I'm going to be looking in the
book of John this morning, both hours. First hour, I want to
look in John 17. John 17. John has more direct quotes from
Christ than any other gospel. He quotes Christ more than any
other gospel. He never draws attention to himself.
John refers to himself as one whom the Lord loves. Boy, there's
hope. If you knew that the Lord loved
you, I mean, what could separate us from that love? That's our
hope, isn't it? That the Lord loves us. John
said, I'm just one whom the Lord loves. You remember whenever
they were at the last supper and the disciples were all gathered
with the Lord and he said, one of you is going to betray me.
And he said, the one that I dip in the sop and give to, he said,
that's the one that's going to betray me. And all the disciples
pointed to Judas and said, we know it's him, right? That's
not what happened, is it? No, they said, is it I? Is it
I? And then it says that one, the
disciple whom the Lord loved leaned over upon his breasts
and said, Lord, who is it? Lord, who is it? He got to hear
Christ's heartbeat. I love that. Somebody asked me recently, they
said, I thought that Jesus loved everybody, and that's what men
say, and it's just not in the scripture. It's just not true.
He loves his chosen, his elect, his bride. He loves his people.
And with that same perfect love that he has, he has a perfect
hatred to those who are not in Christ, the workers of iniquity,
they that are dead and trespasses and in sin, they that are not
of his seed. There's a holy hatred for that,
the sin that's within. It tells us in Malachi chapter
1, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. I am thankful that he
chose to love. He did not have to choose to
do anything. He's God. He could have done
anything he wanted to. And yet in mercy, for his own purpose,
for his own will, for his own glory, he chose to love a bunch
of dead dog sinners. Isn't that glorious? He chose
to do that. Why is that important? Well,
because it proves that salvation's all by His will, all by His purpose,
all by His choosing, and that's our only hope, isn't it? Everyone
in hell, understand this, this is important, everyone that's
in hell are there by their own choosing. They chose not the
things of Christ, not the things of God. Why? Because the flesh
Our nature is a sin nature. We're bound to that will, to
that nature. We will not come to Christ. But thanks be to God,
He comes to us and He draws us and He calls us and brings us. And we choose Him after He does
that, don't we? It's irresistible. Yeah. Lord,
I choose you now. Save me now. Save me now. That's
what we cry out. We're not saved by our choosing,
but by His. If we find ourself believing,
it's all His doing. Unless we're made to, we can't.
We can't. John wrote the word believe 85
times in his gospel. 85 times. Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. It's a command that goes
forth unto all, but only to those whom are the Lord's is it made
effectual. Only to those given faith to believe is it exercised
unto eternal life. And it's all the Lord's doing
in that. We believe because we are made to. we are commanded
to, the spirit is made alive unto the Lord. And we hear believe
and we say, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. You know,
I believe that thou art the Christ. Every believer believes that,
but I don't believe there's anything good in me that's going to merit
salvation. It's all going to be by Him. Christ tells us in the gospel
of John, 85 times believe, but he also says in John five, you
will not come to me that you may have life. Why? Well, in John 10, we're going
to look at John 10, second hour a little bit, but he says, the
Jews came to him and asked, how long does thou make us doubt?
If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. He said, I've told you. I have, I've told you plainly
already. And you will not believe. You believe me not. The works
that I do in my father's name, they bear witness of me, but
you believe not. And he tells them why? Because you are not
my sheep. You are not my sheep. Then he said, that's the verse
you hear me quote often, my sheep hear my voice and I know them
and they follow me. I give unto them eternal life
and they shall never perish. Why can some people hear and
some people not? Well, God does the doing. God
does the choosing. God does the work. Aren't you
glad that it's not up to you and I? It's not up to me to make
a decision, to choose to hear, to choose to let God do something. It's all by His doing, all by
His choosing. Christ said in John 8, why do
you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear
my word. Man will not come to Him because
our flesh wants glory. God's gospel makes Christ the
entire focal point. Takes the picture, takes us out
of the picture completely. We're just the benefactors. It
takes us no glory whatsoever in and of ourself. It gives him
all the glory. He wrought salvation. He did
all the choosing, all the saving, all the calling and all the keeping.
