It's so good to be here. Isn't
it wonderful? Sing those songs, get your heart,
just fire it up, doesn't it? Just get your heart fired up.
Oh my, that's preparation for worship. That's preparation for
us to hear from the word of God, right? We get our eyes and our
minds set on Christ now, and now we're ready to receive the
word. Oh, it's wonderful. Okay, tonight we'll continue
our study in John chapter 17. And last week we looked at the
beginning of verse 2, and we were blessed to see and hear
our Lord and our Savior proclaim that He has all power over all
flesh that's saved and lost. He has all power. He has all
power over kings and princes and rulers of this world. He
has all power over things invisible, invisible. Satan and his angels
and all other things. He has all power, all authority
in the Greek, that word means, all authority over everything
visible and invisible. And you never forget too, he
has the freedom to do whatever he wills. You know, man talks
often about our own free will. but our will is bound to our
nature, right? God is, I like what Donny Bell
said, the only one who has free will in this universe is God.
He's the only one who can do whatever he pleases. See, we
lack the power to do certain things, we lack the ability to
do certain things, but God doesn't lack ability and he doesn't lack
power. Whatever he wills, he does. It's
absolutely incredible. That's our God. That's our God,
that's our savior. That's our Savior. And we see
here again in verse 2, we're going to look at tonight that
He has the freedom to do what He will. And in verse 2 tonight,
we're going to see that our great Savior has the authority to give
eternal life to as many as the Father gave Him. When did He
give those who He has the power and the authority to give eternal
life to? When did the Son receive them?
In eternity. they were given to him in eternity
by the Father. In the covenant with the Holy
Spirit and in the covenant with the Father, the Son received
all those who were given to him by the Father. And he has a responsibility
to care for them, to watch over them, to bring them home. Oh
my, with that in mind, let's read verses one to five. 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. Here he's speaking of his death.
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. Look at that. There's only one
true God, only one. 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. And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was. Again, this prayer
is split up into three sections. The first five verses here, our
Lord prays for himself. He prays to the Father. The second
section is he prays for the apostles. And then the third section is
he prays for all the elect of all the ages. It's absolutely
wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Now the natural man who's dead
in trespasses and sins, and this is the way we're all born into
the world. We're all born dead in trespasses and sins. We all
come into this world due to our father Adam falling in the garden.
We come into this life dead in trespasses and sins and we are
unable to gain eternal life by anything we do. We're unable
to obtain eternal life by anything we do. Everything that we do
is tainted with sin. Everything. And this is true
of those in false religions and the natural man, also in the
natural man who does not care for the things of God. It doesn't
matter if man's in religion or it doesn't matter if man doesn't
care about the things of God. We're all born sinners. All of
us. Every single one of us. And because
of that, There's not one of us that can work our way to heaven,
no matter what we do. No matter supposedly how good
we think we are, and we're not. No matter what good work you
do for somebody, is it wrong to do good things? No, not at
all. It's good to do good things, right? It's good to be moral.
There's nothing wrong with that. That's good. But if we think
that we're doing things to gain merit and favor with God, we're
not. As a matter of fact, people who
are in religion or natural man is heaping condemnation upon
themselves by doing these things. It's all they're doing. It's
all they're doing. And lest anyone thinks that we
who are the born-again, blood-washed people of God are talking down
about these folks, We were right there. And if it
wasn't for the grace of God, we'd still be there. It's only
God, and I'm saying this to let folks know that we who are truly
born again, we who are truly the Boston Saints of God, don't
look down on anyone. Because we haven't forgotten
the rock that we were hewn from. We haven't forgotten the pit
that we were in. I was in the pit, beloved. I was in the pit
when the Lord saved me, the pit of sin, and I couldn't get out
of it. I couldn't get out of it. My,
it's only God who made me to differ, it's only God who made
you to differ. Only God. He's the only one who's made
us to differ from anyone else in this world. That's how true
believers feel. That's how we feel. We know.
We who are the people of God, we've been rescued, beloved.
