Let's read from Psalm 136. Psalm
136. O give thanks unto the Lord,
for he is good, for his mercy endureth forever. O give thanks
unto the God of gods, for his mercy endureth forever. O give
thanks to the Lord of lords, for his mercy endureth forever.
To him who alone doeth great wonders, for his mercy endureth
forever. To Him that by wisdom made the
heavens, for His mercy endureth forever. To Him that stretched
out the earth above the waters, for His mercy endureth forever. To Him that made great lights,
for His mercy endureth forever. The sun to rule by day, for His
mercy endureth forever. The moon and stars to rule by
night, for His mercy endureth forever. To Him that smote Egypt
in their firstborn, for his mercy endureth forever. And brought
out Israel from among them for his mercy endureth forever. With
a strong hand and with a stretched out arm for his mercy endureth
forever. To him which divided the Red
Sea into parts for his mercy endureth forever. And made Israel
to pass through the midst of it for his mercy endureth forever. but overthrew Pharaoh and his
host in the Red Sea, for his mercy endureth forever. To him
which led his people through the wilderness, for his mercy
endureth forever. To him which smoked great kings,
for his mercy endureth forever, and slew famous kings, for his
mercy endureth forever. Sihon, king of the Amorites,
for his mercy endureth forever. And Og the king of Bashan, for
his mercy endureth forever. And gave their land for an inheritance,
for an heritage, for his mercy endureth forever. Even an heritage
unto Israel, his servant, for his mercy endureth forever. Who
remembered us in our lowest state, for his mercy endureth forever.
And hath redeemed us from our enemies, for his mercy endureth
forever. who giveth food to all flesh
for his mercy endureth forever. O give thanks unto the God of
heaven for his mercy endureth forever. With me this evening,
if you will, John chapter 17. John chapter 17. And I'm going
to get my subject there in verse 1. These words spake Jesus and
lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has
come. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. I want to use that phrase in
there, the hour has come. The hour has come. This chapter
has been one of the greatest chapters to the to the Lord's
people, been one of the most comforting, strengthening, probably
one of the most read portions of scripture by the people of
God down through the ages. And what it is, it's our great
high priest allowing us to hear his prayer. He draws the veil
aside. We're allowed to enter into the
holiest of hall with our own high priest and we hear him pray.
We get to hear him pray. Praying audibly, disciples are
listening, he's uttering his mind and heart of the God-man.
That's what's happening here. And how full of grace, how full
of truth our Lord Jesus is. And I asked, I believe it was
last week, I asked, is this a model prayer for us? In two ways, yes. In two senses, yes. First, it
reveals that our Lord Jesus Christ, the glory of God, was his purpose
for coming into this world. to honor his father, to glorify
his father. He said, Father, I've glorified
you on the earth, and I've finished the work. I came not to seek
my own honor, but the honor of him that sent me. And so it reveals
the glory of God as his purpose in the prayers, and that ought
to be our purpose, is the glory of God. That ought to be the
purpose of our prayers, our petitions, the glory of God. And secondly,
our Lord Jesus Christ not only praised his father and prayed
for himself, but he prayed for all of us. All who should believe
and all those believers that heard him praying at that particular
time. That we should not only pray for ourselves, but pray
for others also. And you know, when you know that
somebody's in a great strait, somebody's in a burden, like
when we heard about Cody, our prayers automatically went to
Winna and Betty and Walter, our prayers automatically went to
heaven on the behalf of them and the saints in Mexico. It
just automatically done that because we know that they had
the need and we felt that great need. But yet in another sense,
this prayer of our great high priest can never, never be our
model because it stands alone. It's unique. This prayer here
stands alone, absolutely unique. The author of this prayer is
the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, who assumed
our nature, who came down here and assumed our nature. And it's
addressed to Christ's Father. It's addressed to Christ's Father.
And He called Him His own Holy Father, His Righteous Father.
And look what it says there, this verse, Jesus lifted up His
eyes and said, Father, Father, It's addressed to Christ's Father.
Look down in verse 11, look what he said here. And they said,
Holy Father, Kept called him Holy Father. In the middle of
the verse there, Holy Father, keep through thine own name.
