Hold on, the twins went to the
restroom, Eddie. Well, it's good to see you out
so much. Welcome to all our visitors from
the great state of Texas. The state that you don't miss. in hospice, uh, not long from
this world, so remember him. Do your prayers, say the Lord's
prayer for him. Also, uh, the others who requested
prayer, I'm afraid Fred hadn't gotten back to the doctor yet
about his situation, so we'll continue to remember him. Families
who've lost loved ones, Tracy Wright's doing better, and also
remember, uh, Kathy Roberts, one of these folks, do your prayers.
Did you say your wife failed? Um, I'm sorry. Is she all right? She's not very
okay. She's just so... She's kind of
so... Those older folks are going to
follow this harder for the rest of your life. Thank you, Dale. Nice to meet you. But remember those folks in the
prior seat, the more example. Begin our worship service at
hymn number 129. One, two, nine. ? As to please my Savior deep ?
? And give my soul and heart ? ? Would He be good as safe
within ? ? For such a worm as I am ? ? And to cross at the
cross where I first saw Him ? And the breath of my heart flowed
away. It was there by grace I received
my sight, And now I am happy all the day. Was it for God's
good that I did come, He rose up from the tree? O raise him, raise him, raise
him up, and put me on decree. Let him rush, let him rush, where
I thirst all night, in the burden of my heart. all the way. It was there by grace I received
my sight, and now I am happy all the way. Till by the sun, the darkness
died, and shone its glory day. When rises the mighty Maker God
Who let the future sing And the cross, and the cross, where I
first saw the light And the burning of my heart broke the veil It
was there, I think, I received my star, and now I am happy all
the day. The drops of green in April make
the dead of the night go away. I hear. I will sing hymn number one,
I will worship the King. If you have your Bibles turned,
read the Gospel according to John chapter 17. Verse one said, these words speak
to Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven. And these words in
the book, that was the first of chapter 14 through 16 that
he was telling his disciples to read. And then he opened,
then he prays to his father. He lifted up his eyes to heaven
and said, father, the hour has 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 eternal life, that
they might know thee, the only true God, even Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven,
high and holy, sovereign, doing your will in the armies of heaven
and among the captains of the earth, none able to stay your
hand or say of you what you do. You do your pleasure, all your
pleasure. You have done whatsoever you
have pleased in heaven and earth and all the places, even the
seas. Thou art God. There is none beside thee. There
is none like unto thee. Declare thee in from the beginning.
calling into existence things that are not, doing all your
purpose in this world, and doing all your pleasure. We thank you,
Father, that your Son, Jesus Christ, came into this world,
the very God of heaven, the Word was God, and was made flesh among
us, and we beheld his glory. He's the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth. We are thankful that He went
to the cross of Calvary, voluntarily, and died in the womb instead
of your people, paying their sin debt, suffering the penalty
for their sin, and rose the third day for our justification, and
now, even now, sits at the right hand of the Father, having purged
our sins, We thank you, Father, that we can even say such things
to wretched sinners who abide on this earth, still full of
sin, still weak and frail, ungodly. We thank you, Father, that you
view your people in Jesus Christ and see them as holy and righteous
and redeemed. Father, help us this hour to
worship you, to think on the things of Christ, Father, we
remember those who are sick, those who are going through trials,
those who have lost loved ones, especially in parts of his family. He's suffering. In these last
days, it seems in his life, we don't know. His days are numbered. His months are with thee. These
things are determined, and he cannot pass. He will live as
long as you have given him breath. And we thank you, Father, that
he's your child. And if he leaves this world, he'll go to a better
world, wherein there is no sin, and he'll never have problems
with the flesh, and he'll be worshipped beautifully, as you
ought to be worshipped, and honored he is, as you ought to be honored.
