Redemption 101 - [John 17:1-5]

I would invite you to open your Bibles to John chapter 17, John 17, as we begin this great chapter.

I looked up this week, I thought, you know, I'm going to get a little jump on this, so I looked up the plan of redemption.

Actually I looked up the plan of salvation. The plan of salvation on the internet.

And you know, some of them were pretty good, Romans Road, etc., and then if you look at what the

Roman Catholics post, it's the seven, where are they? There you go.

I was going to say catechisms. I knew that wasn't right. Seven sacraments. If you look at the

Mormon church, you really get confused. A lot of things you have to do, including having the Melchizedek priesthood to get the highest degree.

I went and even looked at the four spiritual laws, and you know, they weren't that bad, at least, you know, basically until you get to the end.

There's a lot of scripture in there. Of course, I don't like, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life.

And then in the end, they invite you, they say, it's not the sinner's prayer that saves you, but if you pray like this, then you're probably saved.

But there's a difference between the plan of salvation and the plan of redemption, which is what we're going to talk about this morning.

You're probably thinking, well, what's the difference? It's a difference of perspective. Salvation we look at it from our human perspective, and we see what happens to us or for us.

But the plan of redemption is between the three persons of the Trinity. And I wanted to talk about that in particular this morning, because as we go through John chapter 17, more and more of this, of the chapter, basically depends upon our understanding of this work between the father and the son and the

Holy spirit. Now with that said, let me read verses one to five of John chapter 17, when

Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, father, the hour has come.

Glorify your son that the son may glorify you. Since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

And this is eternal life that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.

And now father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.

Now I don't want to go all pastor Mike on you this morning, but as I started laying this out,

I'm only going to get through three verses, sorry about that.

Not really, but you know, the gospel of John written by the apostle that Jesus loved.

And he wrote it a considerable time after the other three gospels, probably around 90

AD. And if you think about it this way, if you think, well, Matthew wanted to emphasize the kingly nature of Jesus, Jesus as king.

And Mark wanted to emphasize Jesus as servants. And then Luke wanted to emphasize, because he's a physician, he emphasized

Jesus as man, as fully and truly human. Well, John writes his to show

Jesus Christ as deity. Nothing, not that the others don't emphasize him as God, but his specific purpose was to emphasize him as God.

He wanted to do that so that his readers might believe in Jesus and that get receive as a result, eternal life.

Now, last week we ended the upper room discourse, the final evening that Jesus would spend with his disciples.

And they were in the upper room was Passover on the eve of Passover. And he was looking to encourage the disciples who were downcast.

He told them he was going to leave. And we learned a few things last week. By way of review and just kind of emphasize it for anybody who didn't fully catch it, we should pray in the name of Jesus in verse 26 in that day.

And what day was he talking about? He was talking about when the Holy Spirit came after the ascension in that day.

You will ask in my name. That's for us. Post -resurrection, we pray in the name of Jesus.

The father will answer the prayers of believers. We also learned without any urging by Jesus again, look at verse 27.

It says the father himself loves you. You don't have any need for me to do that because the father loves you.

We talked about the difference between intercession, his mediatorial work, where he pays for our sins and the fact that we have direct access to the father.

We don't need Jesus to bring our requests before the father because the father loves us himself.

We also saw the full salvific ministry of Jesus summed up in one verse in verse 28.

I came from the father, meaning he descended and have come into the world. He took on flesh and now

I'm leaving the world. He was going to be arrested, tried, crucified and then raised from the dead.

And then he was going to the father. He was going to ascend to the father. So we have the full salvific ministry of Jesus in one verse.

And then he told them in verse 32 that the disciples were going to scatter after he was crucified.

We also saw in verse 33 that persecution will always afflict the church.

And finally, in verse 33, victory is ours. I think some of you are encouraged by this, by this alone, right?

Victory is ours. We have victory. Why? Because we are in Christ and he has overcome the world, verse 33 says.

But this morning we're going to study a bit of history, the history of redemption.

And I have five redemptive elements because I need outlines.

