Glory To The Father - [John 17:1-3]

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Well, it's our great joy, once again, to turn to God's Word. You know, we rejoice in His Word because it is the means by which
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God sanctifies us. It's the instrument by which we grow in grace and in which
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He molds us into the image of His dear Son. But, of course, we know that without the ministry of His Holy Spirit, who grants us eyes to see and ears to hear, that this is just print on a page.
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And so, before we turn to His Word, we need to seek His grace and ask that we may have this wisdom and understanding so that we may be nourished by it.
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So, why don't we begin in prayer? Almighty God, our
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Heavenly Father, we turn to You once more, wherever conscious of our need of You and that blessing which
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You alone can give us. And especially, Lord, when it comes to the things found in Your Holy Word, we ask that You would look upon us and have mercy on us.
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Grant us Your blessing. Give us understanding, we pray. But above all, show us the light of Your glory that we may praise
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You and You alone. Hear us as we come in the name of Your Son, our
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Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, when we examine the life of our
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Lord Jesus in the pages of Scripture, we find that He was consumed with ministry.
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And His ministry can be divided into three offices or three roles that He fulfilled.
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And the three offices which are ascribed to Christ are, anybody want to help? Prophet and priest and king.
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Now, He's a prophet in the wider sense of the word, which has the meaning of an inspired teacher.
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Although we frequently think of the word prophet as referring to one who foretells future events, the word prophet literally means one who speaks for God.
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Now, Moses was called a prophet in this same sense. And of course, Christ was foretold as a prophet who would be like unto
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Moses. Now, of course, we also know that Christ is both
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King of kings and Lord of lords. That He is above all and that He rules over all as God's appointed
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King. Scripture says this plainly. But today, it's His work as priest that we'll concern ourselves with.
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Now, Scripture paints a vivid picture of His priestly ministry. You remember, last year, we took a look at Hebrews chapter four, where it spoke of Jesus as our great high priest.
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We looked at chapter four, verses 14 and 15, which say, Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
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Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.
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So He is our great high priest. Scripture is explicit on that point. Now, you know, there were many priests in Israel and they served
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God and the temple day and night. But Jesus' priesthood is really different than all the others.
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His priesthood is unique. Now, one way, first of all, is that Jesus' priesthood is perpetual.
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He's without predecessor. There has never been another priest like Him. Of course,
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He's without successor as well. There will never be another. He made one offering for sin once for all, and it was the perfect sacrifice, which appeased the wrath of God and reconciled us.
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And so He is a perfect high priest. He is great in every way. Now, this morning, we'll take the opportunity to observe
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Jesus, this morning, this evening, to observe Jesus as He fulfills
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His role as our great high priest. And so we're going to see firsthand how He represents us before the throne of God, as we look at the inspired record of His ministry as found in the
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Gospel of John. And so I'll ask you to turn now to John and chapter 17.
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John 17. And today, we'll begin at verse 1.
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Now, this passage is commonly referred to as the high priestly prayer. And really, it's one of the most profound texts in all of Scripture.
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Now, this prayer is unique among the Gospels. The other Gospels all mention Christ praying.
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And some even record His prayers. But John 17 contains the longest recorded prayer of Jesus.
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Now, just as Moses was the typical mediator, because he spoke to God on behalf of the people, and then he spoke from God to the people, but likewise,
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Jesus speaks to God and from God. And He's still performing that same work today, acting as our great high priest, speaking to us in the
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Word, and then speaking for us in His intercession on high.
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And while we can see His ministry of the Word, it's tangible to us. We often don't think of Him interceding for us, because we don't usually get to observe it.
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But in our passage today, we'll get a close look at our mediator as he pleads on our behalf.
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Now, the precise moment and location in which Christ uttered this prayer can't be determined, because the place where it was spoken isn't recorded for us.
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But it comes right on the heels of the passage in chapters 14 through 16, where Jesus delivered a farewell discourse to His disciples.
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And so Jesus may have prayed this prayer in the upper room or perhaps on His way to Gethsemane.
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But clearly, it occurred sometime before they reached the garden. Now, this passage focuses us upon the topic of prayer.
