So turn with me through John
17 this morning. I know we frequent this chapter
quite often. Maybe a few things I'd like to maybe pull out in these couple
verses. Hopefully not pull them out of
context. John 17. If you would, look with
me starting in verse 1. I want to read the first couple
of verses. I know that this is the beginning of the Lord's Prayer. The true Lord's Prayer. His prayer before His death.
And I know that there's a lot packed in this chapter. I don't know how many great doctrinal
things can be brought out of this 17th chapter, but there's
a lot to be digested that's in this chapter. But this morning
I'd just like to look at the first two verses and kind of
make note of some things that the Lord has really impressed
upon my mind and heart about what all is to be said going
forward in what all Jesus was about to accomplish, not only
in his prayer, but also in his work of salvation, his work
of crucifixion. It says, these words speak Jesus
and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is
come glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. Father, Lord, we come to you
and we ask you now to be with us. I pray, Lord, that you would
guide my speech and that you would guide my mind and my thoughts,
Lord, that you'd bring into recollection the things of the scriptures
Lord, that you would help me to deliver these things and be
faithful in the telling of the truth that is before us in these
pages. Lord, I pray that you'd be with
all of us that are here. Give us ears to hear, eyes to
see, understanding by the Spirit. Lord, without the Spirit's work,
we know that we cannot accomplish anything as far as lifting up
worship, as far as receiving and being edified by the things
that are here before us. So, Father Lord, may we be blessed
with your presence among us today. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Well, as I mentioned, we talk
a lot about this passage. It's just packed full of good
information, good doctrinal things, and as Of course, we all quote
this thing. We quote these passages in the
17th chapter because they clearly display sovereign grace. We find a lot of Christ preaching. Well, I would say all of Christ's
preaching, but we see detailed in several sermons that Christ
gives throughout his ministry, we see sovereign grace being
preached. but here we see Christ praying
and in his prayer we see sovereign grace being preached as well
through this. I believe that the Lord had John
record this prayer and write it down for our understanding
and for our knowledge, because surely, you know, the Lord Jesus
going to pray to the Father as God, he has all power and as
we see here in this passage, he has all the divinity of God. He is God. And matter of fact,
he is all the fullness of God bodily. He is Emmanuel, God with
us. Every bit of God and that triune
Godhead is Christ Jesus in the flesh. And so we know that there
was nothing that Christ was lacking of, there was nothing that Christ
was deficient of, there wasn't anything that Christ could not
do, there wasn't anything that Christ did not know, but yet
the Bible tells us in Philippians that as the role of Christ, as
the role of the Son, He became subservient in a subservient
role or in a subjected role We talk about the humility of Christ
in a humble role. And let me not misquote it here. Let me turn over here. In Philippians. Philippians chapter 2. And it's verse six, it says,
who, speaking of Christ, being in the form of God, thought it
not robbery to be equal with God. So Christ is the form of
God. He's God in body form. He's the
form of God. Who being in the form of God,
no man has seen God at any time, Christ has made him known. He
is the embodiment of God. He's the embodiment of the Father. He's the embodiment of the Word. He's the embodiment of the Spirit.
Those three relations and revelations of the Godhead are in Christ
Jesus in fullness. Who being in the form of God
thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Of course he
didn't think it was robbery to be eating of God because he was
the fullness of God only in flesh. He had taken on human flesh, but yet was still all that one
true God. But look at verse 7, it says,
but made himself of no reputation. and took upon Him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found
in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross." So nobody humbled Christ,
nobody forced Christ or subjugated Christ. Christ came, subjugated
Himself willingly to the eternal purpose of God. It was in the eternal purpose
of God that God would manifest Himself in flesh and become a
mediator between God and man. And as that God-man, He would
both mediate on God's behalf and mediate upon man's behalf.
He would mediate out everything that had to do with God and He
would mediate for all of His people. So the mediation or the
office and the work of the Son, the Messiah, the Christ, was
to be God in flesh, representing, substituting, and being forth
as an obedient servant until death. He was an obedient servant
to God, or the purpose of God. He was God. But he was obedient
to the eternal purpose of God, which was his own eternal purpose,
by the way. It's not like there is separate
people that are making separate purposes, and Christ just said,
OK, well, I agree to your purpose, and so I want to do that. We
realize that there's one God, and that this one God has one
purpose. He has one will, and that eternal
purpose is being carried out by Christ Jesus. We see that
in the revelation, right? But it said, he made himself
of no reputation and took on him the form of a servant. Jesus
came as a servant and that servant is still God. He is still God. So turn back with me, if you
would, to John 17. So whenever Jesus lifted up his
eyes to heaven and began to pray these things, These things are
being said on our account, for our knowledge, for our good,
so that we might know exactly what Christ is accomplishing
on our behalf. He is also letting us know that
relationship that we have with Him. That as Christ, the begotten
of God, has relation to God, in oneness, we also as the children
of God, the children of Christ Jesus specifically, as we are
His children, we have a oneness with Him as Christ has oneness
with the Father. And so we see what Christ is
preaching here is a, or excuse me, is praying here, is a prayer,
not because He has any need in Himself, not because he is asking
something that is outside God's eternal purpose and that he is
asking, will you add this to your eternal purpose? People
sometimes kind of misconstrue what's being done here. They
think Christ is making requests and supplications to God that
God hadn't thought of or might not be aware of or had even planned
for, but yet Christ is asking, can you please do this for me?