We've been rescued. You know who we've been rescued
from? From our sin, most importantly. From the wrath of God. from the
justice of God which we couldn't fulfill, from the law that demands
love which we couldn't fulfill, from Satan who had us in bondage,
we've been rescued, beloved. You know what the price was of
our rescue? The blood of Christ. That's what purchased us from
the bondage. I like what Norm Wells says,
we were on the slave mark of sin. You ever go to a pawn shop
and if you give them something, and they give you money, and
you go back and you redeem that item? The Lord created us, then
he died for us, and then he redeemed us, beloved. He bought us twice,
then he's, we're his twice, we're his by creation, and we're his
by purchase, beloved. Oh, we are. It's wondrous. It's wondrous. We were dead in
trespasses and sins, and we could not deliver ourselves. And that's
the state of every single man and woman outside of Christ. Whether they believe it or not,
they are dead in trespasses and sins. They're physically alive
and spiritually dead. And we were there. But you know,
we've been made alive. We've been made alive, beloved.
We have life. We have eternal life right now.
Right now, isn't it wonderful? My, and we don't look down on
anyone. We just marvel that God saved
a worm like me, a sinner like me, don't we? Do you often ask
yourself, why me? All the time, right, brother?
You know the answer to that? Because it pleases God. Isn't
that marvelous? Oh my gosh. That's wonderful. But we do. We say, why me? I
know what I am now. I didn't know what I was before,
but I sure know what I am now. Oh my. But praise be to God,
we who believe are saved sinners. We're saved from our sins. We're
washed clean in the precious blood of Christ. He's delivered
us from being dead in trespasses and sins. And for natural man,
there's no way to change that state. We are the first to admit
there's no way to change that state. We couldn't have changed
our state. We were dead, spiritually. Now
we're alive. Who can only do that? Salvations
of the Lord. It's His work and we rejoice,
don't we? We rejoice at this marvelous
work that Christ has done in us. So man in no way in a natural
state can obtain eternal life. We can't obtain eternal life
by anything we say. We can't obtain eternal life
by anything we do. And we can't obtain eternal life
in our natural state by anything we think. My, we are in a hopeless
condition in our natural state. Help us. And that's where Christ
found us. Know who found us? We didn't find him. We weren't
looking for him, were we? Yeah, we were lost. We were in
the wilderness, the sin. And he found us. He came right
to us and found us, beloved, and said, you're mine. I purchased
you with my precious blood. You're mine. Oh, he rescued us,
didn't he? Oh, he brought us into a right
standing before God. He did that all by His own, on
His own power, by His own power, He did that. My, it's incredible. And in this wonderful verse,
we see that it's Christ who has obtained eternal life for us.
He obtained it. He obtained it. Look what it
says here in verse two again. As thou has given Him power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
has given him. Turn if you would to Hebrews
chapter nine. Hebrews chapter nine. So he's
obtained eternal life. If he is the one who's gonna
give it, he's obtained it. Now he was sinless, wasn't he? He's already come from eternity
into time and space. Why? That we might go and be
in eternity with him. It's a wonder. It's a wonder. Look at this here in Hebrews
chapter 9 verses 11 and 12. But Christ being come, he came
to earth. being come, and high priest of
good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle,
not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, so we could not be
redeemed by the blood of goats and calves, the Jews couldn't
be redeemed by those, they were pictures pointing to Christ,
look at this, but by his own blood, he entered in, once into
the holy place, look at this, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. He has it. He obtained it. And he obtained it for who? For
us. Now ponder this, and let, oh
this will fill us with joy. Let it just sink deep in your
soul. We cannot save ourselves, but Christ has obtained eternal
life for us. Eternal redemption is eternal
life. He's obtained eternal life for us. How has he done this? Well, the scripture there says,
but by his own blood, he entered in once in the holy place, having
obtained eternal redemption for us. He obtained eternal redemption. He obtained eternal life by the
shedding of his blood, by the given of his life. And he did
that in Calvary's cross. He offered himself up for us. He alone has obtained eternal
salvation. Not for Himself, because He's
sinless. He's the Word of God. He came down and entered into
time and space to redeem us. And He's going to go back home
to glory. He's the God-man. See, God cannot die so Christ
becomes a man. The Word of God becomes a man
so that He could die for us in our room and place. But now He's
ascended back up to heaven. We saw that, right? He's risen.
