The hour has come. The hour is come. Many times. Our Lord said. Mine hour. Has not come. An hour is not
come. But now. Now the hour. Is here. It has come. Our Lord had been
teaching his disciples, starting back in chapter 13, 14, 15, 16. He had been teaching them about
his person. He had told them he was going
away and that the Holy Spirit was coming. He would take the
things of Christ and reveal it to them. And many of the things
which he said at that time, they did not understand. They did
not understand. They would after the Holy Spirit
was given on the day of Pentecost. Then they would understand. He
would take the things of Christ and make them clear to the disciples. But he says, here now the hours
come. He turns after speaking to them
this night about all these things. He now turns and speaks to the
father. And I believe he spoke audibly. I believe those disciples heard
him. They listened to him. I believe
they did. I believe he spoke audibly out loud and they heard
him. And the first part of this prayer
is for himself. Glorify thy son, that thy son
may glorify thee. That is the very first purpose
of preaching the gospel, to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ. And when
Christ is glorified, the Father is glorified. And when they are
glorified, the sheep are fed. I have learned, you know, the
Lord said to Peter, feed my sheep, feed my lambs. I have learned
to do that. All that I needs to do is to
glorify Jesus Christ, to lift him up. And when I do that, you
are fed. The sheep are fed. The second
part of this prayer or prayer is for the disciples. They're
in verse nine. I pray for them. Pray not for the world. This
prayer is specific and for a specific people. I pray for them. He's
praying for the disciples. And then the third part of this
prayer is for the church. You look in verse 20, neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe
on me through their word. That's for us. It's for us. This is the high priestly prayer
of our Lord for himself, for his disciples, and for us, his
church. And here we get to listen in.
We get to listen in on his prayer, his intercessory prayer of our
high priest. And this prayer covers all of
God's elect for time and eternity. It covers us even, you know it's
still in effect. This prayer is still in effect.
I pray for them. We shall believe on me through
their word. Now these words spake Jesus and
lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has
come. Now he doesn't say glorify me.
He said, glorify thy son. Here he speaks as the son to
the father. Glorify thy son, that thy son,
whom you sent into the world, may glorify thee. This was his
whole purpose for doing what he did, to glorify the father
in the redemption of a multitude of sinners, no man can number.
And listen, he's the only man who could look God in the face
and pray such a prayer. He lifted up his eyes to heaven.
Although God is everywhere, yet his chief glory, his greatest
glory is seen in heaven. That's where it's seen, in heaven.
And he lift up his eyes to heaven where his father resides in the
holy of holies and he prays he prays and he prays about this
hour this hour he knew this hour was coming he knew this hour
for suffering and dying was upon him he knew this hour to suffer
the wrath of God not just the wrath of men or Satan but God
He is about to undergo hell, the hell of all his elect. He's about to suffer. All the
wrath and all the fire and all the hell I deserve, you deserve,
everyone he died for, what they deserve is gonna fall on him
hanging on that tree. It's about to fall. It's about
to happen. The hour's come. He said in one
place, for this hour have I come. There's no surprises. There's
no surprises with our Lord. He's the only person who came
into the world on purpose to die. Do we not do everything we can
to keep on living? He did everything to die. Everything
he did led up to this moment right here, to die. You know,
when he was on the Mount of Transfiguration, and he's standing there talking
to Moses and Elijah. What are they talking about?
