The Gospel of Luke (41):Christ’s Disciples, a Blessed People 10/15/2023

We who are strong have an obligation to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please

ourselves.

Let each of us please his neighbor for his good to build him up.

For Christ did not please himself.

But as it is written the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me.

For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction.

That through endurance and through the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.

May the God of endurance and encouragement Grant you to live in such harmony with one another in

accord with Christ Jesus.

That together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you for the glory of God.

For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to

confirm the promises given to the patriarchs and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God

for his mercy as It is written therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing

of your name and Again, it is said rejoice.

Oh Gentiles with his people and again Praise the Lord all you Gentiles and let all the

peoples extol him and Again, Isaiah says the root of Jesse will come

even he who arises to rule the Gentiles in him.

Will the Gentiles hope?

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit

You may abound in hope.

I Myself am Satisfied about you my brothers that you yourselves are full of goodness

Filled with all knowledge and able to instruct one another.

But on some points I have written to you very boldly by way of reminder Because of the grace given me by God

to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God so

that the offerings of the Gentiles may be acceptable sanctified by the Holy Spirit in

Christ Jesus then I have reason to be proud of my work for God.

For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to

obedience By word and deed by the power of signs and wonders by the power of the Spirit of

God.

So that from Jerusalem and all the way around to Elycrium I have fulfilled the ministry of the

gospel of Christ and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel Not where Christ has already been

named lest I build on someone else's foundation.

But as it is written those who have never been told of him will see and those who have never heard will

understand.

This is the reason why I have so often been hindered from coming to you.

But now since I no longer have any room for the work For work in these regions and

since I have longed for many years to come to you I hope to see you in passing as I go to Spain and to

be helped on my journey there by you Once I have enjoyed your company for a while

at present.

However, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the Saints for Macedonia and Achaia.

Have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the Saints at Jerusalem.

For they were pleased to do it and indeed they owe it to them.

For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings They ought also to be of service to them in

material blessings.

When therefore I have completed this and am delivered and have delivered to them What has been collected

I will leave for Spain by way of you.

I know that when I come to you, I will come in the fullness of the blessing of Christ.

I Appeal to you brothers by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit to strive together with me

in your prayers to God on my behalf that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea and That

my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the Saints so that by God's will I may come to you with

joy and be Refreshed in your company.

May the God of peace be with you all.

Amen.

Let's pray Heavenly Father.

We thank you for this morning where we could gather together as Those who have been

called out of darkness and placed in the kingdom of your beloved Son.

We have been given light.

We have been given your word.

We've been given your spirit and we pray Lord that as we Lift up your word through its preaching

that we would be attentive to what it says.

We asked Lord that you would teach us and guide us in all of these truths.

Be with pastor Lars as he proclaims this truth.

We pray that as we hear it that we would be moved and that we would obey.

Thank you Lord for this time in Jesus name.

Amen.

Nursery workers and nursery kids are dismissed right now.

Thanks.

Well, let's turn in our Bibles.

Once again to Luke chapter 10.

Today, we want to address the teaching of our Lord in verses 21 through 24.

However for us to better understand the context of our Lord's words we want to read

Few verses that we addressed last week.

Which lead up to our passage and so verses 17 through 24 of

Luke 10.

Then the 70 returned with joy saying Lord Even the demons are subject to us

In your name.

And he said to them.

I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

And behold I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the

enemy and Nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this that the spirits are subject to you.

But rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.

In that our Jesus Rejoiced in the spirit and said I thank you father Lord

of heaven and earth.

That you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes.

Even so father for so it seemed good in your sight.

All things have been delivered to me by my father.

No one knows who the son is except the father and who the father is except the son and the one to

whom the son Wills to reveal him.

Then he turned to his disciples and said privately Blessed are the eyes which see the things you

see.

For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see and have not seen it and To

hear what you hear and have not heard it.

We read of the return of the 70 disciples from their short -term missionary journey and they're

rejoicing in the success that they they had in their work in their ministry.

So they declared with jubilation Lord even the demons are subject to us

in your name.

And our Lord acknowledged that what was taking place was a glorious thing.

The devil's authority was deposed his power to bind and enslave souls was broken Through the

authority of Jesus Christ in whose name they went.

And so Jesus said I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Behold I gave you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt

you.

But then the Lord corrected them and instructed them not to rejoice in their ministerial

accomplishments.

But rather they were to rejoice that they themselves had been the objects of God's favor.

They were the beneficiaries of God's sovereign saving grace.

Their primary reason for their joy should be due to them having been the recipients of God's salvation

and their names were inscribed in the heavenly record signifying they were God's property and That their

destiny was inscribed in the heavenly record.

Your names are written there signifying they were God's property and their destiny was certain and

secure and So their salvation by God's sovereign grace was to be the reason for them

to rejoice.

Far above the fact that they were seeing miracles performed through

Jesus name.

Now the Lord had declared to his disciples.

Your names are written in heaven our Lord

was alluding to the Lamb's Book of Life and we read about in the scriptures and it's referenced in several

places.