Well, it's all part of God's eternal purpose and we'll see
this in the fact that this word glorify here, the hour has come,
glorify thy son that thy son may also glorify thee. This word glorify, we know that
there is nothing deficient in the glory of God. God isn't lacking
any glory and we are giving him glory to add to glory. Glory is not being added to glory.
There's not glory upon glory and increasing numbers of glory.
No, God is immutable. The glory that God has, God has
had forever. And that glory is not deficient
in any way. It's not lacking in any area
at any time, not for even a small minute season. Even here, whenever
Jesus came, We know that Jesus said, restore to me the glory
that I had with thee before thee. He never lost the glory. The glory was veiled. The glory was veiled while he was
in this role as the mediator. But whenever he returned to the
Father, he was restored to that full glory, that glory that the
disciples got a little glimpse of on the Mount of Transfiguration.
that glory that Paul got a little glimpse of on the Damascus road,
that glory that John saw in the Isle of Patmos, that glory that
the Old Testament saints saw on occasions, Isaiah saw whenever
he was high and lifted up, and the glory of his, the glory filled the temple.
So Christ's glory never was diminished, it was only veiled or covered
for a time, but yet that glory was still there. And Christ here,
this word glory means to manifest because we know he's not deficient,
so he's not adding any glory to God. He is only manifesting
or bringing forth to show the glory that's already there. He
says, the hour has come, glorify thy son that thy son may also
glorify thee. So Christ is saying, listen,
manifest the glory that is for this purpose of why I came, and
in me being glorified, being manifested as the glory, it will
bring glory to God. So Christ returned glory to God
by being that which God sent him to do. Okay? So the accomplishment brings glory to God, and God
was the one who empowered or gave Christ all the things to
do so that it would bring glory to itself. So you see how tightly
knit and wove the Godhead is and how it's all in unity in
Christ Jesus? Christ Jesus being the center
point of all the glory of God. But look if you would, One thing
I noticed here, it said the hour had come. There's a lot of times
we hear that in the New Testament, right? The hour has come. Back in John, turn if you would
back to John chapter 12. We see that this was talked about
by Jesus earlier. John chapter 12, look with me
in verse 23. And Jesus answered him, saying,
The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verse
27 says, Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father
saved me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this
hour. So here we see that what Jesus
is praying about in John chapter 17, this hour of glorification,
this hour of the manifesting of the full glory of God, is
something that was a specific moment in time that God had predestinated
before the foundation of the world. Now we know that Christ
stood as the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world,
but it was manifested in time by His coming to the cross. We
know that God had glory and had glory in His church before the
foundation of the world, but it's being manifested in time.
We know that Christ had all of His seed in Him, but yet they
began to be manifested in time. They were already His children,
but they became manifested in time. And so we see here that
all throughout Scripture we see that God had a designated time
to show forth and to manifest This glory, the glory of salvation,
the glory of God in the redemption of His people, the glory of Christ
as the obedient servant, the obedient
sacrifice, this was all a purpose that God had before the foundation
of the world had set up. And that's why Jesus said, the
hour has come, and it's for this cause that I came to this hour. So we see it's a specific I know
you guys have heard me say before in the past, and people on Facebook
have heard me say, especially all around Easter time, about
Christ and the day that Christ died. Everybody wants to celebrate
Christ dying on Friday, which is impossible for Christ to have
died on Friday, just in common understanding. Christ couldn't
have died on Friday and rose on Sunday morning. whenever he
sent he would be three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth. Okay, that just don't add up.