It says they were talking about the death he should accomplish. Death was an accomplishment for
the Lord Jesus Christ. It was an accomplishment of our
redemption. It was an accomplishment of our
salvation. It was an accomplishment of God's
chief glory, our redemption, our redemption. It was an accomplishment. And this hour was purposed before
the creation of the world. There is no reason for any hour
to exist apart from this one. If you take this one away, there's
no reason for time. There's no reason for any hour
to exist. Imagine in your mind, imagine
a wagon wheel, and you have the hub in the center of that wagon
wheel. And from that hub goes out all
these spokes, all these hours, and they're all attached to this
one hour. This one hour, what's that? This
one hour of Christ and Him crucified. Now you take that out of the
picture and you have no reason for any hour or time to exist. It exists for this one hour,
when He can hang on that cross and cry, it is finished. This is it, this is the purpose
of creation. This is the purpose. This is
the reason why the sun comes up every day and goes down and
we have all this. This is the reason why one hour,
one hour out of how many billions of hours has been since the creation? How many? There's only one that
has any real significance to it, so to speak. There's one
hour in which all of it revolves around. It's this one, it's this
one, this one hour. And he says here, the hours come
glorify thy son. Now as the son, being God, he
needs no glory. He is God, he's got all the glory
there is as God. But he's saying this, glorify
thy son by helping him by helping him in what he's about to endure. He's about to endure the hell
of God's wrath. By sustaining him, he's asking
the Father to sustain him in this hour. In Isaiah 42, it is written, Behold
mine elect whom I uphold. He's saying now, Father, uphold
me. When he was in the Garden of
Gethsemane, He said, my soul is exceeding sorrowful, even
unto death. I'm going to die right here.
If you don't uphold me, if you don't sustain me, I'm going to
die right here. And you know what happened? He sent angels to sustain him,
to bless. to minister to him. Behold, mine
elect whom I uphold. And then it says, glorify thy
son by raising him from the dead. You said, thou wilt not suffer
thy holy one to see corruption, neither wilt thou leave my soul
in hell. This is what he's praying for.
Then glorify thy son by seating me at thy right hand. Not only as the son of God, but
as the son of man. You see, I told you last week,
he said, I came forth from the father, I go back to him. He
came forth as God, he goes back as a son of man, son of God and
son of man. Sustain me, is what he's saying,
and sustain me for this reason. Enable me and uphold me to do
this for this reason that thy son also may glorify thee, that
I may accomplish the work you gave me to do. Salvation is a
work, you know that. It is a work, not mine, his. He worked out our salvation.
He kept the law, he worked it out. He brought in an everlasting
righteousness by his work as a man, as a man. When the son of God, listen,
when the son is glorified, when he's asking here, glorify thy
son, when he's glorified, the father's glorified also. They
seek each other's glory. They didn't seek their own, but
they sought each other's glory. You know, all of this is created
by him and for him. This is all created for Jesus
Christ. God is going to honor his son. That new earth is going
to be populated with a people in honor of Jesus Christ. Everything our Lord did, he did
in honor of the Father and glorifying the Father. And the greatest
glorifying of the Father by the Son is seen in his redemption
of God's elect. It's seen in their redemption.
It's seen in this, by being able to give them eternal life through
his person and work. And he glorified the Father in
every attribute. You know, we can see something
of the power of God in creation, something of the wisdom of God
in creation. But the fullness of God is seen only in Jesus
Christ. That's where the fullness is
seen. Now, in order for the son to glorify the father, he had
to be given, listen, all power. All power. As thou has given
him power over all flesh for this purpose. for this purpose,
that He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
Him. This is the ultimate glorifying
of the Father, is the Son giving eternal life to those whom the
Father gave to Him. That's the pinnacle of glorifying
the Father. He's given you eternal life.
You who believe, He's given you eternal life. But this has to
do also here with his mediatorial work. You know, as God, he had
all power. All power belonged to him. But
as a man, as a mediator, as our representative, as our federal
head, all power was given to him. All power was vested in
him, turned over to him. All power, all authority had
to be given over to the Son if He's going to give eternal life
to as many as the Father gave Him. He has to have power not
only of the all flesh of this world, but my flesh. You and I stand in resistance
to God. There's an enmity that has to
be overcome. We are born with a natural hatred
of God. We are born with a natural hostility
toward God. Everyone, now nobody misses this. Every one of us have a natural
hostility to God and he has to overcome that. He has to have
power over us to crush that. And he has it, it was given to
him. The word power means this, the ability to act or produce
an effect. Power to bring about a given
result. What is that result? Eternal
life. Eternal life. Now, you have to
notice this word should. It's amazing how we just pass
by words, and a lot of words we don't even know. We just learned
them growing up, learned how to say them, and learned how
to put them in some kind of context, but to actually mean to know
what words mean. You know, words have meaning.
