Four verses and say a few things
about them. John 17. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, Thou has 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, and Jesus Christ,
whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do."
I want to talk this evening about three things given to Christ.
Three things given to Christ. Our Lord here prayed to His Father. First, He presents pleas for
Himself. Pleas for Himself to be glorified. And it's about God glorifying
the Son, His Son. And the reason He wants the Father
to glorify the Son, that the Son also may glorify the Father. And there's three things here
in these verses that was given to our Lord Jesus Christ. First,
authority was given to Him. All authority. Secondly, a people. A people were given to Him. And
then a work. And a work to do. And the first
thing He said, and this is the first thing our Lord Jesus Christ,
when He says, God, Father, glorify Thy Son. And that Thy Son also
may glorify Thee. God glorified His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, first in His authority. Look what He said in verse 2.
Thou hast given Him power over all flesh. All authority has
been given to the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, He gave Him
such authority that in Daniel 7.14 says that He hath dominion. He has an everlasting kingdom
and an everlasting dominion. And our Lord Jesus Christ, God
gave Him all authority, gave Him all power. You know, as the Father raises
the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom
He will, and gave Him power over all flesh. Look at Psalm 89.27,
talking about our Lord Jesus Christ. Psalm 89.27, talking
about God giving Him all power, all authority. Look what God said about him. Psalm 89.27, Also I will make
him my firstborn higher than the kings of the earth. And, O Beloved, He hath given
Him power over all flesh, gave Him dominion over the whole human
race, the whole human race. You remember Hebrews 2. We've
read this so many times. Look at it with me. I know we're
just over there, but look what it says here about our Savior. Hebrews 2, chapter 2 and verse
9. Our Lord Jesus Christ, God said He gave Him all power over
all the principalities and powers and angels, things present and
things to come. Our Lord Jesus, He says, Thou
hast given all authority in heaven and earth, and He said, and I
send you forth. I go in my authority, go in my
power. And look what it said here in
verse 9, excuse me, verse 7. talking about what God did for
His Son, how He glorified His Son, giving Him His all authority.
Thou madest Him a little lower than the angels, that Thou crown'st
Him with glory and honor, and didst set Him over the works
of your hands. And Thou hast put all things
in subjection under His feet. Talking about Christ. For in
that He put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that's
not put under Him. But just because we don't see
now yet all things under Him, we don't see it all now. You
know, we believe it, we understand it, we rejoice at it. And though
we don't see all these things yet, but we see Jesus, who was
made a little Lord than the angels. We see our Lord Jesus Christ
made a little Lord than the angels for the suffering of death. crowned
with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, should taste
death for every man." He said, oh listen, God put everything
under His feet. Everything under His feet. Now
I'm going to show you, look in John 19. Here's another instance
in which our Lord Jesus Christ showed His authority and His
power. The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things
into His hands. In John 19.10, look what it says
here. Pilate asked the Lord Jesus,
where is he from? Jesus gave him no answer. Then
said Pilate in verse 10 unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? You're not going to answer me. Don't you know who I am? Don't
you know that I have the power to crucify you and I have the
power to release thee? Then our Lord answered him, didn't
answer him until he said that, until he talked about how much
power he had, how much authority he had. Jesus answered, thou
couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given
thee from above. Therefore, he that delivered
unto me, me unto thee hath the greater sin. Go ahead and talk
about your power. I said, the only power you've
got, what God gave you to do what you're gonna do. And that's
a fact. And not only is all power given
unto him, in his authority hath given him all power, all power. And then look in verse 2, a people
was given unto him, that he should give eternal life, and here it
is, as many as thou hast given him. Gave him authority, and
then he gave him a people, as many as thou hast given him. Given him to give life to them
That's why they were given to him to give life to them as many
as as many as were ordained to eternal life What did you say
they believed? All that the father giveth me
shall come to me and him that cometh to me. I'll in no wise
cast out You remember Joseph in Egypt. He was the one who
had all authority in Egypt if anybody ate they had to come
to Joseph and If anybody wanted anything from
Pharaoh, he had to come to Joseph. Joseph had all the authority
and all the power in Egypt. But you know, of all the people
that came to him and all the folks that came to him, there
was a special people came to him. And those special people
was his brethren. And his brethren came down into
Egypt. And you know the differences
in how he treated everybody else and how he treated his brethren?
