I'll just put it in my pocket.
Is that okay? Can I put it in my pocket? Okay, good evening. So wonderful
to be here with you all. I need to speak up tonight. Folks back home are telling me
too, you go so low sometimes we can't hear you, Wayne. So,
oh my, it's been wonderful. We had a wonderful day today
together and with Norm and Nancy and then Norm and I came back
and studied and it was just such a blessing. When he's out there
with us, him and I go to my study and our brides are at the Parsonage
and then we just have a 30 second walk back to the, back across
to the house and so but always a sweet sweet time with Brother
Norman and with Sister Nancy and so I'm I'm so thankful to
be here with you again just I can't tell you all how much I love
you and again this is where all started for me First Grace Church
I preached in other than down south so it's amazing it's absolutely
incredible so thank you again it's a it's an honor and a blessing
to be here tonight Open your Bibles, if you would,
to John chapter 17. John chapter 17. We're going
to continue our study tonight. Last night we did an overview
of the whole chapter of John 17. And tonight we'll just be
looking at the first five verses. The name of the message is God's
Grace and Power. God's Grace and Power. Let's
read the first five verses of John chapter 17. Scripture declares,
These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven,
and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy Son, that thy
Son also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God, in Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. I have glorified thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was. As I mentioned
last night, John 17 is such a comforting portion of Scripture. We get
a glimpse And this is the only place where we see a glimpse
into our great God and King and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
praying to the Father. Praying to the Father. And just
in this glimpse, we see the intimate relationship between the Father
and the Son. We see the intimate communion
between the Father and the Son. We see that their will and their
purpose is exactly the same. to save God's people from their
sins, the elect of God. And we will see all through this,
as we look at the next three nights, we will see Christ Jesus,
our Lord, mentioned that He gave a people to Christ, that the
Father gave Him a people. And they're called the elect
in the scriptures. And we just marvel that we're
one of that number, we as God's people. We marvel that we've
been born again by the Holy Spirit of God. We marvel that we've
been given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and we
marvel, again, that we're one of the number. Because we know
we're undeserving. We don't deserve it. We don't
deserve God's grace and mercy at all. Here we see the veil is moved
aside, and we enter into the holiest of holy. Robert Hawker,
I think it was, said that this were admitted with our great
High Priest into the holiest of all. Here we approach the
secret place of the tabernacle of the Most High. We listen here
to the God-man's prayer, to He who is the Word of God incarnate,
and incarnate just means He became flesh. Word of God the second person
of the Trinity incarnate in the flesh, so this is no words of
a mere man This is the words of the God man. This is the words
of the sinless one and We can't understand that totally can we?
See we sin and thought word indeed. He was absolutely sinless and
thought absolutely sinless and word and absolutely sinless indeed
and As a matter of fact, I believe in the impeccability of Christ
by the norms I talked about it. He couldn't sin. He's God. Now, He was tempted like we are,
yet without sin. He's impeccable. He's absolutely
impeccable. The opposite is us. We're sinners
from the top of our heads to the bottom of our feet. And in
this verse here, in verse One of the verses we're going to
look at tonight, we're going to see our Lord looking homeward. Looking homeward. Oh my. Let's
read John chapter 1 here. It says, These words make Jesus
lifted up his eyes to heaven. Lifted up his eyes to heaven
and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son that thy
son also may glorify thee. Oh my. These words were preserved
for we who are the people of God. The words of this prayer
were preserved for us to bring comfort to God's people. Comfort. And we will see such comfort
from these words if the Holy Spirit takes these words and
shows us. It's wonderful. These words are being preserved
for our comfort. They've also been preserved for our learning.
for our learning. And they've also been preserved
for our instruction. And oh how we can rest in the
finished work of Christ. How we can rest in a Savior who
prayed for us 2,000 years ago. Oh my. How we can trust in He
who is God incarnate in the flesh. And we only do by the grace of
God, right? It's only by the grace and the mercy of God that
we trust in Him. Only by the regenerating power
of God, the Holy Spirit, that we trust in Him. And it's a miracle. Do you know every believer is
a trophy of God's grace? Everyone. We don't feel that
way, do we? But we are. Do you know we're called jewels? in
his eyes. You know the word precious? When
it says precious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of his
saints. That Hebrew word means rare and precious. Like a precious stone. That's
what we are to the Lord. Isn't that wonderful? It's wonderful. It says here
he lifted up his eyes to heaven. Look it, he's looking homeward.
