I'll be preaching a series from
John 17, so let's turn back there and I'll read a few verses, refresh
our memories of these sacred verses that the Holy Ghost has
preserved for us. These words spake Jesus and lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, now this is a conversation
between our Lord and His Father, and it's immediately concerning
the cross about which He was to go. And He lifted up His eyes
to heaven, and He said, Father, the hour has come, glorified
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. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee, the only true God. and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. We'll stop right there. Now if you will, turn back with
me to John 17. I'm going to confine myself to a single verse. John 17 and verse 3. This will be the second message
in what I hope will be a profitable study of our Lord's prayer. I do not believe that this is
an exhaustive account of every word our Lord prayed. He told
his disciples, he said, you stay here and I'm going to go yonder
and pray. He prayed for a while and when
he came back they were sound asleep. Now I read through this
prayer at an average speed just like I would read to you. I read
through this prayer It took three minutes and six seconds. I don't
believe they were asleep in three minutes and six seconds. So this
is not an exhaustive account of everything that the Lord had
to say. What I do believe is this is
what the Holy Ghost moved John to write and record. This is what we really need to
focus on. when we think about his prayer
to his father before he went to the cross. So here then is
our subject and the message I hope and pray is for this hour. This
is eternal life. This is. May the Lord himself
be pleased to teach and apply these words. Now here's our text,
verse 3. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou
hast sent. Now our text begins with an and. With an and. And whatever this
eternal life is, it is divinely tied to the Father's glorification
of His Son. Isn't that what he prayed? Father,
glorify thou me, glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify
thee. As thou hast given him power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life. This prayer
is about eternal life and it's about the glory of God given
to the Son to manifest it. Whatever eternal life is, it's
divinely tied to the Father's glorification of His Son and
the power that He gave Him and the giving of this life to
His elect. Now, it's not my aim to make
the way of salvation more complicated than it is, nor is it to simplify it beyond
the boundaries set in the Word of God. What I want to do, what
I hope to do, is to show you in the Word of God what this
eternal life is. Now the sensualist, and you know
what I'm talking about, you know what sensualism is. The sensualist
would have you believe that salvation is altogether transferred to
men through a feeling. Are you saying, oh yeah, I can
take you back to the day and the time. Boy, I was in misery
and all of a sudden, oh, I got this feeling. Man, I got this
feeling. The intellectual, he would tie
it to all the theology recorded in the books. You walk into his
office and it's filled with books, wall to wall surrounded with
books. The will-worshippers define eternal
life as a decision. God voted for you. Satan voted
against you. You have the deciding vote. They
have eternal life all the way down. They've watered it all
the way down to a decision. The legalists call for the law
and your obedience to it to generate a self-righteousness except it
make you acceptable to God. And the ceremonialists say eternal
life is magically imparted to believers through things. I'll
give you an example. The Catholics call communion
the Eucharist. They say that that bread and
wine turns into the body and blood of Christ when you put
it in your mouth. Pentecostals talk about the baptism
of the Holy Ghost and they call that salvation. And they say
it's evidenced by speaking in tongues. And religion in general
is a mixed concoction of all these things. It's just a melting
pot is what it is. Men have heard this, saw this,
read this, did this, and it's like a big light bulb comes on
and we'll just leave this church and start one over here and this
is what we're going to do. It's just a big melting pot. And then most men and women,
if asked, will define eternal life as everlasting. It just
means you're going to live forever. Well, eternal life is eternal
life. Is it going to last forever?
Yeah, it's eternal. But that's not what he's talking
about. Not what he's talking about. Alright, so what then
is eternal life? He said this is. Not something
else. He doesn't leave you to your
imagination to come up with some kind of explanation. He tells
you what it is. This is eternal life. Well, let me give you seven things
I found in the Word of God concerning life eternal. What is eternal
life? Eternal life, first of all, is
the life of God. Way back yonder in eternity,
there was no other life, was there? It's just God. Whatever
this eternal life is, the Father is going to give it to the Son.
