If you would open your Bibles
to John chapter 17, the portion of Scripture we just read. We've come to this great, great
chapter in God's Word. Many consider this to be maybe
the greatest chapter in all of God's Word. I'm not sure about
that. I know we can't put one Scripture
ahead of another one. But without a doubt, this is
a high point in the mountain range of God's Word. The Reformer
John Knox, as he lay on his deathbed in his final days on this earth,
had this chapter read to him every day because it's so precious. If what our Lord says in this
prayer is true, if the Father grants to the Son as our intercessor
what he prays For in this prayer, my deathbed will be a time of
joy. What a comfort. Now, this chapter
is the Lord's Prayer. When the disciples asked the
Lord to pray, our Lord taught them to pray after this man,
our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And that
is commonly referred to as the Lord's Prayer. That's not the
Lord's Prayer. That's the disciple's prayer. John chapter 17 is the
Lord's Prayer. This is the personal prayer of
our Savior right before He went to the cross. This is heavenly
conversation, heavenly talk that takes place between the Eternal
Son and the Eternal Father. And you and I get to listen in.
So put off your shoes. Pay attention. We're on holy
ground. I don't know how long it will
take us to get through this chapter, but I intend to take our time.
When Jan fixes a good meal, I don't have a lot of patience.
I have to fight the urge to sit down and gobble it all up at
once. Just take your time and enjoy every bite. And I hope
that's what the Lord will enable us to do in the coming weeks
as we look at our Lord's prayer. Verse 1, John chapter 17. 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. These words spake Jesus. This
refers to all the words that we've been studying in the previous
weeks, the words of our Lord's final message to his disciples.
As soon as he finished preaching that final message, he begins
to pray. There is a good lesson for us there. We're to preach
to people and we're to pray for them. We're to pray for them
before we preach and after we preach. That's why I like to
close a message with prayer. Praying that the Lord will bless
the seed that's just been sown. That's what our Lord did. And
we get to listen in to the Lord Jesus Christ praying. Our Lord was a man of prayer.
He often was found in prayer. We read of times He spent all
night long. His disciples would go to sleep
and our Lord would go off alone. He'd pray all night long. And
most of those prayers, if His prayers are not recorded, none
of the times He prayed all night, none of that's recorded for us.
But this one is. And that makes this the greatest
recorded prayer. As we read this prayer, it's
going to give us some patterns of some things that we can follow
in our prayers. Sometimes prayer can be difficult
knowing how to pray or what we ought to be praying for. We don't
know the Lord's will in different matters. Well, this gives us
a good pattern. There are two things I want to
point out here this morning. Number one, this is the longest
recorded prayer of our Lord. I'm not saying our prayers ought
to be long. And I need to specify the length for our prayers. It's
heart conversation with our Father. But the prayer, I point that
out to say this, the prayers of our Lord for himself are always
short. But when he began to pray as
an intercessor for his people, this is a longer prayer. Look,
I'll show you a couple of examples. John chapter 11. This is our
Lord praying for himself in John chapter 11. Verse 41. As he began before he would raise
Lazarus from the dead, this was his prayer. John 11, 41. Then
they took away the stone from the place where the dead was
laid, and Jesus lifted up his eyes. He said, Father, I thank
Thee that Thou hast heard me. And I knew that Thou hearest
me always, but because of the people which stand by, I said
it, that they may believe that Thou hast sent me." That's the
prayer. Two sentences. Look over another chapter, 12,
one more page. Chapter 12, verse 28. glorify thy name." One sentence,
four words. That's a pretty short prayer,
isn't it? But the prayer as the intercessor for his people took
a lot longer. And here's the pattern for us.