Outlines are good. So what we're going to see is the eternal sovereign work of the

Trinity in saving people. And this is not academic. And when you really grasp this, it becomes very precious to you.

I was thinking even this morning about how when you first get saved and you understand what Jesus did for you, you're thrilled, you're excited, you want to learn, you want to grow.

And then over time, maybe that fades a little bit. But I want to encourage you this morning, this is absolutely, it's mind -blowing, it's wonderful, it's miraculous, and it is literally the difference between life and death, heaven and hell.

How do churches, I was reading Spurgeon this week and he said something along these lines, but how do churches slide into heresy?

How do they just kind of go from owning the truth to not owning it? And he talked about the failure of parents to catechize their kids.

But I'm going to go a step further in this day and age and say that if we fail to give you the truth from the pulpit, then you don't know it.

And over time, we'll stop practicing it all together and stop believing it all together. We need to know these things so well that we can teach them to our children, to our children's children, to our friends and to our neighbors.

We have to be excited about these things, again, because it is the difference between heaven and hell.

This is God's plan to redeem a people for himself, father, son, and spirit working together.

Now a little caveat, I may say on occasion here this morning, the covenant of redemption, the covenant of redemption.

And what do I mean? The word covenant kind of scares people sometimes. I could call it the contract of redemption.

I could call it the promise of redemption. I think sometimes I'm going to call it the agreement of redemption.

But here's the point. The point is, whatever I call it, it's an agreement between the father and the son and the

Holy Spirit to choose to save and to seal believers, the elect.

So first, first redemptive principle, it is the redemptive prayer.

It's kind of a weak principle, but I wanted to, I had to do something with verse one, to be honest.

Sorry. Look at verse one. And this is, it's not a weak point.

It just doesn't flow into exactly what I wanted to say. And that's because I'm kind of, I felt like I needed to do this as kind of like an introduction to this whole thing.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven. This chapter has been called the high priestly prayer, and that's a great title for it until you realize what does the high priest do?

He intercedes on behalf of the people. Now beginning in verse six, he's going to start doing that.

But for the first five verses, he's praying for himself, which is okay.

It's just not high priestly. But if we looked at the life of Jesus, we would see that prayer is something that he does before and after a lot of significant events.

If you recall, before he chose the disciples, he prayed. After preparing them for his leaving, he prayed.

Before going to be arrested and tried, he prays. So for us, it's a good model, right?

Before or after we do something significant. Going to evangelize. Well, it's a good thing to pray beforehand.

It's a good thing to pray during, if you can, and to pray afterwards, right? If we're discipling somebody, it's good to pray for them.

If we're going to a hospital visit, it's good to pray. There are important times in life when we should just pray.

Now notice his focus here, his eyes towards heaven.

It's a common posture of prayer. But you'll also notice if we read the entire chapter, which we're not going to do, we don't have time for that, but if we read the entire chapter, you'd notice, and this is not going to surprise you, there's no confession of sin in this prayer.

In that one sense alone, this is not a good model of prayer for us because we need to confess our sin.

But for him, it would be disqualifying. For us, if we fail to confess our sin in prayer, it could be disqualifying.

It gives us reason to wonder why we're not confessing our sin. But this is, without a doubt, chapter 17, the greatest prayer recorded for us in all of Scripture.

And in many ways, it highlights or it summarizes the highlights of all of the

Gospel of John. It highlights Jesus' obedience to his

Father. It highlights the glorification of the Father through the death and exaltation of Jesus.

It highlights the revelation of Jesus Christ. It highlights the choosing of his disciples, the sovereign choosing of his disciples out of the world and their mission to the world.

It highlights the unity of the church based on the unity of the Father and the Son. And it also highlights for us the love and concern for his disciples that Jesus had.

Again, if you think about it, if he's been trying for the last four chapters to really kind of instill some spiritual backbone into them, well, now he's going to pray for them.

Mere hours before going to the cross, he prays for himself, but his concern is about his disciples.