Paul mentioned it to the Christians in Philippi when he was urging a couple women

to get along better in the church.

I urge you also true companion help these women who labored with me in the gospel with Clement also and the

rest of my fellow workers whose names are in the book of life.

But it's in the last book of the Bible the book of Revelation.

Where the book of life is mentioned seven more times Revelation 13

John wrote of those who were not written in that book.

Those who worship the beast out of the sea all who dwell on the earth will worship him whose names have not been

written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

In Revelation 17 8 John was directed to consider

another beast.

Whose followers were also not in the book of life.

The beast that you saw was and is not will ascend out of the bottomless pit and go to perdition.

Damnation damnation.

And those who dwell on the earth will marvel whose names are not written in the book of life.

They're fascinated by this beast.

If we had the time we could talk about the beast and what that symbolizes, but we don't.

Another time perhaps.

And so John wrote of them who are not written in that book of life.

But it's the only in the last three chapters of the Bible Revelation 2021 and 22.

Where we read of the book of life most clearly and fully.

It's actually there are four times in the last three chapters that the book of life is mentioned.

John recorded in Revelation 20 verse 12 and following these words regarding the book of life opened at the

general judgment of mankind at the end of history.

And I saw the dead small and great standing before God and the books were open and we understand this to be a general

judgment of all mankind on the last day.

And Another book was open thankfully.

Which is the book of life and the dead were judged according to their works by the things which were written in the books.

Everything that we've ever thought done.

Spoken our attitudes everything is scrutinized.

The sea gave up the dead who were in it.

There's no escaping that day of judgment.

Cremation doesn't do it.

Even the sea will give up the dead who are in it.

Death and Hades that would be the the grave and then the place where the souls of the

the damned are Will deliver it up.

The dead were in them and they were judged each one according to his works.

Death and Hades.

Were cast into the lake of fire.

This is the second death and Anyone not found written in the book of life was cast into

the lake of fire.

So the book of life is all important, isn't it?

And then in Revelation 21 read we read that only those whose names are written in this book will be allowed to dwell in the New

Jerusalem.

They alone have salvation.

And so John described the city that he saw.

The city had no need of the Sun or the moon to shine in it for the glory of God illuminated it.

The Lamb is the light and The nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light.

The kings of the earth bring their glory and honor into it.

Its gate shall not be shut at all by day.

There shall be no night there.

And they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.

But there shall by no means enter it anything that defiles or causes an abomination or a lie but

only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life and so the book of life

is Here alluded to as being belonging to Jesus Christ.

It's his book of life.

And then the last words of the Bible give a warning not to tamper with the Word of God by either adding to it or Taken away from

it.

For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book if anyone adds to these things God

will add to him the plagues that are written in this book.

And if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the book of

life.

From the Holy City and from the things which are written in this book.

What then is the land's book of life.

Greg Beale wrote this book of life in his comments on Revelation 13.

The phrase book of life appears five other times in the Apocalypse.

That's the Greek name for the Revelation in each case as here it is a

metaphor for saints whose salvation Has been determined.

Their names have been entered into the census book of the eternal New Jerusalem Before history

began which is explicitly affirmed in 2127 even before

creation the land's book of life the names of all

Those elected by God the Father given as gifts to his son.

They were inscribed in this book of life.

And then he talks about the genitive that's a form of noun.

Set forth in the words of life the genitive of life denotes the nature of purpose of the book.

The book is a picture of security in the eternal city and the genitive Clarifies what kind of

security is provided.

The Saints are given the protection of eternal life.

So there's protection preservation For all those whose names are written there.

And so all those redeemed through history by Jesus Christ the Lamb of God.

Both Old Testament and New Testament believers have had their names inscribed in this book of life from eternity.

It's a list of those chosen by the Father from among fallen humanity that he purposed to save from their sin through

Jesus Christ and to deliver and protect them from Satan his enemy and their enemy and

Again, Beal wrote of God's protection of his people whose names are written in this book.

Genuine believers have assurance that their souls can weather any satanic storm because of the

safety accorded by the Lamb's book.

The safety is the pre creation before creation.

Identification of God's people with the Lamb's death, which means that they also identify with his resurrection

life.

Which protects them from spiritual death and ultimate deception.

No one can take this life from them.

And so Jesus speaks about his disciples there after they came back and

were rejoicing that even the Devil and demons Satan's minions were subjected

to them through Jesus name.

Jesus speaks of them their names written in heaven and that's what you ought to rejoice in.

That is the reason why you were able to conquer these forces and they could not harm you.

Because you're secure your salvation secure and therefore you ought to rejoice in this.

Well, we now arrive in verses 21 through 23, which read about Jesus rejoicing.

In that hour Jesus rejoiced in the spirit and said I thank you father Lord of heaven and earth that you've

hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes.

Even so father for so it seemed good in your sight.

All things have been delivered to me by my father and no one knows who the son is except the father and who the father

Is except the son and the one to whom the son wills to reveal him.

This whole passage is permeated with the sovereignty of God in his sovereign grace.

Is it not?

And then he turned to his disciples and said privately blessed are the eyes Which see the things you see

for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see.

