All right, John 17, coming to
the end of our Lord's prayer. He prayed for his disciples that
day, and he prays for this for his people in our day. Even back
then, he was praying for those who shall believe the word, and
that's you who he's called since then. And so now, we read here
in verse 25, he prays, O righteous Father, The world hath 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, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. Now in this prayer,
the Lord has called on the Father many times. Back up there, when
he asked for God to keep his people from the evil, he prayed,
O Holy Father. Now here, he prays, O Righteous Father, O Righteous
Father. He says, the world does not know
God the Father. Unregenerate sinners don't know
him at all, certainly not as the Righteous Father. as the
righteous father, but neither did any believer, neither did
you and me as we came into this world. We didn't know him as
the righteous father. We didn't know him at all. We
didn't know him at all. Same was true of Peter, James,
John, Paul. None of those Christ gives a
true understanding knew Christ from the beginning. You'll hear
people say, well, I've always believed on the Lord. No, no.
No, no, we hated him. We hated Him. That's so of everybody
He saved. We hated Him. And it's only God
making us, Christ making us know God as the righteous Father that
we truly know Him and begin to believe Him and trust Him. Now
I want to look here at three things. I want to see how God's
people are made to know God our Father, especially know Him as
the righteous Father. And I want to know how we're
going to continue to be made to know Him. and grow in knowledge
of Him, and in what the purpose of it all is. Why is the Lord
teaching us the name of the Father and growing us in His grace and
knowledge? First of all, how are God's people
made to know God our Father? Especially know Him as the righteous
Father. Think about that, the righteous
Father. That's putting Him as a judge,
the righteous judge, and the Father. How is this so? How is he the righteous father?
O righteous father, Christ said, the world hath not known thee,
but I've known thee. Jesus Christ is the son of God. And when he came down here, he
didn't stop being a son of God. He came down and took flesh.
He's always been in the bosom of the father. He's always been
one with the father. He is the son of God. And even
as the God-man mediator, he knew the father. for all time. He knew Him. He knew all things
about His purpose, all things about His decree, all things
that He must do to come and work the will of the Father, all things
that He would do throughout time to work the will of the Father.
He knew the Father. He knew the Father's will, and
He said, I came to do Thy will, O Father. This is who Christ
is. God makes us to know he's the
righteous father in the face of Christ Jesus. It's by beholding
Christ that we're going to know God the righteous father. You
remember in Hebrews 1, if you want to look there, Hebrews chapter
1, God spoke a lot of different ways in the past. And one reason
for that was he was showing that the world by wisdom cannot know
God. But he would speak to his people, he would make his people
to know him. But look at this now, verse 1, God who at sundry
times and in different manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by his
son. The last days began when Christ
came. That's when the last days began.
Most of what people are looking to happen at what they call the
last days, at the end of these days, Christ did already. The last days began when he came.
and God's been speaking to his people by his son, by his son. He's the one who he appointed
heir of all things. Everything belongs to Christ.
Christ is the one by whom also he made the worlds. Think of
that. Our Lord Jesus Christ made the
worlds, and that includes all the worlds and probably worlds
we don't even know about. He made all the worlds, and He
made this world to come forth in this world and work out the
salvation to make His people know the Father's name. All of
it was trusted in Christ's hand, everything. And it says here,
who being the brightness of His glory, the express image of His
person, He is God in human flesh, and upholding all things by the
word of His power, by His covenant promise to God to save His people,
All things by the word of his power, when he had by himself
purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high, being made so much better than the angels, as he hath by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than nay." So if we're going
to know the Father and know the name of the Father, it's going
to be declared to us in the Son. in the Lord Jesus. Now, Christ
made his apostles know the Father. When he walked this earth, he
made his apostles know the Father, and Christ makes all his people
know the Father. It's Christ that does it. He
said there in John 17, verse 25, O righteous Father, the world
hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known
that thou hast sent me. Spurgeon pointed out from this,
it's obvious that the knowledge Christ gives, he only gives to
a particular people. It's very obvious from this text
he only gives to a particular people. He said earlier in this
prayer, I pray not for the world. I pray for them thou hast given
me out of the world. All is elect from beginning to
end is who he intercedes for. And he said here plainly, the
world hath not known thee. Speaking of the non-elect world,
the world hath not known thee. The non-elect world come into
this world just like everybody got saved. We come in unregenerate
and we don't know God. We don't know anything about
God. We don't know the first thing about God. at all. This is not a knowledge that's
going to be given to us through intellect and through reading
and through searching and trying to find out. This has to be given
by God. It has to be given by God. Now,
when you think of heathens, the world not knowing God, and you
think of the heathen reprobate world, you might think of some
place over in Africa in a jungle and worshiping idols and what
have you. But we have heathen idolaters as next-door neighbors. They're heathen idolaters sitting
in pews in churches all over this country. But remember that
whether they're religious or otherwise, here's the problem.