But as he's praying, we're going to learn a lot about the Trinity, the inner workings of the

Trinity, and the plan of redemption. That's the first principle.

The second principle, the second redemptive principle is the agreement, the covenant fulfilled.

Look at verse one again. And said, Father, the hour has come.

This is the culmination of the entire earthly ministry of Jesus, the culmination of the pact, the covenant between the members of the

Trinity. This hour has been coming for some time, and this is the moment of redemption.

Remember the wedding at Cana, way back in John chapter two? Mary says, hey, they've run out of wine, you know, implying

Jesus, you need to do something about this. And what does he say to her? He says, woman, what does this, what does this problem have to do with me?

My hour has not yet come, meaning it's not yet time for me to reveal myself.

When the Jewish leaders, when he knew that they wanted to arrest him, arrest Jesus for healing the man on the

Sabbath, and his brothers in John chapter seven say, hey, it's time to go to Jerusalem, let's go to the

Feast of Booths, right? John chapter seven, verse two, he says this, or the word says this, now the

Jews' Feast of Booths was at hand. So his brother said to him, leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing.

For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.

For not even his brothers believed in him. Jesus said to them, listen, my time has not come, my hour is not here yet, but your time is always here.

Had he merely waltzed into Jerusalem as his brothers wanted, they wanted him all to go with them down to Jerusalem, he would have been seized, arrested, tried, and everything would have been rushed.

And what would have then happened? A lot of things would have been out of kilter, but the primary one

I'm thinking of, as we think of the time that this has just happened, the Upper Room Discourse, there would have been no betrayal of Jesus by Judas, and that had to happen.

The time for Jesus' ministry now has come to an end, and it's going to arrest, or it's going to triumph of the resurrection and the ascension.

Our third redemptive point, and you think we're going really fast, well, we're about to slow down. The redemptive agreement explained.

We've just had the redemptive agreement prayer, the redemptive agreement fulfilled, and now the redemptive agreement explained.

And I want to take some time here, and again in verse 1, glorify your

Son that the Son may glorify you. Mutual glorification. Grant me glory that I may glorify you.

R .C. Sproul said this, he says, a persistent tradition claims that upon being mocked by a skeptic with regard to his doctrine of creation,

Augustine was cynically asked, what was God doing before he created the world? What was

God doing before he created the world? So, Augustine replied, creating hell for curious souls.

What was he doing before he created the world? Well, we know. It's not idle speculation.

We don't have to be vainly curious. We know that there was an agreement made between the

Father, Son, and Spirit. And we're going to go to a couple different places to sort of highlight that, and I want you to first turn to Ephesians chapter 1, a familiar passage, and then the second one less familiar.

But I want to just highlight what is going on here as Jesus is praying, and as he's revealing this covenant, this agreement between the

Father and the Son, we need to understand fully what is going on here. Ephesians chapter 1, and I'm going to read verses 3 to 14.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

In love, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the beloved.

In him, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him, in Christ, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, so that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be to the praise of his glory.

In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised

Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

Now that's, as you probably heard, that's one sentence in the Greek and all I can say is that's one long run -on sentence.

But it's packed with theological truths. I could spend two weeks on Ephesians 1, but I won't.

I want to just underscore a few things here. First of all, the glory of God is central to all that.

If you just noticed in verse 6, to the praise of his glorious grace.

Verse 12, to the praise of his glory. Verse 14, to the praise of his glory.

One of the purposes of this eternal pact between Father, Son, and Spirit is the glory of God.

And also notice, I mean, all the blessings that are ours here, as he's just pouring out all this praise and everything.

You know, I had a relative last night interact with me on Facebook, and he said, you know, he referred to God as, you know, some kind of puppeteer or something like that.

Well, I read this and I think about all the love and all the things that are lavished on us here in Ephesians 1, and I'm like,

I don't see it that way. I see this as a very loving act of God.

And we would see, if we went to chapter 2, why God has to be so active. Because we're dead in our sins and trespasses, right?

But there's also, besides his glory, there's something that happens to us, and that is transformation.