Have not seen it and hear what you hear and have not heard it heard it.

So upon the return of the 70 Disciples from their mission of preaching the imminent coming of the

kingdom of God.

They were on their way to Jerusalem.

We read in verse 21 that Jesus rejoiced greatly which led him to offer a prayer of thanksgiving to his father

in the hearing of his disciples.

He wanted them to hear his prayer to the father and having this prayer

recorded for us by Luke's pen.

We have a better understanding of our Lord's relationship with his father and know what kinds of things that should be a

cause of our own rejoicing.

If they cause Jesus to rejoice they ought to cause us to rejoice as his people.

And then in verse 22 We read that Jesus declared a great truth to his disciples that he Jesus Christ is the

supreme Revealer of God to mankind and that he Jesus Must perform this work of

revealing God if one is to know God savingly He is the only way of

salvation and then in verses 23 and 24 Jesus informed his

disciples of their great blessing of God and that they are observers and participants in the dawning of the

promised age of salvation the inauguration of the kingdom of God and so in these verses

That are before us verses 21 through 24 we have a threefold message.

Verse 21.

We have Jesus's prayer of thanksgiving.

In verse 22 we have Jesus's proclamation of truth and Then thirdly in verse 23

and 24. We have his pronouncement of blessing.

So there we have our Outline for the morning.

Let's work through these first Jesus's prayer of thanksgiving.

We first read of our Lord offering a prayer of thanksgiving to his father in that hour Jesus rejoiced in the

spirit and said I thank you father Lord of heaven and earth.

That you've hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes even so father.

For so it seemed good in your sight.

We read in the first words of verse 21 in that hour Jesus rejoiced in the spirit.

Our Lord Jesus was known as a man of sorrows acquainted with grief

Isaiah 53 3 that you Read this morning if you're following our reading

chart, Isaiah 53 He was not known as a man or yesterday rather.

He was not known as a man who frequently expressed joy.

He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief.

We can assume that he must have expressed joy on other occasions, but it's not recorded.

In.

John 17 13 we read he referred to his joy in another prayer to his father.

But now I come to you and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.

He must have been characterized by joy.

But it wasn't expressed for interesting late here in verse

121 of Luke 10 is the only place in the New Testament in which we read of Jesus Christ

rejoicing.

I'm gonna modify that a little bit.

There is allusion to that of him rejoicing in Hebrews 2 and also the book of Revelation.

But in the Gospels, this is the only place that's mentioned that Jesus was rejoicing.

He was a man of sorrows as the prophet Isaiah had foretold.

But here he rejoiced in the spirit that is while filled and led by the Holy Spirit to offer this prayer.

He rejoiced and yet even as we recognize the grief and

sorrows that he experienced continually.

We should not think that it so adversely affected him as grief and sorrows may overwhelm us.

He knew not what it was to be what we called depressed.

There was a calmness and serenity that characterized his own soul even in the midst of great trials.

Spurgeon I'm going to quote him a few times this morning.

Alluded to this in his description of Jesus on this occasion the habitual state of mind of Jesus

was I think a deep calm.

Beyond all ordinary men he possessed his soul in peace.

We find him sleeping in the midst of a storm the very best thing that he could do.

He knew that rocked in the cradle of the deep and the cradle rocking in the ship in the storm.

Rocked in the cradle of the deep by his great father.

He was supremely safe.

And so finding a pillow going near the stern of the ship he fell asleep.

But there were times when his spirit ebbed out.

He was always a man of sorrows.

The surface of his soul was often disturbed with storms of grief.

And then we read that Jesus wept.

Sometimes however the tide was at the flood and so here we read and that our Jesus

rejoiced in spirit.

It's very seldom that we read this so seldom.

Did he show his joy that it was recorded at once by the evangelist being Luke.

Luke took care to note that even as others had mentioned his tears Jesus was a man of constant

grief a mourner all his days and yet at times the deep calm of his spirit was stirred by

something other than the north wind.

The south wind blew and all with joyous and bright with him in that our Jesus

rejoiced in spirit.

What caused Jesus such joy?

Well, we read the content of his prayer.

I Thank you father Lord of heaven and earth that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed

them to babes.

First we see that Jesus addressed his father.

All things good and wholesome are due to the activity of God the Father toward us.

We have a good God who rules the world even though the world is populated by evil people.

And so if and when anything good comes to us, it must come from God our Father.

As James wrote every good gift and perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of lights.

They should cause us in return to praise and thanksgiving to him whenever we recognize his goodness in the world.

We ought to be thanking God continuously.

Jesus thanked his father as should we.

Now praise of God and thanksgiving should have certain elements first.

It must be expressed obviously spoken in Words voice to the Father.

Second our praise of God must be an expression of heartfelt thanksgiving.

We ought to mean it and third it should contain an acknowledgement of something for something specific He has

done or for some attribute that is his.

That should be the content of our praying all the time throughout every day.

Thank you God for preserving me through this.

For helping me in this for the beautiful weather.

You've given us for the beautiful world.

You've given us for the recoveries.