I don't care how many fingers and toes unless you have, you
know, half fingers and half toes. It just don't add up. And, you
know, I've been asked this by other people, you know, really
what difference does it make as long as we're celebrating the
day? Well, it really does make a difference the day that Christ
died because number one, he was to fulfill all the law. He was
to fulfill all the laws. And Christ's coming as that sacrifice
had to fall and to work within the types and the foreshadows
that were to be a fulfillment of those types and foreshadows
and prophecies that were made of His coming and His death. They had to fulfill that. And
Him being the Passover Lamb had to be sacrificed on the day that
the Lamb was to be sacrificed. Him coming had to be within a
certain amount of days of his going into the ground and then
his rising again because of the Feast of Firstfruits, the Feast
of Passover. Then we see the wave whenever
he rose from the dead was also the fulfillment of the sheaf
offering where the firstfruits came out and the priest would
take the firstfruits and pluck them up and wave them before
God. And that wave of first fruits happened a certain amount of
days after the day of the planting, after the day of harvest. And
then we see there was a certain amount of days after the wave
offering was made, where that first fruit was plucked, that
the full harvest came in. And that was the day of Pentecost,
50 days later. So Christ had to die on a certain
day to fulfill all the law. He had to die at a certain time
God had before the foundation of the world. And we see this
in the Old Testament. There was an hour that God had planned
a certain point in time that He would bring forth all these
things and it would be in conjunction and commensurate with the types
and foreshadows that He laid down to be the picture of what
the fulfillment would be. The types and foreshadows and
all the types would be fulfilled in the anti-types. And so that's
why I say it's important the day that you get Christ dead,
because if not, you got Christ not fulfilling all the prophecy.
He said, I come to fulfill these things. And if he doesn't fulfill
them to the T, then he didn't fulfill them. And so Christ had
to have died on that. But I said all that to say this,
that this was God's eternal purpose. Matter of fact, we learn in Acts
that by the determinant counsel, Wicked men took Jesus. It wasn't
just by chance. Christ didn't come and all the
events that played out because of man's free will. Jesus so
happened to go to the cross during this time of the year. Matter
of fact, if you remember, Jesus, there was a couple of times that
Jesus, he didn't go up to the feast because it wasn't his time
yet. He said that they didn't take
him. A lot of times that the religious leaders were about
to ready to kill him. and he either disappeared from
out amongst their midst or left or something like that. Why?
Because his time was not yet at hand. Several times Jesus
said it's not yet my hour, it's not yet my time. Why? Because God had a specific time.
God had a specific moment to be the fulfillment of all things.
And so Christ here is declaring that here's the time, the time
is now. The hour has come for glorification
to take place. In 2 Timothy 1 and verse 9, we read, Who has saved us and
called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us
in Christ Jesus before the world began. So the purpose and the
grace of all that God was doing with Christ and His seed in Him,
His children, was given and done before the foundation of the
world. But yet, there is a manifesting of it. There is a displaying
of the glory of what God has done in time. He said, Who has
saved us and called us to the Holy Covenant, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made
manifest. How is this purpose and grace
made manifest? The purpose and grace that's
already been given, that's already finished. The works were finished
from the foundation of the world. How is it that this is already
finished, but just now being displayed? Because God has hidden
these things until His appointed hour to manifest the glory of
these things, but is now made manifest by the appearing of
our Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death and
hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."
So, Christ's death was the moment that God had purposed before
the foundation of the world to display and to bring forth the
glory of God in this work. Before this time, we only knew
of God's eternal work on our behalf through types and foreshadows. And through prophecies of Scripture,
prophecies of the prophets who became Scripture for us, that
these prophecies were being told of the One who would come and
manifest these things. And so they are being manifest.
So, we see that this is the hour, it's the specific hour, it is
the hour chosen by God, it didn't happen by circumstance, by chance,
by happenstance, whatever word you want to use there. It didn't
happen by men forming a thing. It didn't happen because Judas
sold out on Christ. That was all part of the plan
too. That was all part of God's eternal purpose that Judas would
be the man who would betray Jesus Christ. He was chosen before
the foundation of the world to be the vessel of betrayal. I know a lot of people don't
like that. They think that that's God doing something that He probably
shouldn't do. But that's God being the sovereign
God that He is, and the eternal purpose-working God that He is.
That right there, Judas being the betrayer, was just as much
predestinated by God before the foundation of the world as the
wicked hands laying hands upon Jesus and crucifying Him that
at Acts tells us happened. There's no difference in that.
And all of that happened in our perspective, it all happened
as people were just living their lives. Jesus was traveling from
here to there and there to there and the religious leaders were
slowly but surely becoming more enraged about this man and finally
the straw that broke the camel's back was whenever he came in
with palm branches and everybody was receiving them as their king
and they just, that was it for them. We're done. We're gonna
start plotting now, we're gonna kill him. That just seems to
be like the everyday free will works of man, figuring all this
stuff out and trying to plan. Brethren, the hour has come.