Therefore he gets all the glory. He gets all the glory. That brings
us to our text and to our title in John 17. I've titled this
the glory of his people. That's the subject I wish to
ponder this hour, if the Lord would be pleased to show us what
he revealed to me in John 17, the glory of his people. Let's
read here, John 17, verse one. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify
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. I have glorified Thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which
Thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou
me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee
before the world was." Here we see our intercessor, Our high
priest interceding to the Father on his people's behalf, he declares
the hour has come. What hour is he talking about?
Well, this is the hour that all other hours were commanded into
existence for. This was the reason time was
created, this hour that he's speaking of, whenever Christ
was going to endure the wrath of God on the cross of Calvary
for his people. This was the fullness of God's
time that had came to pass. This is the glorious hour he
would accomplish his purpose in time for becoming a man. This
was the whole reason he became a man is for this purpose. He
said, I finished the work that you've given me. All that was
left is the necessary sacrifice of himself, the shedding of his
blood. He had lived the perfect life before his father, honoring
him in all things, honoring the law perfectly. And now the hour
had come. The hour had come so that the
glory of God might be revealed. The glory of God is his salvation
that he wrought on the cross of Calvary. It's the covenant
of grace fulfilled. This is the moment that the world
was, the whole reason the world was created, the world was formed
was for this hour, for this moment. He tells us why the hour had
come, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given me." That was his words. To give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given me. The only way Christ could glorify
his father is if the father first glorified the son. There is no
other time that's been where the father was glorified more
than on the cross of Calvary. He was worshiped perfectly by
his son in complete obedience. in complete obedience, enduring
the wrath of God. He worshiped him perfectly. No
other time was the son more glorified than whenever the father was
pouring out his wrath upon his son. Do we not see that that
is the most glorious moment to the believer? It's all our hope.
That moment when he died, when he laid down his life freely,
he's glorified in that. He gets all the glory in it. Never was Christ more glorified
than when God made his soul an offering for sin. And never was
the father more glorified than when Christ was obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. God was worshiped perfectly. Do you know that that's how we
worship God in spirit and in truth is all because of the cross,
what the Lord did on the cross. And now he sends his spirit and
quickens us, makes us alive, washed us in his blood. Now we
look to that as our worship, as Him being sovereign and successfully
redeeming His people. That's the only reason that we
could worship. It's because Christ worshipped perfectly. In our
stead, He worshipped perfectly. That's what heaven's going to
be, isn't it? Eternal, perfect worship. Just as Christ worshipped
Him on the cross perfectly, we're going to worship God perfectly
one day. Can't do it now in the flesh, can we? We're bound by
our Our imagination and our minds. I was sitting in the back. We
prayed them in study. I'm like, Lord, we're asking
again that you would keep our minds focused because I, my mind's
prone to wonder standing here. My mind's prone to leave this
room and go to trials and troubles that Lord, you're going to have
to keep us here worshiping you. You're going to have to keep
us focused. Turn my heart unto you, Lord. Do you know Christ?
never stopped looking to his father in perfect obedience.
His mind didn't wander. His mind never left God. His
heart never grew cold. He was perfect in God's sight.
He's our substitute. He traded places with us. In
God's eyes, we've always worshiped him perfect. There's never been
a time that we haven't worshiped him perfect. That's how God sees
it. Why? Because Christ is our substitute. This is how he's
glorified. Now Christ had the holy nature
of God, didn't he? And yet he was born of a woman
to redeem his people, born of a woman made under the law in
the likeness of sinful flesh that you and I could be redeemed.
And at this appointed hour, he lays down his life freely to
honor his father, to redeem those whom he loves. We cannot imagine
the humility, it's not Our mental capacity can't comprehend the
humility of the Lord becoming a man. God, the eternal I am,
becoming flesh and bone and being obedient unto death as the lamb
slain, as God's lamb, his sacrificial lamb, allowing all the men to
spit upon him, beat upon him, mock him. But that wasn't why
he felt the agony that he felt in the garden of Gethsemane when
his sweat became as great drops of blood. No, it was that he
was going to become sin for his people. And he was going to have
to endure the eternal separation from God on our behalf. Otherwise,
we'll be eternally separated from him. No amount of work that
we can do, no amount of penance that we can do can ever accomplish
having fellowship with God. No, it's eternal darkness because
there's no light in us. That's what we accomplish. Not
him. He went into that eternal darkness,
bearing the sin of his people and put every one of them away.