Here's the problem, and this was the problem with us too.
They do not know the name of God, and particularly Everything
about God's name is really manifest in what our Lord prayed right
here. Oh, righteous father. They don't know him as the righteous
father. The righteous father. You don't
hear it in the world sermons. You just don't. You don't hear
in this world when they're preaching, you don't hear it. And no man
knows this, so Christ gives a true knowledge of God. Sinners have
no idea what it even means, the righteous father, the righteous
father. Man has imagined a God and that
God is unjust because the man that imagined that God is unjust.
Man has imagined a God who is unrighteous because the man who
imagined that God is unrighteous. This is just what we are as we
come into this world. Man knows nothing of the righteousness
of God by nature, and he doesn't know where the righteousness
of God is to be had. He doesn't know what God requires. He doesn't know the righteousness
of God at all, and especially not the righteousness of God
as the father of his people. As a father, the most that an
unregenerate man knows is in a sense that, well, he's a father,
that he just helps us out sometimes when we need help. That's not
the righteous father. That's not the righteous father.
And you and I, we didn't know him either. And we still have
to be taught him. We still have to be taught by
Christ. He still has to declare this to us continually. Because
we don't, what we know, what we know about the righteous father,
you can put in a thimble. And we just don't know a lot
about God. That's just so. When we get in
fussing and fighting and arguing with one another over a doctrine,
it's really foolish. Because we don't know that much.
Just don't know that much. But we didn't have any conception
of God's righteousness. No center by nature does. What
really God requires, what is really the righteousness God
requires, perfection. Perfection. In thought, in word,
in deed, beginning to end, and at all times with no deviation
whatsoever, perfect righteousness is what God requires. We had
no idea where this righteousness of God could be found. You did
what I did. You went to this book in your
unregenerate state and you looked for something you should do.
You looked for things that the book said for you to do. And
you walked away thinking that's how you made righteous. And if
you heard anybody preach the righteousness of God, it offended
you. And so you liked hearing people who told you what you
can do to make yourself righteous because that made you feel better. But we can't make ourselves the
righteousness of God. We cannot do so. How did the
apostles know God's name? How do we know? Listen to this
from John 118. No man had seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. Christ
said, The world doesn't know you, Father, but I know you.
I know you. If we're going to know God, the
righteous Father, it's going to be by Christ revealing Him
in our heart. He's going to declare Him in
our heart through this gospel. Now, go back to John 17 if you're
there. This is Christ's glory. It's
the glory that God gave to our Lord, not only to make his people
righteous, but also to be the head of his church and to preach
the gospel. He is our prophet, priest, and
king. All this glory belongs to Christ. to make us to know
Him. Verse 25, He says, O righteous
Father, the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee,
and these, speaking of the apostles that He declared God's name to,
the apostles He called out, He said, these have known that Thou
hast sent Me. They know it, without a doubt.
They know that I came from you, Father. They know you sent me.
That's what faith believes, that Christ is the Son of God, the
mediator, come down in human flesh to save his people. We
believe it. How did they know this? How do
any of God's people know God's name? How do we know it? He said,
I have declared unto them thy name, and I will declare it. It pleased God to save through
the foolishness of preaching. But here's why that's so important.
It's because Christ is the prophet. Christ is the head of the church.