And down in verse 25, he called him, O righteous Father, the
world hath not known thee. Our Lord Jesus Christ called
him Father, Father. And so he's addressing this to
his Father. And that's what we do. We address
our prayers to the Father. And I'll tell you something else
that makes this standalone, this unique. It does not contain a
single confession of sin, not a confession of sin. No, no. In fact, our Lord Jesus said
in verse four, I've glorified thee on the earth and I finished
the work which you gave me to do. And all the way through this
prayer here, our Lord Jesus Christ, as he prays and honors his father,
our Lord maintains his own obedience. His fulfilling the job, the work
that the Father gave Him to for finishing the work, fulfilling
it, and doing everything the Father gave Him to do. And this
is so different than the way He told His disciples to pray.
The first thing He said, Lord, forgive us our sins as we forgive
those who sin against us. But here, there is no confession
of sin, not for ourselves or even especially Himself. But
let's go through these verses here, this first verse and see
what He has to say. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up His eyes to heaven. And you know, when you want to
find out these words, you start in John 17, 13, 14, 15, and 16.
That's just Him along with His disciples. then after he said all this up
to this point these words speak Jesus and he lifted up his eyes
into heaven he looked up into the true holy place not only
did he enter into the holy place and obtain eternal redemption
for us but he could actually look into the holy place he could
see into glory itself and when he lifted up his eyes he was
looking at the father he saw the father he saw into glory
itself and that's where he was soon to enter And this shows
here, beloved, the true spiritual reverence which is due God Himself. Our Lord Jesus lifted up His
eyes to heaven and said, Father, and this shows the true spiritual
reverence which is due God. The heavens of heavens is His
dwelling place. The heaven of heavens can't contain
Him. And now He shows here His confidence in His Father. He
says, O Father, and He lifted up His eyes to heaven. He said,
I'll look up to heaven, to which cometh my help. And so He lifted
up His eyes to heaven. When we lift them up, all we
can do is just, we lift up our eyes sometimes, but we lift them
up to praise God and to bless His name. But we can't see Him
like our Lord did. We can't see Him to glory like
our Lord did. And we can't give Him the reverence
the way our Lord did. But we still, by God's grace,
we address him as the one who the heavens of heaven can't contain. He inhabits eternity. And as
our Lord said, I'll lift my eyes up to heaven from which cometh
my help. If he said that, show his confidence in the Father,
how much more should we? How much more should we? And
then he says, Father. Lift up his eyes to heaven and
said, Father. Lifted up his head and said,
Father. Oh, what a father. He was his father by relationship
like nobody else was. And he mentions the word father.
He calls the word father six times in this chapter. Addresses
God as his father six times in this chapter. Calls him father
six times. He's His Father by relationship
and He's Father by nature and by affection. And I'll tell you
something, He's His Father by virtue of His human nature. Our
Lord Jesus Christ was God's blessed Son in the sense that God Himself
produced His Son in the womb of that virgin woman. That's
how he was his father. That's why he was the only begotten
Son of God. That's why he had that holy nature.
He assumed human nature, but he didn't have Adam's nature,
because he had a holy nature, a sinless nature, like the Father
has a holy nature and a sinless nature. And then he says, he
says, he told Mary, he says, the Holy Ghost shall come upon
thee, and that holy thing which shall be born of thee, shall
be begotten by the Holy Spirit. And all the scriptures tells
us that he has prepared him a body. God prepared him a body. It was
a miracle birth. That's why when the Lord angel
came and says, you're gonna have a child, she said, how can this
be? How many times do you go through this? How can this be?
She said, how can this be? He said, I know not a man. God
said, I'm his father. I produced him. He's mine. And, oh, beloved, not only is
he the father by relationship and by by producing him and being
a miracle child, but he's the father of the Lord Jesus Christ
as the head and representative of the family of the redeemed.
He's the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the head of all
the people of God, all the family of God, of all the family of
the redeemed. And that's how many times you
go through here and say, Father, those that Thou has given me,
keep through Thy name those that Thou has given me. oh he was
our kinsman redeemer look in hebrews chapter one with me in
verse five he's the father of our lord jesus christ as the
head and representative of his family here the redeemed he's
our kinsman redeemer as boaz was was the kinsman redeemer
and took Ruth. Our Lord Jesus Christ was our
kinsman's redeemer. He was not ashamed to call us
brethren. He is made like unto his brethren
in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. And look
what he said here in Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 5. He said, for unto which of the
angels said he at any time, thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. And again, I will be to him a
father and he shall be to me a son. He's mine. And that's
why I called him father. And he is our Lord's father as
the first person of the Trinity. God is a Trinity. And this is
one of the great mysteries of godliness. There ain't but one
God. Just one God. Here, O Israel,
the Lord our God is one. And yet He has three offices
in that one Godhead. There's God the Father, so He
sent His Son, God the Son, as eternal as the Father, equal
with the Father in every way, And He sent His Son into this
world, who dwelt with Him in all eternity, and sent Him into
this world in a human body, and gave Him a human nature. And
that's why Christ was the second person in the Godhead. And I
tell you, this is one of the great mysteries. But they were,
it was God's own Son. Absolutely His Son, peculiarly
to Himself. I'm a Son of God, but not like
Christ the Son of God. And oh, but listen, not only
that, but he's the father in affection. Do you have any idea? We don't, well, no, I don't even,
I don't know why I even asked that, because we don't. But the
affection that our father had for his blessed son is something
we can never enter into. He said in Matthew 17, five,
when our Lord Jesus Christ was transfigured on the mountain,
transfigured there on that mountain, Peter, James, and John were there.