Now, what do we have? We have Christ our light. Christ
who is our light, Christ who is our life before the father. He was led as a sheep before
the shearers as dumb, yet he opened not his mouth, did he? full assurance that God would
resurrect him, complete faith, looking to his father. He knew
exactly what he was asking for. Whenever he was praying in the
garden of Gethsemane, Father, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless,
not my will, but thine be done. Well, what is he praying right
here in John 17? Lord, the hour has come, glorify thy son. Well,
how is he going to glorify him? Making his soul an offering for
sin and resurrecting him because he was satisfied. I can't enter
into this thought, but Christ, the scripture is very clear on
this, and I'm probably getting ahead of myself here, but it
says for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. Now I want to. Make sure that
I pause there and. I hope the Lord will cause us
to enter into this, but he said it was for the joy. That was
set before him. He endured the cross. Was it
joyful? the agony that he was enduring,
not the physical, I mean, nevermind the physical side. Even if we
say, okay, well, his soul's made an offering for sin, if we don't
look at that part of it, just the physical side and how that
would have been impossible to endure, except he be God, the
God-man. He was the only one that had
to give death permission to take him. Remember he said in, it's
in the next chapter, but he tells us, When he says it is finished,
he yielded up the ghost. We don't yield up our ghost.
No, God takes it, but he let death take him, didn't he? No,
he was in agony completely. He was in his soul. The scripture
likens it unto his bones being out of joint. His bowels being
like water, like wax that was melted. It describes his terrors
that compassed him about. Yet he said the joy that was
set before him. What was that joy? It was to
glorify His Father, to fulfill the covenant of grace, to redeem
His bride. Do we not know that we are His
joy, the scripture says? You're the joy that was set before
Him. That's why He endured. He called
it a joy to go to death for you, to honor His Father, to redeem
His people. That was His glory. That's His
glory to His people. complete separation from His
Father, yet perfect obedience unto death. He hath made us in
the likeness of Christ, the very likeness of Christ, just like
Him, not even kind of, not sort of, we're exactly like Him in
God's eyes. And He loves us and we're His
joy for that reason. No wonder Hebrews 12 says, looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. And that's the
verse I quoted, who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame. Now that word despising there,
and I've said this before, but it means he didn't pay any attention
to it. He was naked. He hung naked before the world. And in being completely stripped
of all of his garments, he said he didn't even pay attention
to that. He was doing it for his people. It was joy to him to
endure all of that. Because of that, he sat down
on the right hand of God, it says. He knew what he was praying for
here in John 17. And he was asking the father to glorify him. He
knew this was the hour that he would put away the iniquity of
his elect. This was the hour that he was
going to become sin for his people. This is the hour that he was
going to redeem his people. The scripture says when he had
by himself heard our sin. What did he do? He sat down.
He sat down. He conquered death. How? He died. I don't understand that. Do you? But all the sin of God's
people had been paid for. Death could not hold him. He
was perfect going into death. Death had no claim. So that's
what the sting of death is sin. And the strength of sin is the
law. The law was given to show us that we're sinners. And in
seeing that we are sin, Death has a claim upon us, not the
children of God, because Christ put that sin away. Christ put
it all away. That's how he conquered death,
by dying. I can't fathom that, can you? I don't understand that.
He died and therefore conquered death. But he's God. He conquered Satan by offering
himself up to the Father. He conquered hell by enduring
the wrath of God and enduring hell on the cross. He conquered
hell. has no claim on the perfect sinless lamb of God nor his people
now. In this glorious hour, verse
two, it says, he should give eternal life to as many as thou
hast given him. What did he do on that cross? Now this is right before the
cross. What did he do when he said it is finished? Exactly
what he just said right there. Given eternal life. to as many
as the father had given him." The infinite, I'm going to use
some words. We can't use proper words to
describe our Lord. Christ could, he was perfect,
wasn't he? He knew the right words. He knew the right words.
And the Lord, our hope is that he looks at our our preaching,
I hope he looks at our praying, I hope he looks at our everything
and washes it in his blood and presents it as perfect before
the Lord. If he doesn't, it's all in vain, but Christ Jesus,
he was the eternal, timeless God that became a man in time. He did it for one reason, to
die, to go to the cross, to go to Calvary, live a perfect life,
and die for his people. It wasn't to make salvation possible,
it was to accomplish salvation. I love the thought whenever he
says, I've given this eternal life, this salvation that he
wrought. I love the thought that who else has the ability? Who else has the power? Who else
has eternal life as a possession that he can give but Christ?
