And I'm going to be speaking
from that verse I just read, but I'd like you to turn to Luke
chapter 10 for a moment. Luke chapter 10. The message of the law is due. Do something. Something's incomplete, do something. And look here in Luke 10, verse
25. And behold, a certain lawyer
stood up and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit
eternal life. And he said unto him, What is
written in the law? How readest thou? And he answering
said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy
mind, and thy neighbor as thyself. And he, the Lord Jesus, said
unto him, Thou hast answered right, this do, and thou shalt live. Now, our
Lord met this man on the ground in which he came, and he said,
You gave the right answer. If you're trying to come into
my presence by law, now do it. Do it, and you'll live. Now,
that's the message of the law. But the message of the gospel
is it is done. There's nothing to do. It is done. Now, the only thing I'm called
upon to do is believe that it's done. Do you believe it's finished?
Do you believe that there's absolutely nothing for you to do that it's
already done? Well, there's a lot of joy there,
isn't there? There's a lot of peace. There's a lot of rest.
May God give us the grace to enter into that. That's a very
simple concept, but it's so important. The message of law is do something
you need to do. It's not complete unless you
finish it. Something you need to do. And the message of the
gospel is it is done. Now I hope we'll have a greater
understanding of that by the end of this message. In John
chapter 17, this is the Lord's great high priestly prayer for
his people, and he makes this statement in verse 4. He says,
I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work
that thou gavest me Now, the Lord's the only one
who can say this. I've glorified thee on the earth. I tell you,
I wish I could say that, don't you? But I know I haven't. I've sinned, I've sinned, I've
sinned, I've not glorified God. Neither have you. No man has,
but he did. Somebody had to glorify God on
the earth. And he did. He completely glorified God. He kept God's holy law. He honored every one of God's
attributes. Everything there is to do, whatever
it has to do with glorifying God, he did it. He glorified
God on the earth. He magnified God's holy law by
keeping it, by bearing the punishment due against sin. glorified God,
he finished the work God gave him to do. Now, these two things
are connected. I glorify, I've glorified thee on the earth.
I finished the work thou gavest me to do. Now, the whole Bible
is about the work the Father gave him to do. I mean, every
story, every illustration, every doctrine, every sacrifice, every
type, it all points to the work the Father gave him to do. You
start off in Genesis chapter 3. Now, he's going to bruise,
he's the seed of woman that will bruise or crush the serpent's
head. And on throughout the scripture,
you find out something about the work the Father gave him
to do. I mean, every Old Testament story is about that, the work
the Father gave him to do. There's a lot of things I could
say about the work the Father gave Him to do. It was to glorify
Him. It was to keep His law. It was to make a payment for
sin. It was to save His people from their sins. I love that
passage of Scripture, Matthew chapter 1, verse 21, Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.
That's what He came to do. And I know all those things.
I've rejoiced in all those things. I believe all those things. But
you know something even more personally? To think that He
came to save me. That the Father presented me
to Him. Here's Todd Novart. Put your
own name here. Here's Todd Novart. He's sinful. He's weak. He's helpless. Go save him. And the Lord said, Here am I. I'll do it. Send me. Isn't that an incredible thing
to think about? That the Lord Jesus Christ, in obedience to
his Father, The Father gave him a people. You know that. That's
the elect. That's those the Father gave
him. But think of yourself, a believer. Your name was presented to him,
and he said, I'll do it. And he said, I have finished
the work that thou gavest me to do. Now, let me show you a
scripture in Daniel chapter 9 that was a blessing to me to think
about. Like I said, all the Bible is used to illustrate what his
work was, what he came to do, but Daniel chapter 9 is one of
those scriptures that really tell us clearly what our Lord
intended on doing when he came here. Now understand this, whatever
it was he intended to do, that's what he did. Now, look here in
Daniel chapter 9. See, he's incapable of failure.
Verse 25, Know therefore, and understand that from the going
forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the
Messiah, the Prince, shall be seven weeks, and threescore and
two weeks, the streets shall be built, and the wall, even
in troublous time, and after threescore and two weeks shall
Messiah be cut off, talking about his death, but not for himself,
and the people of the Prince that shall Come, shall destroy
the city and the sanctuary, and the end thereof shall be with
a flood, and unto the end of the world desolations are determined."
So we see, obviously, from this passage of Scripture, it's talking
about the Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Christ is the Greek
word for Messiah, the Hebrew word. It's talking about the
Lord Jesus Christ. There's no question about that.