Words are powerful. Words are powerful. You can say
to someone, I love you. That's powerful. You can say,
I hate you. That's powerful, too. Words are powerful. Now listen
to this little old word, should. as thou hast given him power
over all flesh that he should give eternal life. Now this word
should means this. It has to do with fulfilling
an obligation such as fulfilling a contract that binds one to
a course of action. The Lord Jesus Christ obligated
himself to the Father in the covenant of grace to a course
of action. His incarnation, his obedience
to the law, his life and his death so that he might give God's
elect eternal life. See, there's a lot in that should. There's a lot in that word should. that he should bind himself to
a course of action that he might give eternal life. And that course
of action is that he comes to this earth, he comes into this
world, takes upon himself flesh, he becomes a real human being,
a real man, he obeys the law, he goes to the cross, he dies
buried, goes back to heaven. That's the course of action.
And it's through that course of action he can give to me and
you eternal life. Boy, that's a powerful word now,
isn't it? It's not just a should, but it's a powerful word. And
he defines eternal life. Verse three, and this is life
eternal. And this is so good that they might know thee the
only true God. The Gentiles, Rahab we just looked
at this morning, worship many gods. They had a God for everything
under the sun, even the sun, and the moon, and the stars,
and this and that. I mean, every stupid thing you
could think of, they made a God for. They even had an altar in
one place to the unknown God. Surely we missed one. You know,
just in case one shows up we don't know about, here's an altar
for him. But here's, that's our ancestry. That's our ancestry. You and
I'd still be believing in a bunch of gods, little G's. We'd still
be believing in them. If the Lord Jesus Christ had
not come and done what he had done and gone back to glory and
sent the gospel to us, and now we know there's only one true
living God. Now we know. And we believe. Because he said about these disciples
and us. They believe, they have received my words and they have
believed that you sent me. Powerful, powerful. That they
might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent. You can't know one without the
other. But here's life eternal. It's not the length of it, you
know that. It's the life of God in the soul.
It's the life of God. It is being made partakers of
the divine nature. That which is born of the Spirit
is what? Spirit. It's of the same nature it is
born of. That new man that's born of God
is not born of Adam. You see, just as Adam's seed
had nothing to do with the birth of Christ, the seed of Adam has
nothing to do with the birth of a child of God. It doesn't touch you. That's
born of the Spirit. That's born of the Spirit. And
this life eternal is union with God. You'll notice when we go
through the rest of this prayer how he keeps talking about oneness,
oneness, oneness. He's talking about union with
God. He's not talking about a place called hell. He's not talking
about missing that place and going to heaven. He's talking
about being made one with God. That's salvation. That's salvation. Salvation is not believing a
system of doctrine and then you're gonna die and go to heaven. No,
you're not. Salvation is being made one with God Almighty. It's
being in union with God like the branch out of the vine. Christ
said, I'm the vine, you're the branches. That's what life eternal
is. It is union with God. That's what he's talking about.
This knowing God in Christ is the effect of God in you. It's
the effect. You know, we lost in Adam the
knowledge of God, the weight of God, and the life of God.
We lost the truth of God. We have received all of that
back in the person of Christ and much more. This is what Paul
says in Galatians 1, 15 and 16. Now a lot of translations try
to just reverse that and say he revealed his son to me. Well,
the way he reveals his son to me is by first revealing his
son in me. The reason I believe the gospel
is because of Christ in me. It's not believing something
outside of me. He's in me. He's in me. He's the light. He's
the light in me. He's the illumination in me.
You see that? He's in me. Eternal life is God in the soul,
is God in you. It's knowing God, not some facts
about Him. It's knowing Him. You can tell
me about a person that you all know. You all know a lot of people
I don't know. You can tell me all about them, and I can believe
you. I can believe some facts about them, but I've never met
them. But now I know you. I know you. But there's one in here I know
better than I know you, my wife. I know her and she knows me. There's this real union, an intimate
union between God and his church. Christ in you, you in Christ. Do I know God? Have you ever sat down and given
any thought to that? Do I know God? Well, here's the question. Do you know Jesus Christ whom
he has sent? Because you can't know one without the other. If
you know Jesus Christ whom he has sent, you know God. You know
him. And here's the work. Listen here.