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And that's an interesting thing, because it's true that anyone who takes the
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Christian life at all seriously is probably somewhat concerned about their prayer life.
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While it's usually the case that the more mature and godly a person is, the more time he or she spends in prayer, it's also true that those saints become more aware of their need for prayer.
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Because we're all frail sinners. And in our sinful humanity, we need the strength and the wisdom that only
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God can provide. But you know, as we look at this passage, one of the most astounding things that we see is the fact that the
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Lord Jesus Christ prayed. I mean, you wouldn't think that He would need to pray at all.
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But He prayed constantly. Now, Scripture records with regularity our
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Lord turning to His heavenly Father in prayer. Just think quickly through the life of our
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Lord, just what we know about His life. I mean, He was engaged in prayer when He was baptized. He would frequently rise up early in the morning and while it was still dark and go to a secluded place to pray.
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The night before He selected the 12 apostles, He went off to the mountain to pray and He spent the whole night in prayer.
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It was while He was praying that He was transfigured. And it was while He was praying that He breathed
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His last. But only the briefest mention is made as to the substance of Jesus' prayers.
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And in most instances, none at all. But here in John 17, the
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Holy Spirit has been pleased to record at length His high priestly prayer.
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And we should be so thankful for this. I mean, it's really a merciful grace that He uttered this in the hearing of His disciples so that we could hear it.
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This is a wonderful specimen of the communication between the Son and the Father.
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Now, of course, He had a specific reason for praying this audibly. He wanted
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His disciples to know the concern that He has about them. And He wants them to know that He will continue to intercede for them, even though He's going to be out of their sight.
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Now, we know that as God, there was no need for Him to pray. That as God, He was co -equal with the
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Father and He was omniscient and all -powerful. But here on earth, we see
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Him as the mediator, the God -Man. And as a man,
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He needed strength and wisdom from above. As a man, He sought the glory of God above everything else.
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And so His primary concern as He prays here in this crucial moment is all about glorifying
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God. And you know, the supreme object of prayer should always be to glorify and magnify
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God. Now, this prayer, this whole chapter here, can be divided naturally into three main sections.
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Now, first, Jesus prays for Himself in verses 1 through 5.
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Then He prays for His disciples in verses 6 through 19. And then finally, to all future believers, all those who will believe on Him through the disciples' witness.
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And so that's just a quick way to outline this prayer. But today, we're going to focus our attention just on the first few verses of our text.
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And so without further ado, let's just read them now. And we'll begin with verse 1.
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Jesus spoke these things. And lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, Father, the hour has come.
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Glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You. Even as You gave
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Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.
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This is eternal life. That they may know You, the only true
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God, and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. We'll stop right there.
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Now, this part of the prayer is often said to be Jesus' prayer for Himself.
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Because He prays that He Himself may be glorified. But I want to start by pointing out right up front here that this is not a prayer for Himself in which
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He seeks His own interests. You see, His glorification will come at the cross.
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His glorification will come at great personal expense. And so, rather, it's a prayer that the
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Father's will may be done in Him. In other words,
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His main concern at this point is that He may be successful in glorifying
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God in all that He does. And so, if we do talk about this as Jesus' prayer for Himself, we should at least acknowledge that there is no self -seeking in it.
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From Jesus' perspective, even the glorification of the Son is not an end in and of itself.
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Because when He offered this petition, He gave His reason for wanting it. Look at the verse, He says, Glorify your
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Son that the Son may glorify you. Well, you know, immediately there are points of application right here for us.
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Because Christ's motive in prayer should also be our motive in prayer.
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And so, when you ask a blessing from God, you should ask for it, that you may glorify
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God by it. Now, of course, we're encouraged in Scripture to make our requests known to the
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Lord and to do so freely. But I would just offer that if your request is for your health, well, be sure that you want to spend it for Him.
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If your request is for temporal advancement, desire it only that you may promote
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His glory. Even if you would just simply ask for growth in grace, ask it only that you may glorify
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Him. In fact, if there's anything that you dare to wish and pray for, put it like this,
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Father, bless your child that I may in return bless you and serve you.