He loved his brethren. He gave to his brethren. He revealed
himself to his brethren. And He gave them the best in
all of Egypt. I mean, it was His brethren that
He loved. It was the brethren that He fell
on their necks and cried. It was the brethren, His brethren,
the people, His kinfolk, those that He loved. And that's the
way it is with our Lord Jesus Christ. God gave Him a people,
and God loved those people, and God gave those people to Christ.
And it says, as many as. Now I don't know how many there
are, as many as, but I mean there's been a multitude that no man
can number already going to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the Scriptures tells us, He said, Ask of me the heathen for thine
inheritance. And He said, I'll give them to
you. And do you know what we are right now? Those people sitting
here tonight that are believers, we are the reward of the Lord
Jesus. God said, He said, Ask of me
the heathen. for your inheritance. He said,
you want an inheritance? I'm going to give you an inheritance.
Ask of me and I'll give it to you. We are Christ's reward right
here. By His knowledge did He justify
many. By His blessed knowledge. And
I tell you, I and the children that Thou hast given me is what
our Lord Jesus Christ said. And He said He's going to bring
many sons unto glory. And I'll tell you something here,
it says in John 17 and verse 12, He said, I'm not losing one
of them. He's going to bring many people
unto glory, these peoples given to Him. He said in verse 12,
while I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name.
Those that thou gavest me, I've kept, and none of them is lost. but the Son of perdition, that
the Scripture might be fulfilled." So all authority is given to
Him. A people is given to Him. And then look what it says, that
He should give eternal life to as many as the Father has given
Him. And what is eternal life? What
is it? The Son glorified the Father
in giving this life. You know, He said, I want to
glorify the Father, and the Son turned around and glorified the
Father, and giving eternal life to those that was given in Him.
And what is eternal life? It says there in verse 3, And
this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. And I tell you, beloved, that
we know this without a shadow of a doubt. God's only made known
by the Lord Jesus Christ. Eternal life is to know God.
Now, eternal life is not something we're going to get when we leave
this world. We have eternal life the moment that God makes Himself
known to us and we know God. That is life eternal. That's eternal life. You see,
people think about how long it's going to exist. It's the quality
of it. It's the life of God in a man's
soul. It's not how long it's going
to be. It's the quality of the life
in us. It's that new life. It's God
in you. Christ in you. That's the hope of glory. And
that's how we know we have eternal life. It's because we know God. And we enjoy this life, this
spiritual life, this life that's going to go on forever and ever
in Christ right now. We know God. We don't know some
things about Him. We know Him. And there's not a thing that
we know about Him that we would change. No, 10,000 times no. And then it's of grace. God's
made known by Christ. It's of grace. And it says that
He should give eternal life. You can't earn it. We certainly
don't deserve it. A man came up to me this morning
after service just crying. He said, Oh, I still stand in
astonishment that God would choose me, choose me, and not only that,
but keep me saved all these years. And that's what we're talking
about, that this is a gift that has given Him. Thou givest them
eternal life. And bless His holy name. If we've
got anything from God, it comes as a gift. And it's not like
this idea that preachers say, you know, God offers you something,
and then if you'll take the gift, then it becomes yours. It didn't
say here that He offered it. He said He gives it. And He didn't wait to ask you
if you wanted it. He'd just come in such power
and such grace and such glory that you said, yes, yes, yes. We didn't say, Lord, We said,
well, would you have me? Oh my! You see, our Lord Jesus is the
author of eternal life. Look in 1 John 5.20. 1 John 5.20. He's the author of eternal life,
the Lord Jesus is. Adorned God and eternal life
are inseparable. You can't know God and not have
eternal life. And you can't have eternal life
and not know God. It's the life we're being partakers
of, the divine nature. That's what's so wonderful about
when a believer goes, when he leaves this playhouse, when he
leaves this earthly tabernacle, to be absent from the bodies
to be present with the Lord. They don't enter into eternal
life that day. We entered into eternal life
the day that God gave us His life in our soul. Everything
God does is eternal. We have the life of God in us.