Christ is the one getting the glory for the whole thing. It's
only by Christ. It's only by Christ declaring
in the heart of his people the righteous father. That's how
we're going to know. He said, I have declared unto
them thy name and will declare it. Our Lord here is expressing the
unfitness, the inability of the world to know God. The world
hasn't known Thee, Father. He said, O righteous Father,
the world has not known Thee. Then he speaks of himself and
his apostles saying, but I've known Thee, and these have known
that Thou hast sent me. And then he tells us how they
knew. I've declared unto them thy name, and I will declare
it. Our Lord repeats what he spoke
back up there in verse 6. Look back up there. John 17,
6. He said, I've manifested thy name unto the men which thou
gavest me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, and they've kept thy word. He bases this manifestation
of God's name on God electing his people and giving them to
him. to make us know God. It's all based on the election
of God. It was the eternal motive of God the Father to choose a
people for himself and reveal his holy name, his righteous
name in our hearts to save us from ourselves and make us perfectly
conformed to his image. This was the will and purpose
of God from eternity. He said, they're thine they were
and thou gavest them me. And so for this reason the Father
ordained that the Lord Jesus Christ would manifest his name
to those the Father had elected to save. So Christ says with
the life, I've declared your name unto them you gave me. I've
done it. I've declared it. And I will do it again. I will
keep declaring it to them. This is part of Christ making
us know the Father's name when he makes us know him as the righteous
father. As the righteous father. Now
think about this. Is God unrighteous to elect a people to salvation?
Is he unjust to choose some and pass by others? That's what we
thought. That's what we thought. We thought
that was unjust, that was unrighteous for God to do that. How did we,
how were we made to submit to this good news that God chose
the people? By Christ declaring that God our father is the righteous
father. He's the righteous father. Whatever
he does is right. Whatever he does is right. God's
not unjust. You take non-elect sinners. Everybody's gonna be saved based
on a work. Or lost based on a work. Everybody. Everybody that's not elect, just
like everybody that he saves, the not elect sinned in Adam
and died. There's the work that condemned
us right there. We come into the world speaking lies, we come
into the world with a corrupt nature, we've lost God's image,
and we don't know him. And we can't know him. And truth
is, we didn't want to know him, not this God, because we said,
we called him the unrighteous father. Wasn't right for him
to choose some and pass by others, when at the same time, we didn't
want him to choose us. How does God make you know it's
right for him to do what he will with his own? How does he make
you to know that? How does it make you know He's just and righteous?
It's because He makes you see He would have been just to condemn
us. He would have been just to condemn
all of us, because we all sin and come short of the glory of
God. He would have been just to condemn us. He's the righteous
Father. It would have been righteous
for Him, but for His grace, but for His decree, but for His purpose,
it would have been righteous for Him to condemn us. And this
is what we got to see when we see He's the righteous Father,
that His electing grace is righteous. It's righteous. We all sinned
in Adam, but what's the work by which His people are going
to be saved? It's the obedience of Christ Jesus the Lord. Every
man's going to be damned by the work of another or saved by the
work of another. That's just how God made it.
And men say, that's not righteous. He's the righteous Father. Everything
He does is righteous. It's righteous for him to do
it that way. Adam is a figure of Christ in headship. God set
that up. Everything is to glorify his
son. And so he set that up to glorify his son. And so he makes
you to see that as we came forth, we had this sin nature, hating
God, calling God unrighteous. And he makes you see, no, no,
no, God's righteous to do what he will with his own. We've sinned
against God. We've trespassed against God.
We hated God. And he has to make us see that
before we will bow and call him righteous to do with us what
he will. do with us what it will. So if
God doesn't give us saving knowledge to the non-elect world, he doesn't
give them a saving knowledge, he's righteous to do so. It's
what the carnal mind wants. The carnal mind hates God. Unregenerate
sinners don't want to know the God who is the righteous Father. And so it's just God giving sinners
what they want, what they will. Men will boast about their will
and what they will and what they want, and God's giving the non-elect
world what they want. Leave it alone. But when He comes
to you and makes you to know Him, He makes you behold that
God is the righteous Father. We have to know his name. We
have to know him as God the righteous father by free grace. By free
grace because he loved his own. By free grace he chose to be
a father to some of Adam's fallen race. This all is nonsense of
did he do this with a view to the fall or not. It's nonsense.
Of course he did. He provided a savior before there
was a sinner. Christ's inner covenant to be
the surety of his people before anybody fell. And that's God's
grace to choose to be gracious to a great multitude of people.
Election's not a bad thing. If it wasn't for God electing
us, we would be like the world that didn't know God and never
would know him. This is God's name, our righteous
father. The true knowledge that Christ
gives makes his people know the name of God, and all of it's
comprehended in this name, the righteous Father. Oh, righteous
Father. Now, we were like every other
sinner at first, and we were crying unfair and unrighteous
and unjust, and we were saying it wasn't right that God elected
some and passed by others, but Christ gave us a knowledge of
God as the righteous God. It's God that demands perfection.
God that demands perfection and thought, word, and deed, and
made us see by that we have never once, not even once, have we
entertained a righteous thought in ourselves and of ourselves.
