of John 17, titled the message,
The Hour of Redemption Has Come. The hour for redeeming a people has come. Now these were the last words
that our Lord spoke to His disciples before going to the cross to
redeem his elect. Purchase them. Pay the price. You and I came at a great price. A great price. And he said, this hour has come. Many times our Lord said, my
hour has not yet come. And nothing could happen to him. The Jews wanted to kill him.
They tried to throw him off a cliff and he walked right through the
midst of them. They despised him. They hated
him. But they could not touch him
until this hour. Not until this hour had come.
Satan wanted him. Satan wanted at him. He wanted
to destroy him. Men wanted to destroy him. But
no one could touch him until his hour had come. And now, it
has come. And you know what? That's been
2,000 years ago. You know, the Old Testament says
someone's coming, someone's coming, and all those years, and all
those thousands of years went by. And here he came. And now 2,000 years has gone
by. And he's promised, I'm coming
again. And though it may seem like it's
been a long time, it'll be over with like this. It's like one
day you walk in and the doctor says, well, you've only got six
months to live. You think, wow, that's fast.
Life is fast. Before you can turn around, this
will all be over. And we will be with our Lord.
And all this sin and sorrow and all this suffering and all this
that goes on in this life will be over. Sin will be gone. And what a blessed time. What
a blessed time we're going to have being with our Lord. Being in the presence of God
forever and ever. Never having to worry. Be concerned. without sin or dying or anything
else. And that'll happen real soon.
Real soon. He'll make a short work on this
earth, which the Scripture says. And it's sure. Now, he says here
in verse 1, he lifts up his eyes toward heaven and he prays, Father,
the hour has come Glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify
thee." He acknowledges here that God is his Father. His human nature, his body was
created of God. Joseph had nothing to do with
that. It's God. This man is purely holy of God. No sin entered into him. Nothing
of this Adamic nature that we have entered into him. He's of
God. God's his father. The Jews said, we know thee.
Do you ever think you know somebody and you don't? Well, they thought
they knew him and they didn't. We know you. You are the carpenter's
son. We know your brothers and we
know your sisters. No, you don't. I'm looking at
his brothers and sisters. You don't know. I'm looking at
his brothers and sisters. And Joseph was not his father.
He's not the carpenter's son. He's the son of God. He's God's
son. The father is the one who purposed
salvation. He's the one who sent the son
into this world. He's sent of God. He did not
come here on his own. He came here on a mission to
do business, to finish your work and go back to glory. and receive
us unto himself. I go away, he said, to prepare
a place for you. If I go away and prepare a place
for you, I'll come again and receive you to myself. That what? Where I am, there you may be
also. I'm going to be where he is.
Where is he? Seated at God's right hand. And I'm going to
be there. And you're going to be there
if you believe the gospel. If you believe him. The Father chose a people, gave
them to His Son, and His Son came here to redeem them, and
that hour is here. He said the hour is here. The
hour has come. God never wastes time, does He? Never wastes a second. You know,
I know we can't comprehend this, but not one second has ever been
wasted by God. We waste them all the time. I
do. I waste them all the time. The reason why I have so much
trouble getting things done is wasting time. God never wastes time. And every
second has its purpose. And every purpose shall be fulfilled.
Every purpose. And Christ never wasted time.
He never wasted a second. He was always, always about his
father's business, continually. Everything he did, he did on
purpose. Every word he spoke, he spoke
on purpose. He never, ever, I believe this,
he never, ever spoke an idle word. Not one. Every word was full of wisdom
and meaning. Every word. Now this hour here spoken of
is not 60 minutes. He's speaking here of a purpose.