And that's what's eternal, that soul that God made man a living
soul. He made us living souls. He gave
us this new life in Christ. That's why we, why do we enjoy
God now? Why do we enjoy Christ now? Why
do we enjoy the gospel? Why do we love one another? It's
because God's in us. This life of God's in us. And
that's, you know why you sometimes want to go home? is because you
want to go where the person who gave you this life is and you
can be with Him forever. Look what He said here in 1 John
5.20, And we know that the Son of God is come, and listen to
this, and have given an understanding, that we may know Him that is
true, the true God. And we are in Him, that is true,
even in His Son, Jesus Christ, this is the true God, and what? Eternal life. Eternal life. And all, beloved, knowing God
and eternal life are inseparable. This is eternal life. Our Lord
Jesus Christ says that they might know Thee. And knowing God is
not no speculation about it, not any theory about it, not
an intellectual thing that we do, but a practical, experiential,
spiritual knowledge. Acts 17.2 says this, When the
God of glory appeared unto our Father in Mesopotamia, you know
what happened? He went out. When God of glory
appears to you, it changes you that day radically. Radically. Huh? And it's a spiritual knowledge. And saving knowledge is knowing
God. Knowing God in Christ. And knowing
Christ. And knowing Christ is God. Look
in Psalm 9 with me for a moment. Look in Psalm 9. You know, saving
knowledge is knowing God. And I tell you this, and when
we hear some people describe Him, the God that... And this
happens so many times. You all remember this very well.
When you first began to learn the Gospel, first began to fellowship
with the saints of God and go to different conferences and
go to different meetings, when you first heard the Gospel, the
first thing you thought was, boy, I've never heard nothing
like that. My God ain't never been my, you
know, the God that, that God he's talking about, the God I
know, I know two different people. And that's the conclusion you
come to. I don't know how many people told me, said, you must
think I'm lost. It don't make no difference what
I think. But whenever people start hearing about the true
God and the real living Glorious, sovereign God who gives life,
who makes Himself known in Christ. When you start knowing that,
beloved, that is something that changes you. It takes you and
makes you something you never was before. Look here at Psalm
9, verse 10. And this is what we're talking
about, know the only true God. And they that know thy name,
know thy name. What will they do? Will put their
trust in thee. For thou, Lord, hast not forsaken
them that seek thee. Oh, I tell you, them that know
thee, they're going to trust you. They're going to trust you.
You know, He reconciled us by His blood. He reconciled us through
His redemption. And listen, what brings more
glory to the Father than that He should be known, that He should
be trusted, that He should be loved, that He should be worshipped,
that He should be obeyed and served? What brings more glory
to Him? What brings more glory to the
Father than we should know Him? that we know Him, and we bow
to Him, and we trust Him, and we love Him, and we worship Him,
and we obey Him, and we delight in Him. And how in the world
does this happen? Because the Son makes us know
the only true God. Huh? And oh, listen, eternal
life, the essence of all blessings is contained in this one word,
these two words, eternal life. Everything that God has for us
is in this eternal life. And look what he said there again
in verse 3 of John. He says that they might know
thee the only true God. Now what does that mean? That
means it excludes everything that's not true. That excludes
all idols. Our message is exclusive. Our
message is exclusive. The Gospel is exclusive. And
though it includes all kinds of people and all types of people,
but when it says the only true God, that means that there ain't
no other gods. It excludes all idols. That does
away with everybody that's not the true God. That's why Paul
said, you know I know your election, because you turn from idols to
serve the living God. That's what he said. And men
grow angry when their idols are not worshipped, when they are
destroyed. Look over at John 17. Look in Acts 19. In Acts 19. Whenever a man's idol
is about to be destroyed, he gets upset. They get angry. Oh, they get, you know, when
you start tackling a man's idols and that, I think they'll get
upset and hurt. Look in verse 24 of Acts 19. For a certain man named Demetrius,
a silversmith, which made silver shrines for Diana, brought no
small gain unto the cratchers. whom he called together with
workmen of like occupation, says, Sirs, we know that by this craft
we have our wealth. Moreover, we see and hear that
not alone at Ephesus, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul
hath persuaded and turned away much people, saying that there
be no gods which are made with hands." There are no gods made with hands. Wait a minute, what about my
crucifix? It glows in the dark to keep the bad fires away. So that not only this our craft
is in danger to be set at naught, but also that the temple to the
great goddess Diana should be despised and her magnificence
should be destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worship. And
when they heard these sayings, they were full of wrath and cried
out saying, Great, is Diana of the Ephesians. Paul went around
saying, there ain't no gods that you make with hands. I don't
care how good they look and how much gold they got in them, how
much silver they got in them, and how well carved they are.