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You know, it's a clean prayer that has such a motive. Whereas all other prayers have the taint of self about them.
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I just pray to God that He would help us to speak to His glory and to live to His glory.
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Again, to die to His glory so that we may then rise again and live forever to His glory.
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Well, now there are many ways that this passage could be preached. In fact, I would even venture to guess that we could revisit this passage several times in a row and find something different in it each week.
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It's really a rich text. But today, I just want to look at one of the primary focuses of the text.
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And this seems to have been our Lord's priority too. You see, Jesus had a passion for the glory of God.
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And His motive for praying was the glorification of the Father. And so today,
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I just want to look in our text and pull out four ways in which God's glory is on display here.
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Four ways in which His glory is manifest in this passage. We'll begin with this one.
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God is glorified by the plan of salvation. God is glorified by the plan of salvation.
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And the emphasis here is on the word plan. Because you see, salvation is an eternal plan and not a divine reaction.
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And I think that we sometimes fail to realize the greatness and the vastness of the gospel.
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Because it was while we were in a state of complete bondage to sin and to Satan that God did something.
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We were all guilty of breaking God's law. And as lawbreakers, we were helplessly separated from Him.
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Romans 3 .19 says, Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be closed.
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And that all the world may become accountable to God. Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in His sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
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So you see, God's law didn't save us. It merely showed us how dire our situation was.
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It showed us our sin and it showed us our need for a Savior. And you know, it's just amazing to me how many people can preach about Christ's life and His death and never mention the law.
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But you know, unless the law of God is satisfied, there is no salvation.
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And none of us have satisfied God's law. In fact, the Bible says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
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Because as James tells us, whoever keeps the whole law and stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking it all.
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And all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. And of course, as we heard this morning, the wages of sin or the reward for sinning is death, eternal separation from God.
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The Bible says, the soul that sins, it shall surely die. So we were all crushed under the weight of our guilt.
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And the situation was eternally bleak and without hope. But there is hope found in our text.
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Look at verse one. Jesus spoke these things and lifting up his eyes to heaven.
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He said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you.
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Okay, so he begins, Father, the hour has come. Now, what is this hour?
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What is this? What does he mean by the hour has come? Well, this hour is obviously a predetermined hour.
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It was a very specific hour. A much anticipated hour. You know, repeatedly throughout this gospel, we're told that the hour has not yet come.
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Chapter two, verse four, Jesus said to her, woman, what does that have to do with us?
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My hour has not yet come. Chapter seven, verse six, Jesus said to them, my time is not yet here.
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Seven, verse eight, go up to the feast yourselves. I do not go up to this feast because my time has not yet fully come.
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Seven, verse 30, they were seeking to seize him and no man laid his hand on him because his hour had not yet come.
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Chapter eight, verse 20, these words he spoke in the treasury as he taught in the temple and no one seized him because his hour had not yet come.
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And now suddenly Christ says the hour has come. The hour that God had planned since before the beginning of time.
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Paul says in Galatians, and so it was that when the fullness of the time came or in God's perfect timing,
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God sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law so that he might redeem those who are under the law.
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And Romans 5, 6 tells us for while we were still helpless at the right time,
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Christ died for the ungodly. You see, the hour that produced the cross is the central pivotal point of history and God always knew about it.
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In fact, he planned it. In Acts 2, 23,
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Peter was speaking to the Jews on the day of Pentecost when he said, this man, meaning
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Christ, this man delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross.
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So in a way, they didn't kill him. God killed him.
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This was God's plan right from the beginning. Now the Old Testament foretold it and the
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New Testament explains it. Now the prophet Isaiah wrote in chapter 53 that he was pierced through for our transgressions.
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He was crushed for our iniquities, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.
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So God did this. It was God who caused this plan to be executed. And in the
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New Testament, 2nd Corinthians 5, 21 is one of just many verses that explain it to us.
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It says that he, meaning God, made him who knew no sin, meaning who?
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Meaning Christ. He made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
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So this wasn't a random hour. It was divinely ordained. God ordained it as part of his plan of redemption.