He earned, Christ Jesus earned salvation for his people. He
merited it. He accomplished it. Every single
part of it, it's his. Salvation is of the Lord. That's
our hope, isn't it? Lord, give me this salvation
that I can't merit, that I can't accomplish. Give me this, I'm
just, the law says I'm a sinner. I believe it. Lord, you're gonna
have to save me. You're gonna have to save me. He's the only
one that can give. Salvation because it's his to
give. He's the only one with the power
to give it. He's the only one that has salvation. There's no
salvation in any other, nor is there any other name whereby
it's given, but Jesus Christ, that's who it's given by. This is why it's he's the only
one worthy. It's his salvation brought by
his own hand, all for his glory, all for his glory. Now look in
verse three. This is life eternal. It would do us well to perk our
ears up when the Lord says, this is specifically something. This
is period. Okay, so it didn't say this is
one of the many life eternals. He said, this is life eternal.
This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true
God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. Well, that's so simple,
isn't it? This is life eternal. Don't miss
that, this is life eternal. We have not just a part of it,
not in a way to it, this is life eternal. When God reveals Christ,
that is salvation. God reveals the Father in judgment
and gives repentance and instantaneously reveals Christ to the eyes of
faith. That is salvation, seeing Christ
is salvation. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. That's John chapter three when
he was speaking to Nicodemus. What is this believing then that
I must do? Well, we can't unless he makes
us, unless he gives us, you think about, Joe, you build houses. It would be very difficult to
build a house without having tools. If you just had your bare
hands and we couldn't fasten anything, could we? It takes
tools in order to accomplish something. We don't have the
tools. the proper tools to believe. We don't have that faith. We
don't have the things of the Lord. We don't possess that in
ourself, but He gives it to us, doesn't He? He gives us the tools
to do so, to allow us to pray and call upon Him, to seek His
face, to see Him as He is. He must do it. He must do it,
and He does. He does for His people. Look in verse four. I have glorified
thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. I have glorified thee on the
earth. Everything that Christ did, he
glorified his father. Everything that you and I do
does not glorify the father in and of ourself, in and of ourself. You know what glorifies the father?
When the Lord reveals Christ, And we say truth, Lord. When
the Lord reveals the gospel and we worship Him and we bow to
it, that glorifies Him. And you know why? Because He's
the doer of it. Everything that He does glorifies
Him and everything we do in and of ourself does not, doesn't
glorify Him. But He causes us to really bow
to Him, doesn't He? With the new man that He gives
us that believes Him, He causes us to really bow to Him. Christ Jesus finished the work
given, covenant of grace. He honored his father. He glorified
him in all things. Who else can say that? Who else
can say that they've glorified God? I've glorified God in my
life. Men believe they do by their confession. They're living
the Christian life. You've heard this before. They're
not doing this and they're doing this now. I used to be a sinner.
Somebody told me that recently. I used to be a sinner. Now I'm
a saint. I thought, well, yeah, I mean, Technically, you know,
that's what the scripture says, but that's not what we believe
because we know that we're still in and of ourselves. There's
no good thing. I wrote an article in the bulletin
that mentions that. Paul wasn't saying there's a
little bit of good and I just got to work on it. No, it was none.
There's none good. There's nothing in me good. And
I'm the chief of sinners. Lord, you're going to have to
have mercy on me, the sinner. That's what glorifies him, doesn't it?
Because we're acknowledging we're nothing and he's everything.
That's what glorifies him, is when we see ourself as being
the sinner and see him as being the savior and he's the doer
of it. Men think that they glorify God with their lives and their
choices and their words, but Christ said, you honor me with
your lips, but you have a problem. Your heart is far from me. You
honor me with your lips, but your heart's far from me. Lord,
cause my heart to be close to thee. Don't let it just be lip
service. Lord, give me the desire. Cause
me and make me to worship you. Cause me and make me to look
to Christ. Fix my heart of stone. He didn't have a heart of stone,
did he? It wasn't far, far from the Lord. It was always fixed
on God. Always fixed on his father. His heart was perfect. It was
holy. It was pure. It honored God in all things.