There ain't no gods made with hands. No gods made with hands. And oh my, they were exposed
for what they are. And this says it back over here
in John 17. And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God." And look what it says,
"...and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." When it says that
He sent, you know what that means? That means He was somewhere else
before He came here. Where was He before He came here?
He was with His Father in glory. And it said, He sent. He said,
Whom thou hast sent. This points to His deity. He
was God before He ever come into this earth. He was God eternal
before He ever come down here. And He came forth from God. And
He said, they're going to go back to God. He came forth from
God and they're going to go back to God. And this tells about
His deity, that He came into this world. God sent His Son.
When it says sin, this talks about His incarnation, that He
come through the womb of a virgin, that He had never had flesh before.
But He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. He had no sin,
but He looked just like us. Nobody else. In fact, when they
came out to get Him in the Garden of Gethsemane, Judas had to kiss
Him to let people know who He was. He would be around people
and they would not even know who He was unless He made Himself
known to them. That's how nondescript He was,
unless He made Himself known. And oh listen, the Word was made
flesh, sent to dwell among us. In the fullness of time was come,
God sent forth His Son, made of a woman. And when it says
sent here, not only His deity, His incarnation, but He is sent
to be a mediator. a mediator between us and God. Listen, if God is the way we
say yes from this book, the way we say, know thee the only true
God, we know, we know without a shadow of a doubt, that if
we didn't have a mediator between us and God, we couldn't approach
Him. And all the way through the Old
Testament, nobody, listen, People didn't approach God without a
priest, without a sacrifice, and without an altar. And beloved,
that priest, people couldn't go into the tabernacle by themselves. The priest had to go in there.
And the priest had to take the blood. And the priest had to
offer the sacrifice. And God accepted the people on
what the what the priest did. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ got
him sent to be the mediator between us and God. He is our great high
priest that's passed into the heavens. He's not here anymore.
He sits at the right hand of God. He offered a sacrifice.
He offered himself without spot to God and obtained eternal redemption
for us. And then, beloved, had to be
on an altar and Christ, who is our altar, So He became everything to us. Everybody, every one of us that
pray here, we always say, Father, for Christ's sake, Lord, receive
us for Your blessed Son's sake. I'm so thankful that I can come
into Your presence because of Your Son. Oh, bless His holy name. Not
only that, but look in Hebrews 3.1. He's the apostle and high
priest of our profession. We have a profession, and that
profession means the same thing as a confession. And look what it says here about
Him. He's a mediator, our Redeemer. And look what He calls Him here.
Hebrews 3.1, Work for holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. Listen to this. Consider the
apostle. the Apostle and High Priest of
our profession, Christ Jesus. Now when it says profession there,
that means, you know, what do you profess? What do you confess?
We confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is our Apostle. God sent
Him. An Apostle is one sent of God
with special power and authority. And He's our High Priest that
we confess. He's our High Priest that we
confess. And oh my, that's a sick one. And that's our confession. I confess that He's my Apostle,
He's my High Priest, my Mediator, the One-Sent. And you know, here
in John 17, He says that the true God in Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent, this is the only time in all the Scriptures that
the Lord Jesus called himself Jesus Christ. Never called himself
Jesus Christ, but this one time. Just this one time. And then
look what he says there in verse 4. So listen, he's got all authority. He has the people given to him.
He has all authority. He gives eternal life. He makes
us to know who God is in that authority. And then he says,
I've glorified thee on the earth. Now our Lord Jesus Christ glorified
God in creation. The heavens declare the glory
of God. The firmament shows His handiwork. He glorifies Him in
His providence. He carries out God's will in
this world and in this earth. But the Son, the Son glorifies
the Father in a unique way, in a glorious way. And let me give
you several of them. First of all, Christ glorified
God Him, God glorified, Christ glorified God the Father in His
person. He was the express image of God's
glory. The fullness of the Godhead dwells
in Him bodily. That's what the scripture says.
He is the image of the invisible God. If nobody ain't never going
to see God, they're only going to see Jesus Christ. And we understand
that Christ glorified Him in His person. When you see Christ,
you saw God. You saw the Father. And then
He glorified Him by His miracles. Matthew 9. Let's look at that
and look how He glorified Him by His miracles. Our Lord glorified
His Father by His miracles in Matthew 9. And look in verse
2. Oh, the Son glorified the Father
in a very unique way, in a glorious way. Christ glorified His Father
in His person. He has expressed the image of
God. The very brightness of His glory.