It was God's appointed hour. But notice if you would, and
really the main thing that I wanted to pull out of this this morning
is this. He says, glorify thy son that
thy son also may glorify thee. As I said, the glory here was
not something that was added to. Christ didn't add to God's
glory. God didn't add to Christ's glory. The glory is there. It's just
being manifested. But he says in verse 2, it starts out with,
as thou hast. given Him. How is it that God
is going to glorify the Son that God manifesting something in
the Son, God showing forth some glory in the Son is going to
be to the return of glory to God Himself? Now again, I'm not
splitting the two into two people, I'm just basically saying the
ministry, the work, the revelation of God in the work of Christ
Jesus, how is it that God is glorifying himself through the
giving glory of the servant Christ Jesus, the man, God-man Christ
Jesus, that in turn the work and role of that man turns around
and gives glory back to God. In what way is that glory being
manifested? Well, we know it's in all the
work of Christ on the cross, but look specifically here. He
says, As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. As thou hast given him power.
God has given Christ power to accomplish something. Now, brethren,
We know in the Scriptures that the word power often refers to
authority in the Scripture. He's been given authority. Well,
we know Christ has been given authority. We know that He is
authority, has authority. We also know that the term power
means rank, that He's been given power. means he's the one who's
been given the rank to carry out all the authority that's
been delegated. Okay. It was given to him and
not anybody else. We look at that as far as in
terms of the church, Christ give the church authority to carry
out the ministry of the gospel. But yet he didn't give them a
delegated authority. that they should be under-ranked
from somebody else. A lot of times what we find is
churches that are given their Christ-given authority to carry
out the gospel by assigning that to some missionary society, some
seminary, to some sort of a cooperative program, mission societies and
things such as that, all these parachurch organizations. They
delegate their authority to let them have that and now they've
taken a subservient rank where God has placed it within the
church to be the pillar and the ground of truth. God has placed
it within the church to carry out the ordinances of baptism
and the Lord's Supper. God has placed it within the
local church to be the ministers of the gospel, to ordain men to the ministry,
to send out men in the ministry. God has ordained this place to
be where the ministry of the gospel is to be carried out.
And so Jesus has been also given authority in not only He has
the authority to do whatever he wants to do. That would be
his sovereignty. But he also has the rank. He's
the one who's been placed in the place to carry it out. And
he's not delegated that. He's been given power over all
flesh to give eternal life. He didn't delegate that to the
preacher to go out and preach this gospel so that it might
give life to somebody else. He has the power and power alone
to give eternal life. And so he has that in authority,
he has that in rank. But brethren, listen. God has
given him power in the ability to give eternal life. Because
he is God, he has the power of life. He gives life. He is given
natural life. He is given eternal life. And
by this, he is going to glorify God by giving eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. If you remember, Christ also
said, all power has been given unto me in heaven and in earth. God has granted unto Christ or
has manifested all his power in Christ. Again, God didn't
take away power and give it to somebody else. Christ is God
and therefore He has all the power of God. God has given and
manifested His power in the man Christ Jesus. All power is manifested
through Him. We see God has given Him all
power in creation for all the worlds were created by Him and
through Him. Not anything was made that was
not made by Him. He has manifested the power of
God. He has manifested the power of
God in giving natural life. He has manifested the power of
God in raising people from the dead. How is that manifested? Through the power of God. And
how is that manifested? In Christ Jesus. He is the power
of God. But notice if you would also, He
says, He has been given power over all. flesh, over all flesh. Now brethren, let's just think
about this for just a second, and let's kind of draw some conclusions
here on what this is saying. He has been given power over
all flesh, so that literally means that Jesus has power over
every person head for head. But as it regards to giving eternal
life, He has power over all flesh to give eternal life only to
those that have been given to Him by God. See, in that role
as mediator, in that role in revelation of God as the Christ
or the Messiah, the Son, He has become subservient to the eternal
purpose of His own self in that the fact is that He has chosen
a people for Himself. He has placed that people in
that Mediator, Christ Jesus, and that Mediator, Christ Jesus,
is a Mediator for them and them alone. He is not the Mediator
for the whole world, head for head. He is the Mediator for
all that the Father hath given the Son. Therefore, He has been
given power over all flesh in that he could give eternal life
to anybody head for head. But the stipulation or the thing
is or the revelation that the scriptures give us is that it
has been revealed that the only ones that eternal life is being
given to or that Christ has the authority and power to give eternal
life to are only the ones given by the Father. Now, brethren,
if you don't believe in particular redemption, that right there
ought to be enough for you to know that Christ and Christ alone
only died for those that the Father gave Him and no more and
no less. That the only ones who are going
to be quickened from above are those that have been given to
Christ by the Father no more and no less. The only ones who
are going to be converted and granted repentance and faith
and are going to be drawn close to God and be given knowledge
and understanding of spiritual things and that is going to be
given to trust and hope in Christ alone are those who have been
given to Him by His Father. No more and no less. Not one
will be left out. and not one is going to be added
to that number. It's a definite number. The names
were written down before the foundation of the world. They
were inscribed upon His hand and He hasn't changed that. The
jewels have been placed upon His shoulders and upon His breastplate. There hasn't been jewels added.