It glorified God. Christ Jesus glorified his father
on the earth in all things. Because of his faith. Because
he honored God. The Lord hath highly exalted
him and given him a name which is above every name. See, he
was glorified of his father as well. He gets all the glory.
He gets all the glory. You know something that's wonderful?
He gives us the same faith. It's the same faith. And we just
look to Him in thanksgiving, loving the fact that He gets
all the glory. We love that, don't we? He hath glorified His
Son. Look in verse five. And now,
O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory
which I had with thee before the world was. Christ was successful. What was this former glory? And
we can't enter into this, but understand Christ was with the
Father. before time ever began. We know that whenever the covenant
of grace was struck, when the covenant of grace was entered
into with the Father, the Son, the Spirit, it's the three parts.
We've talked about that many times. The Lord said, let us
make man in our own image. He was not talking to the angels.
He was talking to the Trinity. It was just himself. He counsels
with himself. Glory that he had formerly, I
can't I have a hard time entering into this, but we know that Christ
was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. We know that it
was the finished work before time ever began. We know that
it was impossible for him to fail. We know that we've always
been there. What was that former glory then?
It's the same glory that it is now. It's the redemptive work
that's always been. He just had to become a man in
time to fulfill it. God never changed. We've always
been in Christ. He's loved us with an everlasting
love. These are things that are too high and wonderful for my
brain to comprehend, but that's all what the scripture tells
us, isn't it? He had the same glory then as he did on the cross
as he does now. It's glorifying his father and
it's his people. It's his people that he's glorified. The redemptive work before time,
that was the glory before the world and now fulfilled. covenant
promise has been fulfilled in time. He redeemed his people. Because of him finishing the
work for all time and eternity, they will echo his eternal praises.
I want to show you that. Learn with me in Revelation chapter
five. Revelation chapter five, look
at verse 11. And I beheld and I heard the
voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and
the elders. And the number of them was 10,000 times 10,000
and thousands of thousands saying with a loud voice, worthy is
the lamb that was slain to receive power, to receive power and riches
and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every
creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth
and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard I
saying, blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that
sitteth upon the throne and unto the lamb forever and ever. And
the four beasts said, amen. And the four and 20 elders fell
down and worshiped him that liveth forever and ever. If we don't
enjoy worship in this life, we will hate heaven because that's
exactly what it is forever is His worship. Eternal praise and
honor and glory to Him who sit on the throne and to the Lamb
forever. I wrote this phrase down and
contemplated on how to say it exactly right. And there's a
lot of things that go over the internet and it'll pop up a spoiler
alert. And I'm sure you've seen that
before. I wrote that down to say that I got a spoiler alert
for us. The Lord's going to get all the glory in the end, period. That's it. He's going to get
every single bit of it. There's going to be none left
for a single man, save the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to get
all the glory, all the glory. And did you know, if you and
I don't like that, it really doesn't make a difference. It
doesn't really matter. I mean, it matters, but it doesn't
change anything, does it? If I don't like that God's getting
all the glory, it doesn't change him. It doesn't stop Him from
doing anything. It doesn't make Him do anything. No, He's gonna get all the glory.
He's gonna get all of it. Every knee will bow and every
tongue will confess the exact same thing. Jesus Christ is Lord.
They will glorify Him. And if you love that, if you
love that thought, it's because He's the doer of it. If you love
Him getting all the glory, He's the doer of it. That's so contrary
to our flesh. The other day, I'm working on
my house, doing something for my wife. I finally got it finished.
It took a long time. I'm like, look what I've done.
Look at this. I did that. And the Lord convicted me. I'm
like, maybe I shouldn't go around saying that because the Lord
can cause me to, what if I broke my arm or something? I couldn't
do it then. But we do something we want to. We want praise for
it, don't we? We want the adoration of our
peers, our spouses. We want to be seen. We want to
be. It's just what it is by nature. We know it to be true. Just what
we are by nature. Not the believer when it comes
to Christ. No, I don't want any glory in this salvation. I don't
want any acknowledgement. I don't want to have any. I don't
want to touch it because as soon as I touch it, I'll tame it.