That's God giving God. It's the life of God. John begins
his Gospel telling us that in the beginning was the Word, the
Gospel of John. And the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God, and all things were made by Him, and without Him
was not anything made that was made. Now listen, in Him was
life. What is eternal life? It's the
life of God. That's what He's talking about.
The life of God, everlasting life, divine life, eternal life. There's no life apart from God
and whatever death is, whatever it is, it is more than anything else
separation from God. Whatever holiness is, it has
to do with the wholeness of God, the very life of God, the character
of God, and all of his attributes, all functioning, all at the same
time in perfect harmony. He's a just God, the Scripture
says, and a Savior at the same time. Well, what's a Savior? Well, he saved sinners. This
is a faithful Savior, worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. But he's a just God. He must
punish sin. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. You see what I'm saying? Now, we're talking about God.
We're talking about his life, his character. Who is God? What
is this life all about? It's about his attributes. He's
a just God, but he's also a Savior. He's also a Savior. He's righteous in all things. God has appointed a day in which
he'll judge this world in righteousness by that man. Christ Jesus. He's righteous. Everything he
does is righteous. Yet he's merciful to chosen sinners. Eternal life is the life of God. Look with me at this verse over
in 1 John 5. Turn with me over there for just
a minute. 1 John chapter 5. He's establishing a fact. And
he says it's established in heaven. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
it's established in heaven, it's established in the earth. 1 John
5.11. What is it? This is the record. See it there? 1 John 5.11. This
is the record that God hath given to us eternal life. And this life is in His Son. Huh? Is it in His Son? He that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son,
whatever else he has. Maybe he can speak in tongues.
Maybe he can do miracles. I don't know. Satan did. But he hath not God. Eternal
life is in the Son. He that hath the Son hath life.
He that hath not the Son of God, now listen, hath not life. Eternal life is the life of God.
Now listen to this, verse 13. Don't let me leave this too quick. 1 John 5 verse 13. These things
have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son
of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that
you may believe on the name of the Son of God. How do I know if I have eternal
life? I have the Son. That's only what
you can know. The life's in Him. Life's in
Him. Eternal life is the life of God,
and whatever it is, it involves having the Son of God. He that
hath the Son hath life. Now, here's the question. How
do men and women have Christ? I have a car. I have a truck. I have a cell phone. I have a
wife. How do I have Christ? In what sense do I have Christ? We have Christ by faith. Do you know that eternal life,
he talks about laying hold of eternal life? How are you going
to do that? By faith. By faith. I'm going to tell you something.
I've been told all my life, I was raised in a false religion. And
I was told all my life what a simple thing faith is. I talk to them. I want to be
saved. What do I need? Just believe. You young people, has somebody
told you that before in your life? Just believe. Can you? Can you muster it up? Can you
go in here and whatever you have in here and come out with faith?
Can you produce it? Faith is not a simple thing.
Faith is a miraculous work. You have to be enabled of God
to believe. By grace are you saved through
faith and doubt not of yourselves. You're not going to find it in
here. It ain't in there. There's nothing simple about
faith. Faith is a divine gift. In Matthew chapter 13 verse 11,
he told his disciples, they said, why do you keep talking to these
people in parables? Why don't you just tell them
like you told us what the parable means? Why don't you just gather
them to yourself and say, look, here's what the world is, here's
what the field is, here's what... Why don't you do that? He answered
them. Because it's given unto you to
know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But to them it is
not given. That's why. That's why. Faith is not given to all men. it's given to his elect. Over
in John chapter 6, there was some people who saw
him feed 5,000 men beside the women and children. No telling,
probably 8,000, 10,000 people there, maybe more. And he took
a few fishes and a few loaves and blessed it and they passed
it out and everybody ate to the full and had 12 basketfuls of
leftover. We're going to have fish over
at Walter's. I hope he's got more than three. But he didn't. And he fed that
multitude. And them people saw it. And that
wasn't the only miracle they saw. They knew that there was
a storm out on that sea and sunk ships and people dead and unfound. And here he is on the other side.