Now, back up to verse 20. Daniel says, While I was speaking,
and praying, and confessing my sin, and the sin of my people
Israel, and presenting my supplication before the Lord my God for the
holy mountain of my God, yea, while I was speaking in prayer,
even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning,
being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of
the evening oblation, and he informed me, and talked with
me, and said, O Daniel, I am now come forth to give thee skill
and understanding. At the beginning of thy commandment,
the supplications, the commandment came forth, and I am come to
show thee, for thou art greatly beloved. Therefore, understand
the matter and consider the vision. Now 70 weeks are determined upon
thy people and upon the holy city. Now that those 70 weeks,
a week means a seven year period. So this was written 490 years
before the birth of Christ. He's talking about when the Christ
will come. 490 years are determined upon thy people and upon thy
holy city, and this is what Messiah will do. He's coming to finish
the transgression, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation
for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to shield up the
vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy. Now that's what
he came to do. He came to do those six things. He came to finish the transgression. When he died, it was put away. It was finished. He came to make
an end of sins. And that's what he did. On Calvary's
tree, he put sin away to the point that my sin is no more.
He came to make reconciliation for iniquity. He reconciled me
to God. I love that scripture, Romans
chapter 5, verse 10, where it says, for if when we were enemies,
he reconciled us. by the death of his son. When
was I reconciled? When I was the enemy, he reconciled me by
the death of his son. That's what he came to do. He
came to make reconciliation for iniquity. And he did it. Look
what it says next. It says he came in to bring in
an everlasting righteousness. And that's exactly what he did.
He worked. He brought in an everlasting righteousness. He kept the law
for me. He obeyed God's law for me. And now I have this perfect,
everlasting righteousness that can never be taken away. And
he came to seal up the vision and prophecy. What that means
is he came to fulfill every scripture. That's what he came to do. How
many times do we read? He did something that the scripture
might be fulfilled, that the scripture might be fulfilled.
He came to fulfill the scripture. And I love this last thing. It
says in verse 24, he came to anoint the most holy. Now, what
is the most holy or the holy of holies, the holy place? And
that's that place in the tabernacle that signifies the presence of
God. You remember, it had the veil. There was the holy place
and the holy of holies. There was a veil of separation
in the most holy place. There was the Ark of the Covenant.
There was the Shekinah glory. It represented the presence of
God. Now, that was just a material
tabernacle. Here's what our Lord is saying.
He came to make the true temple fit for God. You know who the
true temple is? Me and you. We are the holy place. He made us so. And he now dwells
within the hearts of his people. That's what he came to do. He
came to put away sin, to make reconciliation, remove God's
reason for anger, finish transgressions, bring in everlasting righteousness.
And he came to make this fit temple for God. And now every
believer is that most holy place. fit for the habitation of God.
Now, I want you to think about this. This is so hard to get
a hold of. But if I'm a believer, you know
what that means? That means God dwells in me. Christ in you, the hope of glory. Now, here is what is a blessing
to think about. Because I think about why would
Christ want to dwell in me? Dwell in my heart? Well, He gives
a new heart that He can dwell in. And that's what he does.
That's why he came. He came to do those things. He
says, I finished the work that thou gavest me to do. I've glorified
thee on the earth. Here on this planet, he lived
as no man has ever lived without sin. He died as no man has ever
died. You see, he's the only one to
truly die voluntarily. Men, you don't have a choice.
We're going to die sometime. Now somebody says, well, what
about if somebody commits suicide? Well, they still have to die sometime,
but he didn't. He didn't because of who he is. So he's the only
one who yielded up the ghost. He gave permission to death to
come and take him. It couldn't do it before he willed
it. He lived as no man ever lived. He died as no man ever died.
And he was raised from the dead as no man was ever raised from
the dead because he raised himself. He said, I have power to lay
down my life and I have power to take it up again. No man takes
it from me. He actually had the power. This
is how glorious this person is. He could die and he could raise
himself from the dead. Now, he glorified God on the
earth and he finished the work that the father gave him to do. Now, I want us to look in John
chapter 17 at the I have's of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
seven or eight of them. where he talks about what I've
done. He says, I finished the work you gave me to do. I have. I
have. OK, we've already considered
I've glorified thee on the earth. He did that. I finished the work
that thou gavest me to do. Now look at verse six of John,
chapter 17. He says, I have manifested thy
name. unto the men which thou gavest
me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, and they kept thy word. I have manifested thy name to
the men you gave me out of the world." Now, he didn't manifest
his name to everybody. He manifested his name to God's
elect, those the Father gave him before time began. But, I've
manifested thy name. Throughout the Scripture, what
the name of God means, is the person behind the name. It doesn't
simply mean that we know his names. I can rattle off, you
know, El Shaddai and El and Jah and Jehovah. It doesn't mean
I can just rattle off all the different names. It means I know
the person behind the name. I know him. I know him and he
knows me. And this is what this is talking
about, the name of the Lord. Let me show you this in the scripture.