And we're raised, He's raised for our justification. We're
raised with Him, beloved. Oh my, He's obtained eternal
salvation because He's paid everything that God demanded for the eternal
salvation of our souls. He paid it all. He has obtained
eternal life by His perfect, complete, perfect work. The work of the God-man, the
work of the sinless one. the Lord Jesus Christ. Listen
to these words in 1 Timothy 3, verse 16. And without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
God. Christ is God. God was manifest
in the flesh. Justified in the Spirit. Seen
of angels and preached unto the Gentiles. I'm preaching them
tonight, aren't I? Isn't that wonderful? Believed
on in the world, you believe the gospel, you who are his people.
You believe the word. It's wonderful. Because of God-given
faith, and then he's received up into glory. My, our God, our
Father has settled as the God of peace. He has settled our
eternal redemption by the death of his Son, who he sent to die
in our ruin and blaze. Our eternal redemption is secure,
beloved. We now have eternal life, we who are believers. We
have it. Listen to this. Now the God of
peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that
great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting
covenant. Well, he settled it. God's ratified
the eternal covenant of grace, the everlasting covenant, by
the shedding of his son's own blood. Christ ratified that covenant
by his blood. Oh, what joy, what strength we
who are the redeemed can glean from this wonderful truth that
Christ has obtained eternal redemption, eternal life for us. And then He's given it to all
whom the Father gave. Now think on this. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, He has obtained eternal life. He has obtained it, right? And He's obtained it for us.
But there was a cost to obtain that, right? And that cost was
the shedding of His precious, precious blood. He purchased
eternal life with the shedding of His blood for all that the
Father gave Him. Now, we don't know who that is.
Therefore, we preach the gospel to everyone. God does the saving. Yeah, whosoever may, let them
come. Let them come. Drink in the water of life freely.
freely. So Christ has obtained eternal
redemption for his people. It's his by purchase. It's his
by purchase, right? He purchased eternal life for
us by the shedding of his blood. Now when we purchase something,
we can keep it or we can give it to someone else if we choose,
right? We can, can't we? We can either
keep it for ourselves or we can give it away, but Christ went
to the cross, not for himself, but for we who are the redeemed. And since he obtained eternal
salvation, he could give it to whomever he pleased. Can you give something that you
purchased to anyone you please? See, why do people get all bent
out of shape when we say, well, God gives eternal life to as
many as the Father gives him? Because when we buy something,
we can either keep it or give it away. And no one ever says
anything about that, do they? Right? And especially if you give something
to somebody with nothing, you have no intentions of anything
back, you don't want to do it for any intent, you just want
to give it to them because you love them. Well, he's perfect. He's absolutely
perfect. He's obtained eternal redemption
for sinners. And we need to be redeemed, don't
we? We need to be redeemed. So what does Christ do? He purchases
eternal life for us by the shedding of His blood. We can never obtain eternal life
on our own, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to His mercy, He has saved us, right? For by grace he is saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God,
not of works, lest any man should boast. See, it's a free gift. Christ obtained it, so he can
give it to whomever he pleases. And who is anyone to say, well,
that's not fair? You know what? I don't want fair. Because fair is everyone's going
to hell. You want fair? I don't want fair. That's why we praise God. That's
why we're so thankful that Christ purchased eternal life for us.
And again, He did it by the shedding of His precious blood. He gave
His life a ransom for us. Remember around the slave market
scene, He paid that which would set us free, beloved. We're shackled
with the chains of sin. Shackled. Satan's got the key,
didn't he? Well, you don't have it anymore.
You don't have it anymore. Oh, my. Oh, we were just shackled
with sin, beloved. But the chains are gone. Chains
are gone. We're free. We are free. If the Son shall make you free,
right? You're free indeed, aren't you? Oh, my, it's wonderful.
And we say, sinner friend, flee to Christ like we who are but
safe sinners did. And may God make you willing
in the day of His power to flee to Him. He is the only Savior
of sinners, the only one. And no amount of works done by
you or me can save us. Nothing, nothing that we do can
save us. But there's one who can save
sinners. That's what we are. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we say, flee them,
run to him. Only Christ has the power to
save. Look at this verse again in John
17, 2. Listen to this wonderful verse again. Just listen to this.