And Peter said, Lord, oh, it's so good for us to be here. Let's
build us three tabernacles. Let's build one for Moses. Let's
build one for Elijah. But we'll build the Lord Jesus
in the middle. And oh, God spoke from heaven,
said, oh, this is my beloved son. This is my beloved son. You listen to him. You listen
to him. And oh, when he was baptized,
he says, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And when our Lord Jesus Christ
says, Father, He's expressing His love. He's expressing His
love to His Father. He's expressing His confidence
to His Father. He's expressing His submission
to His Father. His obedience to His Father.
And Daryl read it back in the study this evening, John 10.
And in John 10, 17, our Lord said, Herein doeth my father
love me. Why? Because I lay down my life
for the sheep. He loves me because that's what
I come to do. And oh, he was the son of his
love. And oh, the love that between them. Look what he says down
here in verse 24. Father, I will, that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory which thou hast given me. Now listen to this.
For thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Oh,
he was the son of his love. and all the love that was between
them. And he said in verse 26, and
that's part of the verse, he says, The love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. The love where
you loved me, may that love be in them. And what our Lord Jesus
Christ hear when He says, Father, Holy Father, Righteous Father,
My Father, lifted up his eyes and began to speak to him is
what he said is, I love you. I love you with my being. I confide
in you. I submit myself to you. Father,
I'm your son. You command me and I will obey. You tell me what to do and your
will is done. It's like when Isaac, Abraham
took Isaac up on the mountain. He said, I'm the lad that'll
go yonder and worship and come again. And I tell you, oh, Abraham
never said a word. He never said a word. He's like
our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, Father, not my will,
but thine be done. That's what our Lord meant when
He says, Father. And our Lord Jesus as a man,
He said, I trust your power, I trust your wisdom, I trust
your faithfulness, and into thy hands I give myself over to you
all the days of my life. That's what He did as a man.
That's the only true man that's ever been on this earth. The
rest of us, if it hadn't been for that perfect man, God's son
that came here and identified with us, there'd have never been
a good man on the face of this earth. But he was a man that
was so powerful and so virtuous and so glorious and so obedient
and so willful to do what God willed for him to do that he,
what he did, did it all for us. and he glorified his father in
doing it. Oh, and he had to trust God. He trusted God like we do,
but he did it perfectly. He believed God like we have
to, but he believed him perfectly. Never nobody been like him. What
a blessed man. Oh, Father. Oh, what a relationship
to him. And look what our Lord said here
in John 18, 11. You know, just right across the page in my Bible
from where it's at there in John 17. Look what our Lord said there
when Peter cut off the servant Malchus here. Then said Jesus
unto Peter, put up thy sword into the sheaf. Listen to what
our Lord says, the cup which my father hath given me, shall
I not drink it? Shall I not drink it? He handed
him a cup. And Isaiah said he gave him a
cup. And the scripture says there
that he tread the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of
God by himself and he turned up the cup and drunk it dry even
to the drinks. But then look what he says when
he said to his father. Then he says the hour has come.
The hour has arrived. The hour has arrived. You know
for every event, for every event, and listen to me, every event
there's a time fixed for it in God's eternal decree. I don't
care what it is. Every event that happens in time
is fixed in God's eternal decree. That's right. I know that's right. You know, forever time, forever
purpose and time and season under the heaven. There's a time and
a season. Forever purpose under heaven. And our Lord Jesus Christ,
everything that happened to Him and everything that ever happened
to anybody else, How many times did he say, my hour? He told
his mother, he said, my hour's not yet come. They come to take
him away, my hour's not yet come. He knew that he had an hour.