Turn to Exodus 33. Exodus 33. Moses asked this question in
verse 18. He said, I beseech thee, show
me thy glory. And he said, I'll make all my
goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious,
and will show mercy to whom I will show mercy." Now, look down in
verse 5 of chapter 34. So now the Lord's doing what
he said he was going to do. He's going to make all this goodness
pass before Moses. He's going to proclaim his name
before Moses, and he's going to be merciful to whom he will
be merciful. And we read in verse five, and the Lord descended
in the cloud and stood with him there and proclaimed the name
of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God. Merciful and gracious. suffering and abundance in goodness
and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the
guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
and upon the children's children unto the third and to the fourth
generation. And Moses made haste and bowed his name toward the
earth and Now, we see from that the name of the Lord is who He
is. It's His attributes. So, I know the Lord. If He's manifested His name to
me, I know Him. Now, here's how I can know if
I know Him. Because I want to know if I know Him. You want
to know if you know Him? If you really know Him, I mean,
to where you actually know the living God and He knows your
name. I mean, there's a relationship. How can I know if I know Him? Here's how. Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And that's it. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord. Now, what does it mean to call
upon the name of the Lord? I call In my need, I call upon
His Lord, be merciful to me. Lord, save me by your will, by
your sovereign will. Will my salvation. If you do
it, I know I'm saved. Lord, save me by your justice.
Put away my sin. Make it to be obliterated. Make
it to where I'm perfect before you. Make it to where I'm...
That's what it is to call on His name. You're calling on His
attributes to save you. Every attribute of God, His mercy,
His justice, His grace, His long-suffering, His kindness, His sovereignty,
all of His attributes, I'm saying, Lord, save me by who You are. Lord, be my prophet. I'm so ignorant, I can't know
you, I can't know your Word. Truly be prophet to me, make
yourself known to me, be the Word of God to me. Lord, be my
priest. I'm so defiled, I'm so sinful,
there's no way I can come into God's presence. I have to have
you come into God's presence for me. I can't call on His name.
I need you to enable me to call on His name. I need you to be
my priest. Oh Lord, I'm calling on you to be my king. Rule and
reign over me because my sin is such that I can't control
myself. I'm a wicked, evil person. I can't stop it. Lord, reign
in me. Rule in me. Subdue me. Calling
on His name. Now, that's what believers do.
They call upon the name of the Lord. Now, that's how you can
know if He's manifested His name to you. You call. upon his name. I tell you what,
I'm doing it right now. Lord, I'm calling on your name. Save me! Have mercy on me! Call on his name. I've manifested thy name to the
men thou gavest me out of the works. Well, he did, didn't he?
I have. I have. I'm proof of it right
now. I'm calling on his name. He says, For I have given unto
them the words which thou gavest me, John 17, 8. I have given
unto them the words which thou gavest me. Now, how can I know
if he's given me his word? How can I know if he's actually
spoke to my heart and given me his word? Well, let's read it
on. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me,
and they have received them." If God gives you something, you
receive it. If you don't receive it, He never
gave it. This is how I can know if the
Lord has given me His Word, I receive His Word. Oh, the Word of God. What is the Word of God to you? You know, what do you think about
God? What you think about the Lord Jesus Christ, what you really
believe regarding him is seen in your attitude toward this
book. This is the word of God. The gospel message is the word
of God and a believer receives it. I love the way Peter described
the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord looked at that bunch of
leaving and he said, will you also go away? He said to his
disciples, after so many people left him, they said, concerning
his words, they said, these are hard words, hard sayings. Who
can hear them? Who can listen to stuff like
this? And he watched them leave and he looked at his disciples.
He said, you fellows want to leave too? And Peter said, Lord, to
whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe and we are sure
that thou art that Christ, the Son of the Living God. Do you
believe that? Are you sure of it? I believe
and are sure that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living
God. And I believe His Word is the
Word of God. He said, I have given them thy
Word. What we really think about God
is seen by what we think of His Word. I love that scripture in
Isaiah 66, where the God of glory says, to this man will I look, even to him that's poor, bankrupt
of righteousness, and contrite in spirit, broken in spirit,
and he trembles, he trembles at my word. I've given them my words. Whatever the Father gave them
to do, He did it. Now look in verse 11. And now I'm no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father,
Keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those thou gavest me, I kept. And none of them is lost but
the son of perdition that the Scriptures might be fulfilled."