As thou has given him, that's being Christ, power, that's authority
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou has given him. He's purchased this. eternal
life. And He can give it to whomever
He pleases. Who's He going to give it to? All those the Father
gave Him. Now we have no idea who they
are. So out goes the gospel, right?
And let God do the saving. Let God do the saving. Turn to
John chapter 10, just a few chapters over. Turn this to John chapter
10. And we'll read verses 27 to 30 in light of this, in light
of how Christ has all power. He has all power to give eternal
life to as many as the Father has given him. Look at these
wonderful verses here. John chapter 10, verses 27 to
30, look at this. My sheep hear my voice. Well, there was a time when we
didn't hear the voice of the shepherd, didn't we? There was a time when we were
dead in trespasses and sins. But beloved, now that we're born
again by the Holy Spirit of God, we hear the shepherd's voice,
don't we, through the preaching of his word. Look at that. My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them. That's ginoska. In the Greek,
that's the intimate relationship. It's like a relationship between
a man and a woman. He knows us intimately. Can we count the
hairs on our head? No, he knows them all though,
doesn't he? Can we count the stars in the sky? He knows them
all. He's placed them all there. They're finding out just how
huge this galaxy is. We haven't even come close to
knowing how big this area is. He knows that he named them all.
He hung the stars in space. Spoke them into existence. My
I know them, I can ask of them, and what do they do? What does
God's people do? We follow Him, because we're
made willing in the day of God's power. And we willingly serve
Him now. Willingly! It's wonderful. We were going this way, with
our backs toward Him, and He turned us around, didn't He?
And now we just say, praise His mighty name. Look what the Lord's
done. Look what he's done. All according
to his power and all according to his will. Look at this. He's going to repeat similar
thing that he said in John 17 too. And I give unto them what? Eternal life. He gives it to
us. You know why? Because he obtained
it. And you know why he can speak these words like they're past
tense? Because he knows the end from the beginning, beloved.
He knows exactly why He's going to Calvary's cross. He knows. He's the Word of God incarnate.
And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. Now let that sink deep in your
soul. They shall never perish. Death won't separate us from
Christ. Persecution won't separate us from Christ. Nothing shall
separate us from the love of God in Christ. Nothing. Isn't that wonderful? And look
at this, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. So
no one will pluck us out of God's hand, including ourselves. Including
ourselves, because we're part of that no man. Not that we'd
ever want to get plucked out of God's hand, but we can't.
If He's redeemed us, like I said last week, we're in His grip,
beloved. The grip of God. I mean, look
at this. Not only in His hand, but look at this in verse 29.
My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man
is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. We're in the
Son's grip, and we're in the Father's grip. Look at that. Then look what it says. I and
my Father are one. We are one. Isn't that amazing? My, now let's go back to verse
2, and we'll note here, the plan of salvation, the plan of salvation
spoken of here. The old timers used to call it
the plan of salvation. You don't hear about that very
much anymore. You're going to start hearing that from me more. Because God
is the one, the plan of salvation was thought of by God, purposed
by God, planned by God, and executed by God. All by Him. And here we're gonna
find out, we're gonna find out in this verse here, where the
origins of the plan of salvation came from. It didn't come from
us. No, it couldn't have. Man would
never think of a salvation where the King of Glory gives His life
for us. Man could never devise anything
like that. No king would say, I'm gonna
die for my servants. No, they're sending servants
to die, right? To keep themselves alive. Isn't
that interesting? Leaders still do it today. They
send young men into battle. Don't send themselves into battle.
Most of the time, they don't even send their own kids into
battle. But they send other people's kids into battle. My oh my. Now we're going to see here.
The plan of salvation finds its origin in God in eternity. Look at this. Look at this. Verse two, as thou has given
him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou has given him. Okay. Note again that salvation
begins with God. How do we know that? Well, it
says to as many as thou has given him. So this means the father
gave a people to the son, a people. This also means that the father
sent the word of God to obtain salvation for those people. And
remember what drove God, the father, God, the son, and God,
the Holy spirit to do this. It is their eternal love. Their
love never changes for us. Now we're like this, aren't we?