And again, I can't go through all of it, but we are changed. We are not the dead people from Ephesians 2, because God has made us alive.

There's a change in us. We are holy. Hard to believe, but we will be, and we are positionally holy and blameless.

Verse 4 tells us that. We are holy and blameless before him. We're also adopted.

Look at verses 4 and 5. In love, the love of God poured on us. Why? Because he predestined us, he chose us, before the foundation of the world, he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ.

If you're a believer, you're the child of God because of his eternal decree and plan and his action within time.

Now again, when did that agreement take place? Verse 4 tells us. Before the foundation of the world.

Before the world was created. Before anything was. The Father, Son, and Spirit agreed to redeem people.

And they agreed to redeem people that were plunged into sin. The Father would choose them, as it says in verse 4.

Even as he chose us in him, that is to say, in Christ, the

Son would redeem them. Verse 7. In him, we have redemption through his blood, by his sacrifice.

It goes on to say the forgiveness of our trespasses, our sins nailed to the cross, as it were, because of the work of Christ.

Father, Son, and then the Spirit, in verse 13, says we were sealed with the promised

Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it.

Our inheritance, as it were, is in an envelope, sealed by the Holy Spirit, which we will acquire possession of when we arrive in heaven.

The result of this work of God, Father, Son, and Spirit, is eternal life for all of the elect, all those chosen by the

Father. And the triune God cannot fail. Cannot fail.

And if we think about it in terms of a covenant, right? If we think about, let's say, the most graphic one in Scripture, is the

Abrahamic covenant, where God, while Abraham is asleep, God, metaphorically speaking, smoke in the oven, passes between these separated animals.

The animals, who are cut in half, are there to demonstrate what happens if anybody violates the covenant.

How do we know that we're saved, and going to be saved, and will be saved, and are sealed for all eternity?

Because God, the Father, is not going to fail

God, the Son, who is not going to fail God, the Father.

God, the Holy Spirit, is not going to fail either one of them. Look again at verse 11 of Ephesians 1.

In Him we have... Again, every time you see in Him, in Ephesians 1, this is in Christ.

In Christ we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined, according to the purpose of Him, notice this, who works all things according to the counsel of His will.

It's His will that we be redeemed. It is His will that the

Holy Spirit seal us. And He's working all things. This sovereign

God is working all things according to the purpose of His will.

Because of their love for one another, the Spirit loves the Son, loves the

Father, etc. They all love one another. They all have perfect unity, perfect fellowship, and it's because of that, because of their power, that we can know these things are going to come to pass.

Now let's turn to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2. And again, this is a familiar passage, but it's not a familiar one that we would typically talk about in terms of maybe an agreement of redemption, or the covenant of redemption.

So I'm going to highlight things a little bit differently. I mean, usually when we read this, we're talking about humility, how humble

Jesus is, which is true. Why we should be humble, which is true. That's not what

I want to highlight this morning. Every time you look at Scripture, it's like a multifaceted diamond or a jewel, and you can highlight different aspects of it, and that's what we're going to do here.

Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 to 11. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied

Himself by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form,

He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

Therefore, God has exalted Him and bestowed on Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

Lord to the glory of God the Father. Again, notice the emphasis on glory.

And, let's just think about it, even as we read John 16 .28 last week, what does it tell us here in Philippians?

Jesus leaves the Father's side willingly, just as He descended in John 16 .28.

When He did so, He did not cease to be God. When it says He emptied Himself, it doesn't mean, you know, we're talking about the kenosis,

He didn't completely set aside permanently all of His attributes of God because He can't stop being

God, right? If Jesus stops being God, then what happens? We stop living, right?

I mean, everything goes out of existence. If we just read Colossians 1, if He's upholding everything by the word of His power and then

He stops doing that for a while, everything goes out of existence. But here's the point.

He leaves the Father's side, He does the Father's will, and then what happens?

All the way to the cross. And then, therefore, God has highly exalted Him, right?

