This morning I want to bring
another message from God's Word, a continuation of last Sunday's
message from the Gospel of John chapter 17. I hope you have a
Bible and will follow along, or if not, please listen carefully. I'm reading. from God's Word
and commented on it. John 17, verse 3, the Lord Jesus
Christ says, This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. He says
this is what it means to have eternal life. To be saved. To know the only true God. And
last week we looked at this, the only true God, that is, the
God who is God, not the God you hear mostly today who wants to
be God, who can't be God unless you let Him be your God, God
who tries and hopes and wants and wishes. No, no. But this
is life eternal, to know the only true God, the Creator. That means He created everything
and controls everything. That means He owns everything
and can do with His own what He will. The true God, the sovereign
God, reigning, ruling over all. God says, I am God, there is
none else. He said, I kill, I make alive,
I wound, I heal, I do all things. And known unto God are all his
works from the beginning of the world. This God is true God,
and to be feared, to be repented to, be thanked, to be worshipped,
this God sent His Son to earth. And this is what the Lord says
in verse 3, this is life eternal, to know the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom He has sent. Sent by the Father, the Son of
God, equal to the Father, as much God as God. And so He is
also Christ. Jesus Christ is the Creator. He is sovereign, reigning, ruling
over all things, ruling over all things, working all things. He is not this other Jesus men
speak of today, who hoping, wishing, wanting, trying, standing outside
the hearts of men and women, hoping they'll let Him in, let
Him be their Savior, make Him their Lord. That is not the true
Christ, the sent Christ, the sovereign Christ. But know that
Christ of Scripture, the true Christ, is sitting on His throne,
seated in the heavenly. He is the one who willed all
things, predestined all things, purposed all things, and came
to this earth to work all things according to His absolute power. He said that in verse 2, that
God had given Him power over all flesh. power over all flesh. In verse 4 he says, I have finished
the work you gave me to do. He didn't try to do a work, he
came to do it and he finished it. He completed it. He accomplished
it. The salvation of his people.
This is the true Christ and this is life eternal. Now he said,
this is life. to have it given to you. He said,
verse 2, that God has given Christ power over all flesh that He
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him.
That this eternal life is Christ's to give, not offer. Give, bestow. Life, spiritual life, like natural
life, is not accepted. but given, bestowed. You didn't
accept your parents. They gave you life. God gave
you life. No, this life, like natural life,
is given, is created. Scripture says in Ephesians 2,
and you, speaking of God's people, His chosen people who have life,
you hath He quickened who were dead. That means raised from
the dead, given life from the dead. So Christ says, this is
life eternal to know the true God and Christ whom God hath
sent, the sent one, sent by God. He wasn't asked for by man. Scripture says He was in the
world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him
not. Scripture says in John 1.11,
He came to His own, that is, His creatures whom He made. And
his own received him not, didn't ask for him, didn't want him.
And when he came, they didn't know him. And they actually said,
go back. He said, I came from above. And
they said, we don't want you. No love for God. No need for
God. No desire for God. That those
who received Him in John 1 verses 12 and 13 says, some did receive
Him, but they didn't receive Him by nature, by blood, not
of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but they were
born of God. They were given this life to
receive Him. They were given faith to believe
Him. It's given, given, not accepted,
given. Listen to Isaiah 1. It says,
He was in the world and the world was made by Him and knew Him
not. In Isaiah 1, this is a description
of the world. It says, Hear, O heavens, and
give ear, O earth. I have nourished and brought
up children. They have rebelled against Me.
He said, ìThe ox knows his owner and he has his masterís crib,
but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Theyíre
a sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers,
children that are corruptors. Theyíve forsaken the Lord and
provoked the Holy One of Israel under anger. Theyíve gone way
backward.î Thatís what God says about mankind. Nothing in Scripture
does God say good about mankind. He's a depraved, sinful, rebellious,
unworthy creature. The world does not deserve the
love of God. No one deserves to be saved.