There hasn't been ones that were taken off and lost. Everyone
for whom Christ mediates for will be saved, will be given
eternal life. And so this is what, listen,
if there is any slackness, if there is any irresponsibility,
if there is any failure by Christ in this behalf, then He is not
bringing glory to the Father. And what did Jesus say? Look
at verse four. I have glorified Thee on the
earth. Did Jesus lie? Did Jesus not
fulfill the purpose in which He came? Did Jesus not do all
the things that the Father had told Him to do? If so, God is
a liar. His promises are not sure. We
have no hope and we are still in our sins. Jesus said, Glorify thy Son,
manifest those things in me, that I might manifest the glory
of God in the salvation of these people, as thou hast given me
power over all flesh. to show forth that thou hast
glorified me, I will in turn glorify you by showing forth
that power that you have given me, I will do everything that
they might have eternal life." Isn't that what John 3.16 says? He says, For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son
into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through
Him might be saved. The love of God for His elect is going to be displayed through
the work of redemption, the work of salvation by Christ on the
cross, and all the things that come with what Christ purchased
and secured in the cross. And that, one of those things
being the giving of eternal life to all of His people. All of
His, if you heard my message last week, all of those seed
baskets All of those children of God who have been given the
seed basket of Adam, this earthly fleshly carcass that we walk
around in, that treasure is placed within that flesh, within that
Adamic man. And God has given Christ the
power to put that life within every one of those children wherever
they're at that God has spread across all the world. among not
only the Jews but the Gentiles. But the second thing I want you
to notice here is this specific use of this authority. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many
as. I preached a message a long time
ago about the quantifiers that we find in the scriptures. And
this is one of those, as many as. A quantifier is basically
someone who quantifies, you know, it's a number that's given or
a group of people that's being talked about or a certain amount,
but it's quantified by the context. So here we see the context that
quantifies who it is that is the recipients of this eternal
life is as many as. So that means when someone says
as many as, that means that that is not speaking of everyone. Because when you say as many
as, you're referring to a specific group, a specific number, a specific categorized group of people. And you're not talking about
everybody. But what is it that quantifies that as many as? Thou
hast given him. So who are the ones? The ones
that thou hast given him. We go to this often as well,
John chapter 6, that we see this fully. All that the Father giveth me
shall, not maybe, not might, not hope so, but shall come to
me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Why? For, because, the reason
that that's not going to happen, the reason that no one's going
to be cast out, the reason that all that the Father giveth me,
shall come to me." There's not going to be the conditionalists
here on earth that are eternally saved but somehow missing on
earth. No, all of them are going to
come to Christ. That word come means believe. It doesn't mean come to my eternal
home when you die or whenever I come and get you, I'm going
to come and get you and take you to be where I am. That's
not what that come means. I hear the people say all the
time, well, I was talking about, yeah, well, all of them are going
to come. They're going to come to him when they die. They're
all going to come to him when he comes again. That's not what
that word means. That word come, through all of
John chapter 6, is contextually bound to faith. It's contextually
bound to belief. The word means belief. Come. All that the Father giveth
me shall believe on me. And him that believeth on me
I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven,
here it is, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that
sent me." That doesn't mean that there's two wills. That doesn't
mean that Christ has a will and the Father has a will because
they're two different people, but yet their two wills line
up all of a sudden because they've agreed to align up. No, they
have one will The will of Christ is the will of God and that's
basically what he's pointing out. He says, I didn't come down
to do my own will as if I have something separate from God and
I just have to align myself with God. He said, I've come down
not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent
me. I have a purpose. That purpose
is God's purpose. And being that I am God, my purpose
isn't different than God's purpose. Because I and the Father are
one. I have the Spirit without measure. I am the Word manifested
in flesh. I am the Everlasting Father.