Our prayers would be better prayers, and they probably would be heard
by the Father more if we'd spend more time interceding for others
and asking less for ourselves. More than likely, that prayer
would be heard and be more powerful. Second, this prayer of our Lord
chiefly concerns the glory of God and spiritual blessings for
His people based on what our Savior is getting ready to accomplish
on the cross. What was on the Lord's mind as
He prepared to go to the cross? As He prepared to be given into
the hands of the Pharisees and as He prepared to give Himself
into the hands of the Roman soldiers to treat Him so horribly? What was on His mind? As he prepared
to go stand in Pilate's judgment hall and go be nailed to a cross,
what was on his heart? It wasn't the pain and the agony
of his suffering that he knew was his. It wasn't even the torture
of being made sin. What was chiefly on the mind
and the heart of our Savior was the glory of God. Here's the
pattern for you and me. Our prayers would tend to be
heard more. They'd be more powerful and more effectual if our requests
were more for the glory of God and less for me. I think that's
true. This prayer of our Lord is effectual. He's going to receive everything
you ask for. Gary, everything. It's all given
to you. You reckon we ought to follow
the pattern of this prayer? If I like my prayers to be heard,
maybe I should. Now, our subject this morning
is the glory of the Father and the glory of the Son. That's
what our Lord prayed for. The glory of the Father and the
glory of the Son. Our Lord says, Father, the hour
has come. The hour of hours. The hour of God's glory has come. So many times in our study in
John, we've seen our Lord say, My hour has not yet come. My
hour has not yet come. Now the hour has come. The hour
in which Christ will be made sin and suffer and die for that
sin under God's judgment. The hour has come in which God's
eternal purpose of salvation is going to be accomplished.
The hour in which every Old Testament prophecy will be fulfilled. Every
type and shadow is going to be made plain in this hour. The
hour in which the very host of hell is going to rage against
God's Son has come. The hour in which God's promise
to Adam will be fulfilled. The host of hell is going to
rage against our Lord, but he's going to crush Satan's head.
God promised Adam he would. Now the hour has come. The hour
to which all human history to this point has pointed, and the
hour to which all human history since has pointed back to, has
come. The preeminent hour of human
history has come. The hour that all of eternity
will hinge upon and the hour in which all of heaven will eternally
rejoice in has come. This is the hour, an hour of
darkness, an hour of trouble for the soul of our Savior and
the hour of victory. It's a good hour for prayer.
It's a good hour for prayer. Now, remember, the subject is
the glory of the Father and the glory of the Son. God's greatest
glory. What is it? It must have something
to do with the cross. It must have something to do
with this hour and what the Lord Jesus Christ is going to accomplish
for his people in this hour. This is his hour. He could say, Father, my hour
has come. All these other times he said,
my hour has not yet come. Father, my hour, my hour has
come. And to every believer I say this,
whatever it is that you face right now, whatever it is that
you'll face in the coming days and weeks and years, we can face
all of our hours with confidence and comfort and joy. because of what our Lord endured
in this hour. All of our hours are just fine
because of this hour. The hours come. The hour, first
of all, to glorify the Son. The glory of the Son. Now, our
Lord makes this prayer as a man, as the mediator of his people.
Father, glorify thy Son. As he prays, you can see Christ
the mediator. touching both parties. As He
prays, He's touching both parties, God and men. Now, as God, He
can't have any more glory than He already has. He's the Prince
of Glory. All glory is in Him. He can't
have any more glory than He already has as God. But as a man, He
needs to be upheld. He needs to be strengthened to
endure the cross and to finish the work of redemption that the
Father sent Him to do. John Gill says, undoubtedly,
the Lord began this prayer, Abba, Father, as the mediator, Abba,
Father, touching both God and men. Now, as a man, the Lord
Jesus has been perfectly obedient to God's law. But in order to
fully bring in righteousness to his people, Christ must suffer
as a sacrifice for sin. And as a man, he needs to be
upheld by the power of God to be able to do that. I told you
this is an effectual prayer. The Lord receives everything
He asks for in this prayer. The Father will glorify the Son
when He goes to the cross. Now, how do we see that? How
do we see the Father glorifying the Son as He dies on the cross?
