Turn to John 17, titled The Message. The hour has come. Let me make this announcement
before I go on. Maurice Montgomery is going to
preach here next Sunday morning. Isn't he going to be here next
Sunday? Yeah, he emailed me back and said he would be glad to
preach to the saints of God here. So next Sunday morning, Lord
willing, Brother Maurice Montgomery will be speaking to us. Alright, the hour, the hour has
come. Not too long ago, I was watching
the news and there was a man in prison that was going to be
executed. And, of course, they went through
all the things of trying to get the stay of execution and, of
course, none of it happened, so he had to be executed. And I thought about that man
all day. I thought that clock ticked till
that hour comes around that the law says you're going to die. You've got to die. Our Lord says here the hour has
come, this hour for which all other hours were created. This
hour has come. Now it says in verse 1, these
words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven.
These were the last words, among the last words, that our Lord
spoke to his disciples before going to the cross. He is about
to go to Calvary. Here in a very short period of
time, in a few hours, they're going to come to the Garden of
Gethsemane. They're going to get him. They're
going to take him to the judgment hall. And he's going to go to
the cross. And he's going to undergo the
wrath of God Almighty. He's not just undergoing the
wrath of some Jews that couldn't stand him or some Gentiles He's
undergoing the wrath of Almighty God. He is going to be executed. And that execution belonged to
me. That was my hour. And it's taken
out on Him. And these are His last words
before He goes to redeem His people from their sins. Before He goes and sheds His
blood and washes them clean. puts away their sins. Many times the Lord said that
His hour was not yet come. They wanted to kill Him many
times. But He said, Mine hour is not yet come. They couldn't
stop Him. They could not even hinder Him. But now, now it's come. He who set time,
set it in motion, is now waiting for that hour, and now here it
is, to be executed. And what we have here is His
high priestly prayer. And He lifts up His eyes toward
heaven, and He prays. He says, Father, the hour has come. Glorify Thy Son. Oh, that we
could pray like that. when we're in trouble, when we're
facing trouble and heartaches and things, we could pray, glorify. Glorify yourself in this. Because
this is what's going to happen. The Father is going to glorify
Himself in this. He says, glorify thy Son that
thy Son also may glorify thee. The first thing we notice here
is this. God is His Father. God is His Father. The Jews said,
we know thee, thou art the carpenter's son. And they were offended. They were offended at him being
the carpenter's son. He was the poor carpenter's son. No, he's God's son. This is God's
son coming to the flesh, coming to this world. He's the only
begotten of the Father. The Father is the one who purposed
salvation. He is the one who sent the Son
into the world. He sent Him into the world to
die, to redeem. He did not come on His own. He
was sent by the Father. The Father chose a people from
Adam's race and gave them to His Son to redeem. Now the hour
for this to happen has arrived. It has arrived. He said, the
hour has come. God never wastes time. Never wastes time. Every second, every second has a purpose and
a time for that purpose to be fulfilled. I mean, every minute
second has a purpose and a time. Christ never wasted time. What a servant. What a servant. You know how much time we waste?
Unbelievable amount of time that we waste. But Christ never wasted
time. He was about going about doing
good. He was teaching. He was praying. He was meditating. He was always
about, always, continually, about His Father's business. Now the hour we're spoken of
here is not just 60 minutes. He's saying that the purpose
of God in redemption has come. The purpose of His coming into
the world has come. It's come. It says over in Ecclesiastes
3 verse 1, there is a time and a purpose for everything under
the sun. Everything. And this hour is
the hub of all other hours. Everything revolves around this
hour. Right here. And here's his request
in this hour that has come. Glorify thy son. Oh, that he
would do that again this morning in the preaching of his word.
And in your heart that God the Father would glorify His Son
again this morning. But He says here, Glorify thy
Son. I looked this word up. Glorify. It means to render or to esteem
glorious. It means to make or be full of
glory. It means to honor or magnify. That's what He's saying. And I thought when I read this,
What a glorious person he is. Son of God, Son of Man in one
person. This man is the embodiment of
grace and truth. This man. And such a person deserves
to be glorified. He deserves to be glorified.
He deserves to be worshiped by us this morning. Such a person
deserves worship. Such perfection commands honor
and glory. Listen, it is only right. It is only right to worship Him.
It is only right to glorify Him. Such perfection deserves glory
and honor. But also, he's asking the Father
to sustain him through this hour that has come. This hour of redemption,
this hour to suffer, this hour to die. He's saying, sustain
me, sustain me through this hour that has come. Remember, he goes
to the garden. We will see this after we go
through John 17. We'll go back to Matthew and pick up where
he's in the garden of Gethsemane. And he says, Father, if it be
Thy will, let this cup pass from me. Oh, and he said he was in
exceeding, exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. I read one commentator on that
and he said, if you don't do something, I'm going to die right
here. That's how tormented he was. If you don't do something,
I'm going to die right here. I'm not even going to make it
to the cross. That's how tormented he was. And he's saying, glorify
me, sustain me, bring me through this. Bring me through this. Why? First reason why. That thy son also may glorify
thee. Bring me through this. Glorify
thy son for this purpose that thy son may also glorify thee."