Remember he came down. He was sent by the Father. He's
looking homeward again. He lifted up his eyes to heaven.
He's looking to the Father. He's looking to the throne of
God's grace. He's looking to the seat of divine
majesty. Our God is a sovereign God. He's
in control of everything. Remember when we were kids and
we used to look and we see those that dust floating the Sun you
look and watch the sunlight come in the window We all we all experience
this and we saw that dust floating around Do you know that not one
of those dust? Wasn't floating in that place
Except according to God's absolute sovereignty, and it's still true
today Now a sparrow falls to the ground without our Heavenly
Father knowing it Oh my. He's looking to the throne of
the Father. And he's confidently looking
to the Father. He's confidently looking to the
Father for divine favor. And we are to come to the Father
boldly. Let's turn to Hebrews. Hebrews
chapter 4. And we see our Lord here coming
boldly to the throne of grace. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 16 It says here Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace How do we come boldly to the throne
of grace only in Christ Jesus our Lord only in him no other
way? I? But we as believers can come
boldly to the throne of grace. I tell the folks back home, nothing
is too small to bring to the Lord. Nothing. Nothing's too
big to bring to the Lord. Absolutely nothing. Oh my, it
says here, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy and find what? Grace to help in time
of need. Are you needy? I'm needy all
the time. Are you needy? Let us come to
the throne of grace, and we see our king doing that we see our
Redeemer He's coming before he's coming before the father It's
wonderful. Let's go back to John chapter
17 Read verse 1 again these words
speak Jesus has lifted up his eyes to heaven and said father
Who's he addressing his father? He's I have a Father. Oh my! He's addressing the Father. Turn, if you would, to Galatians
chapter 4. Galatians chapter 4. There's a wonderful portion of
Scripture here. Galatians chapter 4, starting
in verse 4. Look at this. But when the fullness
of time was come, at that exact appointed time by God, not a
second early, not a second later, at that exact time that God appointed
by His wise decree. But when the fullness of time
was come, God, look at this, sent forth. God sent Christ into
this world. Now think of that. The Father
sent Christ to redeem us. Not to redeem everybody in the
world, but to redeem His church. To redeem those who the Father
gave to Christ in eternity. Look at this, but when the fullness
of time must come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law. He's the seed of the woman. To redeem, this is why he came.
You know, scripture declares, right? He came to save us from
our sins. Look at this. How did he do it? By the shedding
of his precious blood. To redeem them that were under
the law. That's us. We were under the law. It had a rightful claim
upon us. You know, we've been set free
as believers. We are absolutely set free. The law has no claim
on us anymore. None. None whatsoever. He redeemed
us out from under the law. We were under it. Oh, my. That we might receive the adoption
of sons. And because you are sons, God
has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. Notice it's said twice there.
Abba is the Hebrew for Father. Father, just the regular Father,
is the Greek word for Father. Two languages we see here. Abba,
Father. There's neither Jew nor Gentile
in the body of Christ, but we're one. Oh my. And it says, look at this. Wherefore
thou art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an
heir of God through Christ. But notice something here. And
because ye are sons, because ye are sons, this is talking about before
regeneration. And because you were sons, God sent forth His
Spirit. God knows all His people. He
knows every single one of us. Do you know that you were in
the exact place where you heard the Gospel? You were in the exact
place decreed by God? And do you know that your family,
you look back in your generations and they were moved different
places so that you would be in the exact place where you heard
the Gospel? Isn't that amazing? Oh, it's wonderful. And that's
our Savior. Our Savior is the one who rules all the universe.
He's king, supreme. My, he left the glories of heaven.
But it says here, and because you are sons, God sent. So Christ
was sent into the world. Now we see God sent in the Holy
Spirit. Remember, Christ said, I won't leave you comfortless.
