Alright, Brethren, John 18, it begins here and it says, when
Jesus had spoken these words. Now that includes everything
He had spoken to His apostles that night. It began back in
chapter 13 and came all the way to chapter 17. But the immediate
words that He just had spoken, And he was praying his high priestly
prayer. He looked at this Thursday night.
He said in verse 26, I have declared unto them thy name, and will
declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in
them, and I in them. Christ declared God's name most
clearly at the cross. And He did throughout His life,
but it's just most manifest at the cross. And now He's going
to the cross. He's entering His suffering now.
The hour has come. It's where we behold the love
wherewith God the Father loved Christ. You know, in eternity,
the Father purposed to give His Son all the preeminence. That
was the love of the Father to the Son, to exalt His Son above
all and have all praise and honor His Son. Because in so doing,
because the Father, the Spirit, and the Son are one, in so doing,
that's glorifying God. And so He would have him come
in the person of a man and represent His people as the head of His
people and do everything necessary to honor God and to save His
people so that Christ got all the preeminence. That was great
honor given to our Lord Jesus by the Father because He loved
Him. That's the love wherewith He loved Him. He would have all,
every knee bow to His Son. He would have a heaven created
where for eternity His saints would praise His Son. That's
the love of the Father for His Son. And this is what we have
to be made to see. Paul spoke of receiving the love
of the truth. Receiving the love of the truth. What makes a sinner receive the
love of the truth? It's only when Christ is formed
in us. Christ said there, I declared thy name that I might be in them. It's only when Christ is formed
in us, in regeneration, and declares the name of God in our heart. It's the only way we know God.
It's the only way. And He not only declares the
name of God in our heart, He reveals the love wherewith the
Father loved Him. So we see that This thing's all about the Lord
Jesus. It's about God's Son. It's about the triune God being
glorified in His Son. Before the Lord works this work,
in our carnal heart, if you were religious, everything you read in the Bible,
everything about preaching, all our religious deeds, it was about
big me and poor little Jesus. That's what it's about. Things
we do, things we let Him do. But when this happens, the Gospel
becomes about God the Father and His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Gospel becomes about the Son. The Gospel becomes all about
Christ. and the glory of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now His people reap the benefits,
we're thankful for this, but the glory of God is then seen
in Christ, and Christ becomes the whole preeminence of everything. That's when we receive the love
of the truth. The love of the truth of the gospel of Christ
in Him crucified. The love that God showed the
Son by choosing Him to be the mediator. Anointing Him to be
the Christ. The love of the Father in choosing
us in Him and giving us to Him, His people, so that Christ could
come forth and save us and be glorified for that. You receive
the love of the truth then. That's when you receive the love
of those God sent to preach the gospel to you. You begin to realize
how valuable that is. It's not just something he does
everywhere and it's not just something that happens often. It's a rare thing. It's a rare
thing in this world. And you love the truth of the
gospel of Christ. You want to hear the gospel.
And so therefore, everything preeminently becomes about maintaining unity and peace so
this gospel can keep going forth. That means whatever I have to
do without, I'll do without it. Whatever you have to do without,
do without it. The gospel becomes preeminent when you receive the
love of the truth. And that's by God declaring the
name, Christ declaring the name of God in our heart. Now this
is what the devil is trying to disrupt. This is what he's trying
to stop. In our text he's using Judas
and he's using these religious men who think they're righteous
to come and kill Christ, who they think is a sinner. They
called him a drunk, and they called him a blasphemer, and
they called him everything they could call him. But this is the
devil's working to try to divide God's people. Have enough sense
to recognize that when it's happening. If somebody's begging you for
unity and peace, and lay aside everything else for that, That's
what they're urging from you. Seek that. But if somebody's
wanting to condemn and divide, there's a problem there. So let's hear Christ declare
the name of God once again. And I do pray God would declare
His name in our hearts this morning. This is what we need to hear.