Well, as our Lord suffers, the Father is going to turn the Son
off. I don't have any idea how He did that. But the Father,
the Creator, turned the sun off. The world is going to be in darkness
as the sun suffers and dies. The Father glorified the sun
by turning the sun, the S-U-N, off. When the sun dies, the Father
is going to glorify the sun by tearing that veil on the temple
from top to bottom. showing us all the mosaic economy,
all the way that the people came to God through their mosaic law,
it's ended. The Son is glorified. The Father
showed us all the law of the ceremonies. He points to my Son. It's fulfilled in my Son. Go
to Him. Look to Him. The Father is going
to glorify the Son by seeing to it that Pilate proclaims the
personal innocence personal righteousness of Jesus of Nazareth. He's going
to say and it's recorded for all to read, I find no fault
in him. He's righteous. He's innocent. Then why is he dying? He was
made to be sin for his people. What about his righteousness?
It's given to his people. The Father glorified the Son.
The Father glorified the Son making sure Pilate told everyone
who it is that's dying. Who's dying on that middle cross?
The King. Here is the King of the Jews. The King of Kings. He glorified
as King is who He is. The Father is going to glorify
the Son. As His Son suffers and dies,
the Spirit gives faith to one of those thieves dying next to
Him. He may have given faith to that centurion. I'm not exactly
sure, but I do know this. The father glorified the son.
Both those men saw and understood surely this man who just died
was a son of God. The father glorified the son
in his death so that sinners would see who he is. The son's
going to die. He's going to suffer like no
man has ever suffered. He's going to die. But the father
is going to glorify his son. He's going to raise him from
the dead because the sin that was laid on him is gone under
the blood of his sacrifice. The father glorified the son.
He didn't raise anybody else like that. And when the father
does raise his people and glorify the flesh, why is he going to
do it? For the sake of Christ, what he accomplished for them
in this hour. He's going to glorify the son.
The Father glorified the Son after He raised Him from the
dead by bringing Him back to glory and giving Him the seat
on His right hand. Giving Him the seat on the throne
of heaven. Son, it's all yours. Every bit
of it is yours to rule and reign over. And I'm giving you a name
which is above every name. And one day, every knee will
bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. to
the glory of God the Father because of what Christ accomplished on
the cross. The Father will glorify the Son.
Then the Father is going to glorify the Son in what He gives the
Son because of His redemptive work. And I illustrate that what
I mean this way. You honor someone when you entrust
them with your most precious possessions. You honor someone
when you ask them to be the executor of your will. You're honoring
them, you trust them to honor your wishes, to do what you said,
not what they think. You know, if you parents, you
have to, Jan and I had to do this, we picked a guardian for
our children. Something happens to me and Janet, there's somebody
that we trusted to raise our girls, to teach them, to bring
them to the worship service, to point them to Christ, to do
for them What we do for them. We honor someone and asking them
to do that. That's how the father honored
his son. He honored his son by giving him seven things that
no one else could be entrusted with. Only the son could be entrusted
with these seven things. And when the father gave those
to his son, he glorified his son. First of all, the father
gave the son of people. The Father gave His elect people. The Father in eternity past elected
the people He elected to save them. He chose them out of Adam's
fallen race. He chose them because He loved
them. He set His love on those people. What did He do with them? He gave them to His Son. Verse
2, John 17. As thou hast given Him power
over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given Him. Those many. that the Father has
given the Son as God's elect. Six times in this prayer, our
Lord speaks of his elect, those the Father gave him. Verse 2,
as many as thou hast given him. Verse 6, I have manifested thy
name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and ye gave them to me. Verse 9, I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. At the end of verse 11, he says,
Father, keep to thine own name those whom thou hast given me. Verse 12, while I was with them
in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest
me, I kept, and none of them is lost. Verse 24, Father, I
will. They also whom thou hast given
me be with me where I am. The Father gave the Son. his elect people, the people
of his love. Now, those people come into this
world with Adam's nature. They're born just like their
father, Adam. They're dead in trespasses and sins. They've
got a carnal mind that's enmity against God. They're guilty.
They're depraved. They're incapable of saying anything
righteous, feeling anything righteous or doing anything righteous.
They're incapable of even desiring anything righteous. They are
the opposite. of everything that God is. They're
the opposite of everything God requires. Yet for reasons known
only to God, the Father set His love on those people. Those people
are His children. He said, they're my children.