When the son is glorified, the father is glorified. His prayer to be glorified was
for the purpose of glorifying, honoring his father. It was not for himself. It was for
his father. Glorify thy son that thy son
Make glorified they. Everything that our Lord did
was for the glory of His Father. He did nothing for Himself. He never relieved Himself of
any suffering, pain, hunger. Satan said, turn these rocks
into bread. He hadn't eaten for 40 days,
40 nights. But He wouldn't do it. He came
to relieve our sufferings. He came to relieve our pain.
And by doing so, He could not relieve His. He had to bear ours. Everything He did was for the
glory of His Father. All that He is is for the glory
of His Father. All that He spoke, every word
He spoke was for the glory of His Father. His whole being was
for the glory of His Father. Oh, what a son! What a son! And I couldn't help but think
as I wrote these things down, and that belongs to us through
His substitutionary work. That belongs to us. But His greatest glory The Father's
greatest glory is seen in the salvation of sinners through
His Son. That's where we see how God can
be a just God and a Savior, is in Christ and Him crucified.
If He's not crucified, God cannot justify me. God cannot have anything
to do with me. If He is not crucified, in my
place. God's greatest glory is seen
in Christ crucified. And notice what was given to
him here in verse 2. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh. This has to do with his meditorial
work. As the Son of God, as God, he
has all power. He possesses all power. But as
the Son of Man, He was given all power. This man who is seated
at God's right hand has been given all power over all flesh. Over it. This word power means
one that controls. He controls all flesh. He controls them. It means power
to bring about a given result. And what's that given result?
Eternal life. Christ has power over all flesh,
all creatures for the purpose of giving eternal life to as
many as the Father has given Him. That's about as clear a
statement on election and particular redemption as you will find in
all the Word of God. He has power over all flesh. He controls all flesh for this
purpose, that He might give eternal life to all flesh? No. But He has power over all flesh.
He controls all flesh, that He might give eternal life to as
many, to as many as the Father gave
to Him. As many. Look back in this verse
2. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. I looked this word up, should,
because I thought, when I first read it, I thought he shall give
eternal life. But it says he should give eternal life. And I thought this was interesting.
Let me give you the Greek. I did some word search on this.
This word should, and I gave it to you in your bulletin, it
has to do with an obligation such as fulfilling a contract
that binds one to a course of action. Christ obligated Himself to the
Father by the covenant of grace to a course of action, His incarnation,
His obedience to the law in His life and His death, so that He
might give eternal life to as many as the Father gave Him. It was purpose that He go to
the cross, suffer in the stead of His people, die, take their
death, be buried, be raised again for their justification, and
now He's seated at God's right hand making intercessions for
them. He said this is life eternal.
Knowing God in Christ. Not knowing facts about God. Not knowing facts about a person. It is knowing God. It is an experimental
relationship. It is a real living union with
God Almighty. It is God in the soul. It is
Christ in you. It's not facts about God, it's
knowing God. This is the life of God in the
soul. This is life eternal. It's life
of God in the soul. Everyone's going to live forever
somewhere, either with the Lord or they're going to perish in
hell. One place or the other. Everyone to whom Christ has given
eternal life to becomes a partaker of the divine nature. And the life of God is in you. If He's given you eternal life,
you have God. God Almighty is in you. This
is life eternal that they might know thee, the only true God. and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent." You cannot know God apart from Christ. Not possible. Not possible. Now he says, I
have glorified thee on the earth. As I said, his whole being was
to the glory of God. His whole existence was to the
glory of God. He glorified him in his miracles.
They said no man can do these miracles except God be with him. Look over in Matthew chapter
9. It says in verse 1, And he entered
into a ship, and passed over, and came into his own city. And
behold, they brought to him a man sick of the palsy, lying on a
bed. And Jesus, seeing their face,
said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins
be forgiven thee. And behold, certain of the scribes
said within themselves, This man blasphemeth. And Jesus, knowing
their thoughts, said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?
For whither is easier to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or
to say, Arise and walk, but that ye may know that the Son of Man
hath power on earth to forgive sins. Then saith he to the sick
of the palsy, Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house. And he arose and departed to
his house. But when the multitude saw it, they marveled and glorified
God, which had given such power unto men." He glorified God in
His miracles. He glorified God in His preaching. You know, that is our first purpose
of standing here. Preaching is to glorify God.