You've given us the health.

You've given us the friends you've given us for the ministry.

You've given us.

Thank you.

We ought to be a thank filled people to our God who got our father.

We should always be praising our father for specific things He does as an earthly father should receive the

heartfelt verbal expressions of thanksgiving from his children.

Our Heavenly Father should receive no less.

He should receive much more and here Jesus God's Son expresses praise to his father.

Well in Jesus thanking his father he acknowledged this regarding the father.

I thank you father Lord of heaven and earth.

That's quite a claim.

Now many will grant God's reign in heaven.

But Jesus acknowledged the sovereign father's control on earth.

Also Who is in control of this world God the devil or man?

Who's in control of what's falling out in the Middle East right now as evil and wicked as so much is

occurring.

The Christian should answer without hesitation reservation.

God.

The Father is the Lord of heaven and earth.

I Thank you for that and I thank you for his accomplishing his purposes in history.

Well one might object what about the unsaved who refuse to acknowledge him.

God the Father is ruler over heaven and earth whether anyone on earth Acknowledges it.

God is the sovereign ruler over all his creatures.

All are under his control.

Christian and non -christian though.

They may be ignorant of his dealings with them.

Paul recorded in Acts 17, to a pagan crowd in Athens, he

taught them God gives life and breath and everything else, that God determines the times in which we

live, and also that God determines the exact places where people live.

God is sovereign over your life.

God is in sovereign control of all men even in their sin.

The Lord is sovereign.

And so we read in the scriptures that God restrains the sin of unbelievers.

The pagan king protested, I didn't sin against her, I know I kept you from sinning, God told

Abimelech.

He gives men over to sin, Romans 1, that's what we see in our world today, don't we?

God giving people over to sin.

Sin itself is a punishment for sin, ultimately leading to death.

Death.

God confounds the mighty and overthrows the wicked in their craftiness, and he controls Satan

and Satan controlled men.

Yes, Satan is the God of this age, but only in as much as God the Father allows him to have his way.

God gives the wicked, they're given over to Satan's reign to the end that they might be ruined.

But God says, this far and no more, and with respect to the wickedness of the devil and man as well,

this far no more.

And therefore, praise should be given to this.

I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.

God must be sovereign over all if the next words are to be understood and embraced.

Here the Lord Jesus gets specific as to where our sovereign God exercises control.

It's in the arena of salvation.

Jesus prayed, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and prudent.

So here we see the Lord Jesus thanking God, praising God, rejoicing in his

spirit for something that his Father does that many people despise,

namely God's sovereignty or control in salvation.

Is God trying to save everybody in the world?

He must be a very frustrated, defeated deity if that's the case.

He wouldn't be deity at all, would he?

Of course not.

To assert such a thing would be an assertion that God has the best of intentions but is powerless to bring them to pass.

That's not the God of the Bible.

That's not only dishonoring God, it's really blaspheming his name.

The scriptures say the Lord Jesus stated that God is bringing his power to bear to prevent salvation for the wise and

learned.

There is such a thing as God's judicial and righteous hardening of sinners to their own just damnation.

And God is right and just in doing that.

And Jesus rejoiced over the fact you hide this from the wise and prudent.

God is not one to be found for he hides the truth of salvation from sinners.

He must in his grace and mercy reveal himself or he's not going to be known.

He must bestow grace, open understanding if he's to be known in his saving presence and power.

You can be the brightest person in this place.

You may have the best education that money can buy and privilege can secure but you're unable to

come to know God unless he is pleased to reveal himself to you.

God is sovereign in this.

He's the Lord of heaven and earth.

And if you're proud in your intelligence and have confidence in your education that it will be sufficient,

we can guarantee you on the basis of God's word you'll never know him savingly.

For he will bring his power to bear toward this end to hide himself and his saving knowledge about himself

thereby prohibiting you from seeing and hearing.

He didn't come into the world to call the self -righteous but sinners to repentance.

Like one old preacher who's with the Lord now, a guy named Henry Mahan, I remember a sermon he preached 40

years ago and it talked about how a sinner is a hard thing to find.

You go out and find a humble, self -confessed, guilty sinner.

A sinner is a rarity.

It's hard to find.

But you find a man like that, you can tell him you have a savior for him.

A sinner is a precious thing, as Spurgeon once wrote.

The Holy Ghost has made him so.

Now what should our attitude be toward God with respect to these matters?

God is sovereign in the dispensing of his salvation.

Mere acquiescence, that's how some people are.

Well yes, I see it so in the scriptures, God is sovereign.

I wish it were not so, but it is.

No, that should not be our attitude.

We should have the same attitude as our Lord Jesus.

I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned.

We should be thankful that God hides himself from the proud and self -righteous.

It's a good thing that God does, is righteous, and Jesus rejoiced in it.

But Jesus did not stop there.

We read in Jesus's prayer, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned,

and revealed them unto babes, that is, little children.

And so here the Lord is describing his disciples metaphorically as little children, literally infants.

A child is teachable by nature, and teachableness is the first step toward knowing God and coming to salvation.

