So much. Yeah. I've told you about that hymn
on many occasions but I think I attended a funeral in the Presbyterian
church down the road here in my days of darkness and unregeneracy
and they sang that hymn and i was so captivated by that hymn that
i found myself a hymn book and then i photocopied it in those
days i'm sure you can still do today but you photocopy it down
small small small small until i had it so it was sort of folded
up a large postage stamp and i used to keep it and look the Lord was pleased to save
me. So every time I think of that
I think of the fact that the grace of God is powerful and
effective but the timing of the grace of God is in God's time,
isn't it? It's in God's hands and so we are all in His hands
and that's how John the Baptist finishes. Such a comfort, isn't
it, before we come to look at the wrath of God abiding on people. We are told that the Father loved
the Son and all things are given into His hands, which means that
all of the judgment is given into the hands of God. And we
are commanded of God to simply preach the Word of God and leave
God to deal with the fruit and the results of His Word being
proclaimed. And we just pray that God will
guide us and cause us to be faithful. There was a well-known story
of two Scottish preachers, one of them was Andrew Barnard and
the other was Robert Murray-Machan, and they used to meet on Monday
mornings and talk about the messages that the Lord had laid on their
hearts for the previous morning. I think it was Bernard who asked
Machain what he preached on and he said, I was called of the
Lord to preach on hell. And Bernard turned to him and
said, did the Lord, by his grace, I thought it was a great response,
isn't it? I'm not given to public shows
of affection, but these are serious and heavy verses. But I'm thankful
that prior to looking at verse 36, We have verse 35, and what
a glorious description of our God. What a glorious description
of the remarkable relationship between God the Father and God
the Son. John begins his gospel. By speaking
of that relationship, the Word was with God, the Word was face-to-face
with God, and the Word was God. The Word was. The Word was in
communion, was in fellowship with His Father. And what a remarkable
fellowship that must have been. The Father loveth the Son, and
the Son loveth the Father. We don't know anything of love
unmingled with sin and selfishness. of all sorts, but this love is
an extraordinary love, isn't it? It's the love that we will
experience when we leave this world and we leave this body
and flesh behind which is continually in rebellion against God, and
we will know then the depths of the love of God in a way which
will be experienced forever. That's why eternity goes on forever,
doesn't it? Because that's how long it takes.
It's impossible to plumb the depths of the love of God. But
the father loveth the son. He's called the son of his love.
He's called my dear son. He's called my only begotten
son. And at his baptism, the father spoke from heaven and
said, this is my beloved son. This is my beloved Son. He is
the Son of the Father's love. This Son is given, His name is
wonderful, Counselor, He is mighty God, everlasting Father. Don't
you love saying, Jesus Christ is God? It's really good, isn't
it? It's worth saying again, isn't
it? Jesus Christ is God. As God, He reigns and rules over
all things. He is the Son, He is the Mediator,
He is, as Hebrews 1 says, He's the brightness of the glory of
God and is He expressed, the exact image of His person. He is the Son of God, He is God
the Son. And this is the great mystery
of godliness, isn't it? This is the mystery of reverence
for God. God as God is what that mystery
of godliness is about. It's God manifest in the flesh,
he's justified in the spirit, he's seen of angels, he's preached
unto the Gentiles, he's believed on in the world and he's received
up to glory. So the Bible tells us with abundant
clarity that faith comes by hearing. Faith comes by hearing, hearing
the preached word of God. The Father loveth the Son, the
Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand. All things into his hand. That
all things is a remarkable phrase, isn't it? That means that there's nothing
left outside of that. Everything that wriggles in this universe,
every event in history is one of the all things. The Lord Jesus
Christ is all things in the past. He's all things in the present.
