Turn with me, if you would, to
John 17. John chapter 17. I want to read one verse before
we go to our text. One verse here in John 17. Verse
3. And this is life eternal. Do we want to know what eternal
life is? Do we want to know what eternal
life is? You think about that for just
a second. Eternal life. Everything we're doing right
now has a time limit on it. Right? Eternal life. Verse 3 says, And this is life
eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. This is life eternal, that a
sinner might come to a saving knowledge, of the only true God,
a saving knowledge of who Christ is and why He came and what He
accomplished. If a sinner ever comes to a knowledge
of that, that's a saved sinner. If a sinner ever comes to a knowledge
of that, That is a saved sinner. Now turn with me if you would
to our text, Matthew chapter 11. Verse 27 here in Matthew 11 says,
All things are delivered unto me of my Father. And no man knoweth
the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son." Now what is life eternal? What is life eternal? What did
our Lord say life eternal was? That we might know Him. Alright, verse 27 says, No man
knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father
save the Son." You know what that means? That means everybody is lost. That's what it means. Everybody's
lost without eternal life. without the hope of salvation. Everybody. Everybody. The great lie of this life on
earth is everybody is saved. That's the great lie of life
on this earth. Everybody is saved. The great
truth of God's Word is everybody is lost. Everybody, all have
sinned, right? Every soul is born into this
world separated from God, separated from God completely. And judgment
is coming. Judgment is coming. There are
men who are going to spend the rest of their life on this earth
on something called death row. Right? Well, we're all on death
row. If you really stop and think
about it, we're all on death row. Well, yeah, but they're
going to die because of their sins. Well, we're all going to
die because of our sins. All of us. All of us. The wages of sin is death. Isn't that right? The only reason
death comes is sin. That's the only reason. If there
were no sin, there would be no death. No sin, no death. Generation after generation after
generation has proven to us that every single one of us is born
into this world completely covered from the crown of our head to
the sole of our foot with sin. Isn't that right? God's Word
declares to us that there is only one hope. There is only one hope. If we leave this world with that
sin on us, we are going to die in our sins. But there is a hope,
there is one hope, there's one hope. That is the happy news,
happy day, there's a hope. This is life eternal that they
might know thee. And verse 27 says, All things
are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son but
the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father save the Son,
and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. God in love
and in grace and in mercy is going to reveal himself to some
sinners. Aren't we so glad for that? He
tells us right here who he's going to reveal himself to. Look
back at verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things." What things? The things of Christ. The things of salvation, the
things of eternal life. The Lord Jesus Christ Himself
said to His Father, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent. Now, wait a minute. hid these things from the wise
and prudent." Isn't that what we all ought to be? Wise and
prudent? Isn't it better to be wise than a fool? Hid these things from the wise
and prudent. That's what he said, isn't it? When you look up the word wise
in the Bible dictionary, the concordance, it means skilled
in letters. That's what it means. And it
gives three examples of those who are skilled in letters. The first one is Greek philosophers, Jewish theologians, and the third
one is Christian teachers. Three examples in the dictionary.
Christian teachers, that's who God the Father has chosen to
hide these things from. Christian teachers, Greek philosophers,
Jewish theologians and Christian teachers. Those who have become
skilled in letters. Well, you know, I studied at
such and such theological institute. I earned a master's degree in
divinity and I got a doctorate in Greek. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. So sorry. Well, I have good news. The Lord is able to strip you
of that. He stripped Saul of Tarsus of
that, didn't he? He's able. Nebuchadnezzar said,
The Lord knoweth how to humble. Verse 25 says, At that time,
Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven
and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise
and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Don't you love that? When you
look that word up in the Bible dictionary, it means the untaught. The unskilled. That's who our Lord has chosen
to reveal Himself to. Why did He choose to do it that
way? Verse 26 says, Even so, Father,
for so it seemed good in Thy sight. That's just what He wanted
to do. That's what He wanted to do. That's His will. Salvation
is according to His will, everything is according to God's will, every
single thing and who are we to reply against God? That's what
God said, right? It's His will. So, if a person
sees himself or herself to be very wise in religious matters,
holier than thou, a teacher rather than a student, I don't really have much good
news from God's Word for that person. But if that is not you
and if that's not me, if we can truly in our hearts say with
the Apostle Thomas, Lord, we don't know the way. If we can say with King Solomon,
Lord, I am but a child. I don't know how to rule these
people. I'm but a child. If we can say with the Apostle
Paul, I'm the least of all saints, I'm not even worthy to be called
an apostle. If we can say with John the Baptist,
he must increase, I must decrease. I'm not even worthy to tie his
shoes. If that's us, then I have good
news for us. Good news. We are the kind of
sinners The Lord said He has chosen to reveal Himself to.