Look at this. This is beautiful. And because
you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your
hearts. Now, what do we cry? I have a father. We once cursed his name. Some
of us. Used his name as a byword. Now
we say, oh, I have a father. And one of the guys, one of the
commentators about it, this is father, father. Two different
languages. Father, Father. My, it's wonderful. Let's go back to John chapter
17. John chapter 17. And we'll continue in verse 1.
These words speak Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour is come. The hour has come. Remember it
said, but when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman made under the law, to redeem them
that were under the law. The hour is coming. That predestinated
time, that appointed time when Christ would be crucified for
the sins of His people. When He would shed His precious
blood to redeem our eternal souls. The hour has come! Joyfully looks at this oh My Says the hours come He's
speaking of the hour of his death that that hour again is appointed
by God And just as the time of his incarnation the coming into
this world was appointed his death his burial and his resurrection
are all appointed by God and They all happened at the exact
time that God appointed. That's how sovereign our King
is. That's how sovereign our Lord is. My. And our salvation happens
at the, think of this too, our salvation happens at the exact
second that God has ordained. It's not because of us choosing
God or because we never would have chose God. We're made willing
in the day of God's power by the Holy Spirit of God with chains
of love. With cords of love, he drew us,
didn't he? He drew us to himself. It's the goodness of God that
leads men to repentance. When we see the Holy One, the
sinless One, dying for our sins, And the Holy Spirit regenerates
us, gives us faith to believe, and we run to Christ. We run to Him. It's like back in the days when
you used to take care of cattle. They still do. I have a farmer,
he still does it. They would put them in this thing where
they would go in there and they would shut the gate behind them.
That's what happens to us. We're shut up to Christ. We got
nowhere else to go. We got nowhere else to go. We're
shut up to Him. Praise God. It's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. So this hour is coming. This
hour is coming. And then look at this. He desires,
He desires His death just like His life
to glorify God. That's what he wants. He wants
his death to glorify God just as his life glorified God. He's
the perfect man. He lived a substitutionary life
for us. You know that? His life was a
life of substitution. And his death was a death of
substitution. The sinless one dying for sinners. So he perfectly fulfills the
law by his life. And then it says, the soul that
sinneth, it must die. He's the sinless one. He's dying
as our substitute. Our sins are imputed to him.
And he's still sinless. I say in the norm, death couldn't
hold him. That's why he rose from the grave.
Death couldn't hold him. All our sins are gone. And he's
sinless. He paid it all. He paid it all,
everything that God demanded. And he, he paid it to the fullest. He paid it to the fullest. There's
nothing for us to do. As I said last night, it is finished.
It means in the Greek, it is perfect. It's perfect. You can't add nothing to perfection,
can you? I can. And I'm not perfect, I'll
tell you that. I'm a sinner saved by the grace
of God and the mercy of God. And I thank God every day for
our wonderful, merciful Savior. And I know you do too. It's amazing. God's grace is amazing. So his
life and his death glorified God. Let's read this last portion.
Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. Oh, what a Savior. What a Redeemer is Jesus Christ
our Lord. Now let's read verse 2. So he's
looking homeward. Verse 2, we see the absolute
sovereignty of God. Look at this, as thou has given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou has given him. Our God's all-powerful. Our Savior's
all-powerful. All-powerful. I have a friend
of mine across the road I talked to, and he says, well, you know,
you can lose your salvation. And I said, well, I can't lose
my salvation. You might be able to lose yours,
because I don't think you're really saved. And he says, what
do you mean? I said, well, God's salvation
is everlasting. Bruce Crabtree and I were having
a talk one time. He said, isn't it wonderful? We can't mess up
this salvation we have in Christ. We can't mess it up. Isn't that
amazing? Some people say, well, you preach
like that, and again, like I said last night, they call you an
antinomian. Go ahead and call me whatever you want. I'm not
an antinomian. I just know how free I am in Christ. Free from
the condemnation of sin. Free from the justice of God.