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And Jesus came for this hour. In John 12, 27,
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Jesus said, now my soul has become troubled, but what shall
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I say? Father saved me from this hour. But for this purpose,
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I came to this hour. So this was the hinge, the turning point of all human history.
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And now that the hour is here, Jesus wants the father to glorify himself.
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You see, our Lord's one great desire throughout his earthly life was to glorify
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God. And he just keeps on saying it. He's not come to do his will, but the will of his father who has sent him.
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He spoke the father's words. He did the father's works. And the whole idea here is that our
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Lord was anxious for God's glory to be manifested and manifested, especially in the salvation of men and women.
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Jesus, one concern here is that he may never fail his father, that he may never falter in the great task that is allotted to him because he lived entirely and exclusively to glorify
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God. And you know, the same should be true of each of us. The whole purpose of your salvation and mine is that we should glorify
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God. I fear that we tend to think of God and of his salvation as something that's just meant to solve our problems.
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But you know, that's just simply humanism. The Bible doesn't teach that. Instead, it teaches that the ultimate aim and the ultimate object of our salvation is that we may glorify
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God and that the end of all being is the glory of God.
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You see, he didn't plan this for our convenience. He planned it so that his glory might be put on display for the whole world to see.
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And thus, God is glorified by the plan of salvation. Secondly, God is glorified by the son's submission to his father's will.
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God is glorified by the son's submission to his father's will. Now, we've alluded to this already, but Jesus completely submitted himself to doing the father's will.
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Look at verse one. He said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you.
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So he knew that the hour had come. And he knew what
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God's plan of redemption entailed. Therefore, what we're seeing here, what we're actually seeing in this verse is
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Jesus asking the father to crucify him. You see,
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Jesus fully understood what he had come to do. He knew all about the mission that the father had sent him on and he submitted himself to doing it.
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Now, just think about what that submission entailed. Think about the sacrifice that he made in order to obey.
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First of all, he gave up the glory, which he shared with the father before the world began. Verse five tells us this.
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We looked at this this morning. Verse five says, Now, Father, glorify me together with yourself with the glory which
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I had with you before the world was. After all,
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Christ is the radiance of the father's glory, the express image of his person.
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But in order to become a man, he laid aside the eternal glory.
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You see, although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God, a thing to be grasped.
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But he emptied himself, taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men.
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So he emptied himself, he laid it aside. But now let's be clear on this point, because he did not lay aside his deity.
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But what he did lay aside was the glory of his deity. Of course, he didn't cease to be
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God, but he did cease to manifest the glory of God.
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And he did this so that he could come down here and rescue sinful men and women like you and like me, according to the kind intention of his father.
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This was God's eternal plan, and Jesus lovingly submitted himself to it.
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He demonstrated full and complete submission to his father. Now, perhaps the best way of understanding this is to consider what happened on the
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Mount of Transfiguration. Right there on the mountaintop, he was transfigured before Peter and James and John.
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And Matthew 17 tells us that he was transfigured before them and his face shone like the sun.
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And his garments became as white as light. You see, his humanity was peeled away just for a moment.
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And the glory that he possessed was revealed. Now contrast that glory with what we're told about him while he was here on earth.
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The prophet Isaiah said, he has no stately form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should be attracted to him.
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A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Some people would look at him and they would say, well, who is this guy?
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Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary? You see, he had laid aside the glory.
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And for what purpose? Why did he humble himself so profoundly? Well, you see that time which had been promised by God, that time which had been expected by the saints for 4 ,000 years ever since Adam's fall.
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Well, that time had arrived. The seed of the woman was about to bruise the serpent's head by dying as man's substitute and his redeemer.
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The God of peace was executing his plan to crush Satan and his rebellion.
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And he would accomplish this through the perfect obedience of the spotless lamb of God.
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Jesus obeyed even to the point of death. On the cross, this one man alone and unassisted.
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This one man in weakness and a body and in anguish and misery bore away the enormous load of human guilt.
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Scripture says that the chastisement of our peace was upon him. For the
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Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. And what a weight it was.