But the attitude that I already know, or I know enough, or I know those things, or I did

that, I've heard that expressed, will bring one to experience God's

judicial blinding of the mind and hardening of the heart, thereby securing your judgment.

A child is teachable by nature.

A child is inquisitive.

The question, why?

You know, how many times has a parent heard that from a little one?

Why?

They're inquisitive.

A child does not have preconceived ideas and settled opinions by which he rejects all things.

He is unspoiled by learning, and therefore learns rapidly.

Now indirectly and subtly, our Lord is contrasting his disciples with the current leadership in Judaism,

who are wise and educated by human standards, but totally void of any true saving knowledge of God.

And so the term little children is given to contrast greatly these two groups, whereas the religious leaders were

rejecting Christ, his disciples were humble, teachable, responsive to who he was and what he was teaching them.

When God begins to do a work in a person's life, when God begins to reveal himself to a soul, he does so by first

making the person to become as a little child.

He brings that adult to question all he has ever known about himself, about the world, and about God.

He leads him to abandon all confidence in self, strips him of self -reliance.

He shows the folly and emptiness of all man -shaped religion ordered by the traditions of ignorant.

Men.

He dispels any notion of human philosophy, which seeks to explain the world and man's existence in the world,

and seeks to explain God and man's sociological or historical quest for a God.

He begins to see the folly of these things.

He begins to see that his philosophy and other philosophy is foolishness.

He comes to believe, as one once put it, the history of philosophy is a record of the insanities of mankind,

a catalog of lunacies.

I've had a few philosophy courses over the years, and that is certainly a true description.

The one wrought upon by the sovereign grace of God abandons these things, and he sees it ignorance, and everybody

else's ignorance that ever instructed him, and he begins to seek a wisdom and understanding that can come from God

alone.

He enrolls as a little child, starting his education all over again in the school of Christ.

Now, there will be a day when all will be humbled and brought to see their spiritual ignorance and culpability.

Every knee will bow and confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father, but most of this will

take place on the day of judgment, of course.

But for those who have become Christians, okay, they come to see it

now, don't they, in this life.

The objects of his mercy and grace in this life, God accelerates this process, and he humbles us.

He brings us to an end of ourselves in the present time.

He strips us of any sense of personal merit before God, makes us

painfully aware of ignorance regarding God.

We abandon all confidence in self -effort, we repudiate any form of self -righteousness, we

cry out for God's mercy and forgiveness for our obstinacy and ignorance, and we

humbly ask God to reveal himself or we'll perish.

And if you are, as this person just described, take heart, God has designs on you.

It is his good pleasure to reveal himself to one such as you.

If you were, as a child, seeking after truth, if you're crying after it, if you long to have God reveal truth to you in

Christ, you're the sort of person whom God in his sovereignty looks with divine favor.

Unto such as you are, he will reveal himself, and we should thank God that this is so.

But ultimately, why should we praise God for these things?

Jesus prayed.

In that hour, Jesus rejoiced in the Spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden

these things from the wise and prudent, revealed them to babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in your

sight.

We should desire most of all that God's will be done.

We're to desire and delight when God is glorified in all that is done.

And in a sovereign dispensing of the blessings of salvation on the unwise and uneducated who are incapable of

taking any credit for their salvation, God is greatly glorified, isn't he?

He alone gets the credit.

In fact, Paul argued in 1 Corinthians, that's why God chooses the stupid and the weak

and the frail and the terrible sinful, so that no flesh can glory

in his presence.

He saves people like you and me.

It is no wonder that our Lord rejoiced greatly when he contemplated that the disciples standing before him were citizens of the

eternal kingdom of God over which he would reign forever.

They had weighed successful ministry, delivering people who had been held captive by the devil.

And the reason for this is because their names were written in heaven in the Lamb's book of life.

And so we read that the Lord Jesus himself, filled with joy, lifted his heart before his Father, offered this

prayer of thanksgiving in which he thanks his Father for revealing, bringing salvation to some and hiding

his salvation from others.

And this is what the Lord is doing in history.

And he glorifies himself in bringing salvation, he glorifies himself in not bringing salvation

to the self -righteous.

Well, after that prayer of Jesus, we have this proclamation of truth in verse 22.

After Jesus thanked his Father for the salvation of his disciples and for not disclosing his salvation to the

proud and righteous, he made this statement of truth regarding his sole authority and ability to reveal God

savingly to sinners.

All things have been delivered to me by my Father.

No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one to whom the Son

wills to reveal him.

This verse is a very important statement, which answers several questions which are frequently asked.

Namely, is there salvation available in other religions?

This question was posed to me yesterday morning.

Cannot one know God and have the merits of Christ's death applied to some although they do not hear of Christ?

Jesus said, all things have been delivered to me by my Father.

No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and the one

to whom the Son wills to reveal him.

There's four statements here.

Let's consider each of them quickly.

First, Jesus declared all things have been committed to me by my Father.

This is a statement which declares that all things, presumably all power and authority,

has been given to Jesus Christ.

He is the sovereign Lord.

Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth.