All right, now I want to see if He'll reveal Himself to us
this morning. Verse 27, He said, All things
are delivered unto Me of My Father. This is life eternal that we
might know Him. Who is He? Who is Jesus Christ? Who is the Son of God? He is
the one who has had all things delivered into His hands. All
things. Everything. What all is included
in all things? All things. All things. I want to look at a few of them.
Go over to Matthew 28. Matthew 28 verse 18. And Jesus came and spake unto
them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Who is Jesus Christ? He's the
one who has all power over everything that is in heaven and everything
that is in earth. Now I do love that. He's the
one who has all power over everything that's in heaven and everything
that's in earth. People believe the heaven part. Almost everybody believes the
heaven part. All power over heaven, but they
don't believe the earth part. All power over everything that's
in heaven, everything that is in earth, especially Everything,
especially the people, especially. Daniel 4 verse 35 says, All the
inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. And He doeth
according to His will in the army of heaven and among the
inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay His hand or say
unto Him, what doest thou nobody nobody that's who jesus christ
is nobody all power over all flesh all power over all flesh
proverbs 21 verse 1 says the king's heart the earthly king's
heart whoever is in charge or whoever thinks he's in charge
down here, whoever men voted to be in charge, the king's heart
is in the hand of the Lord. As the rivers of water, he turns
that heart whithersoever he will, wherever he wants it to go. He
makes men do things and then he makes them believe it was
their idea. He does. The lot is cast into the lap. The whole disposing is of the
Lord. The whole disposing. All power. All power. I love declaring that. I'm so glad the message of truth
is the power of Jesus Christ. Not the weakness. Not the begging. The power. All power. He needs help from no one. All power. He needs cooperation
from no one, all power. He needs permission from no one,
all power over every single thing. That's who Jesus Christ is. All
right, look with me if you would at John 5. John 5 verse 22 says, For the
Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the
Son. He said, All things are delivered
unto Me. All things. Well, who's Jesus
Christ? He's the one who's trying as
hard as he can to keep everybody out of hell. No. He is the judge that every soul
must stand before. He's the ruling judge. All judgment,
verse 22 says, the father judgeth no man, but hath committed all
judgment unto the son. All judgment. He said in Deuteronomy
32 verse 39, I kill, I make alive, I wound, I heal. He said, I the Lord do all these
things. Isn't that what He said? In Revelation 1 verse 18, He
said, I hold the keys of hell and death. I hold them. all judgment, all
things, all power, all judgment, and all authority, all dominion
and authority. Look with me at Hebrews 1. Hebrews 1 verse 8, But unto the
Son, God the Father, saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and
ever. A scepter of righteousness is
the scepter of thy kingdom. O God. That's who Jesus Christ
is. O God. Thy throne, O God. God of very God. The Almighty God, this is life
eternal that they might know Thee. Who is He? Who is He? He is the one who holds all power
in His hand. He's the one who has been given
by His Father all judgment over all flesh. He's the one who holds
all authority and all dominion. What that means is He's the King.
He is the King of kings, He is the Lord of lords, the Almighty
God of heaven and earth. That's who Jesus Christ is. If that is who He is, why did
He come? Why did He come? If He holds all power over all
things, Why did He come? If He didn't need anything from
anybody, why did He come? If He is the judge that everybody
has to stand before, why did He come? We're now going to turn to this
one. I'm going to quote it to you. He said in John 10 verse 10, I am
come that they might have life. I'm come that they might have
life. Had he not come, we could have never known who he is. Never. He said, I'm come that they might
have life. That who might have life? Who
are the they? Every soul that I've chosen to
reveal myself to. Every soul that I've chosen to
reveal who I am and why I came and what I accomplished. every
soul that I've given that knowledge to and put faith in that soul
to believe it and bow to it. What did He accomplish? Who is
He? He's God. All power, all judgment,
all authority. Why did He come? He came to give
His people life. How did He accomplish that? Look
with me at Philippians 2. Philippians 2 verse 5 says, Let
this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God. There is one God. It was not
robbery to be equal with God. He is God. Verse 7, But He made
Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath
highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every
name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things
in heaven, and things in earth and things under the earth. And
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
this earth for His babes. That's who He came for. And He
took the actual sin that His babes committed. And, you know, when this Holy Spirit
of God comes to a person, He convinces that person of his
sin. And we've sinned. And we know it. And those sins
roll around in our mind. We know what we did. And that
guilt is so tough. Things come up sometimes and
you think, I forgot about that. I spent years worrying over that. And I forgot about that 20 years
ago, and now it's come back up again. And you feel so guilty
over it. You think, why? Why? And you
know the answer is because we're sinners. Jesus Christ came into
the world for every babe out of every generation for thousands
of years before him. or before His time on this earth
and thousands of years after His time on this earth. And He
literally took the very sins that we commit right now and
He laid them on Himself. The things that condemn us and
worry us and think. The things that we say, I thank
God nobody knows about this but me and you. He took those sins
off of His babes, laid them on Himself, pressed them inside
Himself, and then He put Himself on death row. That's what He
did. He put Himself on death row.