Here's the son's work. I have glorified thee on the
earth. where his name is blasphemed,
where he is hated, where God is hated, where his name is drug
through the mud. He said, I glorified you. I came
into this world, took upon me flesh, and I have glorified you
in everything I have said, everything I have done. I've glorified you,
Father. Nobody can say that but Christ. I can't say it. But I can say,
now listen, I can't say it, but I can say it. I have glorified
the Father in Christ. I have glorified the Father in
my representative, in my federal head, in my substitute. I have
glorified the Father. I have done so. In him, I have.
Everything he did, we did. That's the gospel, that's substitution. Everything he did, we did. You
know, substitution is not just hanging on the cross. Substitution
starts from the manger. It actually starts back in eternity
in that covenant, but it starts in the manger as a man. And all
through his 33 years, that's us. That's us in him before the
Father. Isn't that amazing? That's amazing. I have glorified thee. You notice
that's past tense. With confidence he could say
this. He kept the law, he loved the father perfectly, he did
his father's will, and he could say with confidence, I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. He hadn't even gone to
the cross yet. He hasn't cried on the cross. It's finished, but he's standing
here saying, I have finished the work. How can he say that? As the son, as God, he can say
what Paul wrote over in Romans 4, 17. He called those things
which be not as though they were. You know, with God, all this
is already done. You know, with God, you're already seated in
glory. You're already there. You haven't experienced it yet.
I haven't experienced it yet, but I'm there. I'm there in Christ
just as sure as I'm sitting, just sure as I'm standing here
right now. It's already done. We're going
through the experience of, but as far as God's concerned, he
has determined the end from the beginning. Well, his work is sure. It says in Isaiah 42 again, my
servant shall not fail. That's why he can say, I have
finished the work. I'm not going to fail. I'm not
going to fail. Because the father said, he's
not going to fail. And he said, I'm not going to
fail. And he finished the work of redemption. It was his to finish, and he
finished it. It's done. The great transaction
is done. Now what? And now, O Father, glorify Thou me. You see, he
said, glorify thy son, thy son may glorify thee. He's talking
about the work of redemption. He's talking about going to the
cross. He's talking about sustaining him through this. And now he's
talking about going back to the father. Now he's talking about
a glory that he had before the world was. And now, oh father,
now, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which
I had with thee before the world was. That glory that you and I can't
even begin to comprehend in any way, shape, or form. He says,
that glory I had with you before creation, before anything existed,
when it was just me and you, the Trinity, me, you, and the
Holy Spirit, when it was just us. Glorify thou me with thine
own self. But this time, this time, It's
going to be as a man and not just as God. But as a man, a
real man, a real man is seated at God's right hand, a real man
of flesh and bones. Our elder brother is seated at God's right hand.
He's glorified and we are glorified in him. I wish we'd get a hold of that.
I wish we could just slow down, not be so caught up in everything,
and we could actually think of what we have coming. Oh, he says, glorify thou me
with the glory I had with you before the world was. That's
what he prays for. At first, he shows us here that
he is God, and secondly, he's showing that he's gonna return
to the Father's presence. in full glory. His desire, listen,
his desire is to go home. What's our desire? Well, as I
get older, it is more about going home. When I was young, I didn't
think of it that way. I understand that. When you're
young, you got things you want to do. If you have a family,
you want to raise your family. You want to raise your children.
You want to be their parents. I understand that. As you get
older, you start thinking about going home.
You start thinking about leaving this world. I think about it
all the time now. All the time. But I don't think
of it in a dreaded way. I don't think of it in a dreaded
way. I don't know what it'll be like when it actually comes,
but I don't think of it as, it's not a dread to me. It's not a
dread to me. I'll be honest. I'm going to
be straight up about it. When Henry would mention those
things, and I was a young man in my 20s, and the boys were
just, they were just little boys, I thought, I really felt like
I couldn't enter into that. I could not enter into what he
was saying. I couldn't do it, because I wanted to raise, you
know, I wanted to raise my family. I wanted to do it. But they're
raised. It's a different way of thinking
now. It's called, I think, I believe that's called growing up. That's growing up in Christ. It's letting these things go.