Pray for the others who requested prayer. Brother Fred, as he's
awaiting the results of these tests, and he might begin his
treatments, pray for him. Continue to pray for Tracy Ryan,
Kathy Robinson, for those who've lost loved ones. Help us, Lord,
to remember each other in prayer. Call out each other's names into
heaven. We pray in Christ's precious name, praise the Lord. Amen. Oh, worship the King. Oh, worship
the King. The glorious Sabbah and rainbowing
sea, His power and His love. Our children defender, the angel
of day. A million kings splendor and
burning with praise. O tell of his life, O sing of
his praise, whose glory is the life, whose canopies praise. His chariot's far and the deep
thunderclouds roar, And Mark is his path on the wings of the
storm. Thy bounty, O Canada, ? The drum
can resound ? ? It rings in the air ? ? It shines in the mind
? ? It streams from the hills ? ? It resounds to the plain
? ? As we meet this music ? ? The blue and the rain ? Real children of God. and evil as prayer. In me do we trust, nor are we
to fail. Thy mercy's how tender, how firm
to the edge. Our Maker, Defender, Redeemer,
and Friend. Let us pray. Father, again we approach in
the name of Jesus Christ, that perfect and blessed gift that
you have given to your children and with him freely give them
all the things necessary for godliness in life. Father, we
thank you that we know by your grace that all we have, we have
the cause of your mercy. Let us do so with joy and thanksgiving through Christ's
name. Amen. So, My sister, Ada, has become a
singer, especially. When she was a little girl, we
actually had to pull her off the piano to come to Southern.
She never played the piano the same. That's my sister there. She got
the notes in the towel. I got the brains. No, I got the
brains. How deep the Father's love for
us How vast and beyond all measure That he should give his only
sons To make a wretch his treasurer? How grave the pain of sinning
was! The father turned his face away
As moved for the chosen one. Bring me new sons to follow me Behold the man upon the cross
My sin upon his shoulders Ashamed I hear my God he calls Call out
among the star-crossed It was my sin that held him there Until
it wasn't coming This dying breath has brought me home I know that
it is finished Dear Lord, what heavenly wonders dwell In thy
atoning blood And this poor sailor snatched
from me, This rebel not to die. You took this dying sailor's
place, And saw me in my stead. For me, a miracle you raised,
For me, a saviour made. No peace, no power, no wisdom
But I'm lost in Jesus Christ His death and resurrection Why
should I be afraid of His reward? I cannot give an answer But this
I know with all my heart His wounds have paid my ransom But
this I know with all my heart His wounds have paid my ransom but it is in fact john chapter
seventeen many years ago not many years ago several years
ago i was asked to preach at a meeting at a sovereign grace
church that i belonged to for a great portion of my life and after i preached from this
text the next day the preacher invited me out to lunch I didn't know that I was going
to be in the middle, but that was his plan. And he told me
after I had preached this message that a man cannot know God. And I said, well, according to
this passage, you better. Well, this is eternal life. That's the title of my message
this morning. Our Lord has prepared his disciples for his crucifixion
and for life without end. and his physical presence. He
now lays his eyes to heaven and prays to the Father about his
hour. His hour is come, he said. That's the day of his divine
appointment, the day he volunteered for before the foundation of
the world because he was the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. This hour is why our Lord left
glory and laid aside his majesty left the ever-present song of
six-winged beasts crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.
This was his hour. This is the hour of the cross.
This is the crux of time, the hinge upon which all time and
eternity swings. This is the hour of glory, the
glory of the Father and the glory of the Son. we learn this by
the glory of the Holy Ghost who teaches us the Word of God. This
glory for which our Lord prays is to be glorified. He prays
to be glorified with this glory because it was necessary in order
that he might glorify the Father. That's what he says, glorify
me so I can glorify you. Now, the basis upon which he
was glorified and what he was glorified for is the subject
of the universe. This glory is the glory, not
of being, but the glory of doing, the glory of accomplishing something. God is essentially glorious.
So when he said glorify, I'll glorify you so you can glorify
me, he wasn't talking about essential glory, he was already glorious.
He was saying do this, I want to glorify you to do this, and
when you have done this, you will have glorified me. And what
that glory is, is the full, free, and accomplished salvation of
His people. This is the task our Lord, as
a man must be glorified, as prophesied in the Psalms, when the psalmist
said, and said, I have laid help on
one who is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. There is some plain truth here
in these verses. First, the glory of salvation.