We can be on a spiritual high and then just be low the next
day, can't we? We're all there, beloved. Just be just on top
of the mountain, and then boom, right down the valley, right?
We can be. We'll see something and get all
upset and all worked up about something going on. We do, we
do. It's the flash, beloved. Oh,
my. But God's love for us never changes.
And we see here the origin of salvation through Christ alone
finds its origin in eternity with God. The father sent the word of God
to die in our room and place on Calvary's cross. And think
of this, God the Father sent God the Son. God the Son obtained
eternal life for us, right? God the Holy Spirit applies it.
You must be born again. Therefore, what can we conclude?
Salvation's a reward. Because we can't, again, we can't
obtain eternal salvation, can we? By anything we do, we can't
save ourselves, we can't save anyone else. Praise be to God. Christ has obtained eternal redemption
for us. Oh my. My, it's wonderful, beloved. And note also that God the Father
has given Jesus Christ all power to give eternal life to as many
as he gave Christ. What a wonderful truth. May we
never forget this. May we never graduate from this truth. This
is wonderful. Marvel at this. God the Father
sent his son, if you're a believer, to redeem you, to redeem me too,
at Calvary's cross. He sent his only begotten son
into this world to die, to obtain eternal redemption. How'd he
do it? By his death on Calvary's cross. A perfect sin-atoning
work. Not for himself, he's sinless,
but for us sinners. My, what love. What love God
has for me because all I did was shake my fist at Him. And I know how fickle I can be
even today. Is it so for you? We can be fickle,
can't we? But praise God for His faithfulness.
He keeps us beloved. See, without Him we can do nothing,
can't we? Nothing. And we were the people of God,
we rejoice over that. We're like, yes, Lord, that's
true. That sure is true, Lord. So may
we never graduate from the fact that we've been redeemed by the
precious blood of Christ, all due and according to the plan
and purpose of salvation, which God planned. The plan of salvation,
which was planned in eternity. And marvel at this. If you're
a believer, we were included in that number. When Christ speaking to those
who were given to Him, I just marveled that I was in that number. It surely ain't anything I did.
No, there'd be more cause in me than Him to reject me, if
anything, cast me away. But oh, the eternal love of God.
Just think of that this week, marvel at that. The eternal love
of God. Now, the truth that our wonderful
text here proclaims is found all through the scripture. I'm
going to go through some scriptures if you want to write them down.
They tie in with this fact. The first one is found in Ephesians
chapter 2 verse 9. Salvation is by grace alone,
right? It's not by anything we do. It has to be, it has to be
all by what Christ has done. And again, it ties into that
gift, right? For by grace that we save through faith, Ephesians
2, 8 and 9, for by grace that we save through faith, it's a
gift of God, right? He gives it to us, right? Not of works, lest any man should
boast. And because of the fall of Adam,
because of the fall of Adam, we fell in him. And then now
we're born in this hopeless, helpless condition, beloved.
Being dead in trespasses and sins. And we cannot change that
situation. You know, men try to reform themselves
all the time. We can't reform ourselves to
be in the presence of God. We can't. Now is it good to change
habits and to stop certain things? Absolutely. Sometimes it's good
for our health. Sometimes it's good for our mental
state too, isn't it? It is. But the gospel, the gospel's
not a proposal or a scheme to enable men to save themselves.
You know, you hear some preachers, God's done everything he can,
now the rest is up to you. That's a lie. That's an absolute lie. If God's
done all he can do, and I'm not saved, Well, if some man's telling
me that, he's not talking about the true God of the Bible. Because
we saw there in our verse tonight, right? Christ gives eternal life
to as many as the Father's given him. And he never failed, did
he? He said it's finished. It's done. The work's finished. So it's not a proposal or a scheme
to enable man to save ourselves. No, the scriptures declare there's
none righteous. No, not one. Scriptures declare there's none
that seeketh after God. That's what the scriptures declare.
That's our state, naturally. My, there's none that understand
God. I tell you, I did not understand anything about God, and I'm still
just scratching the surface right now. But I didn't know, I didn't
understand anything in the Bible before the Lord saved me. Because
it was all what I thought. Not what God thought. And not
what God wrote in his word. See, he says, your thoughts are
not my thoughts. And your ways are not my ways.