In John 13, 1, look what it says. Now, before the feast of the
Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should
depart out of this world unto the Father. He knows the hour's
coming. What? To do what? To leave this
world. and depart on out of this world
unto the Father, having loved his own, he loved them which
were in the world. And our Lord Jesus Christ knew that he had
a time that he's going to go back to the Father. He had a
time and everything that was going to happen in that hour
and that hour has to do with everything that happened to him
in those final days, that final hour, the hour has arrived. The
hour has arrived. Willa told us that, said when
Cody preached Wednesday night and come home got up the next
morning and died she says that day was fixed from all eternity
for him to go that day that was that was purposed as purposed
we don't know when we don't know our Lord Jesus Christ says my
time is not yet come but your time is always ready and our
time's always ready we don't know when our time's coming But
for me, it won't be soon enough for me.
And I see you say, well, you're just being pious. No, I'm serious.
I'm serious. Oh, my, my hour. But look what
he said here. The hour has come. The hour has
arrived. The hour is his death and his
suffering of death. The hour of all that was going
to happen to him in the garden. All that was going to happen
to him at the hands of sinful men. all that was going to happen
to Him there on the cross, all about His death and His resurrection
and His ascension and in entering back into glory in His coronation. Lift up your gates, O ye everlasting
doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King
of glory? Strong and mighty in battle.
Oh, lift up your heads, O ye gates, and the King of Glory
shall come in, victorious. And He'll come in, and I tell
you, He won the battle, and He winnered in the glory. And I
tell you, beloved, His end in this hour means His entire going
to the Father. And here's the thing, his sufferings
and his glory go together. And that's what, you know, our
Lord Jesus Christ suffered and his sufferings and his glory
went together. Let me show you what I mean, John 12, 23. John
12, 23. And that's what Paul said about
us. He said, I reckon that the sufferings of this present world
are not worthy to be reckoned unto the glory which shall be
revealed in us. And look what he said here in
John 12, 23. And Jesus answered them saying,
the hour has come that the son of man should be glorified, but
this is how he's gonna be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth
alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth
much fruit. And look what he said in Luke
chapter 24 and verse 26. Look what our master said over
here. in Luke 24, in verse 26. Oh, they was walking along with
the disciples on them mass roads, and he said, in verse 45, he
said, oh, fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets
have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things,
what he did in his hour, and to enter into his glory? And
I tell you what, you don't get into glory except going by way
of the crops. And this hour, This hour is when
Christ would finish the work of His earthly ministry, of the
work the Father gave Him to do, and He would finish that earthly
ministry by offering one sacrifice, the one and only sacrifice that
put away sin once and for all. And He offered that one and only
atoning sacrifice for sin. And then when He says the hour
is coming, it also means this, the hour of all the fulfilling
of prophecies. all the fulfilling of prophecies.
I believe it is in verse 28 of John 18 where it says this, John
19, excuse me, not 1828, 1928, I had to find it. You know the
hour of fulfilling all prophecies in all types. Look what it said
here in John 1928 after this Jesus knowing that
all things were now accomplished now listen to this that the scriptures
might be fulfilled Sayeth I first so as the hour of his coming
was the fulfillment of all the types and prophecies He was prophesied
that the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent
and that he would do in the fullness of time he would be that was
made of a woman would come in the fullness of time. They said,
there shall call his name Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty Father,
the Everlasting Father. And he said, unto us a son is
given, unto us a child is born. And then sure enough, hundreds
of years later, a child is born. And it talked about all the sufferings
that he would go through. And then the scripture says in
Acts 10.43 to him, All the prophets give witnesses. And then you
take all the Old Testament prophecies concerning Him. So many I couldn't
begin to name them all. And then all the types, all the
types. The ark that was made to save
Noah. That was a place for God to save
His people from the wrath and the justice of God that came
upon a wicked generation, upon a wicked people and destroyed
all of them but Esau. and then there's that Passover
lamb and it was the blood it was the blood on the door that
God said listen when I see the blood I'll pass over you and
that lamb was slain and there was a quarter million lambs slain
that night but God said one lamb And Christ was that Lamb of God
who came and took away the sin of the world in his own body
and sacrificed for us. That serpent that was lifted
up when the children of Israel murmured against God and he sent
the serpents among them. Our Lord said, as the serpent
must lift it up in the wilderness, even so must I be lifted up.