He's all things in the future. He's the same yesterday, today
and forever. He's all things in the eternal
covenant, that covenant that's in His blood. He is the covenant
itself. He's all things in life. Eternal life is in His Son. This
is eternal life that you know Him. There is a record. There's a record on earth and
there's a record in heaven according to 1 John 5. This is the record. This is the record. that God has given unto us eternal
life and this life is in his Son. There are three that bear
witness in heaven, the Father and the Word and the Holy Ghost
and these three are one. And there are three that bear
witness agree in one if we receive the
witness of men the witness of God is greater for this is the
witness of God which he has testified of his son he loves the son he's
given all things into his hands he that believeth on the son
but first John 5 10 half the witness in himself He that believeth
not God hath made him a liar. Not that God can ever be a liar
in any way, shape or form. He is truth and embodiment of
truth in every possible way. dangerous thing to be doing because
he has believed not the record that God gave of his son. We're
here to give and to repeat God's words back to him. God has given
a record of his son. We're here to declare that record
and we're here to declare it back to God again. The Lord Jesus
Christ is all things. All things in the covenant of
grace is all things. in all of time is all things
in the kingdom of God. In Colossians 1 it says this
is the kingdom you are transferred by the sovereign hand of God
out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear
son. The Lord Jesus prayed that high
priestly prayer. on that night that he died and
he made a remarkable number of petitions and the good thing,
it's a very good thing and a healthy thing for us to go through John
17 and mark the petitions down and then put yay and amen beside
every single one of them. He begins in verse 1, doesn't
he? He lifted up his eyes to heaven
and said, The Father of the hour has come. Glorify thy Son, that
thy Son also may glorify thee, 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. He's all things in all of creation.
He's all things in all events. He's all things over all people.
In Matthew 28, He says, All authority is given to Me on heaven and
earth. He has all authority. There is, in John's Gospel and
in this particular passage of Scripture, there is very much
that is given, isn't there? And every time there's something
given, there is a reception in the Scriptures from God. He's
given him all authority. He's given his witnesses. John describes himself as a witness,
doesn't he? He says in verse 28 of our passage
in John 3, he says, I'm sent before him. He has all authority,
the Lord Jesus Christ, to send his witnesses. He has all authority
for what the witnesses say. He has all authority for the
effects of that witness on the people. And he has the bride,
verse 29, the Lord Jesus Christ has a bride. He had a bride before
the foundation of the world. He had a bride that he was going
to redeem and purchase for himself, in particular redemption. He
has friends, the Bridegroom. He has, as John so beautifully
describes him, he must engage the one that comes from heaven
in verse 31, he's above all. And he has a testimony, he testifies
of what he has seen and heard and to deny his testimony is
to call him a liar. He has a testimony. And he that
has received his testimony, verse 33, is set to his seal that God
is true. For God, this one, speaks the
words of God. When you hear the Lord Jesus
Christ speaking, he always speaks the word of God. He doesn't say
that prophets so and so said unto you. He says, with the most
remarkable authority, he says, I say unto you. I say unto you. He always speaks as God, I say
unto you. He speaks words of creation.
He speaks words of redemption. He speaks words of cleansing.