Not one time. We're sinners. We're guilty sinners,
and he makes you see that. Until he makes us see that, we'll
condemn others, and we'll even condemn God. and say God's unrighteous. But he has to make us see he's
the righteous father. He's just to do with his own
what he will. Go to Romans 9. This is his whole purpose in
this earth in making his power known is to make his name known. He talked there, you know, about
He elected Jacob and he hated Esau, and the purpose is that
it should be of God who calleth. It's not of him that willeth,
not of him that runneth, it's God that calls. It's all to declare
his name as the righteous father. So we have to be shown we're
not worth the least of God's mercies, not worth even the least
of God's mercy. We have merited nothing, absolutely
nothing. And yet the Father chose us and
He set His love on us in Christ Jesus and sent His Son. And when
He makes you know this, it's by this knowledge that He makes
you say, Amen. Amen. I'm thankful God chose
a people. Look here at Romans 9, 17. This is where we were right here. Scripture saith unto Pharaoh,
even for this same purpose have I raised thee up that I might
show my power in thee and that my name might be declared throughout
all the earth. The children of Israel couldn't
save themselves from Pharaoh. He had too much power. But God
raised him up and gave him that power and put them in this this
inescapable situation for over 400 years to show they couldn't
free themselves. And why did he do it? To make
his power known in saving his people, to make his name known. Look, therefore, hath he mercy
on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth? Thou
wilt say then unto me, why did they yet find fault for who hath
resisted his will? That's where we were. Well, if
everybody's doing what his will is and nobody's resisting his
will, we had all this crazy reasoning, you know, trying to justify ourselves
and condemn God. And he makes you hear this in
your heart, no, but old man, who art thou that replies against
God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel
into honor and another into dishonor? What if God, willing to show
his wrath and to make his power known, endure with much longsuffering
the vessels of wrath fit to destruction? that he might make known the
riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had aforeprepared
unto glory, even us whom he hath called, not of the Jews only,
but also of the Gentiles." That's what God's doing in this world
right now. His long-suffering is toward his people. His long-suffering
is going to end in him saving his people. He's just putting
up with the vessels of wrath fit to destruction as he calls
out his people and makes us know he's the righteous father. He's
making his name known, and he won't fail, because Christ won't
fail. And where do we see this the
most? Where do we see we're the sinner, and where do we see that
he really is the righteous father? We see it in the substitutionary
death of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is where you see it most.
His people, when we look to Christ, we behold God is righteous. He
is righteous. He's just. He's strictly just.
And at the same time, we see he's a father to his people.
We behold His love, His righteous love. He is the righteous Father. His grace and His mercy are in
harmony with His justice. He's the righteous Father. He's
our Father, but better than that, He's our righteous Father. He
is a just God and a Savior. Now, where do we see this? Let's look right here in John
18. Our Lord went to the Garden of Gethsemane as soon as he finished
praying this prayer. And the Lord often went there,
and so Judas knew he went there, and so Judas comes there to betray
him and brings the soldiers. Verse 4, John 18, 4. Jesus, therefore,
knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and
said unto them, Whom seek you? And they answered him, Jesus
of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am. And Judas also, which
betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto
them, I am, they went backward and fell to the ground. That's
what'll happen when God makes you know his name in Christ,
that he is the I am, the righteous father. You'll fall down on your
face, on your face. Look here now. Here it is. Then asked he them again, Whom
seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth.
Jesus answered, I have told you that I am. If therefore you seek
me, let these go their way. Take me, I'll bear the righteous
judgment of God. I'll bear it. I'll declare God
just, and I'll justify my people, but take me and let my people
go free." That's where you see the righteous father. The righteous father. Christ
had to die. He had to justify God. He had
to declare God just. He had to justify his people
from all our sins. And because he did that in love
to his people, He is the righteous Father. That's what we see in
Him. The righteous Father. And He makes us know this name
when He speaks this gospel in our hearts. I've declared it.
I've declared unto them thy name and I will declare it. This knowledge
comes gradually. It comes gradually. And our Lord
didn't just declare it one time. He's going to keep declaring
it. He's going to keep declaring it. Keep declaring it. That's
why He's saving the way He's doing through preaching because
it keeps us ever dependent on Him. We need Him to be teaching
us. Just like the apostles, they were slow learners, and they
had a lot to learn, but Christ said, I've declared thy name
to them, and I will declare it. I'll keep declaring it. Our Redeemer's
alive. He's the prophet, priest, and
king at God's right hand. He's the head of the church.