I made them mine. And the Father gave His elect
children to His Son. He entrusted their eternal salvation
to His Son. And He sent His Son into the
world for the purpose of redeeming those people. That's an honor. The father glorified the son,
giving him his elect. Secondly, the father glorified
the son by giving his son the power to give eternal life to
his elect. He says in verse two, thou hast
given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life. Now, we talk about eternal life.
We're talking about spiritual life, which is the opposite of
fleshly life. Eternal life. Spiritual life
is the life that Adam lost in the garden when he sinned. It's
a fleshly life. That's the life Adam had. That's
the life you and I have because of Adam's faults. A fleshly life
separated from God. After Adam fell, he lived 900
years. But he lived a life of the flesh.
He lived in darkness, in sin, in weakness, in decay, in unbelief. And that's the life that he gave
to his son. to his daughters, to everyone
who came to him. The only life they could have
is the only life he had. It's a life of flesh and death.
But Christ came to restore that life. He came to restore God's
elect to a life of fellowship with God by giving them spiritual
life. An eternal life. We'll talk more
about this next week. But eternal life. It's a gift. Isn't that what
that says? I'm going to give eternal life. It's a gift. The
Father gave the Son the power and the right to give eternal
life to His people. I like the way He says it here.
I'm going to give as a free gift eternal life to many. Not to few. To many. Well, how many are there? Well,
God told Abraham, you're going to have more children than the
stars in the sky. Christ is going to have more
glory than Abraham. He can have more children than the stars
in the sky. You can't count them. And the
Lord Jesus Christ, as many of them as there is, is going to
give eternal life to every one of them. The Father glorified
the Son in giving Him the power to do that. The Son of God is
not giving just a little bit of life to a few people. He's
giving eternal life, abundant life to many. Now, do you want
eternal life? Is there anybody here interested
in eternal life? If you are, I can tell you where
it's found. Go to Christ. It's His to give. He's got all
life and the Father gave Him power to give it to you. Eternal
life, it's a gift. You're not going to earn it.
It's a gift. It's a gift based on the grace
of God. It's a gift based upon the will
of Christ Not on our will. I don't decide to accept it.
Christ gives it to me. It's His will. It's not of my
goodness. It's His goodness. It's what
He earned and He gives His people. Well, will He give it to me?
If I go to Him, will He give it to me? He'll give. Are you going to give it to me?
I want you to listen to this statement. Everyone is going
to be saved who can be saved. to the glory of God. Everyone
who is going to be saved, who can be saved, to the glory of
the Father and the glory of the Son. Well, does that answer my
question? Will God save me? Will He give
me eternal life? Well, will it glorify the Father
and glorify the Son to save you? If it will, He's going to give
you the gift of eternal life. It will glorify the Son to save
you if you have no other hope other than Christ alone. If you've
got nothing to contribute, if Christ is going to have to do
all the saving of your sinful soul by Himself, then He'll glorify
the Son to save you and He'll give you eternal life. If you're
so sinful that the only way your sin can be put away and the only
way you can be made righteous is by Christ, by being in Christ,
then that will glorify the Son to save you, and He'll give you
the gift of eternal life. The Gospel is all about giving. The Father elected a people,
and what did He do? He gave them to His Son. The
Son came, shed His blood to pay the sin debt of those people.
He redeemed them. And what does He do? He gives
them eternal life. Christ gives them, His people,
the gift of repentance and the gift of faith. And what do the
elect do? They give thanks to God. They
give themselves wholly to Christ. They give of their material goods
and their time and their talents. They give those things willingly.
They give themselves wholly to each other. The Gospel is all
about giving. And it all began with the Father
giving His people to Christ. And the father and the son giving
those people eternal life. He gave himself so that he could
give them eternal life. Thirdly, the father glorified
the son by giving his son power over all flesh. As thou hast
given him power over all flesh. Now the Lord Jesus Christ did
not go to the cross in weakness. He went to the cross in power. Those Pharisees, they didn't
have power over him. He had power over them. That
mob, did they take him against his will? All they had to do
was say his name and they fell over backwards. They couldn't
take him. He was the one in power. Those Roman soldiers, they beat
him. They mocked him. They put that crown of thorns
on his head. They gave him a scepter of a reed and took it away from
him and smacked him with it. They had no power over him. He
gave himself into their hands. He told Pilate plainly, buddy,
you've got no power over me except what my father gave you. He went
to the cross in power. He went willingly. The very reason
that Christ went to the cross was His power. He was the only
one with the power to save His people. So He went. And it was
the power of His eternal love for His people that drove Him
to the cross to go willingly to redeem them. Now, all power
belongs to Christ by nature. He's God, so of course He has
all power. All things belong to Christ by
creation. All things were made by Him and
for Him. And by Him all things consist.