The Everlasting Father has made His everlasting decree and purpose,
and that purpose doesn't change. Therefore, because I am God in
fullness in the flesh, my purpose isn't any different than God's
purpose. because it's the same purpose. But what did he say
here? And this is the Father's will,
which hath sent me, that all which he hath given me I should
lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. And this
is the will of him that sent me, that everyone which seeth
the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life, and
I will raise him up at the last day. So brethren, please notice
there that if Christ does not give eternal life to everyone
that the Father has given me, He has shown that He is not God. Because the scriptures are clear
that Christ Jesus, the true Messiah, the true Christ, the true anointed
of God, will accomplish the purpose of bringing everyone that the
Father has given Him to Himself and raise them up at the last
day and that everyone or everything that the Father has given for
Him to do, He will accomplish. And so here we see that the use
of this authority, that being given power over all flesh, He
is going to exercise that power within the constraints of His
will. And his will is that he lose
none of those that was given to him. And the ones that were
given to him was an exact amount of people because the Bible said
their names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the
foundation of the world. And the Bible says that those
names will not be rubbed out of the Book of Life. So he can't
lose any. None can pluck them out of my
hand. But none can be added to that either because their names
were written down and the Bible says that there were names that
were not written down. God had chosen before the foundation
of the world peoples whose names were known but not written down. Those names will not be added
in. God is not going to change His mind God is not going to
change His purpose and Christ is not going to add in or make
an addendum to those who He died for. Now some may say, Well, then
you're saying that there might be people that want to be saved,
but because they weren't in that number, they're not going to
get saved. No, what I'm saying is, is those that are not in this
number will never want to be saved, will never desire the
God of this scripture, will never trust in this Savior, cannot
have faith because faith is a gift of God that's been given in the
quickening, in this new birth, in this eternal life that is
given. Therefore, those who are outside
of that number will never be missing out on anything that
they are wanting because none of them are going to want what
this Bible has to say. None are going to want the salvation
that is this salvation. Now, yes, they're going to want
that salvation that's out there being preached by all these evangelicals
in churches all around this country on every corner. They're going
to want that Jesus. They're going to want that God
that they can tell what to do. go to him and do whatever they
want to do and live, you know, and do all their zealous religious
work and think that they're helping God out, we've got them. Here
in Joplin, just this week, we've seen signs all over town, May
the 18th, come and march for Jesus. Well, what does Jesus
have need of that he needs you to march for? March for money? Jesus needs
some money? March to win souls? Jesus can't
save souls? March for Jesus that his ministry
might be expanded? He doesn't build a church? What
is it that Jesus needs help for? Why do we need to march for Jesus? Is it to show forth who we are? Well, the Bible says to not show
your arms before men out in the public square. Where did God
ordain that the worship and the praise of God be done? right
here in the gathered assembly. That doesn't mean that we can't
express our faith and share our testimony and to share the gospel
wherever we go. But brethren, right here is where
we celebrate and we hold up Christ Jesus week after week after week. Jesus doesn't need a bunch of
ecumenical and heathens marching for him. And it's definitely
not accomplishing anything. He's been given power over all
flesh that He might give eternal life to as many as. So for Christ
to glorify God, He must accomplish this giving of life to every
person that God has given Him. Look also, if you would, at John
chapter 10. John chapter 10, Jesus said this. I'll start in verse 14. It says, I am the good shepherd
and I know my sheep. How does he know them? How does
he know? He's a prophet. He's a seer. He's got ESP or something like that,
right? He can look down the corridor of time. The Arminian's Prophet. You can look down the corridor
of time and know what's happening. Or, maybe a little more, let's
see, a more conservative Arminian look is, oh God is outside of
time. He's not in time, so he sees
all time all at once at the exact same time. So he knows everything
that's going to happen at the end because he's not in time,
he's outside looking down on some, like some panorama or some
little nativity scene that he has here of everything that's
going to take place. And nativity scene may not have
been the word that I was looking for, but some little, some little,
can't think of the, the diorama. That may be the word that I'm
talking about. Uh, is that what you, the little scene, little
things that you made in school, the little, okay. He's looking
down on us like a diorama and he sees the whole and therefore
he knows. Listen, nobody teaches God anything.
So God's not learning anything about what he's seeing. Nobody
is going to be his counselor. So anything that man does supposedly
by their free will, which they don't have, by the way, whatever
God sees, He's not seeing that, learning that, and making adjustments
for that because God does not change and God has purposed all
things before all that even became into existence. So God can't
be looking down the corridor of time whenever He made the
declare or the Declaration and determined all things by that
Declaration before all of that ever came into existence. Time
didn't exist. Space didn't exist. Matter didn't
exist. None of that stuff existed. But
in the mind of God, God knew His purpose, His plan, His people,
His works, all His works, the end from the beginning, and none
can stay His hand. None can say, change this or
change that or do this or do that. God didn't do any of that.