The purpose of God and redemption has come. The purpose for him coming into
this world has come. You take away this hour and there
is no reason for any other hour to exist. No reason. In fact, you take away this hour
and creation, I believe that creation wouldn't exist. When
God created the heavens and the earth, He created it for a purpose. That purpose was to save a people
and make them just like His Son. God is merciful. He did not create
the world to turn around and just waste it. When the angels
fell, did all of them fall? Did all of them fall? The scripture
teaches us that there was an elect number of angels that did
not fall. He's merciful. God will show
mercy. And the hour or the purpose for
all of this has come. And that hour is the hour of
redemption. If you want to talk about God's
chief glory. You have to talk about the redemption
that we have in Jesus Christ. You have to. You don't... Creation?
Oh my. Oh my. We haven't even begun
to scratch the surface of creation. There's so much out there that
we haven't even seen. The more powerful the telescopes
we make, the more we see out there. It's like there's no end.
They just go on and it goes on and it goes on. How glorious must the person
be that created all that? How much more glorious is that
same person who saved a sinner? How much more glorious is the
work of salvation in Christ? It's God's chief glory. And we
will praise Him for that forever and ever and ever. We are not
going to praise Him forever and ever and ever for creating the
Grand Canyon or all that we see on this earth.
We're not going to praise Him forever and ever for that. We're going
to praise Him forever and ever for what He's done for us in
Christ. That's His chief glory. The hours come. There's a time
and a purpose for everything under heaven. Oh, if we could
just remember that as we travel through this life, as this journey
As we travel and make our journey home, if we could just realize
that everything we experience is part of the purpose of God.
Everything, I mean everything. Not just the big things, not
just the things that hurt or the things that make us happy.
It's absolutely everything we experience. It's part of the
journey home and it's part of the purpose of God. If we could just get a hold of
that. There is a time and a purpose, Ecclesiastes 3.1, there's a time
and a purpose for everything under heaven. What I'm dealing
with, what I'm going through, what you will deal with, what
you will go through, has a purpose to it. Do I know what that purpose
is? I don't know. I mean, I can't
put it into words, I can't articulate it, that's for sure. I know it's
for God's glory and my good, I know that much, and that's
all I know. And you know what? That's all
I need to know, isn't it? That's all I need to know. I
don't need to know all the ins and outs, because I tell you
what, if He showed it to me, I couldn't understand it anyway.
I wouldn't understand it anyway. I couldn't grasp it. Not with
this little pea brain. If God were to open up and show
me why all this is happening, I still couldn't grasp it. Not
with this mind. Not with this mind, but I can believe. I can believe
and trust the one who does all this and rest in him. Notice his request here. Glorify
thy son. What does he mean by this? Well,
glorify means to render or esteem glorious. It means to make glorious. It means to be full of glory. It means to honor. It means to
magnify. I pray, I pray God do that this
morning one more time. That He would glorify His Son
in our midst. That He would glorify Christ
in our hearts this morning. Oh, I pray He'd do that. I pray
we leave here where Christ is lifted up in our hearts. Glorify
Thy Son. Oh, my soul. What a glorious
person He is. What a glorious person that I
get to stand here and preach to you this morning. God and
man in one person. The God-man. I had the privilege
to stand here this morning and talk to you about the living
God who was manifested in the flesh." What a privilege that
is. He's the embodiment of grace
and truth. I can tell you about grace and
truth this morning. I can tell you about it. He didn't
come here just to tell me about it. He's the embodiment of it. It dwells in Him. It does not
exist apart from Him. He's it. If you want to talk
about grace, you've got to talk about Jesus Christ. To talk about
truth, you've got to talk about Jesus Christ. If you want to
experience it, if you really want to experience grace and
truth, you have to experience Jesus Christ. You have to experience a relationship,
a union with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way you can know
it. Glorify thy Son. Such a person,
and I want you to get a hold of this, such a person deserves to be
glorified. It wouldn't be right for me to
ask God to glorify me this morning. But Jesus Christ is God manifested
in the flesh. Listen, Jesus Christ is absolute
perfection. And that, my friend, deserves
to be glorified. Such a person deserves to be
glorified. He deserves to be worshiped.