But what it says here in verse 2. Matthew 2. 9-2. Matthew 9-2. And behold, they
brought to Him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith,
said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins
be forgiven thee. Oh my, could never hear anything
better than thy sins be forgiven thee. And behold, certain of
the scribes said within themselves, this man blasphemes. And our
Lord, knowing their thoughts, and wherefore thank you evil
in your hearts." What's just easier to say? Thy sins be forgiven
thee, or to say, arise and walk, which is easiest for Christ. Thy sins be forgiven thee, or
to arise and walk, which is easier to do. Look what he says, that you may
know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. Then saith he to the sick of
the palsy, Arise up, take up thy bed, and go into thine house.
And he arose and departed to his house. And when the multitude
saw it, listen to this, they marveled. And what happened? They glorified God, which had
given such power unto man. Oh, how God, how He glorified
His Father in His miracles. And oh, it glorified Him in His
words, constantly, constantly attributing all praise, all honor
to His Father. He prayed in Matthew 11, 25.
He said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that
You've hid these things, these blessed truths from the wise
and prudent and has revealed undebated. Even so, it seemed
good in Your sight. And when he stood before Lazarus
too, he prayed and he said, I'm not praying for my sake. I'm not even praying for Lazarus.
I'm praying that they might know. that you always hear me and that
actually said that then he said Lazarus come forth and the dead
came forth so he always glorified his father and then he glorified
him in his holy, sinless, obedient, glorious God-honoring, soul-saving
life while He lived on His holy, harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners. And He glorified His Father in
that holy, sinless, obedient life. Adam, the first man, he
failed. and all of us became sinners
by Him. But the last Adam, the Lord Jesus
Christ, restored what Adam took away. Adam made us sinners, Christ
made us righteous. Adam brought death, Christ brought
life. Adam brought disobedience, Christ
brought obedience. Adam lost righteousness, Christ
gives us righteousness. We lost knowledge of God in Adam,
we get knowledge of God in Christ. We lost sight in Adam, we get
sight in Christ. We got a hard heart in Adam,
we get a new heart in Christ. In Psalm 69 and 4, you look at
it yourself. He said, He restored that which
He took not away. And He was sent as a representative
of His people. And He rendered obedience to
the law. He fulfilled it to those that
was given Him. And that's what He says here
in verse 4 of John 17. I have glorified Thee on the
earth. And look what He said. And I
finished the work. I did. I finished it. I finished the
work. You gave Me a work to do and
I glorified You and I finished it. And look what He says. He said, I have glorified Thee
on the earth. You know why it says it glorified
Him on the earth? Because this is the place where
God's more dishonored than any place else in this whole universe.
The angels don't dishonor Him. The angels don't disobey Him.
But this is the place where God was most dishonored. From the
first man, Adam, and every man ever since has dishonored God.
has brought shame, and dishonor, and disgrace, and sin, and all
the things that would dishonor God we ever want, being guilty
of that. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. But our Lord Jesus Christ, He did not dishonor Him, disobey
Him, or ridicule Him in heaven. It's only on earth by man. But
our Lord Jesus Christ said, I glorified You on the earth. Everybody else
may dishonor you, but I'm going to glorify you. And look what
he said. And then he said, I finished
the work that you gave me to do. Well, what was it to finish
the work? To give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. Give eternal life to as many
as to save those you gave me. And to finish the work, what
was the work that he was gave to do? It's to save us from our
sins. to save us and make us acceptable
to God Himself. And you know the last thing He
said when He was on the cross. The last word He said. It's one
word in the Greek. It's the only word I know except
alpha and omega. Alpha, beta, delta, gamma, and
omega. That's how much Greek I know.
But I know that that word, finished, it is finished, is one word,
to lay off greed. It's finished, one word. And
when our last word, our Lord said on the cross, before He
gave up the ghost, it is finished. It's done. And that's why we're
here tonight. That's what that bread represents,
that broken body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and that wine. is emblematic of His blood that
was shed for us to cleanse us from our sins. We're going to
have Steve and Houston, father and son, they're going to take
care of the table this evening. And if you all come and do that,
then they'll offer thanks.