And then all power is Christ by royal decree. The Father said
it's His. The Father gave Him all power
over all of His creation. all flesh. The Father glorified
the Son by giving that to Him. Now listen, nothing's changed
between then and now. Not one thing. Christ has not
abdicated His throne. He's not abdicated His power.
He's not letting this earth just run however it's going to run.
No, He's running it. It's His power over all flesh,
believer and unbeliever alike. If Christ is going to have power
to give eternal life to His that He must have absolute controlling
power over all flesh. And the Father glorified His
Son in giving Him that power. I'll tell you what that means.
The Lord Jesus Christ is not a beggar. He has all power and
all authority. Friend, you and I are beggars.
Now we need to get this right. God's not begging you to accept
His Son. We're the beggars. We are in the hand of Christ
to do with as he pleases, physically, spiritually. Temporary and eternity. We're in his hands to do with
as he pleases. Now, who would you rather be
begging? You know, we say that that's not a hard Doctrinal statement? That puts you in fear before
Him of being afraid? Who would you rather be begging?
Joseph in Egypt was a type of Christ, wasn't he? Pharaoh said,
Joseph, you're wise. There's a spirit of wisdom in
you. God's with you. Everything I have is yours. The
whole kingdom, it's yours. Do with it as you will. Somebody's
hungry, comes to Pharaoh. I'm hungry, I need some bread.
Go Joseph. Pharaoh, I need this. I got this
dispute. Go Joseph. All power was given
to Joseph. Here comes Joseph's brothers.
Oh, how they treated him. Oh, they wanted to kill him.
They threw him in a pit. They lied about him. They told
his father he's been dead. Oh, how cruelly they treated
him. Come to Egypt. That's my brother. The brother
I hated. The brother I killed. The brother
I sold into slavery. Because of me, he's spent all
these years in jail and just in stocks and he's had, oh, what
a horrible time he's suffered because of me. But despite who I am, my brother
loves me. Who would you rather be begging I'd rather beg the One who's
got all power. He's got the power to give me
what I need. And He's going to give it. He's
got the power to give eternal life to all that the Father gave
Him. Fourthly, the Father glorified
the Son in giving His Son a work. The work of redemption. Verse
4, I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work
which Thou gavest Me to do. I love how the Lord speaks in
past tense before He went to the cross. I finished it. This
deal is done. Now, in human time, I'm going
to go suffer and die, but the work's done. The Father gave
the Son this work of redemption because nobody else could be
trusted with it. Nobody else has the ability to
finish this work. The work of putting sin away
can only be done by Christ our High Priest. No priest after
the Lord of Aaron could do it. Only Christ, who came as a high
priest after the order of Melchizedek, could put the sin of His people
away. And He did it. No other sacrifice will do. An
animal sacrifice could never do it. All an animal sacrifice
is going to do is remind us year after year after year, we're
sinners. Our sin has not been put away.
Only the blood of Christ can finish the work of redemption
by paying the sin debt in full. Now this work of redemption glorified
the Son when the Father gave it to Him, because this work
of redemption is a work for the children of God, the children
of His love. That's a pretty important job. The Father glorified His Son
by giving Him this all-important job, and the Son finished the
work. The first recorded words of our
Lord, the Boy, Christ Jesus, I must be about my Father's business. Father's given me a work to do.