God the Father is Lord of heaven and earth.

He's given all things onto his Son.

Everything with respect to salvation.

Jesus Christ, God's Son, was given all things whereby he could and would secure the salvation of

God's people.

As Matthew Henry wrote on this, the vast confidence that the Father puts in the Son, all things are

delivered to me by my Father.

All wisdom and knowledge, all power and authority, all the grace and comfort which are intended for the chosen

remnant.

It's all delivered into the hands of the Lord Jesus.

In him all fullness must dwell, and from him it must be derived.

He is the great trustee that manages all the concerns of God's kingdom.

We should understand the Father committing all things onto Jesus Christ speaks of the authority of the Father entrusted to Jesus

Christ in his incarnation.

In eternity, all things already belong to the eternal Son, for he's co -equal with the.

Father.

They had the, you know, the divine attributes in common, one God.

But in the incarnation, God the Father committed to Jesus, the

God -man, all that he needed as promised Messiah in order to secure the salvation of his

people.

Paul wrote of this in Colossians 1, 19 and 20.

It pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to

himself by him, whether things on earth, things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of his cross.

And so Jesus is speaking about himself as the Messiah, as the Son of Man.

All things have been given to him.

The second and third clauses of this statement, of Jesus' statement, should be considered.

Together.

The first declared, no one knows who the Son is except the Father.

And then secondly, no one knows who the Father is except the Son.

And so these words probably express this idea, as no son can be known as a true son except by his own

father, and as no father can be known as a true father except by his own son, so in the same way, no one

truly knows Christ as his Son except God the Father, and no one can truly know God as his Father except his Son,

Jesus Christ.

And by the way, this is one of the clear statements of the deity of Jesus Christ in the scriptures.

For the Father and the Son to know one another intimately and fully, they must both possess infinite qualities or

attributes.

To do so shows that the Father and his Son are one God.

They know one another intimately.

Jesus Christ declared the exclusive nature of the Christian faith.

The Bible tells us no one has seen God at any time.

The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him.

You see Jesus, you see God.

The only way that people can come to know the true God is if the Father reveals himself, and

he's chosen to reveal himself only through his Son, Jesus Christ.

There's no knowing God apart from knowing his Son.

Christianity is the only true religion that exists.

Now that's not popular in this world, this will get you hate, you know, hate speech

said about you.

All other claims to know God are false claims.

For only his one and only Son knows him, and is therefore the only one who can reveal him to people.

We make no apology for that.

The fourth statement follows, and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

The Lord Jesus in his prayer is asserting that he is the sovereign mediator or the sovereign dispenser of

salvation.

Listen, unless Jesus dispenses salvation, people will not be saved.

There is no salvation apart from him.

You cannot come to know God apart from coming to know Jesus Christ.

There's no hope of salvation apart from Christ.

No other religion can discover God in order to relate to him as Father.

God's Son, Jesus Christ, must reveal him as Father.

Christ is God's revelation of himself to man sufficient for salvation.

God said of his Son, this is my beloved Son, hear him.

People want to know God.

God says, here's my Son, hear him.

He's the only way to know him.

God although loving and kind and merciful to all, nevertheless has no designs or means of salvation outside of Jesus

Christ.

Without him, when separate from Christ, men are lost without hope, without God in the.

World.

Ephesians 2, 12.

And so it's only through faith in Jesus Christ, who is atoning blood, can one even hope to approach God.

But Jesus was saying more than he was the only way to obtain salvation.

Further, as a sinner, you cannot become a Christian unless Jesus Christ chooses, purposes, and

effectually reveals God the Father savingly to you.

Christ has to act on your behalf and in you, or you're not going to know God.

He was saying that if a sinner will have salvation, it must be to Jesus Christ choosing and

purposing to reveal salvation to him.

Jesus Christ is sovereign.

That sovereignty has been entrusted to the Son by the Father.

The only way you can initially come to know God in a relational sense as Father is if when Jesus

Christ chooses to reveal himself to you.

It's not a matter of one's sincerity, one's earnestness, one's own effort.

Something has to be done for you and in you before you can have salvation, and that work of grace can only be

performed by Jesus Christ if and when he wills to do so.

There's no knowing God as Father except by his one and only Son, who must reveal him as

such to needy sinners.

This is a statement so clear, the sovereignty of God in salvation.

When Arthur Pinck was setting forth the sovereignty of God in salvation, he sought to reason with his Christian reader in

order for him to see that his salvation was due to the sovereign grace of God.

And so here are Pinck's words, and I'm going to quote from Pinck and Spurgeon a few times here.

Friend, was there not a time when you walked in the counsel of the ungodly, stood in the way of sinners, sat in the

seat of scorners, and with them said, we will not have this man reign over us?

Was there not a time when you would not come to Christ that you might have life?

Yes.

Was there not a time when you mingled your voice with those who said unto God, depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy

ways?

What is he almighty that we should serve him?

What profit should we have if we pray to him?

Job 21.

With shamed face you have to acknowledge there was, but how is it that all is now changed?

What was it that brought you from haughty self -sufficiency to a humble suppliant?