I'll mess it up. I'll ruin it. But you're going to have to do
all the saving, all the calling, all the doing. And he does for
his people. We love that, don't we? Now back
to John 17 and closing. I've told us this morning about
the glory that the father glorified his son with and the glory that
the son glorified his father with. And I have some most precious
insight in John 17 to what the Lord says. I wanna show us in
verse 20, and we'll read the remainder of the chapter. 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 and the glory which thou gavest me, I
have given them, that they may be one even as we are one. I
in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect and
one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast
loved them, and thou hast loved me. Father, I will, that they
also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they
may behold my glory, which thou hast given me. For thou lovest
me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the
world hath not known thee, but I have known thee. And these
have known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto
them thy name, and will declare it. And the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them, and I in them." Did you get that
in verse 22? the glory which thou gavest me,
I've given to them. The full glory that we have mentioned
this hour, that the father gave to the son and that the son did
in honoring his father, the glory that he gave to his father, he
has given to his people. He has given it to his people.
That's who he's interceding for here, not the world, he tells
us clearly, but his people, those who were given by his father
and all those for whom he lived, for whom he died, for whom he
was resurrected for, he traded places with them. He traded places
with them as their substitute, as their surety. You know what substitute means? Well, the scripture tells us
we see Jesus, who is made a little lower than the angels, crowned
with glory and honor. Now a substitute, I've asked
the children this before, Do they know what a substitute is?
And they were thinking for a second, and one of them said, you mean
a substitute teacher? I said, exactly. What do they
do? What's the substitute teacher's responsibility? Everything that
the teacher's responsibility is to teach the children. Understand
that what the Lord Jesus Christ did is completely traded places
with his people. I can't fathom that, but that's
what the scripture teaches us. That's what it declares. He became
sin we became righteousness. He became the unclean thing for
his people. We became holy and spotless. Now he put all that sin away.
Sacrifice was never defiled, but if God had not poured out,
God could not have poured out his wrath upon his son unjustly.
Unjustly, Christ had to be made sin first. And when he saw that
sin, that's why he was put to death. That's why he was executed.
That's why he had to endure the wrath. He became guilty before
the Lord. because of our surety sacrifice,
because of his substitution, he's now sanctified his people. He's now glorified his people. It's the same exact glory that's
found in Christ. It's in all of his people and
it's all his doing. It's no wonder Paul said, I reckon that the
suffering, now when he says reckon, it's not a slang term that's
like, well, I've calculated, I've concluded. No, it's a reckoning.
That's what he means by reckoning. I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time is not worthy to be compared to what? The glory
that will be revealed in us. It's already in us right now.
We can't, we don't look, we're not glorified in ourselves, are
we? We don't see it, but that's not what he says. He says you're
already glorified. You're already glorified. Moreover,
whom he did predestinate, he also called. Whom he called,
then he justified. Whom he justified, he also glorified. That's all past tense. we've
been given the glory of Christ Jesus himself. Now last place,
turn to Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three, verse 23.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being
justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus. whom God hath set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his
righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. The Lord now has restored these. that he prayed for in John 17
by giving them his righteousness. He has now glorified them. Everything
that he was praying in John 17 came to pass. Every single word
that he said, he's given them eternal life. He's restored them.
He's glorified them. He's made them the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus. He's made Christ unto us all
our wisdom, all our righteousness, all our sanctification and redemption. He's given us perfect, union. You remember what he said in
John 17? He said, I and them. He said, they and me, I and you,
they and what does he say? It's perfect union with the father
in this. We're all one together. That's that's that's an impossible
thing to understand, isn't it? But that's what he said. We're
one with the father. We're one with Jesus Christ because
of his work. He did it all. He did all the
predestinating, the calling, the justifying, the glorifying.
And I love the thought that that's all past tense. It was done before
time, done before time. His people are now seated in
Christ, perfectly righteous, glorified with the same glory
that He has had from the foundation of the world. And we're just
waiting through each tick, each second, until that glory be revealed,
aren't we? Watching the clock. Lord, even come now, Lord Jesus,
this hour, come, come, come get us. Take us home, and if it's
gonna be by the way of the grave, then to be absent from the body
is to be present with the Lord. The last second, that last second
ticks, and our body goes back to dust, we'll see that we have
always been in Christ Jesus, seated in Him, glorified in Him
with the same glory He has. And this is why, this is why
Christ Jesus is the glory.