People say, all men deserve a chance to be saved. No, no one deserves
to be saved. Salvation is by the sovereign
mercy and grace of God. No one deserves it. Salvation
is for the undeserving. In Psalm 14, He says, God looked
down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. He said, they're all gone
aside. They're all together become filthy. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. Now that's what God says about
man. He looked down to see if there
were any that did Understand that they seek God. No, there
are none, he said. There are none righteous. No,
not one. None good. No, not one. None that seek God. They don't know God. They don't
want God. This is what Romans 1 says. Let
me read to you from Romans 1. It says in Romans 1 verse 18,
ìThe wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth.î That is the
Bible, the Scripture. Hold it down. Suppress it. Don't
believe in unrighteousness. He says, that which is known
of God is manifest in them or clearly showed to them. The invisible
things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
understood by the things that are made, His eternal power and
Godhead. They're without excuse. But when
they knew God, That is, these things that clearly reveal that
God is. They glorified Him not as God,
neither were thankful, but vain in their imagination. Their foolish
heart was darkened. Oh, they professed themselves
to be wise, but they become fools. It is generally accepted by all
over the world, evolution, that there is no God, that things
just evolve. It's the most preposterous and
ridiculous notion ever perpetrated by man. The things of creation
are clearly seen, God's power, and creatorhood. But no, verse
23 of Romans 1 says they changed the glory of God. They changed
the truth of God, verse 25, into a lie and worshiped and served
the creature, that is, man, more than the Creator. So God gave
them over to vile affection. Do you know why this world is
in a mess that it's in? No God. Men don't have a God. They don't believe in God. So
God has given this world over. Oh my, Romans 3 says this about
man. There's none righteous. No, not
one. None that understand it. None that seek after God. They're
all gone out of the way. It says their mouth is full of
cursing and bitterness. Old men use God's name but only
to curse with. The way of peace they don't know.
There's no fear of God before their eyes. And people, the main
reason for all this is religion. Religion has told mankind so
much and so often that God loves you, that Jesus loves you, that
everybody believes you, and nobody is worried about a thing. They
don't know the God who will punish sin. They don't know the God
who is just and will by no means clear the guilty. They don't
know the God who is holy. They don't know the God who destroyed
this world by flood because of sin, and the same God is going
to destroy it by fire. They don't know Him. And it says
all the world is under the law of God and guilty of breaking
that law. But God, Scripture says, but
God who is rich in mercy, God who is love, oh my, God loved
some of these creatures. Not all. None are worthy. God chose some of these creatures,
many of these creatures, these sinful, unworthy, unlovely creatures. All who know God know. They know this, that they're
unworthy, unlovely. He chose some of these to save
them, to make Himself known to them, to give them life, to raise
them from sin and darkness and ignorance. God purposed to save
some of them, many of them, and He gave them to His Son. This
is what our text says. The Lord said that Christ should
give eternal life to as many as God gave Him. You see, these
that were chosen by God, to save, they were given to the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, to come down here and save them. This
is life eternal, to be given to Christ and for Christ to come
and save you. This is eternal life. All who
have life, all who have this life given, know that life was
given them, not offered. given to them, and all know that
everything in this eternal life was given to them. Righteousness
was given to them. They don't have one. Peace was
given to them. They can't make peace. Christ
made peace by the blood of His cross. They know faith is the
gift of God. They didn't believe Him until
He gave them faith. They all know this, an understanding. They didn't know God until God
revealed Himself. They didn't know Christ, why
He came, who He is, what He did, until He revealed Himself. They
weren't willing until made willing in the day of His power. They
were given to Christ, given to the Lord Jesus Christ, who was
sent to this earth by God to keep the law for these guilty,
hell-deserving sinners. If you think you keep the law,
you don't. If you think you keep the law,
you don't, and you don't need Christ. Christ came here to keep
the law for lawbreakers. Christ came here to glorify God
as a man, to be righteous as a man, holy. If you think you're
holy, you're not. If you think you're righteous,
you're not. You don't know the holy God. You don't know yourself,
and you don't need Christ. But He came to save sinners,
not the righteous. He came to make a robe of righteousness
to cover naked sinners. And if you have any fig leaves
of your works you're trying to cover yourself with, you don't
know or need Christ. Oh, He came to be the prophet
of His people, the priest, the king, the Lord, the Savior, the
Christ, the Messiah, to do all the work for all of His people.
And He said, I did it. I finished it. Do you know this
cry? Tune in next week as we look
at the work of the Holy Spirit in this work of salvation and
eternal life from John 16. Until next week, good day.