I've got to get busy. It's got to be done. And the
last recorded words of our Lord on the cross, it is Christ. Wayne, the work's done. Oh, the
Father glorified the Son and given it to him. He's the only
one that could do it. Fifth, the Father glorified the
Son in giving Christ the responsibility to make the name of the Father
known. Verse 6, I have manifested thy
name. unto the men which thou gavest
me out of the world. Verse 26, I have declared unto
them thy name, and I will declare it." Christ made known, and He
still is the one who makes known the name of the Father. How does
He do that? You know, when Christ makes the
name of the Father known, you know what He's doing? He's making
the Father known. His name tells us who He is.
Well, how can He do that? By revealing Himself. by revealing
himself and making himself known to his people. Look back a few
pages, John 14. When Christ makes himself known,
he makes the Father known. And that's the only way we'll
ever know the Father. John 14, verse 6. Well, look at verse 5. Thomas
saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest. How can
we know the way? Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way. the truth and the life. No man
cometh unto the Father but by me. If ye have known me, ye should
have known my Father also. And from henceforth ye know him,
and ye have seen him. Philip saith unto him, Lord,
show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. We will be satisfied if ye
show us the Father. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long
time with you? And yet hast thou not known me,
Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. And how
sayest thou then, Show us the Father. Believest thou not that
I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak
unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth
in me. He doeth the words. Believe me that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me. For else believe me for the very
work's sake. If you've seen the Son, you've
seen the Father. What does Hebrews 1.3 say? That the Lord Jesus Christ is
the express image, the exact image of the Father. If you've
seen the Son, you've seen the Father. If you know the Son,
you know the Father. Well, would you see the Father?
He's only seen in Christ. Even Moses didn't see the Father.
Moses saw Christ because no man sees the Father and live. The
Lord Jesus Christ is the only manifestation of the Father any
man will ever see. And the God of the Father is
revealed only in Christ, no other way. That's quite an honor. The Father glorified the Son
in giving Him that honor. Sixth, the Father gave the Son
the responsibility to make His Word known. Look back at verse
8 in our text. For I have given unto them the
words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, they
believe them. Well, how does Christ make His Word known? By
making Himself known. The written Word can only be
known by the incarnate Word. It can only be revealed and known
and believed and understood through the incarnate Word. And Christ
is the incarnate Word. And He can make that Word known.
Because He's that prophet. Moses, I know people don't believe
you. They don't listen to you. God's going to raise up that
prophet. People will believe Him. And that's what the Lord
did with the disciples on the road to Emmaus. he opened unto
them the scriptures, and he showed them," what? Himself, that all
the law and all the prophets and all the Psalms speak of Christ. He showed his disciples all those
things concerning himself. All the Word is Christ. Then
seventh, the Father glorified the Son in giving his Son the
responsibility to glorify God's elect. Verse 22, and the glory
which thou gavest me I have given them." Now, how can sinners like
us be given the glory of Christ? By being one with Him. Whatever
it is Christ is, His people are. Not we'll be. It's not whatever
Christ is, we will be someday. That's not what He says. He says,
it's not I'll give it to them someday, did He? I have given
it to them. Whatever it is that Christ is,
a believer is, through union with Christ. We have that glory,
the glory of God, through union with Christ. That's the glory
of the Son. Now the glory of the Father.
Won't keep you too much longer. The glory of the Father. Christ
prayed that the Father would uphold Him, glorify Him, so that
He could glorify the Father. Now hadn't He done that? Sure
He has. Throughout His earthly ministry,
The Lord Jesus glorified the Father. He kept the law perfectly. He magnified the law, made it
honorable as a man. This is the only man who ever
lived who kept the law. And when he did that, he glorified
the Father as a man. Christ came to this earth in
the very same flesh as the first Adam, so that he could save men
of the flesh. Now, redemption is purpose. and
planned and ordained in heaven, wasn't it? But it had to be accomplished
on earth. Because on earth is where sin
is. On earth is where man fell. On
earth is where those sinners dwell that must be redeemed.
The first Adam brought men nothing but death and shame. Brought
it on all men so that we can't see the Father. So that we can't
see and understand and believe His Word. The second Adam came
and glorified the Father. So that we see the Father and
know the Father in Christ. He glorified His Father. He glorified
the Father by His life. But oh, when Christ went to the
cross, the Father was glorified. When Christ went to the cross,
the wisdom of the Father was glorified. Oh, now I see what
you're talking about in the Old Testament. Now I know how God
can be just and justifier through the sacrifice of the substitute.