And judgment came. And He bore them before God,
and God said, look at what's on you. Thy will be done. And God killed
him. God killed him with those things
that plagued my mind. They were laid on Christ. God judged him. God killed him. And when he died, the moment
he died, every single one of those sins were gone. I mean
gone. The penalty is gone. The guilt
before God is gone completely rid, every babe completely rid
of it. If there's no sin, there's no
death. If there's no sin, there is no
death. In the payment of His precious
blood, it's eternal life. It's eternal life. Every single
soul that He did this for, Who did Christ do this for? This
news is so glorious, it's so wonderful. I have to have this. Who did He do this for? He did
it for every babe that He reveals Himself to. Every babe that He
reveals, gives eyes to see and a heart to believe, you really
are God. Not just the one who can get
me to God, God. Not just the one who points me
to God, God. All power. All judgment. Every babe that He reveals to
that babe, this is why I came. Not to show you how, to do it
for you. Every babe that He reveals to
that babe, this is what I accomplished. He holds up the mirror of His
Word and says, just look at you. Look how clean you are. Look
at that. I just see Christ. Look at you. In Him. In me. As I am, so are
you. Spotless. Spotless. To every babe He reveals that
to. Every child that He calls us
to see that. This is what He has to say to
each one of them. Go back to our text. Matthew
11. Verse 28, he says, Come unto me, all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Are you
burdened and heavy over your sin? Come to me. Come to me. I'll tell you every time you
come to me, I paid for them. But Lord, I'm so sorry and I'm
so worried, I paid for it. You come to me and I'll tell
you that every single time. I paid for them. I paid for them. You see that right there? The
palms of my hands, that's your receipt. Come touch your receipt. I was wounded for you. Do you
fear judgment? Come to me. I'll tell you every
single time the judgment's passed. Do you worry about standing before
God? In Christ, you already did. Your judgment's over. Every sinner
has to stand before God. And if you're in Christ, you
already did. There's no court date. It's taken care of. Do you fear death? But we're
all going to die. No, we're not. No, we're not. Our Lord did say he's, Lazarus
is dead so he could put it in their terms, but he tried to
tell them spiritually he's sleeping. That body's sleeping. He's not
dead. The trump's going to resound
and every soul is going to reunite with that body. It's going to
be changed in the moment, in the twinkling of an eye. It's
going to look just like Christ. Whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Do you fear not being accepted? Do you fear being rejected? This
is what you'll hear if you come to me. I will in no wise cast
you out. Him or her that cometh to me,
I will in no wise cast out. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Don't go to the
law. I've already satisfied the law. I've already satisfied it. No rest there. Don't just go
to church. Don't just go to morality. Come
to me. Come to me. Lord, how do I come? Here's how. By not moving a muscle. Don't take one physical step,
and you believe me, and you bow to my word, and you cry out to
me in your heart, I believe you, help me, have mercy on me, Lord,
my only hope is that you'd have mercy on me, and I've heard you,
I've heard your voice, you've revealed this to me, you put
faith in me, I believe you, help me, Please let me be one of you
people. Please. We come to Christ in
this heart. We come in the heart. We do not
come in the mind. We do not come with the hand.
With the heart. Only with the heart. Has He revealed
Himself to us through His words? Has He revealed Himself to us
through His Word? Do we, by His Spirit, hear His
voice in His Word? Has He, through His Gospel, spoken
peace to our hearts? If He has, let's go to Him. Run to Him. Run to Him. Go in all your fears. Go in all
your worries, go in all your sin, all the sin that you believe
is still on you, run to Him just as you are. Run to Him and He
will give you rest. He'll give you rest, rest from
every bit of it, rest from every fear, rest from every worry,
rest from every sin that plagues you. Go to Him, run to Him and
He'll give you rest every single time. Come to Christ. Come to Christ. All right, let's
all stand together.