Free from the law of God. Free from all my sins. And it's
glorious. It's the same for all of us who
believe. We're absolutely free. We're
free in Christ though. We're not free anywhere else
but Christ. Only in Him. In Him alone. And He's absolutely
sovereign. We see this here. As Thou has
given Him power over all flesh. All flesh. He's in full control
over all flesh. That He should give eternal life
to as many as Thou has given Him. Notice it says that He should
give eternal life. You know, the scripture says,
in having obtained eternal salvation for us, see, we can't obtain
eternal life by anything we do. Christ already did it. And He
just gives it to us. It's all because of His grace
and mercy. He did it all. He's the author,
and He's the finisher of our salvation, right? And everything
in between. It's all of grace. Salvation's
all of grace. And we see here, he's in control
over everything. He has all power over all flesh.
And he gives eternal life. He's the giver of eternal life.
The promise of eternal life is Christ. He came to this world
that we might have eternal life. There's no other way to have
eternal life except through Christ. Some might say, well, what about
all these other religions? They're all false. There's only one true,
living God. And His name is Jehovah. My, He's wonderful. He's wonderful. And this eternal life comes to
us by His righteousness, by the righteousness of Christ. Not by anything we do. And it's
only given to those. It's only given by Christ to
those whom the Father gave Him. Aren't you thankful you're part
of that number? Aren't you thankful, as we sang last night, He included
me? Oh my. Could we look at ourselves and
go, no merit, no merit, no merit. And yet the scripture says, there
is therefore now no condemnation. In the Greek, that's no judgment.
No judgment to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
after the flesh, but after the spirit. It's wonderful. He's the giver of eternal life,
and he's the one who's obtained it. And he obtained it. He can
give it to whomever he pleases, right? And we're his spouse, beloved.
We're his children. We're jewels. Let that sink in. We're jewels in his eyes. Precious
in his eyes. You know, God's no longer angry
with the believer. All his wrath against us. Again, like I said last night,
was extinguished by the Lord Jesus Christ. I remember talking
to Norm one time, We both came out of landmarkism. And Norm
said, isn't it wonderful that God is not angry with us? You blessed my heart when you
said that. Because in religion, I always just think God was mad
at me. Something happened. Oh, God's mad at me. This must
be happening because he's mad at me. No. I just didn't know him. Now I
know him. By the grace and mercy of God,
And He's not angry with us anymore. His wrath and His anger is being
appeased. Taken away. We're saved in Christ. We're
preserved in Christ. We're chosen in Christ. And we're
put into His care by the Father. And we will see this next few
studies that He just gives us right back to the Father. Puts
us right back in the Father's care. Note the statement here too.
He says, the Father's given them all power over all flesh. And
so clearly, he's the giver of eternal life. And he comes to
glorify God by the saving of his people, by the giving of
his life, by the shedding of his blood. That's redeemed our
eternal souls, ransomed our eternal souls. It's wonderful. Let us
rejoice in these truths. Do you see what comfort's here
for us as believers? The world just beats on us, doesn't
it? And then we beat on ourselves too sometimes, right? What comfort
we can find in Christ. What comfort we can find in these
words. Oh, the one who obtained eternal
life. by dying as our substitute, taking
the wrath of God that we deserved. We rightly deserve that. But
God in his mercy and his love poured his wrath out upon Christ. My. He had been appointed to be a
sin offering for the sins of all the elect of all the ages.
And when did this happen? Way back in eternity in the covenant
of grace called the everlasting covenant in Hebrews. How was
that covenant ratified? By the shedding of Christ's blood. And the work appointed to him
was he was to save God's people from their sins and he was to
give them eternal life. Therefore Christ must suffer
on the cross. He must go to the cross. He must. And he did. And he's a successful
Savior. Our God's a successful Savior. If anyone tells you, if anyone
tells you God's done all he can do, now the rest is up to you,
that's a lie from the pit of hell. That's what that is. My, because if God does all he
can do, We're saved right he sent his son He sent his son To be the sacrifice for his people
Again the word for power found in verse in verse 2 there Is
now has given him power over all flesh. I'll mention this
again tonight that that word means authority He has all the
authority Our blessed Savior has all authority. Praise His
mighty name. He has it all. It's been given
to Him by the Father. In Christ Jesus, our Lord has
the freedom to do what He wills. You know, there's only one free
will in all the universe. And that's God. God's will. Our wills are bound to our nature.