This is what we need to hear. Verse one, when Jesus had spoken
these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook
Kidron, where was a garden into the which he entered and his
disciples. This foreshadowed, was foreshadowed
with David. It was foreshadowed with David.
Ahithophel, David's friend, had betrayed him, just like Judas
had betrayed Christ. And David crossed over the brook
Kidron. And it says in 2 Samuel 15, 23,
all the country wept with a loud voice, and all the people passed
over. The king also himself passed
over the brook Kidron, and all the people passed over toward
the way of the wilderness. Here we see Christ our king fulfill
that scripture. Kidron, it means dark water. And it was the sewer ditch. It
was the place where all the blood from the sacrifices and the refuse
went to and flowed. And here the sinless Lord Jesus
Christ willingly is crossing over that to bear the dark sin
of His people. This is where it's going to begin.
When David crossed, all his people crossed over. And when our Lord Jesus Christ
passed over this brook to enter into His suffering, His disciples
that night went with Him. But more than that, all His elect
went with Him. You sitting here right now who
believe Him by His grace, you went with Him that night over
the brook Kidron. Now, do you see God's name in
that? I see God's name as our Holy Father who separated us
in Christ before this world began and trusted us to Christ before
any time existed. That's why we went over with
Him. That's why, just like when they went over with David, we
were in Christ in everything He suffered. This is all Him. If you can see this with spiritual
eyes, He's declaring God's name in everything He's doing here.
just like he did all his life. Notice the Lord Jesus entered
into a garden and his disciples. The first head Adam with all
his people in him disobeyed God in a garden and we all became
guilty sinners. But in this second garden, the
garden of Gethsemane, the last head, Christ Jesus was obeying
the Father, presenting Himself as the spotless Lamb of God,
so that He laid down His life just for the unjust to have all
the sins of all His elect laid on Him, that God might be just
to pour out wrath upon Him, that God's law might be honored and
His people be justified. It all began in this garden.
It started in a garden and it's going to be accomplished, this
redemption, the beginning of the accomplishment of this is
going to be in a garden. But John here, he doesn't record
the things Matthew, Mark, and Luke recorded in their Gospels.
He doesn't say anything about Peter, James and John taking
them a little further with him and telling them to watch and
pray as he went forth and prayed. He doesn't say anything about
Christ being in an agony and how he sweat great drops of blood
and how he was praying to the Father three times that night.
Why doesn't he include any of that? Well, the other Gospels are showing
us the suffering of the Son of Man. John is showing us that
that Son of Man is the Son of God. He is God. He is God in
human flesh. He didn't put the other stuff
in it because He is showing us something here that they didn't
include or something that needs to be said to show that He is
the Son of God. Verse 2, And Judas also which
betrayed Him knew the place. For Jesus often times resorted
thither with His disciples. Judas then, having received a
band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees,
cometh thither with lanterns and torches and weapons." Some
say this here could be up to 500 people. I don't know. But there were
some that the Romans sent and there were some that chief priests
and Pharisees sent. They come with lanterns and torches
and weapons. And Jesus, therefore, knowing
all things that should come upon Him, went forth and said unto
them, Whom seek ye? We see God's name right here.
We see God's name right here. We see the Lord Jesus is God
who knows all things. That's who God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is. He's the sovereign God. He
ordained all things. And everything that's coming
to pass here, He ordained before the world was made. So it says,
Our Lord Jesus, knowing all things that should come upon Him, went
forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? He knew all things that
should come upon Him. Jesus of Nazareth is God in human
flesh. He knew all things that should
come upon Him. He's bringing all things to pass. Everything that's about to come
upon Him as God is bringing it all to pass. He's the second
person in the Trinity. And as the Son of God, one with
the Father and the Spirit, the Father anointed Him, the Christ,
before the foundation of the world. And so the Son of God,
along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, ordained all things
that should come to pass in order to declare God's name in the
salvation of His people. And the Son of God entered a
covenant to be the Christ and to bear all the things that should
come upon Him. And so they should come upon
Him. He purposed it. They should. And He knew they
should. He knew they must. The Son of
Man must be lifted up, He had said. God's name must be declared. The law must be honored. His
people must be saved from our sin. The Scriptures must be fulfilled. These are things that should
come upon him. Years and years before this, he used David to
declare what should come to pass concerning our Lord Jesus. And
someone quoted what David said, and he said this in Acts 4.25,
he said, By the mouth of thy servant David thou hast said,
Why did the heathen rage, and the people imagine vain things?