From one that was at enmity with God to one who is at peace with him, from lawlessness to subjection, from hate to

love.

As one born of the spirit, you will readily reply, by the grace of God, I am what I am.

And do you not see that it is due to no lack of power in God, nor to his

refusal to coerce man that other rebels are not saved also?

In other words, it's by God's purpose.

If God was able to subdue your will and win your heart and that without interfering with your moral responsibility,

you freely chose to, but it's because of him working grace, then is he not able to do the same for

others?

God can save anyone, can't he?

Assuredly he is.

Then how inconsistent, how illogical, how foolish of you in seeking to account for the present course of the wicked and

their ultimate fate to argue that God is unable to save them, that they will not let him.

That's blasphemous.

Do you say, but the time came when I was willing, willing to receive Christ as my savior?

True, but it was the Lord who made you willing.

Why then does he not make all sinners willing?

Why?

But for the fact that he is sovereign and does as he pleases.

God is God and you and I are not.

Charles Spurgeon wrote of the occasion when he became convinced of the doctrine of God's sovereignty and his own salvation.

This was after he was a Christian.

Well, can I remember the manner in which I learned the doctrines of grace in a single instant?

Born as all of us are by nature in our minion, you know, I'm saved by my free will.

I still believe the old things I had heard continually from the pulpit and did not see the grace of God.

When I was coming to Christ, I thought I was doing it all myself.

And though I sought the Lord earnestly, I had no idea the Lord was seeking me.

I do not think the young convert is at first aware of this.

I can recall the very day and hour when first I received those truths in my own soul, when they were, as John Bunyan says,

burnt into my heart as with a hot iron.

And I can recollect how I felt that I had grown on a sudden from a babe into a man

that I had made progress in scriptural knowledge through having found once for all the clue to the truth of

God.

One weeknight when I was sitting in the house of God, I was not thinking much about the preacher's sermon,

for I did not believe it.

The thought struck me.

How did you come to be a Christian?

I sought the Lord.

But how did you come to seek the Lord?

And the truth flashed across my mind in a moment.

I should not have sought him unless there had been some previous influence in my mind to make me seek him.

I prayed, thought I, but then I asked myself, how came I to pray?

I was induced to pray by reading the scriptures.

How came I to read the scriptures?

I did read them, but what led me to do so?

And then in a moment, I saw that God was at the bottom of it all and that he was the author of my faith.

And so the whole doctrine of grace opened up to me.

And that doctrine, I have not departed from this to this day.

I desire to make this my constant confession.

I ascribe my change wholly to God.

And then Spurgeon wrote, and it was in the same essay, A Defense of

Calvinism, Spurgeon also wrote of the folly of thinking that people are saved

solely due to their free will rather than due to God's sovereign grace.

Please don't misunderstand.

Everybody who comes to Christ comes willingly.

They want to, but the only reason they do is because God has given them a new heart so that

they do want to, or they never would have wanted to.

I suppose there are some persons whose mind naturally inclined toward the doctrine of.

Free will.

I can only say that mine inclines as naturally towards the doctrines of sovereign grace.

Sometimes when I see some of the worst characters in the street, I feel as if my heart must burst forth in tears of gratitude

that God has never let me act as they have done.

I have thought if God had left me alone and had not touched me by his grace, what a great sinner I should have been.

I should have run to the utmost lengths of sin, dived into the very depths of evil, nor should I have

stopped at any vice or folly if God had not restrained me.

I feel that I should have been a very king of sinners if God had let me alone.

I cannot understand the reason why I am saved except upon the ground that God would have.

It so.

I cannot, if I look ever so earnestly, discover any kind of reason in myself why I should be a

partaker of divine grace.

If I am not at this moment without Christ, it is only because Christ Jesus would have his will with me, and that

will was that I should be with him where he is and should share his glory.

I can put the crown nowhere but upon the head of him whose mighty grace has saved me from going down

into the pit.

Looking back on my past life, I can see the dawning of it all was of God, of God effectively.

I took no torch with which to light the sun, but the sun enlightened me.

I did not commence my spiritual life, no, I rather kicked and struggled against the things of the Spirit.

When he drew me for a time, I did not run after him.

There was a natural hatred in my soul of everything holy and good.

Wooings were lost upon me, warnings were cast to the wind, thunders were despised, and for the whispers

of his love they were rejected as being less than nothing in vanity.

But sure I am, I can say now, speaking on behalf of myself, he only is my salvation.

It was he who turned my heart, brought me down on my knees before him.

I can in very deed say with dodgerage and top lady in their hymns, grace taught my soul to pray and made

my eyes o 'erflow.

And coming to this moment, I can add, his grace has kept me to this day and will not.

Let me go.

We who are saved should pray to our Father, respecting ourselves even while rejoicing.

I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth.

You've hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes, even so, Father, for so it

seemed good in your sight.

If you're a Christian, it's because it seemed good in God's sight that he'd set his love.

Upon you.

And he would not let the devil have you forever, he

purposed to save you through Christ.

Well, then thirdly and lastly, we have this pronouncement of blessing, verses 23 and 24.