He's so far above us, beloved. Oh, He's so far above us. Oh,
my. Oh, my. So we were in a state
bonded to sin and to Satan. And what does this tell us? What
does this tell us? The fact that salvation is a
gift of God tells us that salvation is of the Lord. It's His doing. We're hopeless. We're helpless.
You know, my prayer is my children will be saved. You know, I don't
think there's one of us in here that if we had to give our life
for our kids, we'd do it for them to be saved. But we can't,
can we? We can't. We can't save them, we can't
save ourselves. But we can pray for them, can't
we? We can lift them up to the throne of grace and never give
up hope until they breathe their last breath. Never give up hope.
Just keep lifting them up to the king. and ask and beg them. I beg the Lord now for my kids.
Please, Lord, save them if it's your will. Oh, please, Lord. Salvation's a gift from God. Salvation's being given to us
the only way that we can obtain it. And that's by Christ obtaining
it for us. And it being a gift given to
us. Right? There ain't no way we can get
it. No way on our own. No way at all. Man. Now, Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 is
simply stating what we see here in our text, as thou has given
him power over all flesh. It's simply stating that, that
he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him.
Look at that. It says here, as thou has given him power over
all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou
has given him. Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 says, for by grace he has
saved your faith and that not of yourselves. It's a gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So who does Christ
give the gift of eternal life to? Those the Father gave him.
See, it all ties in. It all ties in. Salvation's a
gift of God. And as we grasp this wonderful
truth, then we start to see the greatness of the plan of salvation.
We start to see it come forth before us, the greatness of this
plan. It comes from the great God,
the one true living God, who is great and great to be praised,
isn't he? But think of that, this great
plan of salvation. We start to see it as we grasp
this truth in John 17 too. We start to see it through scriptures
unfolding the wondrous plan of salvation that God has purposed
for eternity. And again, He's executed it by
Christ dying in our room and place. So he planned, he purposed
it, and it's been executed. And as I said, now it's applied.
You must be born again. What happens when you're born
again? You're given new life, aren't you? Right? You're given
new life. Oh, you're born again in the
Holy Spirit of God. And notice in this wonderful verse that
Christ proclaims that He gives eternal life. Now, when people
hear us talk about eternal life, they think we're talking about
heaven. And we are partially, but not wholly. Not wholly. You know eternal life means much
more than heaven? Heaven's just a destination,
right? Heaven will be our abode for
eternity. But eternal life, we as believers have right now. If you're a believer, you have
eternal life right now. I have eternal life right now.
Right now. And you know, same eternal life
we have right now, we'll have for eternity. Now, wait for me with this. Eternal
life begins right here on this earth. You have it right now. It begins before we die. And
consider this. If you don't have eternal life
before you die, you won't have it after you die. Right? If you're not saved before you
die, you will not have eternal life. You see? Eternal life. Brother Henry says eternal life
begins right here in the believer. Just as soon as we are born again,
just as soon as the believers regenerate, just as soon as they
receive the Lord Jesus Christ. You know how we know that? Because
Christ said this. These are the words of the Master.
He that hath the Son hath life. Do you have the Son? Do you have
the Son? Praise God, I have the Son. And
we have eternal life, beloved. That's words from our Master.
That's not Wayne's thinking. That's not Henry's thinking.
That's the Master Himself saying that. He that hath the Son hath
life. And then listen to what He continues
to say. And he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life. Do you have the Son? then rejoice
that we do, because you have eternal life. It's all in Christ. It's all in him. So the moment a newborn believer
believes, they have eternal life. Because see, you must be born
again, right? What happens when we're born again? We're quickened,
aren't we? We're made alive, beloved. Spiritually alive. There's new life in us now. Now
we're new creatures in Christ. We were dead in trespasses and
sins. That was our state. You know
what also? The same life which you have,
the same eternal life which you have, now you're heaven glory. You're heaven glory. If you're
one with Christ, you're in union with Christ. He's the head and
we're the body. He's the vine and we're the branches
right now. And in Him, we have eternal life.