He filleth all in all. His church is his body, the fullness
of him, and he's filling everything in his people. He's sending the
gospel. He's filling the hearts of his people. He's making the
name of our righteous Father known more and more in our hearts.
When He makes the Father's name and His love toward us known
in our hearts, that's when we'd love to declare the gospel to
needy sinners. That's when you desire to declare
Christ to needy sinners. You're ready to spend and be
spent for Christ. You want his name to be manifest. You want to see his elect called
out, and you want to see his brethren that are called out.
You want to see them edified. You want to see them grow up
into Christ, and you want God's name to be honored. You want
to preach him. You want to declare him. And if He had called you
to be a preacher, you still want to support the preaching. And
you, every time He opens the door for you to speak of Him,
you want to speak of Him. But now get this, as much as
you like to declare the name of the Lord and brag on your
God and boast in His glory and what He's accomplished for us,
Christ delights in it even more. That's what he said. I've declared
it, and I'll declare it again. I'm going to keep declaring your
name, Father. He delights to declare the name of our Father. His purpose is to increase the
Lord's glory and praise in our hearts. That's right. So if you
need wisdom, come to him. If any man lack wisdom, let him
ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and uprighteth
not, and it shall be given him. He'll continue to grow us. He'll
continue to grow us in the grace and knowledge of our righteous
Father in His holy name in the face of Christ Jesus. He'll keep
doing it. He said, I have declared it.
I will declare it. Now, lastly, what's the end purpose of all
this? What's the reason for all this? John 17, 26, that the love
wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them. that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me, speaking to the Father, the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them and I in them. It's only by Christ
taking up his abode in us. Christ taking up his abode in
us. The Lord makes us know ourselves more. It keeps teaching us and
making us know ourselves more. It keeps making us know the sinners
we are in our flesh more. And it keeps making us know God's
love toward us more in making us righteous in Christ. This
is what He's going to keep teaching His people. He's going to keep
declaring it to His people, keep teaching us in our heart. Now
here it is. Go to 1 John 4, 9. And this is
what the love, how we see the love of God right here. 1 John
4, 9. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us. And this is what he's meaning
here, that the love of God might be in us, that we might see God's
love toward us. Because that's what's going to
make us love our Lord and love one another. And this was manifested,
the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten
Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love. Now get this, get this, get this. Herein is love. Not that we love
God. Not that we love God. But that he loved us. And sent
his son to be the propitiation for our sins. God didn't say
to you and me, if you'll take the first step, I'll do the rest.
He didn't say that. Because that Armenian foolishness
would have made you perish because you couldn't take the first step.
You didn't love God. I didn't either. But God loved us when we didn't
love him. We didn't love him. You know
what he does when he sends you to the trial? You know, Romans
5, it increases you, it makes you grow and experience, and
hope should have brought in your heart, and you grow more patient,
all those things, because the love of God should have brought
in your heart. What's He teach you? When you were without strength, Christ died for you. And you
didn't love Him. You didn't love Him. And God
sent His only begotten Son. to put away our sin and make
us the righteousness of God so God could receive us. That's
the love that God makes us know. And then because you are sons,
redeemed by Christ, made righteous by Christ, Christ sends the gospel
to you and makes you know this in your heart, in the new man,
making you know what he's done for you in the love he's shown
you by what he's done for you when you hated him, when you
absolutely hated him. And he keeps doing this to us.
He keeps doing this to us. Keeps showing us how he's loved
us when we haven't merited one thing. Verse 11. Beloved, if God so loved us,
if God after this manner loved us, we ought also to love one
another. Same way. Same way. No man has seen God
at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth
in us, and his love's perfected in us. Hereby know we that we
dwell in him, and he in us. This is us individually. Examine
yourself, where do you be in the faith? Here's how we know,
our own self. By the Spirit, because he has given us of his
Spirit. Christ said, I in them. And we have seen and do testify
that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world.
Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God
dwelleth in him, and he in God. And we have known and believed
the love that God hath to us. God is love. And he that dwelleth
in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. This is the whole
purpose of Christ declaring the gospel in our hearts. You whose
only righteousness and only hope is Christ, Your loved are the
Father, as He loves His only beloved Son. Think about that. He said back in John 17, 23,
I in them, Father, thou in me, that they may be made perfect
in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me,
and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. That's His elect. That's how He loved them. You
in me, whose faith is small, and our unbelief is great, But
if we know that about ourself, that's gonna make us love one
another when our brother's faith is small and our own belief is
great. When you know that's how he loves you. The righteous father
is our father. It's righteous for him to love
us. It's righteous for him to receive us. It's righteous for
him to keep teaching us because Christ is our righteousness.