All of it, from stem to stern, from alpha to omega, from A to
Z, from pole to pole, all of the glory of salvation belongs
to God and no one else. We know that Jesus Christ is
the fullness of the Godhead bodily according to Colossians chapter
2 and verse 9. Glory and salvation is about
the Father and the Son revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. Man
is not involved in this glory at all. He had nothing to do
with it. Men were oblivious to what was
going on here and apart from divine revelation remain oblivious
to this day. this hour was the hour of god
and his dear son secondly this hour is the hour of success the
father will not be glorified if the son does not glorify him
in this work and the father must be glorified listen very carefully
Everyone for whom Christ suffers and dies must finally and fully
be redeemed, for the glory that the Father gives the Son is insufficient,
and the Son thus fails to glorify the Father. This could never
be lest the words of prophecy fall to the earth. Isaiah 42
says, He shall not fail. He shall not fail. That was the
promise given to the prophet. The Father always hears the prayers
of the Son. This is what Christ said in John
chapter 11. The Father always hears my prayers. He's praying to the Father now.
The Father always hears my prayers. Thirdly, this is the hour of
sovereign will and purpose. This is the hour of determinate
counsel. It was delivered by the determinate counsel of God,
it says in Acts. This is the hour of that determinate
counsel. This is the hour when the enemies
of God and His Christ will be gathered together, rounded up
and hurted, punched like doggies to do whatsoever God hath before
ordained to be done. This is what happened on Calvary.
Then you get the idea that God doesn't use evil men. He uses
them all the time. In fact, He uses everybody that
walks and treads and writhes and wriggles upon the face of
this earth. God uses everybody. There is
no unemployment in God's economy. There's simply no, everybody's
got a purpose. That purpose will lead to fulfill His glory and
salvation, or fulfill His glory and wrath, but everybody's got
a job. You got a job, and I got a job,
and you don't do it. So I might not want you. That
doesn't matter. You're a creature. You act according to your Creator's
bidding. The Scripture plainly says, those
who are gathered against Christ in the holler, crucify Him, crucify
Him. He hated him, said, this man,
we will not have him reign over us. We want him dead, give him
over to our wills. Let his blood be upon our heads. What were they doing? According
to Acts 4, Pontius Pilate, Herod, and the Jews, and the Gentiles
were gathered together against the Holy Child, Jesus, to do
whatsoever the Lord had foreordained to be done. That's the first
time the word predestination is used in scripture. Pro ariso,
or ordain. Here is the wonder of this glorification
of Christ by the Father. It is the glory of being forsaken
by the Father when Christ was made to be sin for us. Don't
try to explain that. Nobody can. I've read theologians,
read commentators, heard preachers. You can't explain that. Don't
stop trying. Wonder of wonders, in that hour of darkness, our
Lord was made to be sin for us. He knew no sin, but He was made
to be sin for us, and we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. I can't explain that, nobody can, but that's what happened.
And thank God He's given His people faith to believe it. The
glorification for this mission is help laid on Jesus Christ
And in the moment of his mightiest accomplishment, of his greatest
moment here on earth, in the moment of his greatest success,
the glory of the Father was revealed and forsaken his son. God can't
look over sin. His eyes are too pure to behold
evil. The sun, moon, and stars are not pure in his sight. Much
less man is born of a woman, a worm. in his greatest moment of glory,
in his greatest moment of accomplishment. The father turned his back on
his son. Why? Because he can't look on sin.
And humanly speaking, our Lord appeared as weak as he was controlling
every facet, even to the minutest detail, the events and the people
that were the actors in this divine scheme called salvation. Glorify thy son, Christ prayed. that thy son may glorify thee
according as thou hast given him power over all flesh. Now that simply means what it
means. Authority. Power. That's the
word authority. What does that mean? That means
you and I and everybody that walks and talks and whoever has
walked and talked is under Christ's authority. Simply, that's just
simply what it means. Do you believe the Bible? Some
people say, well, I don't believe that. Then you're an unbeliever.
If you can look at any portion of this book, any section, any
part, any line, any jot, any tittle of this book and say,
I don't believe it, you're an unbeliever. It's that simple. It's that simple. We don't get
to pick and choose. We didn't write this book. We
can't have an opinion on this book. To opine is to be a heretic
when it comes to the Word of God. With glory given and authority
exercised according to purpose, the surety of the accomplishment
was as good as done. In fact, it was done. A thing
purposed by God is done when it's purposed. What we see as
accomplishment is but the revelation of God's purpose. You want to
know what God's doing in this world? You can't see what He's
doing. You can't figure it out. Read the paper. Find out. You want to know what God did
yesterday? Read yesterday's paper. Because everything that happened
in this world, what we might call good, bad, evil, whatever,
that's what God did. He's the sovereign over all things. Our Lord makes it very clear
that the purpose here reveals that those for whom he would
die would be given eternal life. That's the language. As thou
has given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou has given him. That's what the purpose
was. That's clearly set forth. He
has already established who it is that God has given to him. In John chapter 6 he said, All
that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I will know I was cast out, for I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
And this is my Father's will which has sent me, that of all
he has given me I should lose nothing. but raise it up again
in the last day. He said to those unbelievers
in John 10, you don't believe me because you're not my sheep.