Now, he's saying, everybody you gave me, every single one of
them, I've saved you. I finished the work thou gavest
me to do. You gave me these people to save,
and that's exactly what I did. I have saved them. Now, back up in verse 4, when
he says, I finished the work thou gavest me to do, he said
it before it actually happened. He hadn't died on the cross yet,
yet he says, I have finished the work thou gavest me to do.
He says this in the past tense, already done. This tells us how
supreme his will is. When he says I've done something,
it's already done before it's happened. He hadn't yet said
from the cross it is finished. But he says, I finished the work
thou gavest me to do. Now, this is such a glorious,
blessed thing because there's nothing to do. There's nothing to do. It's all
ready done. I am justified by what he did. He's brought in that everlasting
righteousness for me. I'm sanctified. I'm glorified,
according to the scripture that takes faith to believe that.
But still, the word of God says whom he justified, then he also
glorified. And as Christ is seated at the
right hand of the Father in eternal glory, I am too. I'm glorified
because I'm right there with him. He says I've saved everybody
you gave me to save. That's what he did. I've finished
the work thou gavest me to do. How finished is it? How finished is it? Here are
so many scriptures you can bring out on that. How finished is
it? Well, it's finished. It's finished. He's made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Scripture says
you're complete in Him. It says we're holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable in His sight. It says He's made us accepted
in the Beloved. How finished is it? It's plumb
finished. Completely. I've saved every
one of them. I've kept them. And I'm proof
of that right now. Now look in verse 14. John 17. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them,
because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but
that thou shouldst keep them from the evil. They are not of
the world, even as I am not of the world. sanctify them through
thy truth, thy word is truth, as thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world." Now, here's
what he's done. He's sent them into the world. Now, we're in the world. And
he prays, not that we might be taken out of the world, but that
we might be kept from evil. I sure want that, don't you?
I want the Lord to keep me from evil, because I know if he doesn't
keep me from evil, I know what's going to happen to me. I need
him to keep me. But notice how he says, I've
sent him into the world. Well, what did he send him into
the world for? For the preaching of the gospel. He said, Anne
and I said to Paul, the God of our fathers hath chosen thee,
that thou shouldst know his will. and see that just one, and hear
the voice of His mouth, for thou shalt be His witness to all men
of what you've seen and what you've heard. Now, do you want
to know what your purpose in life is? Right here. It's to be His witness. To tell others of who He is and
what He did. That's your purpose. Don't lose
sight of that. Your purpose here on earth is
to be a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ. To preach his gospel
to everybody God puts you in contact with. That's your purpose.
Now, he said, as thou hast sent me into the world, even so have
I sent them. Now look in verse 20. Here's the what happens out of him sending
us to preach. He says, Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their
word. That's a promise. I'm not just
praying for the eleven. I'm praying for those who shall
believe on me through their word. That's me. I'm one of those people
who's believing right now through gospel preaching. The Lord is
going to fulfill this promise. Now look at verse 20. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word,
that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world
may believe that thou hast sent me. Now catch this. and the glory
which thou gavest me." Now, you think of that glory.
Oh, the high achievements of the Lord Jesus Christ. You think
of the glory the Father poured upon His hand. The glory as of
the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The
glory as the true Son, the glory as the obedient one, the glory
as the servant. Oh, the glory that the Lord showered
on His Son. Oh, this is my beloved Son in
whom I am well pleased. The glory God has bestowed upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now look at it. And the glory
which thou gavest me I have given thee. What? You believe that? We wouldn't believe that unless
the Word of God said it. But there it says, this is the
glory every believer has. Now, when we think of ourselves,
I know what we think. I think of... I think in heaven I'll just be
so happy to be there. I've made it in by the skin of
my teeth. You think of a big throng worshiping
the Lord, and I think of myself being there on the outside looking
in. Happy to be there, but, you know,
just kind of one of the outsiders, I guess. But what does the Scripture
say? The Lord says regarding every single believer, the glory
that you gave me, I have given this. That's the glory every
believer has. Whatever Christ is, whoever Christ
is, whatever glory he achieved, that's the glory I have. And
that's why I can say, bold shall I stand in that great day. Because
the glory of Christ is the glory that's covering me. His perfect
obedience. His glory. Colossians 1.12 says,
He had made us fit to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light. Now, there's a great multitude
right now around the throne. And right now, I'm fit to be
in that group. The glory that thou gavest me,
I have given them. Then he says in verse 26, And I have declared unto them
thy name, and will declare it. I've done it, and I'll keep doing
it. That's why we keep calling upon
the name of the Lord, that the love wherewith thou hast loved
me may be in them, and I in them. Now, the law says go and do. The gospel says it's done. It's finished. Surely there's
something I must do. Yes, you must believe that it
is all done and there's nothing for you to do. You must believe
that. May God give us all grace to
rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray together.