No. Everything God does, He does
because He has purposed it and planned it. And here, He knows
His sheep because before the foundation of the world, He chose
them in Christ Jesus. He wrote their names down in
that book of life, which, by the way, Jesus Christ has been
given power over all flesh to give eternal life. And who does
He give eternal life to? All that the Father giveth. And
who is all that the Father giveth? Those ones found in that book
that was written down. Now, does God have a literal
book? I don't know. I tend to think
it's more of a spiritual thing, because God really doesn't need
to do that. But because God is always good
about giving things to His people to see visually, There might
be a book one of these days when we show up wherever God is and
God says, lookie here, here's proof that I have your name written
down before the foundation of the world. Will the lamb get
out that scroll and open it up with the seals already cut because
he's already opened it up and started unfurling it. But he
says, lookie here, here's that scroll that God has done and
everything that God has purposed and I did it according to every
minute detail. Hey, listen, I wouldn't put the
past God to do that for us, but listen, whenever we are there,
faith is going to end inside. We don't need to trust and hope
or look and look for signs and wonders and seals and all the
kinds of things that God is doing. Listen, we're going to know because
he's going to give us to know. It says here, the Father knoweth, or excuse
me, I'm a good shepherd and I know my sheep and a known of mine.
As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father and I lay
down my life for the sheep. For the who? for the sheep, not
for the sheep and the goats. And the goats can become sheep
if they believe. Now, I lay down my life for the
sheep. And then look here, verse 16.
This is what I'm talking about on the fact that Christ has to
be successful in his giving of eternal life, lest he be a fraud,
lest he be less than God, less than less than God or less. God be a liar. other sheep I
have which are not of this fold, now he's speaking about the Jews,
okay, speaking about Israel, for them also, so the other sheep
that are not of this fold, them also I must bring. Now listen, for him to say them
also tells me that those who are in that fold, Israel, were
foreordained of God to be brought and were those sheep known of
God. But the fact that he said, these sheep also, means that
those are sheep of the same flock, they're just in a different locale.
They're of a different tribe, language, and tongue. Those sheep,
he said, also must be, so that means they also were in that
Lamb's Book of Life. They were also the names known
before the foundation of the world, Jew and Gentile. We were
one people in God before the foundation of the world. We will
be one people in God after the destruction of all that is and
the new heavens and the new earth. We will be one people from Old
Testament to New Testament. Just because we see all the activity
of Israel in the Old Testament doesn't mean those and those
only are the elect of God. They are not the people of God
when it comes to nationality because even in the Old Testament,
those who were enjoined into them that were Gentiles, those
who were outside were Gentiles. Look at Rahab. Drawing a blank now, the other
woman. Ruth and Naomi. It was Ruth,
right? Ruth was the Gentile. I always
get them mixed up. I always think Naomi's the Gentile.
Naomi was the writer. So we see the Jews and the Gentiles
have always been the people of God. But notice, Christ says,
I must bring and they shall hear my voice and there shall be one
fold and one shepherd. There's not going to be men today
who are trying to make two folds. They're trying to make the fold
of Israel. They're trying to make the fold of the Gentiles.
Everybody keeps saying, well you preach a replacement theology
that the Gentiles and the Gentile church has replaced Israel. No,
you are mistaken about what Israel is. Israel is not a nation and
people in a locale. The people of God are the people
of God from every tribe, nation, and tongue. that has been born
of God, that has been chosen in Christ Jesus, they are His
sheep. They are the true Israel of God.
They are the true Jew. And the true Jerusalem is the
Jerusalem that we are making up, the city of God that we make
up, the temple and tabernacle that Christ inhabits. We are
His tabernacle. We are His people. We are His
dwelling place. from every nation, tribe, and
tongue. God isn't going to make one fold to only come back in
4,000 years to separate that fold and make two folds only
to come back again to put them back into one fold. There has
always been just one fold. And He says here, I must bring
them. He must bring them to God. For
Christ to be faithful, He has to bring them to God. And remember this, He did. He's not
doing, He did. He brought them all to God whenever
He died. He accomplished that thing. Christ
brought glory to the Father. Christ did that. He said it's finished. There's
nothing left to do. We think that people are getting
saved all along here in time. We say that all the time. Well,
I remember when I got saved. What you're referring to is I
remember whenever I was given faith. I remember whenever I
was granted, you may use the term conversion. But, brethren,
you were saved as far as the legality of it. Now, there are
Reformed Baptists and other people that believe that even the legality
of things is still in time at faith. Brother, listen, every
legal thing that Christ was given to do, He accomplished. That
includes justification. Justification was by the faith
of Christ, by His actual faith. Not your faith that was given
to you by Christ, that flows from that eternal life that Christ
gives you. That's not what justified you.