He said, let all the angels of God worship him. Such perfection
commands honor and glory. It's only right to glorify such
a person who is absolute perfection. That's only right. He's only asking for what's right.
It would be an ego trip for me to do it. It's only right for
him to do it. Only right. It's only right to honor perfection. Oh, he said, glorify thy son.
He's also asking the Father to sustain him through this hour
that has come. He's about to be made sin. We can't imagine what that's
like. We were born in sin. I mean, that's all we've known.
I mean, we wallow in it. We drink iniquity like water.
By nature, we do. But here is absolute perfection.
Here is holiness standing in front of us. And he's about to
be made sin. And he's asking the Father to
sustain him through this. You know, and he's in the Garden
of Gethsemane. He said, if it be possible, let this hour, let
this cup, let this cup pass from me. He said, my soul is exceeding
sorrowful, even unto death. I'm going to die right here if
you don't help me. Has sin ever bothered you that much? Has sin
ever troubled you to the point where you sweat great drops of
blood? My greatest grief over sin has
never caused me that much pain. Never. Oh, he's asking the Father to
sustain him through this hour that has come and to raise him
from the dead and set him at his own right hand. Glorify thy
son. And the reason he prays to be
glorified is that thy son, now listen, here's the whole, here's
the whole basis that he's asking the father to glorify him. That thy son also may glorify
thee. Get a hold of that. He's not
just saying, glorify me. He's saying, do this. Glorify
me with this sole reason, this sole reason that I may in return
glorify you. You reckon we could ever learn
before we die to pray like that? You reckon we could ever learn
before we die to ask God to answer our prayers in a way that's glorifying
to Him? Well, our substitute did, and
that is our righteousness. His obedience, all that he is,
all that he did is our righteousness. That thy son also may glorify
thee. When the Son is glorified, And boy, I tell you what, this
is what we learn in preaching. We stand here and preach. There's
many other men here who preach. If we want God to honor our message,
glorify the Son. If we want God to save sinners,
glorify the Son. If you want power in your preaching,
glorify the Son. When the Son is glorified, the
Father is glorified. His prayer to be glorified was
for the purpose of glorifying his father. Not for him. It was not to show off. It's
for his father. He wanted this so much. He wanted
to do this so much, this work of redemption. It's not something
he dreaded. He despised the shame. But He wanted to do this so much
that He might glorify His Father. Boy, if I could ever go through a
trial like that. If I could just want to go through it so much
for the purpose, for the purpose of glorifying my Father. Everything our Lord did was for
the glory of His Father. All that He is, is for the glory
of His Father. All that He spoke was for the
glory of His Father. His whole existence, His whole
existence was for the glory of His Father. We should have the
same attitude. We should have the same attitude.
I know what we are by nature. I know we're up and down. I know
we're sinfuls to me. But I look at this and I think
we should have that same attitude as sons and daughters of God.
But he didn't. Thank God he didn't. Thank God
there is one. There is one that has that attitude. His whole being was for the glory
of his Father. And listen. As I already said, that belongs
to every one of His children and that's our righteousness.
His obedience, His attitude, everything about Him is our righteousness. But where is it most seen? He said, glorify thy son that
thy son may glorify thee. It's most seen when God saves
a sinner. When that sinner sees, for the
first time, how that God can be just and justify him. Because until then, nobody cares
how God can be just. Just as long as I don't go to
hell, I don't care how it happens. But when God saves a sinner,
you care how it happens, don't you? You care how it happens. I want God to be just in saving
me because I know that nothing else can come back on me. If
He justifies me, if God justifies me, who can condemn me? I want
God to be just in the way that He saves me because I don't have
to be concerned about ever being lost again or falling. If God justifies me, if Christ
saves me, in such a way that God can be just and justify me.
That's it. That's it. We see His glory, most of all,
in how He saves sinners. And notice what's given to Him.