If we have a dead nature and we're born dead in trespasses
and sins because of the fall of Adam, then everything we do
is led by that dead nature. But when we're born again by
the Holy Spirit of God, we have a new nature now, don't we? Hungers
and thirst after righteousness. Who's our righteousness? The
Lord Jesus Christ is our righteousness. It's wonderful. The perfect sinless
God-man gives himself. sets himself as the Lamb of God
to die in the room and place of his people. And when he said
it is finished, it's done. It's done. Natural man can in
no way obtain eternal life by anything we do. It's impossible.
Because we're sinners. So everything we do is tainted
with sin. Everything. But praise be to God, the sinless
one died for us. No works can be done by us to
bring us into the right standing of God, but Jesus Christ, by
one work, His death upon the cross. Now we can go into the presence
of God, clothed in the perfect, spotless righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this is brought forth in
this verse as Christ has obtained eternal salvation. And He gives it to all whom the
Father hath given Him. And eternal life is only in and
through the Lord Jesus Christ and by His perfect sin atoning
work. There's no other way. There's
no other way. You must be born again, the Master
proclaimed. You must be. And that's a work
of God. That's an operation of God. Now let's look at verse
3, it says, and this is life eternal, that they might know
thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
So this eternal life has to do too with knowing God. Well in
our natural state, we don't know God. You know what we've done?
Our hearts. Our hearts are idol factories. We pump out gods of our imagination. I had a few of them, who I thought
God was. I found out God wasn't like me,
and God wasn't like anything I thought. But the natural man,
we just pump out idle factories. We're good at that. Look at this. Look at this in verse 3. This
is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God,
in Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. Again, spot forth. We're
going to see also, not only will we see a people given to Christ
by the Father, but we're going to see this continually said
that He was sent by God. Sent just emphasizes it. He's no mere man. He's sent by
God. He's sent by God. And you know how we come about
by knowing God in our natural state? We never could know God.
It's a revelation. A revelation by God. Otherwise,
we'll never know Him. 33 years of my life, I walked in darkness. Absolute
darkness. Praise God for His redeeming
mercy and grace. And we only know about God because
the Holy Spirit's revealed him to us. Were you terrified of death before
the Lord saved you? I was. Absolutely terrified of
death. I'm not afraid of death no more
by the grace and mercy of God. It's just a doorway. You know,
we walk out, think of this, every day we walk through doorways,
don't we? every day. Christ said, I'm the door. We
have an example of him right before us every single day. We
walk through doors. He says, I'm the door. When we
die, it's just a doorway to glory. It's a doorway into the presence
of Christ. And you know what? Heaven will be heaven, not because
of our family members there. Heaven will be heaven because
Christ is there. That's what makes heaven heaven.
We'll see our Savior. We'll see our Redeemer face to
face. Oh, it'll be glorious. Absolutely
glorious. In true God-given faith has one
object, and that's Christ Jesus our Lord. He's the object of
our faith. He's the object of our worship. Think back before the Lord saved
you. Was he your object? You know what his object? You
know what my object was? Right here. I worshipped self. My. It's awful, isn't it? But when God shows us the balm
of Gilead, when He shows us Christ Jesus dying for sinners, and
He reveals to us by the power of the Holy Spirit of God that
Christ did that for you, for me. Oh my. You know what we do? We lay down
our arms before God and we take sides with Him against us. Oh my. And he says to his people,
with love, Thou art mine. You're mine. God says that to his people.
Thou art mine. I've loved you. I've loved you
with an everlasting love. And he draws us again with love
and cord, doesn't he? He's so good. He's so good to
us my We see in verse 3 that the father is called the true
God in Opposition to false gods at that time and false gods even
of our time There's many false gods Many our our world's full
of false religion But you know God always has a remnant He always
has a remnant He always has someone preaching His gospel. It's wonderful. In the union of Christ with the
Father and the knowledge of both are here set before us as defining
that one who knows them has eternal life. Do you know Him? Well,
we know Him as our Savior. We know Him as our Lord. We know
Him as our King. We know Him as our Master. We
know Him as our Redeemer. our sanctifier, our righteousness. In other words, like Paul said,
Christ is our all and all. Right? Isn't it wonderful? What
a change God's brought. What a change He's done. In verse 3, it also says that
God sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, here to die for our sins.