When Christ went to the cross, the grace of the Father was glorified. Oh, now I know what grace is.
Now I know what grace to sinners is. It's not because I'm better
than somebody else. It's because Christ died for
me as my substitute. He took my sin away. So that
God could not deal with me in His wrath, but He can deal with
me in grace. Because He dealt with my substitute
in wrath. Now I see, when Christ went to
the cross, the electing love of His Father was glorified.
My soul, look who He died for. He died for a thief who had no
admiration for the law whatsoever. He died for the chief of sinners. He died for people that no one
but God would choose. He died for people that no one
but God, who is love, could love. When Christ went to the cross,
He glorified the Father's electing love. The electing love of the
Father was glorified and He'd save any sinner, any sinner,
much less through the death of His Son. love sinners, if he'd
kill his son to save them. When Christ went to the cross,
the holiness of the Father was glorified. Now I understand what
holiness is. God is holy, so he spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all as a ransom for
the souls of his people. When Christ went to the cross,
the justice of the Father was glorified. Justice was fully
Satisfied at Calvary for all the sin of his people. And at
the same time, God dealt with his son in justice. He dealt
with his people in justice. That's right. He deals with you
who believe in justice. It's just that God give you eternal
life. It's just that God saves you,
that he accepts you. It's just that God bring you
into his presence. Why? Because Christ died for
you. He can deal with you in grace
and it's just that God accepts you in Christ because of what
Christ accomplished at the cross. His justice is glorified. I'm
not afraid of God's justice. It's glorified in my Redeemer.
When Christ went to the cross, the truth of the Father was glorified. Now I see what all those Old
Testament sacrifices and pictures were all about and all those
ceremonies. Now I understand. They watched the Lord be crucified
and murdered in the Passover land. They had no idea, did they? Somebody did. Now I see that
land being roasted, not a bone of it broken. Now I know what
that sacrifice is all about. God never intended to save anybody
through their obedience to the law or through their keeping
all these ceremonies. The law and the ceremonies, now
I see. They're all pointing to Christ.
I see. because I see the sacrifice for
sin. Salvation and righteousness and
eternal life must be all in Him. When Christ went to the cross,
the power of the Father was glorified. Here is the power to put sin
away through the sacrifice of the Son. What can be so powerful
that would make God forget the sins of His people? The blood
of the Lamb. The blood of Christ so completely
removed the sin of His people, the Father doesn't remember it.
That's power. That's the only hope a sinner
has. Then lastly, the cross. This is what I want us to be
able to take home from this. The cross. The cross of Christ is
one long march to the glory of God. To the glory of the Father
and the glory of the Son. And I pray that by God's grace,
He's enabled us to see it. The glory of the Son and the
glory of the Father, that He's enabled us to worship. The only
way we're going to truly worship is to see ourselves as nothing
and all glory and all power belonging to the Father and the Son. Alright,
let's bow in prayer. Lord, after reading this mighty,
glorious prayer of our intercessor, our words are so insufficient
and insignificant that we're thankful that in him we're heard,
that because of him that we're heard. And, Lord, we offer up
our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, how thankful we
are for our Lord Jesus Christ. How thankful we are for your
mercy to your people in Christ. Father, I pray that you'd reveal
to the hearts of your people your glory. Cause us to forever count what
we call our glory as done and to behold the glory of the Father. the glory of the Son. Let His
glory consume our being, that we see nothing but Him. He alone is worthy. Father, I
pray You bless Your Word. Cause Your Word to bring glory
to Your name. Continue to bless us as we meet
here week after week. Father, continue to bless us
with Your presence. Let the glory of the Father and
the glory of the Son might be seen through the preaching of
the gospel in this place. It might be seen through the
lives of your people as we go out into the world. You pray
that we not be taken out of the world, but that you bless us
in this world. Cause us to be the salt of the
earth, that the glory of the Father and the glory of the Son
might be seen in the lives of your people. It is in the precious
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and for his sake we pray.