Then he turned to his disciples and said, privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things you see,

for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see what you see, have not seen it, and to hear what you hear and have

not heard it.

These disciples were recipients of great blessing, for they were witnessing the onset of the Messianic

age.

Prophets and kings looked and longed to see and experience what these disciples and all true disciples were experiencing.

The time of fulfillment had come.

The long -expected kingdom of God had arrived.

God had visited them with salvation from sin's penalty and power in the person of Jesus Christ.

It was a cause of great rejoicing.

Contrary to the teaching of some, Christ's kingdom was not postponed, put on hold, until the second coming.

They claimed that God offered Israel the Jewish thousand -year millennium on earth.

But when they rejected Jesus as their king, God withdrew that offer of the promised kingdom, which

will only be realized at the second coming of Christ.

Do not allow yourself to be told that it was.

That is false teaching.

We who know Christ do currently now enjoy the joy, peace, and righteousness as citizens of the kingdom of

God.

Christ's rejection by the Jews did not result in His promised kingdom being postponed until the second coming.

His crucifixion and resurrection was the very way and cause for the kingdom's inauguration.

He was made Lord of heaven and earth through His faithful obedience through life and even under

the death of the cross, and death could not hold Him.

God raised Him, He ascended to heaven, and sat down on His Father's throne,

and He is ruling as David's son over heaven and earth even now.

The Messiah must suffer rejection, death, and be raised the third day, or else He could not have been raised triumphant over

sin and death, and could not be seated with His Father in heaven on His throne.

And from His throne He poured out the Holy Spirit upon His people, whereby He transforms them into His people,

ordering their lives as children of God, exhibiting the behavior and character of their Father in heaven.

And so we are greatly blessed, as were these disciples, for indeed all the prophets from

Samuel on, as many as have spoken, have foretold these days, this current kingdom age.

And so if you know who Jesus is, and you've believed on Him fully, you've resolved to follow Him fully,

if you know Jesus in this manner, then you alone have the authority to be called the child of God.

For you know the Father, and you may call on Him as such.

But if you're not a true Christian, then you do not have the authority to call on God as your Father.

You must go to Christ His Son.

There's no other way to come into the Father but by Him.

Any other way, you'll be treated as a thief and a robber.

You must get to Christ, go to Christ, beseech Him to reveal God to you as Father.

Only He can.

We're hearing increasingly the great cry of secularists that religion is the great evil of the day.

We are the problem now, the world is increasingly becoming that.

They say that religion has caused more misery, death, destruction than any other force in history.

We would say that false religion is the cause of misery, death, and destruction.

Those secularists who denounce all religion except even the Christian faith believe that atheistic secularism

is the way of peace.

Go to the Middle East today and see if that's the way of peace.

No, the remedy the world needs is true religion, that which was declared to us by the prophets and the apostles,

which is revealed to us by the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

The statement of Jesus declares the Father has directed His Son to reveal Himself to some but not to others.

Because the Father has given all things to the Son, that means the ability and authority to overcome all resistance and obstacles,

Jesus able to reveal God to whomever He wills.

And this is in line with the truth that Jesus Himself prayed to His Father in John 17.

Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His Father in heaven, Father, the hour has come, glorify Your Son, that Your Son may

glorify You as You've given Him authority over all flesh, not just Christians,

all humanity, why?

So that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.

Those are the ones whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life from even before creation.

In our praying for the souls of men and women, boys and girls, let us ask that the Lord Jesus would graciously reveal

Himself and His Father to them for whom we are praying.

For unless He does, they will not understand and they will not come.

And then lastly, let's close with this thought.

Although great was the privilege of those disciples, we who possess the New

Testament in the completed revelation of God in Christ have still a greater privilege

than even they.

They indeed saw Him in the flesh, but we see Him in the New Testament not merely as the incarnate Son of God, but also as the

crucified one.

They didn't see Him as that yet.

And as the risen Redeemer and the glorified King of His church, and because of our

great privilege, because it's so great, great responsibility lies upon us.

The people at that time who rejected the revelation of God in Christ did not escape the divine judgment and so

much the more will those who reject the completed revelation of God and His Word in that they bring judgment

upon themselves.

Jesus Christ is all and in all, and we only can know God through Him.

And thankfully, He has revealed Himself to us.

Those of us who have turned from our sin and submitted to Him.

Jesus Christ, you are Lord.

You're not only Lord, you're my Lord.

You're my King, and I'm your servant.

I believe on you.

And salvation is promised to those who call upon Him as such.

Amen?

Amen.

Thank God.

Thank you, Father, for your Word and for this passage and for revealing to us the heart of

Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Help us, our God, to be fully confident in you, your Word, your ways, most of all in your

Son.

Help us to declare your Word faithfully, our God, without compromise in our fallen world, for we

know, our God, that you will summon those people whose names are already written in your book,

Lamb of God from eternity, and that they will come.

You've purposed to do it, and you've chosen to use us as instruments to bring this about.

We thank you for that, our God, for we pray these things in Jesus' name.

Amen.