I'm not going to cover all these verses now. We would be here
for... It might not be here too long
if I did that too. I don't know that much, that's for sure. But
notice what's given to him, verse 2. God has given him power over
all flesh. There's your so-called free will,
isn't it? There's the power of free will
right there. God's given him power over all flesh. He has the power to break you
or leave you alone. This has to do with His meditatorial
work. As the Son of God, He has all
power. As the Son of Man, all power
is given to Him. And He has it over all flesh. There is no one in this world
whether in the spiritual world, in this physical world, that
is not under the power of Jesus Christ. You believe that? Do
you believe that? That ought to relieve and calm
our fears, shouldn't it? That ought to give us great comfort,
that there is no leader in this world that's not under the power,
right now, of Jesus Christ. Now, someone's going to say,
it doesn't look like it, Well, you and I don't have the same
view He has. We're looking at it this way. He looks down on
it. God looked down from heaven. He has power over all flesh. And all the chaos, what seems
to be chaos out there is literally working the purpose of God and
fulfilling His will and bringing this thing to an end. That's
exactly what's going on. And the one who's orchestrating
every one of us Every bit of it, the one who's orchestrating
it, is that man seated at God's right hand. There is a man running
this world, the man Christ Jesus. He's running it. His hand is
on it. His hand is on every aspect of
it. It's not out of control in any
way, shape, or form. You say, man, we live in a wicked
day. He's still, he's got control of that wicked day. It's like
the sea. He says, hither shalt thou come
and no further. That's it. And he puts a stop to it. The
wrath of man will praise him, and the rest he will what? Restrain. Oh, I tell you, that verse is
powerful now. It's powerful. Now, the word power means the
ability to act. I've looked this up. It means
the ability to act or produce an effect. He has the power to
produce the effect that's been perfected. It means one that
controls. We don't like that word, do we?
Not by nature, we don't. Not by nature. Boy, when that
word comes out, control, it's like, all right. No, you're not
controlling me. No one has control of me. You
want to bet? You're under his thumb every second. Every, absolutely
every second, you're under the thumb of Jesus Christ. And you
can't even breathe unless he lets you breathe. You can't speak
a word unless he lets you speak a word. You're under his control,
whether you like it or not. You know, it's not like the believers
are under his control and the rest of them are not. No, they're
all under his control. All of them, under his control. It also means this, power to
bring about a given What is that power to bring about a given
result? What is it? Eternal life. Eternal life. The life of God
in the soul. That's what it is. Christ has
power over all flesh, all creatures for the purpose It was given
to him for this purpose. Now get this, it's for this purpose. It's for the purpose of giving
eternal life to as many as the Father gave him. If he did not
have power over all flesh, that wouldn't happen. But this man, this man, this
one that's supposed to be the carpenter's son, has power over
all flesh for this purpose, that he might give eternal life to
you and you and you and you. That's why it was given, that
he might give eternal life. This is about as clear a statement
of election and particular redemption as you'll find in all the Word
of God. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. Now the word should, I look this
word up. This has to do, and this is interesting,
this has to do with an obligation such as fulfilling the contract
that binds one to a course of action. You can see where that
goes, can't you? Christ obligated himself to the
Father by the covenant of grace that through his obedience to
the law, by his life and death, he might give eternal life to
as many as the Father gave him. The course of action that was
given to Him to do was the cross. Going to that cross, dying for
them, and then rising again. And He fulfilled what? The covenant
of grace. The covenant of grace. And this
is life eternal. What is life eternal? Let me
give it to you. It's to know God. Do you know
God? Do you know Christ? Do you? You have life eternal. This is the life of God in the
soul. Everyone's going to live forever. Everyone here, everyone
that's ever walked on this earth or ever shall walk on this earth
is going to live forever. I mean, we don't die like animals
and cease to exist. But not everyone has the life
of God in their soul. Life eternal, never ending. This life's going to end. But
the life we have of God in Christ never ends. It never shall end.