Nobody did. How'd he get there? There wasn't
any boats, because they tried to get boats to go across, and
there wasn't any boats. They walked all the way around,
got on the other side, and here he is. And they saw him heal
people. They saw him cleanse lepers,
raise the dead. They said, what can we do to
work the works of God? Oh, they wanted to do that so
bad. He said, this is the work of
God. You want to see a miracle? Here
it is. Believe on the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the work of God that
you believe on Him whom He has sent. Faith is not a simple work
generated by unregenerate men. Faith is a miraculous work whereby
natural men are enabled of God to do that which is contrary
to their nature. Totally contrary. know who first started this saying,
but I like it. And I've repeated it often. God's
going to save you against your will with your full consent. And that's exactly what he does.
Faith lays hold on the Son of God. Scripture says we have by
the immutability of God's counsel and his oath a strong consolation
who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us. There's only one way to lay hold. Paul said, I don't have it, I'm
reaching out for it. Reaching out, lay hold on eternal
life. And he tells us what that hope
is, which hope entered beyond the veil for us, even Christ,
our high priest. In 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14,
it says, the natural man. The natural man. It talks about
the spiritual man. Spiritual man, he's given to
understand all these mysteries. The Holy Ghost reveals it to
him through the preaching of the Gospel. It's transferred
to him. He's given life and all these things. And then he gets
down to verse 14 and he said, but the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. Why? Their foolishness to it. Huh? Their foolishness. If left to himself, a natural
man will never believe, he'll never worship, he'll never pray,
he'll never love, and he'll never repent. These are all the result
of God working in us both to will and to do of his good pleasure. We receive the things of the
Spirit by faith, and that faith, he says, is not of ourselves.
Now listen, the one glorifying attribute of faith. How do I
know if I have faith? Well, the one glorifying attribute
of faith is that it finds all that it needs in Christ. What's your hope? I'll tell you
if you've got faith or not. What's your hope? Christ is my
hope. Simple but profound, ain't it? Listen to this. Paul said, for
me to live. That's what we're talking about,
isn't it? In eternal life. For me to live is Christ. And to die is gain. He that hath the Son hath life.
Paul said, you're dead. You're dead. He ain't talking
about a curse, he's talking about a blessing. Read Colossians chapter 3, he's
talking about a blessing. He said you're dead. And your
life is hid, watch this, with Christ in God. It's the only place it's safe, isn't
it? You believe on Him, you pass
from death and life. You're dead and your life is
hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our life shall
appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. And my friend, the reason we
walk around frustrated and disappointed is because we don't find enough
evidence in ourselves of eternal life. It ain't in you, it's in
Him. You're looking in the wrong place.
You want assurance? Look at him. Oh, I just don't
pray enough. He did. Oh, I don't serve enough. He
did. I don't walk right. He did. There's my life up there. And you know what? He said we're
seated with Him in glory. Our life is fed in Christ with
God. Boy, that's as safe as you can
get it, isn't it? Eternal life is in the Son.
His life, His work, His faithfulness, His dedication, His devotion. There's the true evidence of
life. Life's in the Son, preserved in Him, perfect in Him. And in
Him it's safe and secure. And that brings me to the second
thing I want us to think about. Eternal life is union with Christ. It's the life of God. And if
that life is in God, how do I have it? In union. That's how I have
it. In union. What's that mean? I'm
one with Him. Everything God purposed for His
elect, He designed to give by way of union with Christ. He's
the vine. You're branches. Boy, a branch
ain't much without the vine, is it? Huh? It's just dead. He talks about that in that chapter
2 over in John. That branch, it don't have any
fruit. It doesn't have any leaves. Well, we just gather it up and
throw it in the fire. It ain't good for nothing else. But boy, that
branch is in the vine. It does what that dead, dry branch
can't do. It brings forth fruit. And the funny thing about that
fruit, it glorifies the Father, all of it. Everything the branch produces,
It receives from the vine. He won with the vine. John 17,
10, he said, and all mine are thine. He's talking to the Father.