He was sent. He was on a mission. He's on
a mission, beloved. And that mission is to save his
people from their sins. And he's successful. Scripture
says, he shall not fail. Hallelujah. What a blessing. And he didn't fail, did he? He
redeemed us from all our sins. From all our sins? Oh, it's wonderful. He sent his son to die for our
sins. And we just marvel at that, don't
we? that God would send His own Son to die for we who were enemies
in our minds with God by wicked works. And yet, Yeah, just let
this sink in. We're loved with an everlasting
love. That means an unchanging love. He said, I'm the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Let we who are the redeemed rejoice
then. The love that God has for us is the same yesterday, today,
and forever. It's the same from everlasting
to everlasting. It'll never change, beloved.
We are objects of his love and objects of his mercy. And we
say, me? Yeah. You know why? I love this. I'll tell folks this all the
time, because it pleased God. Because it pleased God to make
it so. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, it's
wonderful. Note the connecting word in the
latter part of this verse. And Jesus Christ, whom thou hast
sent. Let's read the whole verse again. And this is life eternal,
that they might know thee, being the Father, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." To know Christ is to know
God. He said, if you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. Oh, it's wonderful. The connecting and gives plain
warning that the Father is the only true God and He cannot be
known apart from Jesus Christ our Lord. You cannot be no one apart from
Christ. And see the word sent. Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
The word sent has a threefold meaning. It points to his deity.
He was in glory. He was sent from heaven. He's
the word of God. He's not a mere man. He was sent
from heaven. Remember what we looked at when
the fullness of time was come. God sent forth his son. Sent
him from heaven. The word of God. My and it refers to God's people
believe that thou comest forth from God to He was sent from
God refers to his incarnation and also refers to his meditatorial
office as Redeemer Redeemer of all those the father gave him
for this reason. He's called the apostle and high
priest of our profession You know apostle means sent one He's
the sent one. He's the sent one of God. I ask
you, beloved, are you thankful he was sent by God? Oh, we're
so thankful, aren't we? We're so thankful that God sent
his son to die for our sins, to pay for everything that God
demanded for our sins, and we can't even pay for one of them?
And he paid them all. He paid it all, beloved. Redeemed
by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ how this can
give us comfort and peace in all times through this world
Now my problem is I get caught up in the things going on in
the world. I Think it's the same for all of us And I just got
to keep saying Wayne you need to keep looking to Christ you
just keep looking to Christ and when I look to Christ and I don't
I imagine this is so for you when we look to Christ everything
else just fades away and Just fades away. That's why Paul said
to set your mind on things above. Set your minds on Christ. Set
your affection on Christ. The Holy Spirit had that preserved
for us. For our learning. Now let's read John 17 verse
4. He says, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. Our Lord Jesus Christ had glorified
God in His life. He loved Him perfectly. He fulfilled
His law perfectly. And to glorify God is to love
Him perfectly. Well, we can't do that. But Christ
did it for us. To glorify God is to obey Him
perfectly. We can't do that. But Christ
did it for us. Wonderful news for sinners. The
Gospel is wonderful news. And to glorify God again is to
obey Him perfectly and live in absolute submission to His will. His perfect will. We can't do
that, but Christ did it for us. Oh, it's wonderful. It's wonderful. See what comfort we can glean
here? And we see the words in our text
again bring forth that our mighty Savior has glorified God upon
the earth. Look at this. I have glorified Thee on the
earth. You know, only Christ can say that. He's sinless. He's perfect. He perfectly glorified
God as He should be glorified for us. Remember, He's a substitute. He did all that for us. Perfectly
fulfilling the law of God. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, mind, and soul. I remember a fellow
I met one time. He was a good friend. He said,
well, I've loved the Lord God with all my heart and my mind.
I'm still working on my soul. I said, oh my. No. Only Christ loved the Lord with
all his heart, mind, and soul. And he did it for us. Isn't that
wonderful? He did it for us. He says, I've
glorified thee on the earth. Again, only Christ could say
that. In John 4, verse 36, we see this blessed truth brought
forth. Jesus saith unto them, my need is to do the will of
him that sent me. Again, sent me. And to finish
His work, and He finished it. He finished it. He redeemed our
eternal souls. All the elect of all the ages
were redeemed at Calvary's cross. Oh, He came to glorify and to
do the Father's will and the saving of His people. And she
shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus.