I pray that the Lord be pleased to take it and edify His children
and save sinners. I pray that happens. But that's
not going to happen if He's not first glorified. If He's not
glorified, that's not going to happen. You're not going to be
edified and sinners are not going to be saved if He's not glorified. But He especially glorified him. Now listen. I have glorified
thee on the earth. He especially glorified him in
his perfect obedience. I mean perfectly obedient. Doing everything that was commanded
of him. Loved God with all his heart
Loved his neighbor as himself. His perfect obedience was his
chief way of glorifying God on this earth. He said in one place, my meat
is to do the will of Him that sent me. Oh, I tell you what,
did you get up this morning, including myself, Did we get
up this morning, our meat, our burning desire was to do the
will of God? No. I think we desire that, we want
that, but I'm talking about burning desire, craving. They brought our Lord something
to eat and He didn't want it. And they said, well, does somebody
feed Him? You know, somebody else bring something? He said,
my meat is to do the will of Him that feeds me, that nourishes
me. That's what I want. Well, He did that. He did that. And to think that that obedience
is mine. It is truly mine. I did it in
Christ. I did it in Christ. Who is it that says that Levi
paid tithes in Abraham? It says he did it. It says he
paid tithes. Did Abraham pay tithes to Melchizedek? That obedience is my obedience. It's not just tagged on to me.
It is my obedience. I obey God's law perfectly in
Christ. Obeyed it. It doesn't get any
better than that. I wrote down here, Pause and
think about that. That's that musical note that
you see in the Psalms. It says, seal it. It means pause
and think about that. He brought in an everlasting
righteousness. He defeated Satan and sin. And therefore He could say, I
have finished the work which thou gavest Me to do, of which
is a good reason for the Father to glorify the Son. I have finished
the work. But you notice Christ says here
that He had finished the work that was given to Him to do,
and He hadn't even gone to the cross yet. Hadn't gone there
yet. I'll tell you why. He called those things which
be not as though they were. It was certain. It was certain. And He says it's
finished before He ever said it on the cross. I have finished
the work. It's certain. It's done. With
God, it's as good as done, even though He still has to go and
die. He said, I finished it. And now, O Father, glorify Thou
me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee.
Oh, he craved that glory that he had with the Father before
the world was. Before the world was, oh, what
glory that had to be. You know, over here in verse
24, he said, Father, I will that they also whom Thou hast given
me be with me where I am. that they may behold my glory."
Have you ever seen anything, I've said this to you before,
but have you ever seen anything so glorious, so beautiful, just breathtaking,
you wish somebody could be there with you? You can't describe
it to them. You say, man, I wish they was
here to see this. That's what he's saying. I want them to be
with me where I am that they might behold my glory. We can hear about it. through
the preaching of the Word. But I tell you what, when we
see it, oh, what glory that will be. When we see His glory. He said, I want them to be with
Me that they may behold My glory which Thou hast given Me. For
You loved Me before the foundation of the world. Oh, I want them
to see it. And so He says here, Now, Father, glorify Thou Me
with Thine own self. His chief glory was to be with
the Father. What is our chief glory? What
is our chief goal, our aim? Be with Christ? Be with the Lord
Jesus Christ? He is our glory. And that's why
He's saying, glorify Thou me as before. Before the world was
created, the glory I had with you. What was that? Being with
you. Sharing in the Godhead. Being in the Holy of Holies!
Paradise! That's what he prayed for. Oh, glorify thou me with thine
own self. It was paradise to him to be
with the Father. And listen, it is a glory he
had. This shows his pre-existence. His eternality. He's not asking
for something more. You know why? Because there is
nothing more. There is nothing greater than
God. There is nothing greater than
being with God. There is nothing greater than
being brought into the Holy of Holies and accepted in His presence. He said, it's the glory that
I had with you. before all this was created. He saw the shame and the suffering
that was in front of him. But the thing that kept him going,
I don't know if that's the right word to use, It was that glory
that he had with the Father before the world was. When this is over,
he'll be back there where he is now. And not just as he was
before the world began, but now in a human body. But now he's got a human body
and a human nature there that he possesses, that he has, that's
glorified. Oh, he said, the glory I had
with you before the world was. This shows his eternal existence with the Father. This is what he wanted. To be
with his Father. To be in that place where there
is no sin. no corruption, no iniquity. Can
you imagine that? Can you even just imagine being
in a place where there is no sin, no unrighteousness, not
even a trace of it? I have glorified thee on the
earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do, and
now, O Father, now glorify me. O Father, glorify
thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was." We can't even begin, and I tell
you what, I honestly, when I read these verses, I feel very, very
weak mentally. It's hard to find the words to
describe what's going on here. To listen in to a conversation
of God with God. I have manifested thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they
were and thou gavest them me. They kept thy word. I pray, I pray that the Lord would enable us this morning to glorify His Son,
to worship His Son, that He would give us an understanding of His glory in Christ and enable
us to truly worship Him in spirit and in truth. To just bow down
to Him and worship Him and follow after Him and that our chief
aim, our chief aim, we aim at something. We always aim at something. But that our chief aim, to be
with Him, to be with the Lord Jesus Christ when this is all
over. And in a little while, it'll
be all over. In just a little while. Okay,
Mike.