The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered
together against the Lord and against his Christ. For the truth
against thy holy child Jesus whom thou has anointed both Herod
and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were
gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined
before to be done. Everything that's come in the
past, He ordained it. He knew all these things. He
knew them all. That's declaring God's name.
One of the very reasons the Lord Jesus Christ went to the Garden
of Gethsemane, He'd gone there many times with His disciples
to pray. Went outside of formal religion to pray. And he took his disciples there
very often. He took Judas there. And he knew Judas knew he went
there often. And so he knew Judas would come
there to find him there. And he went there for that reason. He's helping Judas do what Judas
is going to do to him. At least making it easier for
him to find him. That's God's name. Christ is
the Son of God. He's the sovereign, all-knowing
God of purpose, who ordained all things that should come to
pass, who knows all things that should come to pass, who brings
to pass all things that should come to pass. That's His name.
And then, we see the Lord manifest the love wherewith the Father
loved Him before the world was made. The Father gave His Son
this honor and loved the Son because He obeyed His Father
willingly. Father loved His Son. Now, I
don't know how to say this. We speak in time language and
say He entered a covenant. That's the only way we can understand
it. Say that Father loved Him because He laid down His life.
But God's eternal. But this willingness of Christ,
this is the love, this is what made... I'm not even saying that
right, but this is why He loved the Son. For His perfection,
His willingness to fulfill all His will and His purpose. And that's what we see Christ
doing here. Knowing that all this should come upon Him, He
willingly went forth. He willingly went forth. Willingly. and said to them, Whom seek ye?
The way it's written, they didn't come and find the Lord Jesus.
The Lord Jesus came to them and said, Who are you seeking? Lost men can't find Christ. Christ
has to come to the lost man. And He came to them and said,
Whom seek ye? Do you see the willingness of
Christ there? Do you see this? This is the
love wherewith the Father loved Him. He loved Him because of
Christ's willingness to do everything He would do to honor God and
save His people. Christ did this to declare the
name of the righteous and holy Father. The covenant He promised
to fulfill was to declare God holy and righteous. To manifest
the righteousness of God, because he's fulfilling everything in
God's law with perfection. It was all written about him.
It was all setting him forth as the righteousness of God,
and he's fulfilling it all. And at the same time, putting
away all the sin of his people. And in it all, the preeminent
thing is he's manifesting the righteousness of God. He was
willing to do this. Look back at John 10, 17. This is the love wherewith the
Father loved the Son. He said, I am declaring thy name
and I will declare it to them that the love wherewith thou
has loved me may be in them. That we might understand something
about the love that God had to His Son. Why does God love His
Son so? Look at verse 17. Therefore doth my Father love
me because I lay down my life. that I might take it again. No
man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself." He willingly
went forth. He knew what he was about to
suffer. If you knew even a portion that you were going to suffer,
a portion of what Christ suffered, would you willingly go forth
and say, here I am, let me suffer? There's no way we could do it.
Not like he did it. Not even just the little trials
that come upon us. We just don't want them. We don't
want to face them. He willingly went into this.
That's why the Father loved him. He said, I have power to lay
my life down. I have power to take it again.