And if he hadn't have loved us as he loved the son, he would
have spared his son. If he had not loved us as he
loved his son, he would have spared his son. But because he
loved us, he did not spare his son. He gave him because he's
going to have Christ have all the glory and he's going to have
all his people saved because he loved Christ the same as he
loved his people. He loved us as he loved him.
Many would discourage the hopes of the children of God. There's
a lot of people in this world that would discourage our hope
that we have in our Lord. and you get chastened, you get
down, and it hurts, and you're weak, and many would just pounce
on that. Satan would love for you to just
lose all faith and hope in the Lord. False religion would do
so. But as soon as you... but as
you can place no limit on God's love to his son. You can't place
a limit on it, so you can't place a limit on his love to his people
in Christ. Get that? Just like you can't
put a limit on his love to his son, you can't put a limit on
his love to his people. God's love's without beginning,
it's without end, it's without change, it's without limit, it's
without degree. And our Father will rebuke us.
Why? Because he loves us. He'll chasten
us because he loves us. And it'll be sorrowful, it won't
be pleasant for the moment, but he does it because he loves us.
He'll keep us partaking of his holiness. And that's when you
grow in knowledge a little more and find out. It's His holiness. It's Him keeping me from the
evil. Because had He not done it, that bitter root would have
defiled me and I'd have gone away like He saw, but He won't
let that happen for His people. He keeps you separated under
Him. And by the love of God in Christ, dwelling in his people,
we're gonna continue committed to Christ and to his people in
love, despite whatever we have to endure, because that's what
Christ has done toward us. It's only by his grace, it's
only by his indwelling presence. But his people, we're gonna continue
committed to Christ, and that's what true God-given love is.
Commitment to Christ, commitment to his people, come what may. Why? Because that's how God loved
you in Christ. It wasn't because you was good
to him and you was pleasant and just somebody that he just gonna
make his world better to have you in his presence. No. He loves
you because he would. And he committed to saving you.
And Christ came and laid down his life to save you and make
you righteous. And he's done that. He's done that. And it's
righteous to keep his people and save us. And that's what
he's gonna do. Now let's go to Colossians 3 and we'll end with
this. Colossians 3. Verse 12. Colossians 3.12, put on therefore
as the elect of God, holy and beloved, that's what you are,
the elect of God, holy and beloved, already are. But on bowels of
mercies, make it just be the moving constraint of your mercies,
bowels of mercies. Do you know when your child was
so sick and he's about to die and you went to their bedside
and you took their hand and you would have given anything, you'd
have traded places with them if you could, and your heart's
breaking for them and you're just trying anything you can
do to comfort them and remind them of your love for them. That's what it is. That's natural. But this is spiritual. This is
spiritual. You didn't go in and try to start
whacking them on, you know, why'd you get sick? Bowels of mercies. Bowels of mercies. Kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one
another, And forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against
any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all
these things, put on charity. Wouldn't you think all those
things was charity? Above all these, put on charity,
which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule
in your hearts, to the which also you're called in one body.
and be you thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom. You see, it's in your hearts.
It's in you. Teaching and admonishing one
another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. That's a good way to admonish,
isn't it? Sing a psalm. Read a psalm to your brother. hymns and spiritual songs, singing
with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Well, I'm doing it
to my brother, yeah, but Christ said, they're me, Christ said.
I'm that one with them, they're me. That's me you're doing it
to, Christ said. Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
And whatsoever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of
the Lord Jesus, given thanks to God and the Father by Him.
Amen. Father, we thank you for this
Word. Lord, we need you to bless it. We need you to speak powerfully
into our hearts. Make us behold how righteous
our Heavenly Father is. We have all things in Him and
all things from His hand. All are through Christ, our Lord,
our Savior, our Elder Brother, our Redeemer, our Prophet, Priest,
and King. Lord, we don't have anything
to fret about. We don't have anything to be discouraged about.
You're able, this is what the work of faith is, to believe
you're able to raise up from the dead, that you're able to
do what is absolutely impossible with us. Make us trust you, Lord. Make us grow in this love. for making us see more and more
how you've loved us, so rich and so free. Thank you for our
brethren, Lord. In Christ's name, amen.