Death doesn't transport the believer into a new life. You know what
it does? See, a lot of people think that when a believer dies,
he's transported into a new life. Not so. Not so. He's transported to a new place. What did Christ say as he was
dying to the dying thief who believes, today you shall be
with me in paradise. He'd be transported to a new
place. But that thief was born again by the Holy Spirit of God.
And how do we know that? Because he said to the other
thief, this man's done nothing amiss, but we're here justly.
See, that's the Holy Spirit that taught him that. He's born again,
beloved. And we know that because the
Lord said, today you'll be with me in paradise. Oh my, it's wonderful. So what happens when we die?
Well, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord,
right? So we're transported from earth to heaven. But death does not transport
me into a new life. You know what it does? You're
going to rejoice over this. It rids the believer of the old
nature. It rids the believer of this
body of death, the old man. It rids us of that, beloved. It rids us of sin, which hampers us, doesn't it?
It hampers us. It's like a dog constantly nipping
at us. Little dog constantly nipping at us. The new life in Christ is the
new birth. is the new birth. That's the
reason Paul said, oh wretched man that I am, who can deliver
me from this body of death? Remember Paul said that? That's the spirit in him. That's Paul crying out as the
new man saying, oh this body of death that I have, I'm carrying
it around. Who shall deliver me from this
body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Do you
know the victory is already ours through Christ. Christ conquered our last enemy
when he rose from the grave, beloved, and that's death. The
sting of death is gone. Listen to this. That which is
corruptible shall put on him corruption. And this which is
moral shall put on immortality. And this which is sown in shame
shall be raised in glory. We'll be rid of this old nature,
beloved. We'll be rid of this old nature. We'll be rid of this
body of sin. We'll be rid of sin. We'll never
sin again. Oh, it's glorious. Here are a few
things about eternal life for us to consider. Just three quick
things here. Number one, it's a gift of God.
We saw that in Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, right? It's a gift of
God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Secondly, it's
the purchase of the son. We see that in Ephesians 1, 2.
He can give eternal life to as many as the father gave him because
he purchased it. He purchased it by the shedding
of His blood. And He can give that as a gift to whomever He
pleases. And the scripture tells us here, He's gonna give it to
all that the Father gave Him. Again, we don't know who they
are, so we gospel preachers get up, we preach to everybody. And
let God, I love what Henry said, let God do the saving. Somebody's
looking like they're coming to Christ, leave them alone. Don't
get involved, leave them alone. God will deal with them. Oh my, my. You know, Christ said,
I come that they might have life, speaking of us. And when Christ
came to this earth, we already had physical life. People already
had physical life. And they already had mortal life.
They already had fleshy life. But he's speaking of eternal
life there. He gives us eternal life. Remember he that believeth
on the sun, what, hath eternal life? Money. We already have a carnal life.
He didn't bring fleshy carnal life. He bought spiritual life.
Listen to this. I am come that they might have
life and have it more abundantly. And then God so loved the world
that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth
on him should not perish, but what? Have eternal life. And
in this, he that believeth on the son hath eternal life, and
he that believeth not the son shall never see eternal life.
My. Christ suffered the just one
for the unjust. That we might live. That we might
live. We sinners. Thirdly, it's the
work of the Holy Spirit of God. Turn with your Bibles, if you
would, to John chapter 1. John chapter 1, we read verses
11 to 13. Christ came unto his own. He
came unto the Jews. He came unto Israel. Look what it says in John 1,
11. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. They
rejected him. They rejected him. Look at this. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name. Now someone might get on that
and say, look at that, look at that, look at that. As many as
received him. See, man's got to make a decision. People get
a hold of verses like that. Now, we would be the first to
admit that when we're being drawn to Christ, we run to Him, don't
we? But see, people take that verse
and they flip it around and they say, well see, that means you've
got to make a decision for Christ. But they forget to read the next
verse. And the verse after that. But
as many as he received him, to them gave he become, sorry, but
as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, not by our wills,
nor the will of man, not by free will, but of God, God the Holy
Spirit. Christ said, you must be born
again. You'd never believe unless you're born again. But when you're
born again, you believe. Because you're given that gift. You're given the gift of faith. Oh, and then the scripture says,
but as many as received Him as Lord, Redeemer, as Christ, as
many as received Him in their hearts of a truth, to them gave
He the privilege. This is another version, to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. That's
in the Greek literal, the privilege. It comes from God. It comes from
God and God alone. Hmm. But again, that's not the
end of the sentence. It's, which we're born not of
blood. So we, we didn't inherit salvation from our parents. You
know what we inherited from our parents? Sin and death. That's
what we, that's what we inherited from our parents. Sin and death. Oh my. I didn't inherit spiritual
life from my dad. No, not at all. Just his sin.