There's no end to it. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom Thou
sent. I've glorified Thee on the earth. Everything he did
glorified God. Everything he did. He glorified
him in his miracles. No man could do these miracles,
they said, except God be with him. It says in Matthew 9, 8,
But when the multitude saw it, they marveled and glorified God
which had given such power to men. He glorified him in his
preaching, but he especially glorified him
in his obedience of going to that cross and dying. Dying. Dying in the place of a multitude
of sinners that no man can number. He went there and purchased their
redemption. And you know what I say? Glorify
the Son. Doesn't He deserve it? Does such
a person not deserve such favor? There's not such a person who
brought in everlasting, and I like that word, everlasting righteousness,
everlasting. Adam ruined us. If he hadn't,
we would have. We would have done it. So that
God in his wisdom let one do it, as well as God in his wisdom
let one redeem us and save us. He brought in an everlasting
righteousness, defeated Satan and sin, and therefore he could
say, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. I
finished it. He's the only person, the only
person, who could ever say, I have finished it, before he finished
it. Nobody else would say, do that. If I said that, you'd say,
you're a liar. You may not even live to finish
it. being God caused those things
which be not, as what? As though they were. I finished
it. Oh, it's done. I tell you this,
it was done before he came. He finished it. As far as God's
concerned, it was done when it was done. When it was made, it
was done. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do." And he hadn't even gone to the cross
yet. But he's going. I'll tell you why he's going.
He's the leader of this thing. He's the leader of it. Pilate
said, don't you know I have power over you? I can release you. I can set you free. I can crucify
you. Don't you know who I am? No, don't you know who he is?
He got this thing backwards. He finished the work of redemption. He finished the work of obeying
the Father. He finished the work of obeying the law. He finished
the work of manifesting the Father to the ones that were given to
Him. He's doing that now. Right now, He's manifesting the
Father to us once again. Once again. He's manifesting
His Word to us once again. Once again. And now, O Father, I'm going
to wrap this up. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own
self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
Notice here that the glory he desires is not to be glorified
along with David and Solomon and the great men of the earth
and these great men of the faith. His great and chief desire is
that he'll have the same glory that he had with the Father before
the world was. Glorify me with thine own self.
Let me be where I was before, with you. Our chief glory will be when
we're in the presence of our Lord. Our God is our chief glory. He is our chief glory. The brightest
glory of Christ is really, really, when you think
about it, let's see if I can put this right, His brightest
and chief glory will be when we stand and behold Him on the throne. When we sing, when we sing, worthy
is the Lamb And while we're seeing Him, we're looking at Him. And
we're beholding His glory. The glory is of the only begotten
of the Father. Full of grace and truth. Here
we hear about Him. We believe on Him. We do love
Him. We follow Him. But one day, we're going to see
Him. And we're going to see Him in all His glory. And we're going to get to behold
Him. That's why He prays in verse
24, Father, I will. that they also, whom thou hast
given me, be with me where I am." You know, I like this. A lot
of times, these things just go right over my head. You know,
he said, I finished the work, can't even go to the cross yet,
but it's done. But he says here, I will that they be with me where
I'm going, where I will be. He doesn't say that, does he? He says, where I am. I'm already
there. He considered it done from there. I will that they also, whom thou
hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my
glory. We see it now, as Paul said,
through a glass, darkly, dimly. But one day we're going to behold
the glory of that man, that Galilean. that one who was despised and
rejected of men. One day we're going to behold
His glory. And we ain't going to think about this place. Not
going to think about it. For thou lovest me before the
foundation of the world. I'm going to stop there. I'm
going to leave it there. Oh, I'm so glad God answers everything
He prays for. I'm so glad of that. Father,
I know You always hear me. He always gets what he prays
for. That's why he said, I pray not for the world. If he had, he'd have got it.
I pray for them. And I pray for them whom thou
hast given me, and I pray this for them, that they will behold
my glory. That's my prayer. And that prayer
is answered. That prayer is answered.