Gave Him the name that's above every name, to the glory of God the

Father. He came down, He went back up. This is exactly what we see in the

Gospel of John. R .C. Sproul says this, he says, The point of the covenant of redemption is that the

Son comes willingly. He is not coerced by the Father to relinquish His glory and be subjected to humiliation.

Rather, He willingly made Himself of no reputation. The Father did not strip the

Son of eternal glory, but the Son agreed to lay it aside temporarily for the sake of our salvation.

And even, again, back to Philippians 2, to just emphasize this, the Son humbles Himself, therefore

God the Father exalts Him. This isn't an accident, this isn't unplanned.

This isn't the Father scrambling for a suitable reward when Jesus completes the mission. Oh, what do

I give Him? This was planned from all eternity. This is much like, reminds me of Psalm 2.

Verse 12, it says, Kiss the Son lest He be angry and you perish in the way for His wrath is quickly kindled.

Blessed are all who take refuge in Him. You want to kiss the Son. He's highly exalted.

The Father's given Him a name above all names. Charles Hodge listed eight promises the

Father gave to the Son in this pact made in eternity. Briefly, they are this, that the

Son would form a, or that God would form a purified church for His Son.

Secondly, that the Son would receive the Spirit without measure. During His earthly ministry, that's exactly what happened.

The Holy Spirit was always with Jesus. He was filled with the Holy Spirit all the time. Number three, that He would be ever present to support

Him. The Father would be. Number four, that He would deliver Him from death and exalt

Him to His right hand. Number five, that He would have the Holy Spirit to send to whom

He willed. And again, we see that in John 14 and 15 and on and on.

Number six, that all the Father gave to Him would come to Him and none of these would be lost.

Number seven, that multitudes would partake of His redemption and His messianic kingdom.

We see that in Revelation. Unknown numbers, myriads of myriads. People from every nation, tribe, and tongue will be in heaven.

And then this little image from Isaiah 53 is number eight, that He would see the travail of His soul and be satisfied.

He would see His work and be satisfied. Let's go back to the

Gospel of John now. I just wanted to kind of emphasize a few things. We see this, it isn't just in John 17.

We see this in a multitude of places, but we see really kind of uniquely here in the

Gospel of John, the words of Jesus explaining sort of behind the scenes what's going on.

So back to John 17, verse 1, glorify your

Son that the Son may glorify you. He's asking that by means of the cross, the grave,

His resurrection and ascension, what? That His perfect obedience, love, and power may reflect glory on Himself.

I've done the work that you've sent me to do. Glorify me. Who else could pray this?

Again, as I just think about the singular nature of Jesus, when I say who else could say this, nobody else could say it.

Who else could pray this? Nobody else could pray this. Who else would dare identify themselves?

I mean, even when you pray, do you pray, Father, do something for your

Son? Do you refer to yourself as your Son? There's a very particular way in which

He addresses the Father and interacts with Him. Who else would ask to be glorified, right?

But notice the purpose is not selfish. There's a hinnah clause, a therefore, a reason given, a so that.

So that what? So that the Son may glorify the Father. As in Philippians, as in Ephesians, the work of the

Son redounds to the glory of the Father. That's intentionally so. If we just think about it this way, the

Holy Spirit points at Jesus, right? Jesus points to the Father. This is part of the plan.

For all eternity, billions will praise the Father, Son, and Spirit for the plan of redemption.

Our fourth redemptive word here is the word, the redemptive authority.

Redemptive authority. Look at verse two. Since you have given Him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given

Him. Now that Jesus has this authority implies that no one else has this authority.

He is unique. It's uniquely given of Him by the Father. And I immediately thought again, no church or other human institution can give eternal life, right?

Roman Catholic Church can't do it. The Mormon Church can't do it. No church can do it. Only Jesus Christ can do that.

All flesh. What does Jesus mean when He says, you've given me authority over all flesh? Again, it means people of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue, all of humanity, the entire planet, everyone on earth.

In order to save some, He has to have authority over all.

Jesus could compel any and all. He could. He has authority over all mankind.

So why doesn't He? Because that wasn't part of the plan of God. That wasn't part of the redemptive agreement, part of the covenant of redemption.