And reaching forth, as Paul said, to those things which are before.
You find yourself starting now to reach forth. You're starting
to reach forth to him. You're starting to reach forth
toward home. You're starting to reach forth to those things
that the Lord has promised. I try to visualize from time
to time, I try to visualize walking on that new earth. I do, I try
to visualize walking on that new earth. I try to visualize
walking with the Lord and talking to Jesus Christ that I preach
every week. I visualize walking with Henry
and other saints that I've known over the years. I visualize walking
with them and talking with them. It's very real, it's very real. It's as real as this world right
here. It is. And he prays, listen. He prays
to return home to his former state of glory. And he says,
I have 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 came to reveal the Father.
He said, he that has seen me has seen the Father. All things,
the scripture says in Matthew 11, 27, 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. He came to manifest,
reveal the father. That's what he, he came from
heaven to make the father known to all his children. You know, I didn't know my father
until I got up to probably, I mean, what's the age that you actually
recognize your parents? I'm gonna just say two, I don't remember.
But there's a point, you know, there's a time you're born, and
there's a time you start to grow, then there's a time you learn
mom and dad. You learn who mom and dad is.
It's not everyone that walks by. And there's a time you learn,
God, you're a father. God is your father. You learn that. All that has
heard and learned of the father of Christ, it comes to me. And
when you come to Christ, what does he do? He reveals the father.
He reveals the father. And then in revealing the father,
he reveals the perfect nature and character of God. The fullness of the Godhead dwells
in him bodily, and it's in him we see God. It's in him we really,
truly learn who God is. We don't think God is like ourselves
anymore. He said, you thought I was like you over in Psalm
50. No, we don't think that no more,
do we? We don't think God's like, God's not like me. He's not like
me. In 1 John 5, 20, and we know
that the son of God has come and have given us an understanding,
an understanding of who God is, who he is and who and what we
are. He's given us an understanding that we may know him. That is
true. Not know about him, know him. And we are in him. That is true. You see, we know him because
we are in him. That is true. Even in his son,
Jesus Christ, this is the true God and eternal life. This is it. This is it. And he reveals this to those
whom the father gave him out of the world, he said. Gave him
to in that covenant of grace. He was given these people as
their surety, as their mediator. And he said, I have revealed
to them, the father. I've revealed you to them. Now
they've known that all things, I'm gonna wind this down, they've
known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me, they don't
understand them. They had a lot of questions,
but they've known. He's not just speaking of where
their position is at that time only, but he's speaking of their
whole existence. They're gonna come to know these
things. And our Lord is saying they've known these things. Do
you know these things? Has God taught you these things?
Has he burned them into your heart? They've known that all things
whatsoever thou hast given me, they know that everything I have,
they know this. You gave it to me. You gave it
to me. God so mightily put his stamp
of approval on Jesus Christ, they could not but believe. And
that's exactly how it is with every one of you who believe.
You can't help it. And last of all, he said, for
I have given, you know this, I didn't count it up, but you
go through there, just in those few verses, I have, I have, I
have. He says, I have, I have, I have.
I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me. The gospel
came from the Father. The good news came from the Father. And they've received them. They've
received them. Just like a cup or a glass receives
water. I have poured your words into
them and they've received them. I poured the gospel into your
heart. That's how you received the gospel, he poured it into
you. He gave you a new heart and then filled it up with the
gospel. And they've known surely, see this is a result of him giving. Him giving is the result, here's
the result, you've known. You know this, you know this. And they have known surely that
I came out from thee. They believe that I came from
you, that I didn't just, they said we know, others said we
know you are the carpenter's son. They didn't say that. You know what Peter said? Thou
art the Christ, the son of the living God. And they have believed that you
sent me, that I came from above, they believe that. Our Lord said,
as I hear I speak, the gospel is of God, I've given it to them,
and they believe. And the evidence is, you see,
one of the evidence of salvation is this, we receive the word
of God as the word of God, the written word and the living word.
And they believe you sent me. Oh, what an hour. Aren't you
thankful for that hour? Because of this hour that our
Lord said has come, We get to enjoy eternal glory, eternal
life. All right.