I am. I am God Almighty. He says, before Abraham was,
I am. John 10 says, I am the door of
the sheep. I am the door. If anyone enter
in by me, with me, in me, he shall be saved and he'll go in
and out and find pasture. He says, I am the good shepherd. What does the good shepherd do?
Giveth his life for the sheep. Not for the goats. He giveth
his life for the sheep. He says, I am the Good Shepherd,
I know my sheep and none of mine. John 11, I am the resurrection
and the life. The resurrection isn't an event,
the resurrection's a person who is God Almighty. He says, I am come as a light
into this world. He tells his disciples, that you may believe, John 13,
19, that I am. I am. I am the way, the truth,
and the light, John 15, I am the true vine. And I do love
that scene in the Garden of Gethsemane where the Lord Jesus Christ is
confronted by a crowd of hundreds of soldiers with Judas coming
to kiss him, to identify him. And the Lord Jesus Christ steps
out with his apostles behind him and in that crowd in front.
And he says, who are you seeking? Who are you seeking? And they
say, Jesus of Nazareth. And he says unto them, I am. I am. And what happens when he
declares himself to be I AM? That crowd, that little army
fell backwards and they fell to the ground. The great miracle
of the Garden is that they got up again. The only reason they
got back up again and took him to the Cross of Calvary was because
he was sovereignly in charge of all things. As I said earlier,
the Trinity involves relationship. It's a revelation of the relationship
between God who is not lonely. God was not in need of anything
which caused him to create. He is, in Trinity, the way, the
truth and the life. And the wonder of our salvation
is our unity. is the union, the glorious union
of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, is there so that
we would know of our union with Him. How close, how near, Near,
so very near to God, nearer I cannot be, because in the person of
His dear Son I am as near as He. Dear, so very dear to God,
dearer I cannot be, in the person of His dear Son I am as dear
as He. We are, Ephesians 5, we are members
of his body, of his flesh and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife and they
too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery. that
I speak concerning Christ and His Church. There is a union, a union of
God and man. To go back to John chapter 14,
I'm so pleased he doesn't ask us to be able to explain this
or be theologians about it or just believe it. Verse 20, in that day you shall
know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. What a remarkable, remarkable
prayer. 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 hast given me, for thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world. John 17.24 O righteous
Father, the world has not known thee, but I have known thee,
and these have known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared
unto them thy name. He declares the very character
of God. and will declare it that, this
is what the declaration of the gospel is about, isn't it? That
the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and
I in them. Did the father answer that prayer? Oh my God, give us the joy and
peace of believing. Amen. May God bless his words
to our hearts.