For He shall, not maybe, He shall save His people from their sins.
That's wonderful, isn't it? That's wonderful. And he did
it. You know the Messiah was to make
an end to sin? Turn if you would to Daniel chapter
9. Daniel chapter 9. You know he was to make an end
to sin? And think of this. Whose sin was he making an end
for? He's sinless, right? He's making an end for our sin. This is glorious. Daniel chapter
9. Daniel chapter 9, Christ the
Lord was sent to make reconciliation for iniquity, our iniquity, and
he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. Look at this in Daniel 9, 24. Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression
and to make an end of sins. Christ made an end of our sins,
beloved. He made an end of our sins. and to make reconciliation
for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness. That's
the righteousness of God. And what are we clothed in? We're
clothed in the righteousness of God. And to seal up the vision
and prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy. The Messiah is none
other than the Lord Jesus Christ. And He made an end of our sins
2,000 years ago. Now we're still sinners, aren't
we? But all our sins are forgiven. Every single one of them. It's
glorious. So he was given a work by the
Father, and the work the Father gave him was to fulfill all righteousness
and to save his people from their sins. And Jesus Christ our Lord,
he glorified the Father all through his life. He was devoted to the
execution of God's will, and he did it perfectly. He did it
perfectly. He came here for God's glory.
He manifests the glory of God. And he lifted God up high by
all that he did. He glorified God by all his works. He glorified God. And he manifested God to all
whom the Father gave him. We're living proof of that. Right? And all through this time, beloved
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ never once sought His own glory.
Never once. He came to glorify God by the
work that the Father gave Him to do. And praise be to God,
He did it. He did it. He saved His people
from their sins. And on all occasions, He sought
to glorify the Father who sent Him. Turn, if you would, to John
chapter 7. John chapter 7. This blessed
truth is brought forth right here. And then we'll finish off
with verse 5. John chapter 7, verses 16 to
18. Look at this. He's going to tell
us He was sent again. Our Lord emphasized that. He
was sent by God. John 7 verses 16 to 18. Jesus answered them and said,
my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man do his will, he shall
know of the doctrine, whether it be of God or whether I speak
of myself. He didn't speak of himself. He
that speaketh of himself seeketh his own glory. That's still true
today, right? My but he that seeketh his glory
that sent him the same is true and no unrighteousness is in
him My oh my Now let's read verse 5 go back to John 17. We'll read
verse 5 close with this And now Oh father glorify thee
thou me with thine own self of the glory which I had with thee
before the world was and What a manifestation of His deity
He's brought forth here. He was with the Father before
the world was. Two important facts set before
us in this text. Jesus Christ is God. He was with
God and was God from eternity. And we see that He desires again
to return home to glory. to return home to glory. But
Christ returns to the presence of the Father now as the man
Christ Jesus. As the mediator of his people.
It was Brother Henry said, he went back home as something he
wasn't was before. He's the God-man. He's the mediator. He's bone of our bone and flesh
of our flesh. And he's the forerunner, beloved.
He went before us. And where the head is, the body
will soon follow, right? He's in glory. Our head's in
glory. The body's going to soon follow. And when the last sheep
of God is saved, He's going to wrap it all up. It's over. It's all over. He prays to be returned in this
office to the glory which he had before from the foundation
of the world, before the world was. And he is received and exalted
right now, seated at the right hand of the Father as our mediator,
interceding for us. And rejoice, beloved of God,
we are received with him. Look at verses 21 and 22 of the
same chapter. that they all may be one as Thou,
Father, art in me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in
us, that the world may believe that Thou hast sent me, and the
glory which Thou gavest me I have given to them, that they may
be one even as we are one. God's grace was magnified at
the cross. God's eternal love for His people
was magnified at the cross. God's great mercy was magnified
at the cross. God's unbending justice was satisfied
at the cross. God's law with its demands upon
we who are sinners was fully satisfied at the cross. And praise
be to God, by the shedding of his precious, precious blood,
the Lord Jesus Christ obtained eternal redemption for us. And
what do we say? Hallelujah. Hallelujah.