What justified you is the actual outworking of faith of Christ
Jesus in keeping all that God had given Him. That righteousness
is imputed to you. That imputation is what makes
you righteous and therefore justified before God because your sin was
imputed to Christ. The imputation of righteousness based upon what
Christ did is what justifies you, not by your acceptance of
it, not by your acknowledgement of it. Your receiving Christ
or your receiving justification is just you being given to believe
on Christ that His righteousness was enough. That's what Abraham
did. Abraham believed what God said about righteousness and
he counted the seed that was told to him to be the promise
that would be his righteousness, he believed that the seed was
unto him, Abraham, righteousness. He didn't believe in God counted
Abraham's belief as his righteousness, nor did he declare him righteous
whenever he believed. He was already righteous. He
was already justified before God, even before he left Ur,
the Chaldees. Christ has already saved us. Christ has brought glory to the
Father. Christ has done all things. Now, with that being the case, if God is receiving glory by
manifesting the glory of Christ in His eternal work, through
the cross and everything surrounding the cross flowing from that if
God is glorifying Christ and Christ in turn is glorifying
God by applying by performing and applying all that was in
that covenant that God covenanted to do to us and that is the manifesting of
God's glory, then how do we glorify God? We surely can't add anything
to His glory, but we can manifest it. How do we manifest it? By
getting out there and trying to keep the law? Well, that doesn't
manifest the glory of God. All that manifests is the inability
of Adam. Is it getting out there and being
full of religious zeal? No. Paul had a lot of religious
zeal, and what did he say about that when it came to the glorification
of God. Everything that I count gain
is now I count as done. What did Paul think about his
religious zeal? I'm nothing. I am full of sin. He said, there's nothing good
in me. We don't glorify God by our outward actions of trying
to keep the law, but we surely can manifest the glory of God
by declaring Not because we're declaring, but we can just show
forth the praises of God by declaring what God did to glorify Himself.
What did God do? He actually saved a people. He
didn't make salvation possible and some are being lost. He didn't
send Christ to die and Christ didn't fulfill all that He was
given to do because He didn't bring everybody. If you believe
that Christ died for everybody, that means Christ has to bring
everybody because Christ only died for the sheep and he's not
going to lose one sheep and so if he died for everybody therefore
everybody's his sheep he must bring every one of his sheep
and if there's anybody found in hell Christ didn't bring them
sheep and those sheep are there and they should have been brought
by Christ Christ failed to do His job. Therefore, Christ was
not God in the flesh. He was just another man who tried
to do some religious ministry for God. And God was a liar because
He said, that man that I sent is the man. Believe ye Him. Hear ye Him. Listen to Him. That's what God said out of the
heavens. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased, but
yet he didn't do his job. So now God's a liar, God's a
fraud, Christ is a fraud, Christ didn't do all they said to do,
and we have people in hell that was purchased by the blood of
Jesus Christ. What kind of monstrosity are people preaching out there
today? And I'm just as guilty, I know. I've preached that for
years, I've preached that. But what kind of monstrosity
of a gospel are we preaching today in churches all over the
world that we have a God that is not God, a Christ that is
not a Christ, a Savior who is not a Savior, a salvation that
did not save, and a people who are really not a people? Brethren,
I pray that through the preaching we manifest the glory God in
what He has done. He is a true Savior. He is a victorious Savior. He has not changed. He did not
lie. Christ did accomplish everything
that the Father gave Him to do, and He is sit down at the right
hand of God. That doesn't mean there's multiple
thrones in heaven with multiple people in heaven. Christ sit
down at the right hand of God, meaning Christ sit down as the
authority and the power and the one overseeing all the work of
God that it's in that one man, the mediator between God and
man, the Lord Christ Jesus, the man Christ Jesus. He's set down
in the throne that has been His throne from eternal ages past
and will be His throne into eternal ages forward. He is a victorious Savior. Alright, does anybody have anything
that you'd like to add to or say to that? Corrections or rebutes? Any other scriptures or anything
that you might want to add or read? Father, we once again come to
you and we thank you so much for your work on our behalf to
the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for your gospel.
We thank you for your word that gives us the revelation of all
things, having and pertaining to Christ Jesus and the salvation
of his people. Lord, we thank you again for
the time that we've been here together. We pray, Lord, that
the things that have been said have been in accordance to the
truth. Lord, we pray that you have been praised and honored
today through the preaching and through the singing, through
the testimony of these brethren. We thank you for the safety that
you've given through all the storms this week. We thank you,
Lord, that you will continue to be with us as you've promised
to keep us from falling away. But Lord, we also pray for this
church that you might also keep it in faith, keep it in the doctrine
of Christ, And Lord, may you be honored and glorified in all
that we do and say, for it's in Christ's name that we pray.