My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me, and I've given them
eternal life. My father which gave them me is greater than
all, and no man's ever plucked him out of my father's hand. The glory of the father, the
glorification of the son, is the salvation of his people,
his elect, giving eternal life to as many as Christ has given
him. God can't be glorified. It means he did not glorify Christ
to accomplish this if Christ didn't accomplish it. He did
accomplish it. Eternal life is the thing most
treasured in the world. People talk about it. It is the
emphasis of every religion. Some form of eternal life. to
live forever, to return from the dead, to reincarnate, to
reside in a disembodied specter, in the invisible ether, are all
simply different ways of describing what men call eternal life. For
all religions say one, eternal life is the product of well-lived
life. For all religions say four, a life well started by the will
of man and finished by the works of the flesh. The Hindu keep
coming back until they get some right. The Muslim arrives at
obedience to the Quran. The radical Muslim achieves it
by blowing himself up or killing other people. The fundamentalist
gains it by generating or exercising faith, revealed by some sort
of public profession. The legalist arrives at it by
keeping the laws. The intellectually attained eternal
life is by proper doctrine. The moralist gets it by good
deeds. In truth, none of these have eternal life. Eternal life
is attained because the Father glorified the Son, that the Son
might glorify the Father, according as the Father had given him authority
over all flesh to give eternal life to him. This is what it
says. Eternal life never goes outside
this tight, distant community of the Father's and the Son.
Those who possess eternal life possess it because the Father
glorified the Son. So the Son will glorify Him.
in giving your trouble back to as many as God has given you. For a man to insinuate himself
into this great and successful transaction is to disavow the
Lord again. If a man is in this, the glory
is not. If you're in it, you had something
to do with it, the glory ain't there. God didn't glorify you
to glorify Him. He glorified His Son to glorify
Him, and the salvation of His people. The man is in it, the
glory is not there. If the glory is not, there is
no eternal life. God must be glorified by Jesus
Christ in the saving of his people in order for him to be glorified.
Since God has glorified the Son, in order for the Son to glorify
him, as many as God has given Christ have eternal life. This
is the record then, he that hath the Son hath life, he that hath
not the Son hath not life. First John said. What is eternal
life? That is a question worth asking
I suppose. Is it the length of life? Is
it the quality of life? Is it heaven and all its attendant
glory? Surely all these are involved in the mistake called eternal
life. Those who possess eternal life will live forever and never
die. They will live full, free, perfectly, and abundantly. They
will live glorified and everlasting joy in the new heaven and the
new earth. They will sing in harmony, worship in purity, forever
bask in the presence of the Savior. These things, rather than defining
eternal life, more accurately define the benefits of eternal
life. These things, for the most part, speak of a future estate,
an expectation, a spiritual hope, things to come, things to look
forward to. But eternal life is a singular
thing. It's a thing now possessed by those to whom it's given.
The life you have now as a child of God is never going to change
one lick when you go to glory. You're just going to leave something
behind. You're going to leave sin behind. You're going to leave
your flesh behind. But your life will be the same.
If you have eternal life, it ain't never going to change.
You have eternal life. Our Lord reveals what eternal
life is in a very precise and exact phrase in verse 3. He said,
This is eternal life. Can't get much clearer than that.
He didn't say this is one of the things that is eternal life.
This is among a multitude of many things that is eternal life.
He said, This, this is eternal life. This is eternal life. What is eternal life? According
to this, It's knowing God. To understand what this means,
what it does not mean, must be addressed. The reason for doing
so is that men may know God in a certain capacity, yet have
not eternal life. Knowing God in any other manner
than the manner that's spoken of here does not bring about eternal
life. In fact, it brings about condemnation. Men may know God in creation.