When he says to that woman that we've been living in, Luke 7,
he says, your sins are forgiven. He speaks with powerful authority. No one can forgive sins but God
alone. He's saying, I am God and I have the power to forgive
sins and I forgive sins by blood redemption and you are clean,
he said to his apostles. You're clean because of the word
that I have spoken unto you. He speaks the word and you're
clean. And God has given him a spirit
without measure. He has all authority. All his
enemies will be under his feet as Pharaoh and his army was at
the bottom of the Red Sea. He is as God the Son. He is as the man who is God. He's the fit person to contain
all things. And he's wise enough to order
all things. and he's sovereign. I love how
often the scriptures say he is able, he is able, again and again. There is no limit to the ability
and the power of our great sovereign redeemer. Oh, to have him as
a friend, brothers and sisters, to know him as a sovereign, but
to have him as a friend, such is the wonder of the incarnation,
such is the wonder of redeeming blood. He that believeth on the
Son has everlasting life, and to believe not... See, believing
not is an activity, isn't it? It's to have heard and rejected. He is able to be all things, isn't he, in
all of creation, to participate in these things, Christ has a universe, he created
all things, nothing was made except that he made it. He has
power over all things and everything is under the power and dominion
and control of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why when Paul
says God works all things together for the good of those who are
called, Those who are loved of God, those are the called. He
can say that because he knows that he has all power to do all
those things. And he knows that he has power
to do all those things because he's met him. He has power. He has power. And we love the
fact that the Lord Jesus Christ is absolutely sovereign. Don't
you love the fact that he's been sovereign over your lives? Someone
was asking about that wonderful verse in Proverbs 16 verse 9. It says, in our minds we plan
our paths. We're continually planning our
paths, aren't we? We're thinking, this is what
I'm going to do this afternoon, and this is what I'm going to do
tomorrow, and this is what I'm going to do next week. And James reminds
us, if God wills, you will. But I love what Proverbs 16 says,
in our hearts we're planning all the time, and then God determines. Why are we here today? Why are
we here today and not worshipping at some citadel of Satan somewhere
else in the world? Why? We're here because God has
ordained that we be here. What are the words that we're
going to hear? Simon's preparing a message for us in a few weeks
time. That message was written before
the foundation of before the foundation of the world. The
impact of it was known before the foundation of the world.
Such is the power of our God. That is what it is for Jesus
Christ to be God. And anything that diminishes
any of that at all is a denial of his deity. See, Christ is
all in the first creation, isn't it? He spoke, the Word spoke,
and creation came into existence. How big is our God? He spoke
and this universe came into existence. Isn't that ridiculous? Having
the testimony of God, every time man goes exploring anywhere in
space these days or anywhere on the earth, he's always trying
to find some other source of life, isn't he? He's always trying
to disprove the whole. We're spending billions and trillions
of dollars building all these spaceships so we can disprove
the existence of God. It's ridiculous, isn't it? Why? Because we want to be on a throne
ourselves. We just want to be on a throne. Elon Musk thinks he's going to
be the saviour of the human race by being able to establish a
colony on Mars. What a ridiculous notion that
is. What a ridiculous notion. Christ is before all. All things
in creation are in his hands. He's before all things, isn't
he? He was before all these things. He says in Proverbs 8, I was
with him. I was with him as delight. It's his delight. All things
are made by him. All things are made for him. All things are made for Him.
All things are held together by Him. Hebrews 1 says He's upholding
all things by the word of His power. The reason you're sitting
on that seat at the moment and on a solid floor is because the
Lord Jesus Christ is upholding all things by the word of His
power, always. In fact, what He says to all
of this creation, He says, it's mine, it's mine. And he says in that parable that
people are so offended by, people in his day are offended, and
people are still offended by those workers that came and toiled
all day, and then the Lord gives the workers that are turned up
at the 11th hour. It's a great picture of grace,
isn't it? We think that we're the workers that's turned up
and slagged away all day in the heat, and we earned something.
We're not. We turned up at the 11th hour,
brothers and sisters. And the Lord turned to those
people and said, don't I have the right Don't I have the right
to do as I wish with what is mine? Don't I have the right? He does. He does. The Father
loves the Son and has given Him all authority over creation and
He's given Him all authority over redemption. See, Christ
was all in the old creation. Christ is all in the new creation,
the new creation of grace. It's all of Christ, isn't it?