This commandment I received of my Father. And here's where we
see his name declared, the Father's name declared, God's name declared
most. And our Lord Jesus went forth
to them, verse 5, and He said, Who do you seek? They answered
Him, Jesus of Nazareth. They weren't about to give God
glory. They weren't about to call Him the Christ, the Lord. They spoke of Him as Jesus of
Nazareth, that place where nothing good could come out of. Jesus said to them, and you know
the italics word here is added, Jesus said to them, I am. I am. And Judas also, which betrayed
him, stood with them, and as soon then as he had said unto
them, I am, they went backward and fell to the ground. Lord Jesus said He had declared
God's name to His disciples, and He said He would declare
it again, and here He is declaring it again. He said, I am. And as soon as he said it, they
went backwards. They fell to the ground. They
went backwards. This is their hour. He's going
to permit them to arrest him. But before he does it, he's going
to make sure they understand he's God. He's God. He could have walked away right
then when they fell on their back. He could have just walked
away, said, come on, fellas, let's go, and walked away. And
they wouldn't have done a thing about it. He did it many times
before. Went through the midst of them.
No man laid hold of them. He's about to let them arrest
Him, but He's going to make them know before they arrest Him who
He is. And He's not doing it for their sakes. He's doing it
for the sake of His apostles, for the sake of you. This is what it means in Revelation
1.8 when He said, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the ending, saith the Lord. Here's what I am means. This
is about the best definition I could think of for I am. I
mean, I didn't think it. This is the Scripture. Which
is, and which was, and which is to come. The Almighty. That's what it
is to be the I Am. Eternal God. He was, He is, He
is to come. The Son of God pre-incarnate
appeared to Moses in the burning bush. He was the Son of God.
He appeared to Moses in the burning bush. There's one mediator between
God and man. If any man's dealt with, it's
going to be the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus dealing with him.
So the Son of God appeared in this burning bush and He declared
His name. He declared God's name to Moses. God said unto Moses, I am that
I am. He said, Thus shalt thou say
unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. And
God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the
children of Israel, The Lord God of your fathers, the God
of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob has sent
me unto you. That is my name forever. This
is my memorial unto all generations. That's who Christ is. That's
what He was saying when He said, Who do you seek? And He said,
I am. That He was saying, I am. I am the Lord God of your fathers,
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, and
that God who sent me to you. That's my name forever. The Lord Jesus told the Pharisees
how Abraham believed on him. He told them Abraham believed
him and they mocked him and he said, what do you mean Abraham
believed on you? You're not even 50 years old
yet. How did Abraham believe on you? He said in John 8, 58,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. The name is manifest most clearly
in Christ him crucified. That's where we see this name
in all that He fully accomplished, glorifying the Father and justifying
and sanctifying His people. And the Lord said we would, that's
when they would know it. After He went back and rose,
He said in John 8, 28, When you've lifted up the Son of Man, then
shall you know that I am. and that I do nothing of myself,
but as my Father taught me, I speak these things. Now our Lord declared
this name, I Am, many times throughout the Gospel of John. And each
one declares God's name and what Christ is to His people. I want
to look over them just real quickly. Now go back to John 6, and I
want you to see each of these, because this is the name of God,
and this is what God is to each of His people, and this is manifest
in Christ being this to each of His people. This is the love
wherewith the Father loved Christ. He gave Him the preeminence of
being everything that's declared here, and this is His name. Everything that's declared here
is God's name. We're saved by God's name. And
this is what we'll see here. Everything that we see here,
this is His name. This is how He's saved. If a dead sinner
is going to be saved, we need spiritual life. In other words,
we need to be made righteous. If you have sin, there's no righteousness. But when you've been made righteous,
you have eternal life, because there's no death. So we need
righteousness if we're going to live forever. John 6.35, Jesus
said unto them, I am, I am the bread of life. He that cometh
to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. They don't have a thing to do
with any physical thing whatsoever. That's all spiritual. I'm the
bread of life. Verse 51, he says, I am the living
bread which came down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. That's
Him bringing in an everlasting righteousness for His people
by laying down His life. That's how He's life to us. God,
our triune God, is life to His people. And that's manifest and
declared in Christ Jesus, laying down His life on the cross and
making all His people righteous. And therein is how we have eternal
life. We're righteous in Christ. All
right, let's go over to John 8, verse 12. John 8, 12. John 8, 12. Then spake Jesus
again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world. I am
the light of the world. He that followeth me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. If a sinner
is going to live, we need to have the light of life. Christ
is that light. Only when Christ enters in will
we have the light. He's the light. It's not of us. We can't produce it. He spoke
of some walking in the sparks that they had kindled and they'll
perish. This light is the light Christ
gives. The light He is. The light He's
going to keep sustained in His people. That's who I am, the
light. Just like He said, I am the bread
of life. I am the light. And then go with me over to John
10. If we're going to enter into
the sheepfold, enter into the church of God and the kingdom
of God, you don't just enter that kingdom. You have to be
born into it, and you enter it by faith. And there's only one
way to enter, just one door. And you've got to know that one
door. John 10, 7, Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. All that ever came
before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them.