Talking to Him about this union. He said, all mine are thine,
and thine are mine, and I'm glorified in them. He's glorified in us
in that His work is effectual to the saving of our souls by
way of union with Him. Ephesians 1.3, the Holy Ghost
tells us that God blessed us with all spiritual blessings
and heavenly places in Christ. Long before there was a word.
Long before there was any stars in the heavens or planets or
sun or anything else. God blessed us, now listen, with
all, everything God intended to bless man with, He blessed
him in His Son. Well, does that mean everybody's
blessed? No. It's according as He hath chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world. How's that possible? There wasn't
even a creation. We had no being, no good or evil
had ever been done. It's according to the election
of God. That's how. And yet He blessed us with everything
God intended to bless us with. And here's how He did it. He
chose us in Christ. Well, how does a man get in Christ?
By decision? Uh-uh. How does he get into Christ? God put him there. Of God are you in Christ Jesus. That's the only way you can get
there. Of God. who made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. He said, I am
the way, I am the truth. Now listen, I am the life. There ain't no life apart from
Him. Thirdly, eternal life is the
gift of God. As thou hast given Him, John
17, 2, power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him. Now the Son is praying to
the Father, and I'm going to the cross, and I'm going to die,
and this is going to be the crowning work of my obedience to you.
I'm doing what you sent me here to do. And what you sent me here
to do is give eternal life to as many as thou hast given me.
You reckon somebody down the line ain't going to get that
life? Uh-uh. They all gonna get it.
Every one of them gonna get it. Oh, listen to me. Every Arminian
sermon I ever heard growing up, it ended with this plea. You
need to get saved. How on earth you get saved? You can't get saved. God has
to save you. You don't even want to be saved.
And if you did, you wouldn't know what you're getting saved
from. It always ended in a plea to
give God something. Give him my soul, my life, my
heart, my time. The list is endless. What's he
want with that old heart? The heart's deceitful above all
things. Out of the heart proceed murders,
evil thoughts, adultery, fornication, blasphemies. You reckon God wants that old
heart? I'll tell you what the heart you're going to give Him
is the one He gives you. The wages of sin is death, but
the gift of God is eternal life. They said, if thou be the Christ,
tell us plainly. He said, I told you. I told you
plainly. That's what this parable was
all about. I'm the good shepherd. Good Shepherd
giveth his life to the sheep. If you're the Christ, tell it
plainly. He said, I told you. But you believe not, because
you're not my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep
hear my voice. Can you hear his voice? Your
sheep do. Every one of them. They hear
his voice. Oh. The good shepherd said of his
sheep, I give unto them eternal life, and they'll never perish. Now listen, neither is any man
going to pluck them out of my hand. They'll try. Lord knows
they'll try. Boy, they've got scheme after
scheme after scheme. They'll try, but they don't get
you out of his hand. And he said, my father which
gave them me is greater than them all, and no man is going
to pluck them out of his hand. Eternal life is not a reward
for a life well lived. It's not what one old free-will
evangelist preached one time, payday someday. I tell you, if
you get a payday, you don't want one from God. Hell is payday
someday. The wages of sin is death. You don't want a payday. Let me tell you something, knowing
what I know about fallen man, I wouldn't waste my time preaching
to him. What would be the reason? None that understand him. I'd
just be spinning my wheels. None that understand him. None
that seeketh after God. I'd just be wasting my time.
He drinks iniquity like water. His righteousnesses are as filthy
rags. Ignorant of God, destruction
and misery in His ways. Without profit. He's not profitable
to God in any way. He has nothing that God wants.