Didn't men talk about God creating all things? The Romans 1 says
that leaves men without excuse. Doesn't help them. Makes them
guilty. Men may know God in the Law and
Commandments, but only as God is incensed against sin and unrighteousness. In that capacity, God is not
guilty of mercy, love, and grace. Now such knowledge of guilt is
guilt and condemnation. Paul said, I have not known sin,
except by the law. I had not known what sin was
until Paul said, that's sin, what you do. This does not speak of knowing
God fully. Who can? That's the thing, it's the impossibleness.
We're finite creatures. He's an infinite God. We can't
know him. I think it was T.T. Shields, a great Canadian theologian,
said, we would sooner empty the Atlantic with a teaspoon than
we would ever find out God. No man can perceive the infinite,
the eternal. That is simply and finally outside
the scope of our knowledge. The secret things belong to God.
That's in which He's revealed belongs to us and our children.
You might see the whole world turn to smoke. Yet our Lord is clear. He says
it. This is eternal life. And you
might know God. The word and, Jesus Christ, the
word and is chi, which means even. I might know God, the true
and living God, even Jesus Christ, who is sin. In what manner does
knowing God equate with eternal life? This is how you know God. How? In the fact that Christ
accomplished salvation. That's how you know God. That's
the only way a man can know God. You can't know Him any other
way. This is how God is known. He sent His Son, glorified His
Son that His Son might glorify Him, that He might give eternal
life to as many as God has given Him. This is eternal life. You
might know Him. How? Outside of this context?
No way. It's within this context that God is known. The subject
and substance of this whole prayer is that God being glorified by
glorifying Christ to glorify Him for the purpose of giving
His people eternal life. This eternal life then is the
revelation of God in this singular capacity. And if you're a sinner,
and you are, whether you know it or not, if the Holy Ghost
has actually showed you what you are, in some degree of your
depravity, if God has shown you that you are a maggot on a dove
hill, if God has shown you that you're crippled, half lame, that
you drink iniquity like water, if God has shown you that you're
a scab on the universe, if God has shown you that, That's the
work of the Holy Spirit. The old poet said, the sinner
is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost has made it so.
Only that will be known. People admit they're not perfect.
Big deal. You know, but they'll probably
tell you along that way, but I'm not like old Joe Blow down
here. I can't forget y'all. You roast me, because you think
you're not like it. Eternal life is the revelation
of God here, in this capacity. The sacrifice of Christ declared
that God is just to justify the Lamb. that which he glorified,
that which he glorified Christ to accomplish, God glorified
in all his attributes. Grace, mercy, sovereignty, wrath,
justice, all of it is displayed on the cross, every bit of it. God is glorified as he revealed
in the gospel of the Son, good news, good tidings. The gospel
always works. What I do here has nothing to
do with me making anything happen. I can't make anything happen.
That's why we here don't give invitations. We don't press men
to do anything. We tell them what God has said
and back off. This salvation is God's business. Between Him
and His Son and His Spirit, that's how this takes place. Simply
stated, God is glorified as He's revealed in His gospel. Salvation is of the Lord. Christ the substitute for sinners.
This alone is knowing God. This is how we know God. No human
being can know God any other way. Except this way. Through the salvation that is
in Jesus Christ. How do we thus know God? We know
Him in the manner in which He is revealed to us by Christ.
Our Lord said that. Revelation. Revelation. Old Barnard used to get in all
kinds of trouble. He said, Gospels about Revelation. Here it is.
Our Lord, after men had rejected his message and rejected the
message of John the Baptist, he lifted his eyes to heaven
in Matthew chapter 11 and said, I thank thee, I thank thee, O
Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things
from the wise and the prudent and hast revealed them unto me.
Even so, for it seemed good in thy sight. No man knoweth the
Father, but the Son. No man knoweth the Son, but the
Father. And he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Gospels by revelation. We know
Him in this manner only as He's revealed. We know God in this
manner by knowing Christ by God-given faith. We know Christ, we know
God. In fact, Christ is the God we
know. He's the God revealed. He came
and revealed the father. How? By showing us that he's
the father. I said, that can't be. Who was it? Was it Philip that said, show
us the father? He said, you seen me? You seen the father. In him dwelt the fullness of
the Godhead body. We know it isn't God in this
manner, but God giving faith. And that's how you have faith.
You're not born with it, God has to give it to you. This is
knowing God. This is eternal life. One, knowing
God and the capacity of the sovereign, successful Savior of His people. May God give you faith to believe
the gospel. Father, bless this understanding.
Bring Christ to me.