I am the door by me. If any man enter in, he shall
be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture. Well, since
these people are defenseless sheep, we're going to have to
have a shepherd You know something about sheep, sheep don't attack.
And you know when a child of God is attacked, your flesh may
flare up, you may say something you ought not to, but you know,
when good is spoken of as evil, and motives you had which were
just out of love are spoken of as evil, and you're maligned
and whatever, you take that to heart. Take that to heart. You go into your closet and go
to God and you see. You start seeing the things that
are so. And when you start looking over
things, you start just seeing your sin. How are you going to
be brought through that? How are you going to be brought
through that valley of the shadow of death? You're going to have
to have a shepherd. You're going to have to have
a shepherd. God's sheep are not wolves. You've
got to be protected from the wolf. You've got to have a shepherd.
Look here. This is His name, John 10, 11.
I am the good shepherd. And you know, just when you hear this, don't it
make you fall down? You know, when you shut up like
we saw in Psalm 116 and you need the shepherd, God's brought you
low and brought you there. And Christ says, I am the Good
Shepherd. It doesn't make you fall backwards
like they did. Grace makes you fall on your
face. Thankful. Thankful. The Good Shepherd giveth
His life for the sheep. Verse 14, I'm the Good Shepherd
and I know my sheep and I'm known of mine as the Father knoweth
me even so I know I the Father and I lay down my life for the
sheep. If we're going to come to the Father, it's only going
to be by Christ declaring God's name in our hearts and giving
us faith to believe Him. We're going to have to know He's
everything, God's everything, and Christ's going to have to
declare His name to us, make us know Christ is everything.
Look at John 14, verse 6. They were having all this trouble
that night. You remember? This is the cure for the troubled
heart right here. This is how the Lord Jesus answered
them when they had their troubled heart. Verse 6, Jesus said to
them, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by Me. I am. I am. I am the way. When you're lost and you don't
know where to go, and He says, I'm the way. When you're turned
about and you don't know what's right, He says, I'm the truth.
When you feel like, I'm not His child, I don't deserve to be
called a child of God, and He says, I'm the life. That's when you fall on your
face and know, I'm going to only come to God by Him. Thank God
I can come to God by Him. God's life. We can do nothing
without God. All through this world we think
we really sustain and we really accomplish and we're really doing
things on our own. Not a thing. Not a thing. It's God who produced life in
the beginning. Produced the first man. It's
God who produced life in his children when he birthed us anew.
And it's God who keeps producing fruit in us. Fruit trees don't
strain to produce fruit. Fruits produced from the vine. If the root's holy, the lump's
holy. The branches are holy. He's the
one who's going to make his people fruitful. The great I am. Look at John 15 and 5. I am the
vine. You're the branches. He that
abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.
Without me, you can do nothing. Well, God's people are going
to need to be raised in the end. Our bodies are going to need
to be raised to newness of life and we're going to need to be
conformed to Him. We'll go back to John 11, 25. Martha said, I know my brother
is going to rise in the resurrection. She was looking for an event.