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And the fact that he could bear it was an incredible display of his glory. Charles Spurgeon writes,
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Oh, marvelous strength of the incarnate God. Glorious art thou indeed,
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O Christ, upon thy cross. Glorify him, beloved you for whom he bore that weight.
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Glorify him that he was able to endure it. Oh, if I could by some means help to honor him.
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If I could be but the earthen vessel in which his treasure should be stored or the trumpet by which his name might be proclaimed.
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This is joy enough for me. You see, in the death of Christ, above all things,
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God is glorified. Now notice that the fact that God's appointed hour has arrived doesn't strike
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Jesus as an excuse for resigned fatalism. Did you notice that?
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Instead, what it does is it drives him to prayer. It's because the hour has come for the son to be glorified that he prayed for that glorification to take place.
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You see, he knew what God's will was. And that's precisely what he prayed for. Glorify your son that the son may glorify you.
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Now, this verse is so closely connected with what follows. It's really difficult to treat it separately, because in verses two and three,
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Christ describes the particular mode of glorifying his father on which he has set his heart.
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And notice the aspect of the glorification that he prays for here. Verse one says, glorify your son, that the son may glorify you, even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life.
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So there was really a double object of his desire and a double subject of his prayer.
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He prays first for the glorification of the father in the giving of eternal life to the elect.
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And then he prays for the glorification of the son as the necessary means of accomplishing it.
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And so we can see here the perfect selflessness of Christ demonstrated for us, because he prayed to be glorified, not for his own sake, but that the father might be glorified in our salvation.
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You see, the sole purpose of his mission was to ensure that the glory of God would be manifested.
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And Jesus counted even his death to be just about an hour, so that the eternal plan of God might be realized.
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And that the glory of the Almighty would be magnified for the whole world to see. And so we see that God is glorified by his son's submission to the father's will.
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Now, thirdly, God is glorified by choosing a people for himself. God is glorified by choosing a people for himself.
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Verse two says, even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life.
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You see, God didn't leave the plan of salvation up to the capricious whims of men.
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He didn't provide the means of redemption and then hope that someone would be persuaded to follow.
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But rather, he chose a people from among the mass of sinful humanity.
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He chose some to be his own. And in order to redeem those chosen ones, he has given them to his son,
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Jesus the Savior, who was sent to rescue God's people and give them eternal life.
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You see, salvation is of the Lord. He has planned it.
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He has provided it and he alone will be glorified by it. To God be the glory.
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Great things he hath done. So loved he the world that he gave us his son.
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You see, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners as God reconciled his chosen people to himself through Christ.
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If you'll turn back to John chapter six for just a moment. John chapter six is really helpful at this point.
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John chapter six, beginning at verse 37. We read all that the father gives me will come to me.
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And the one who comes to me, what I was certainly not cast out.
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For I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.
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This is the will of him who sent me that of all that he has given me,
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I lose nothing but raise it up on the last day. For this is the will of my father that everyone who beholds the son and believes in him will have eternal life.
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And I myself will raise him up on the last day. So we have the assurance that God in his sovereignty will save each of these chosen ones to the fullest.
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But notice that that salvation is only in Christ and in Christ alone.
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OK, and so now we have seen that God is glorified by the plan of salvation, that God is glorified by the son's submission to his father's will, and that God is glorified by choosing a people for himself.
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Now, fourth and finally, God is glorified by revealing himself unto them.
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God is glorified by revealing himself unto the chosen ones. Back in John 17 here, speaking of himself in verse two,
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Jesus said, Even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life.
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This is eternal life that they may know you, the only true
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God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. You see, no one can come to God except on his terms.
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No one can earn their way, but it's his free gift to all who will believe.
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Now, notice also what is said here about eternal life, because eternal life is not so much everlasting life as it is personal knowledge of the everlasting one, personal fellowship and communion with God.
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So how are we to get eternal life? Well, the essential thing that we're told here is that it's ultimately a question of knowing
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God. There's no possibility of eternal life apart from this knowledge of him.
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And, you know, it's not just eternal life, just to know that there is a God. People who don't know that there's a
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God are dead in the dark. People that know that there's a God, but don't trust him.