Why would I preach to natural men? Because God's going to give
them eternal life. Somebody. And He's going to do
it through the preaching of the gospel. But I'm gonna tell you something,
life ain't of man, it's of God. It's of God. Christ said, I've
come that they might have life and have it more abundantly. I love this over in the book
of Ezekiel. Spirit of God took that old prophet
Ezekiel and swept him up, carried him out to a big valley. And
he said, son of man, what do you see? And he looked, and he
said, all I see is dry bones, dead, dry bones. Can these bones live? Huh? We go for an answer to that,
to the one who's asking. Oh, Lord, God, thou knowest. Preach to them. To the bones? Yeah, to the bones. Dry bones? Yeah, dry bones. Oh, they're
very dry. Preach to them. What am I going
to tell them? Live! What's it take to have this eternal
life? It takes God saying, live! That's what it takes. And everybody says it too, live. Oh, it's the gift of God. If left to himself, man will
surely perish. If left to himself, he'll be
deceived and he'll go out believing in some hopeless scheme of man.
But in the hands of God is the gift of life, eternal life, everlasting
life, the very life of God. And how does he dispense it?
through the preaching of the gospel. When the Jews at Antioch
rejected the preaching of Christ, and you go back and bear me out,
here's what Paul told them. You have rejected the spoken
word of God. The word which God spoke to you.
How'd he do it? Through Paul. You rejected the spoken word
of God. and thereby you judge yourselves
unworthy of everlasting life. God's going to save somebody.
Somebody's going to receive this everlasting life. He purposed
it to be so and so I'm privileged to preach and ready to preach
and I expect men to believe. I do. Why wouldn't you believe?
If God's in it, you'll believe. Do I doubt His power to save? Now, I'm going to tell you something.
There's a process of life in natural men, isn't there? All
these things are pictures of spiritual things, but just think
about it a minute. There's a process of life in
natural men. At the end of this process, a
baby is born, comes forth from its mother's womb, breathes its
first breath of air, cries. We haven't got one keeping him
up all night. It's a process, isn't it? A baby
comes out of its mother's womb. The Holy Ghost describes this
manifestation of our quickening as being born of God. Born again. It's the gift of God. Babies
don't come into this world at random. Babies don't come into
this world by their free will. Babies are the result of the
sovereign will of God. I'm talking about His babies. And their birth is the end result
of a process. Eternal life is communicated,
manifested, brought to pass by the preaching of the gospel and
the powerful and amazing work of the Holy Ghost. Paul looked at those Corinthians
and he said, I have begotten you through the gospel. What a statement. Huh? It's a
prophecy and he knew it. God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth. His natural birth is a result of a seed sown. Even so, Peter
said, we're born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And this
is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. It's the
gift of God, isn't it? Fourthly, eternal life is the
hope of the believer. Turn with me over to the book
of Titus. Titus. In Titus chapter 1 and verse
2, Paul said that he was in hope
of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the
world began. But hath in due times manifested
this word, this word concerning eternal life, through preaching."
Huh? Isn't that a beautiful verse? Oh, I'm just out under a shade
tree. You probably were. but that you weren't born of
God out under a shade tree. He manifested these promises
through the preaching of the gospel. This man was an apostle. He was a true servant of God,
yet confesses that his hope was in the promised life of God in
Christ. I see this life in him, and my
hope is in him. Fifthly, eternal life is a light
shining in a dark place. In him was life, and the life
was the light of men. Now I'm telling you, this world
is in darkness. You won't get them to confess
it until God turns on the light. But it's darkness. He said, if
the light that be in you be darkness, if all these things you think
you know, all these things you think you trust in, if that's
all darkness, then how great is the darkness? The whole world
lies in darkness. Oh, my soul. In Him was life,
and the life was the light of men, and the light shineth in
darkness, and the darkness comprehended it. This life in Christ is the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God. God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, he said, has shined in our heart
to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. Eternal life is light. It's light,
it's truth. And then lastly, eternal life.
is a knowledge given by the Son. Listen to this, 1 John 5, verse
20. Now, John just keeps telling
us all through this first general epistle of his, he just keeps
telling us what he knew. And we know, and we know, and
we know. And now he gets down to the end
of the letter, in verse 20, and he said, And we know that the
Son of God hath come, and hath given us an understanding that
we may know Him that's true, and wherein Him that is true,
even in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. And let me close with this. Back
in our text, John 17, verse 3. And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou sent. This is eternal life. May God teach us this truth.