It's all that speaks of His glory and His wonder and His power,
and it speaks of redeeming loves. It's all things from the Father. The Father sent me, He says,
and I always do what pleases the Father. The Father loves
the Son. It's the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus and there's no reason for people to think if
they're outside of Christ Jesus and they find Him offensive to
think that somehow God loves them. The love of God is in Christ
Jesus. There is nothing outside of the
Son except the wrath of God. So here is life. Outside of Him
is death, He is light. Outside of Him is darkness, He
is love. Outside of Him is wrath. All the fullness of the Father
dwells in Him. All the fullness of the grace
of God dwells in Him. All the fullness of the love
of God dwells in Him. All the fullness of mercy and
grace is all from the Father. He is all with the Father. He's
all to the Father. He's all in coming to God. He's all in approaching the Father. He said, if you've seen me, you've
seen the Father, Philip. I've been with you so long and
you don't understand all these words and all of these things
I've done. No man comes to the Father but by me. Other sheep I have, he says in
John 10, other sheep It's all in Christ, isn't it? The Lord
Jesus Christ is all in the Gospel. We have nothing else to preach,
do we? Jesus Christ and him crucified
is all we want to say, and we want to say it again and again
and again. The servants of God are separated
under the Gospel of God concerning Christ, the gospel is concerning
him, it's all about him. God sends his people to preach
the gospel. As the Lord said, as the Father
sent me, so I send thee. You see, preaching is a cooperative
activity, isn't it? I'm standing here, but preaching
is something that we all do. There's no preaching without
an audience. There's no preaching without
someone being sent. There's no preaching without
God gathering the people to hear what's being said. And they'll
hear by the power of God. They'll hear with the ears of
the new birth and they'll see with the eyes of the new birth.
You must be born again to see. You must be born again to enter. Our Saviour gives the grace and
the power to preach Him, Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. And
I love how He finishes Matthew's Gospel. All through the Gospel
accounts, we have a declaration of God being the great I Am.
The Lord Jesus Christ is I Am. I Am God. I Am that I Am. And right as He's about to go
up to heaven, He says, Go thee therefore and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of
the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever
I have commanded you. And lo, and in our translation
it says, I am God. What a great picture of the union
we have with the Lord Jesus Christ. What a great picture of being
wrapped up in Him and being one with Him. That's why we have
to preach, why we love to preach Christ and not ourselves. See,
Jesus Christ is the Gospel. It's the Gospel. The Gospel is
a person. In preaching the Gospel we are
describing and declaring a person as God describes him. We've got
no reason to change. What would you change about him,
brothers and sisters? Is there anything that you find
defective in the character of God as revealed in the Lord Jesus
Christ? God forbid, woe unto me if I preach not Christ. And how wonderfully suited in
all things he is to all the circumstances of our lives, at every moment
of our lives. weary of the journey, he says,
oh, come to me and I'll give you rest. If you're thirsty,
he says, ho, everyone that is thirsty, come to the waters.
If you're weak, he says, I'm your strength. His power is made perfect in
our weakness. And at that moment of leaving
this world, as we all must, he says, on the resurrection, Christ is all. All things are given into his
hands. He's everything in the gospel. And as the following verse says,
he's everything in judgment. All judgment is given into his
hand. He's all. He's all in creation. He's all in the new creation. He's all in sustaining of that
creation, just as he sustains the old creation by the word
of his power, he sustains the new creation. He is the fountain. He is the source of all grace. He says, come to me and take
my yoke upon you and learn of me. Christ is all in every grace. Christ is all in all the worship
of God. You cannot worship God apart
from the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot come to God apart
from the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot come to God except
in him and by him and through him. When we participate in the
Lord's Supper, It is Him that we're remembering, and it's Him,
His body, and His blood that's shed for us. In baptism, it pictures
His death and resurrection. All our praise is directed to
Him, to Him, and all our fellowship, all our fellowship with the Father
is with His Son, Jesus Christ. The Father, love of the Son,
and has given all things into his hands." What a wonderful
statement that John the Baptist made, I mean John made of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And of his fullness, John chapter
1 verse 16, and of his fullness, all things, of all of this fullness,
we have all received grace for grace. Worship is gazing and adoring
and resting. Faith Receive us, receiving all that
he is, receiving all that's said about him. Lord, make us, receive
us.