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Well, they're dead in the light. So to explain what's meant by knowing
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God, I must say that to know God means to know him as your God. It means that you reverence him, that you bow down before him and worship him.
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That you submit yourself to his law and that you seek to do his good pleasure. No one really knows
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God who does not receive him as their God. So to receive
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God as your God is eternal life. And to know God means to be on personal terms of acquaintance with him.
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Now, Spurgeon is helpful again here at this point. He says, the Lord is not to be seen.
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Neither can his footfall be heard. But to know God is to be conscious of his presence by an inward sense, which does both see and hear.
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To feel that he is everywhere on the land or on the sea, and knowing that he is there to rejoice in being with him.
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In fact, to find great delight in this God who is not far from any one of us. It is to be on speaking terms with him, to be so reconciled to him that we have no fear or dread of him.
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No bondage or fear when you think of him. Now, notice verse three again.
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It says, this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true
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God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. So we need to just say here that it would not be eternal life to know
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God apart from Jesus Christ. A God the
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Father apart from Jesus Christ is just an almighty being, infinitely just, whose laws
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I have violated. A being infinitely loving who would bless me, but who can't do so while I violate his laws.
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A God full of tremendous power and wisdom who would bless me, except that the penalties of his law are inevitable and cannot be reversed.
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You see, you must know the Son as well as the Father. God known without Christ is a being whom we can only fear and dare not approach.
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Because no one comes to the Father, but through the Son in repentance and humility.
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And even if we could know God apart from Christ, it would be a knowledge of terror, which would make us flee.
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Well, let me hasten to add here too, that it would not be eternal life to know Jesus Christ if he were not
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God. If, as some say, he was only a good man, if he were nothing but a mere man, how could he give us eternal life?
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And notice what this verse tells us about the Lord Jesus Christ. It says that they may know you, the only true
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God, and Jesus Christ. So at once here, we're told that he is equal with God.
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Immediately, Jesus put himself into the same category as the only true and living God. Here is one who walked on the face of the earth, but who can be equated with God the
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Father. When he said those words, the only true
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God and Jesus Christ, he immediately put himself into the same position as God.
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Here is one who is co -equal with God and co -eternal with God. Here is one who is
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God himself, God the Son, eternally in the bosom of the
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Father. And so God is pleased to reveal himself to his people and to be known to them.
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But he only does this through his appointed means, only when they are to be found in Christ.
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John 1 .12 tells us, as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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You see, our salvation is completely in God's hands. He conceived it, he planned it, he provided it, and he completes it.
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And I'll tell you, I wouldn't want it any other way. Because if it depended on me,
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I would blow it, I would mess it up. And you know, some people, some people feel that, you know, you can receive salvation, receive eternal life from God, and then lose it.
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You know, and then regain it again, and then lose it again, and go on and on and uncertainty in this world until you die.
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But I'm here to tell you that that's a lie. That kind of thinking is an insult to God.
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That kind of thinking is an insult to God's glorious plan of redemption. It's an insult to his eternal way of doing things.
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Because your salvation and mine is something that was known to God since before the foundation of the earth.
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You don't understand it, and neither do I. But thank God that we are not saved by our understanding, but by our acceptance of the truth.
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Our time has passed already, but I want to ask, how about you? Is there new life within your soul?
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Have you been raised from death unto life? Have you received the salvation of our
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God? For if you have, then you are the people of God.
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And you can rejoice in the saving knowledge of him. But if not,
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I pray that in you, his divine grace may yet be magnified. So that his glory may be manifested in your life for the whole world to see.
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I pray that he'll do that work in us. Let's pray. Father, we stand back in awe when we look at your glory.
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When we consider what a glorious and almighty being you are, Lord. When we dwell upon your attributes, we are just amazed.
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And even more amazing is that you would care to save sinful men and women like us.
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Lord, help us to have seen something of your glory tonight, Lord, and having seen it, to be impacted by it in ways that will be eternally relevant.
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Help us to point others who have not yet seen you to the glorious God that we worship.