Sin and death. And it says, not of the will
of the flesh, Not of the will of man, but born of God. My, you must be born again. And being born again is not something
we do. We're not born again because
we have faith in God. People say, you gotta have faith
and then you're born again. They got the cart before the
horse, beloved. You will not believe unless you're born again.
For by grace are you saved through faith, and not through yourselves.
It is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And
tonight in our verse, we see Christ say that he has eternal
life, and he gives it to as many as the Father has given him.
See how clear it is when we measure scripture with scripture. But
again, we still, I wear these glasses, but we still see through
the glass darkly, even with what the Lord's given us and what
we know. We still see darkly, but then face to face. Oh, that'll
be incredible, won't it? Oh, what a day that'll be. Oh
my, oh my. Let's read verse two again. And
we're gonna look at these words, too, as many as thou has given
him. Again, this brings forth the origin of the plan of salvation. This is what brings that forth
right now, right before our eyes. Right before our eyes. 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. So we
see here that the plan of salvation originated with God. It originated
with God. We know that it originated with
God in in eternity, because in Ephesians 1, verses 3 to 5, it
says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who had blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heaven's places,
according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. His will. My. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit covenant to save a people in eternity.
And it is spoken of right here in this verse when it says that
He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him. Listen to this. Actually, let's
turn there. 2 Timothy. chapter one, let's
turn there, we're almost done, 2 Timothy chapter one. This is
just marvelous, this is just marvelous. It fits right in with
what we're studying tonight. I'll repeat the verse that we're
studying. As thou has given him power over all flesh that he
should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him. Now
look at this, tie this in now with 2 Timothy chapter one, verses
eight to 10. Look at this. Be not thou therefore
ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner.
So Paul's in prison, he's writing this epistle to Timothy. And
he says, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel
according to the power of God, dumas of God, dynamite of God.
Look at this in verse nine now, this is magnificent. Who has
saved us and called us within holy calling, not according to
our works. Look at this, but according to
whose purpose? His own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus when we believed. No, it doesn't
say that, does it? Before the world began, our names
were written in the Lamb's Book of Life, penned in there by God,
as some people say, with indelible ink. Name was penned in there. Isn't
that amazing? Oh my! Oh my! According to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began, but is now made manifest to us. This great plan of salvation
is now made manifest to us, do you see? We didn't even see it
before, did we? When we were in religion, we
didn't see it. When we were just dead in sin, we didn't see it.
But now, now even though we see through a glass darkly, we're
going, oh my goodness. Wow, this is amazing. This is
incredible. Oh, it's wonderful, beloved.
But it's now made manifest, how? By the appearing of our Savior,
Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and hath brought, what?
Life and immortality through light, through the gospel. We
have eternal life right now, beloved. You have the son? You have the Son, you have eternal
life. Remember, that's what our Master said. That's not my words.
That's the words of the Master. All that the Father giveth me,
Christ said, shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Oh, but you don't know how dark
my sin is. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. I'll
no wise cast them out. Oh, you don't know what I've
done. You don't know. I know your self-righteous like me.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that
cometh to me shall no wise cast out. He won't cast no wise. All
who come to him, he'll never cast them away. Father, I will
also. 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, for
thou lovest me before the foundation of the world." John 17, 24. Glory
be to God, beloved. Glory be to God. He that hath
the Son hath life, eternal life. And beloved, rejoice, as this
eternal life is given to us as a gift. It's a gift of God, not
of works, lest any man should boast. And it's applied by the
Holy Spirit of God. Therefore, we can conclude, we
can say, praise ye the Lord, salvations of the world.