And that manna which came down from heaven, our Lord said, I'm
that true bread. I'm that true bread. and that
water which came from the rock Paul said that rock was Christ
and he was forever that high priest Melchizedek that met Abraham
coming back from the war of the kings and Abraham paid tithes
to him and had bread and wine with him God says you'll be a
high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek so he's
our great high priest Every sacrifice, everything in the tabernacle,
inside and out, every altar that ever sacrifice was given on,
the brazen altar, the altar of incense, the mercy seat that
was behind the veil, the veil itself, every one of them found
their fulfillment in our Lord Jesus Christ. It's amazing, isn't
it? I tell you, it fills my heart
with joy that I know when I'm looking at the tabernacle and
reading about it, every outside and inside it tells about it.
Every piece of furniture speaks of Him. Every altar speaks of
Him. Every sacrifice found its fulfillment
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they found their fulfillment
in this man in this hour. And all was fulfilled in his
blessed sacrifice and now he sits down at the right hand of
God. And it was the hour of the victory
over the prince of this world. People keep talking about how
much power the devil does. The devil can do this, the devil
can do that, and the devil's going to make you do this, and
the devil's going to make you do that. Listen. Our Lord Jesus
Christ. I'm no match for the devil. I've
never known, I never was, and I never will be. But I don't
have to be. Christ unwhipped him. Christ
put him on a chain. I don't have to go toe to toe
with the devil. Christ went toe to toe with him.
Christ defeated him. Christ put him on a chain. Christ,
he has to ask Christ whenever he wants to do something now.
He had to ask God. You know, when God said, have
you considered? Oh, if you let me. See, he can't
do nothing unless he asks permission to do it. Oh, listen. And he said, that was the hour,
the hour of the prince of this world. And I tell you what, it
was the hour of taking away the old and bringing in the new. Huh? That's why it says, this
is the New Testament in my blood, which is shed for you. And oh,
what an encouragement for us. What an encouragement, what a
blessing for us. We've seen our Lord Jesus Christ
draw near here in solemn devotion, an act of solemn devotion to
His Father. We've seen Him draw near to God,
call Him Father, call Him Father. And He'd given us, He drew near
to God, His God and His Father. He'd given us a glorious, blessed
example. He went to God and His Father.
Let us go to God as our Father. Not the Father in the same sense
that our Lord Jesus Christ is. We can never do that. But I'll
tell you what He is. He is our Father because He's
Christ's Father and we're in Christ. And that's why we call
Him our Father. And we call him our father because
we're his children. We're united to his son. And
you know what he did? to call us and enable us to call
Him Father, He sent forth the spirit of adoption into our hearts
to let us know we're His children. Now, you know, when you adopt
a child, you cannot put your spirit in them. But when God
adopts us, He only had one son. He only had one son. So He's
going to have many sons to bring to glory. Well, how's He going
to have many sons? He's going to adopt them! He's
gonna make him join heirs with his son. How do you know you're
one of his adopted? He sent the spirit of his son
into our hearts. The same son that's called him
father here, he sent his spirit into our hearts. And we say,
Abba Father. Oh my, what a blessed Savior
we have. Oh, what a blessed Savior. And
he's our, the hours come. And I'll tell you what, And everything
that was to be done in that hour was done perfectly, completely,
fully, and finally by our Lord Jesus Christ. What a Savior. Oh, what a Savior. Our Father, oh, our Father, in
the blessed, blessed, blessed name of your Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, we cry, Abba, Father. God bless you for giving us another
day, a day of worship, a day of your scriptures, a day of
believing you, a day of rejoicing in you, a day of resting in you,
having confidence in you, trusting you. Lord, you gave us another
day of grace, another day of mercy, another day of strength. another day together with the
saints of God. And we thank you for it. We bless
you for it. There's nothing like being with
the children of God. And Lord, you allow us to have
this privilege, this time. And Lord, I thank you for these
saints of God. I thank you for Winna and his
children. I thank you for the testimony
that Cody left. And our Father, I pray for your
blessings upon them, your strength, your encouragement, your great
comfort. God bless David and the saints there. Bless the dear
saints, all those dear saints who are going to miss Cody so
very greatly in Mexico, those men and women there that loved
him. loved him and believed the gospel he preached. Lord, raise
up a preacher to preach to him and give him a preacher, give
him a pastor after your own heart to feed your sheep there. Lord,
we know you will because they're your sheep and you're the good
shepherd and you'll never let anything happen to your sheep. You'll protect them and keep
them. God bless these saints as they go to their jobs go back
to their lives and keep them and preserve them. In Christ's
name I pray, amen.