The resurrection was a doctrine to her. And Lord Jesus made her
bow in her heart. He spoke the word of power that
made her bow in her heart. Verse 25, Jesus said to her,
I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth
and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Now
let me tell you what I'm trying to show you in all this. Jesus
Christ is the Son of God. And he declares God's name and
continues to declare it in the heart of his people. All these
I am's, he speaks this over and over to us in our heart. All
these things that Christ is for his people shows the love wherewith
the father loved Christ. The father would have his son
exalted preeminently as the salvation of his people. It's only when
Christ is formed in our hearts, it's only when Christ declares
His name in our hearts that we behold this love of the Father
for Christ. Then the gospel ceases to be
about us. The gospel begins to be about
Christ only. And the good news of this is,
when He makes you see the love wherewith He loved the Father,
just like Christ said in John 17, He makes you know that He's
loved you, His child, with the very same love as He loved Christ. How so? Because He trusted you
to Christ to do all the saving. That's love. That's love. Love saves. Love saves. Love don't kill. Love saves.
And that's love. That's how you receive the love
of the truth. And you won't ever let it go
because He keeps declaring His name in your heart. He keeps
you bowing. Now listen to me. Do you believe
that Jesus is the Christ? Do you believe that the Son of
God came down and took flesh and that He is the salvation
of His people? Do you believe this? When Christ declared God's name
to Judas and to those officers of the Pharisees, apart from
grace working in their hearts, they fell backwards. And you
know what's happening right now as the gospel is going forth
here and everywhere it's going forth? The same word is a saver
of death unto death to many. They hear it, but they fall backwards.
They hear God say, I am. They hear the true God who's
really God. It's not this helpless, impotent
God the world speaks about. They hear God, and they don't
like it, and they fall backwards. Our Lord said, if you believe
not that I am, you shall die in your sins. Believe Him. Trust Him. Fall down on your
face. And when He made His name known
to Moses in the heart by grace, just like it was with Abraham,
just like it was with Isaac and Jacob and David and everybody
He's ever saved, Moses took off his shoes, because
he was on holy ground, and he hid his face in reverence to
Christ, to God. That's the difference grace makes.
That's that humbleness of mind we're talking about. When He
makes us really see who is preeminent. Who is all. Get that, what that
means? That means two can't be all. If He's all, I'm nothing. And
this is what's happening. He's increasing. I'm decreasing. He's increasing. If you're His,
you're decreasing. In your estimation of yourself,
that's how it is. That's true growth in grace.
That's the true growth of sanctification. He's increasing. We're decreasing. But when you fall on your face,
this is what He makes you say. He makes you know. Neither is
there salvation in any other. Because there's none other name. It's all about His name. There's
none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved. I do pray that God, I pray our
Lord Jesus with sin and spirit, and speak this, speak His name
into your heart. If you've never believed in Him,
or if you're a believer who's going through what we saw once,
Psalm 116, The only way we will be delivered
at any time is when our Lord comes and declares in our heart,
I am in grace. When He does it in grace, it's
a good thing, it's a friendly thing. Remember when He came
to them on the sea and waves were raging and they saw something
coming and they were scared, they were afraid. He said, The
whole, it is I, but the original is I am. Be not afraid. It's I am. Be not afraid. When
you know you're in the hand of the great I am, you don't have
to be afraid. You don't have to be afraid.
You know, fear is what makes us miserable. I mean, the earthy fear, you
know, fear of things, fear of people. Fear is what makes you
act ugly. Fear is what makes you boast
and try to... Most of the time when people
are bragging and boasting, trying to exalt themselves, they're
just scared. That's all it is. But when you fear God and you
know you're in His hand, you don't have to be afraid. He's
got you. He's going to save you. I pray
He come now, speak that in the heart. And as we sit here and
observe His table, when we take this unleavened bread, think
of the sinless Lord Jesus who willingly went forth, gave Himself
to have His body broken for you. And when you taste this wine,
think about how He willingly poured out His blood unto death
in your place. And in all of that, behold the
name of God. Behold His name, the Holy and
Righteous Father. How could we ever want glory
for anything? I pray He help us now remember
Him at His table.