Jesus gives eternal life to all whom you, the Father, have given

Him. That's a consistent theme of scripture, but it's especially consistent in the

Gospel of John. Just listen as I give you some passages in John that teach this exact same thing.

John 1, verses 12 and 13. But to all who did receive Him, that received

Jesus, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become the children of God. And you think, well, that sounds like they went first.

But you have to read verse 13. Who were born, not of blood, in other words, not because they were

Jewish, not because of their lineage, nor of the will of the flesh, not because of a decision they made, nor the will of man, not by sheer willpower, but of God.

It was God's choice. Chapter 6, verses 37 to 39.

All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me

I will never cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me.

And this is the will of Him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that He has given me, but raise it up on the last day.

Verse 44 of the same chapter. No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.

He has that authority to raise them on the last day, to ensure their salvation. Verse 65 of the same chapter.

And He said, this is why I told you that no one can come. No one has the power. No one can come to me unless it is granted him by the

Father. Always the Father first. John 10, verses 27 to 29.

My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life.

Why? Because He has all authority to do that. And they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand.

My Father, listen, who has given them to Me, is greater than all.

And no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. They're protected. They're secure.

The Father gave them to the Son, and the Son will keep them. The Father will keep them.

The Spirit will keep them. Always it is the

Father who has chosen upon whom the Son then bestows eternal life. So, our fifth redemptive truth is the redemptive truth.

Look at verse 3 of John chapter 17.

And this is eternal life. He can give it. This is eternal life, that they know You, the only true

God and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. Eternal life begins at the moment of salvation.

You know, we don't often think of it that way. I have eternal life right now. I am living eternal life right now.

Well, what does that mean? It means that I'm living with a hope that no one can take from me.

It culminates, ultimately, in heaven, with me spending all of eternity in the presence of Jesus Christ.

But also notice here, when He says, the only true God. It doesn't take long, if you're thinking about it, to figure out something.

If there's only one true God, what does that say about every other God? They're false.

And that's shocking. In our multicultural, post -modern, post -post -modern day, you can't say that there's only one way.

You can't say that there's only one true God. We live in the world of live and let live.

Whatever we're supposed to let people stay in whatever level of morality or immorality they're currently in, right?

We dare not call anyone to repentance. We're not supposed to say that other religious systems are false.

We're not even supposed to evangelize them. Because when you evangelize somebody, if you say to somebody, you need to be saved.

You need the Lord Jesus Christ. If you don't know Christ, you're going to hell. What are you telling them? That somehow, you're better than they are.

And that they're inferior and that they don't know some... Well, that's not what you're really saying, but that's how the world is, right?

You say to somebody, you need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Their response is going to be something along the lines of, who are you to judge?

Who died and left you in church? But Jesus says there is a true

God. He says there's only one true God. He says that eternal life is only available by knowing

Him. Billions, billions, worship the creation instead of the creator.

The Jews, at that time and even now, say they worship the Father, but they refuse to worship the

Son. Jesus says the only way to have eternal life is by knowing the

Father and the Son. Muslims worship

Allah. Many say it's the same God. But they view

Jesus as only a prophet. That's not right.

That's not possible. There are religions that worship the Father, they say, but believe

Jesus is a created being. Well, that's not possible. I mean, even any kind of study of John chapter 17 would tell you that.

And what are we to make of all these different paths, of all these different religions, of all these things that sound equally or somewhat plausible?

My mind immediately went back to Matthew 7. The gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction.

And those who enter by it are many. They don't think they're going to destruction, but that's where they're going.

There are many religions, many that are more attractive than Christianity. Why? Because they give us something to do, something where we can feel engaged, something where we don't feel like there's a divine puppeteer, but that we're actually contributing to our salvation.

One thing you could say about mankind, we're really ultimately not lacking in self -confidence. We have a lot of it. And most of us think that we have something to offer

God. Jesus says you have one thing to offer God, and that's your sin, right?

Jesus says eternal life comes from knowing God, but it's not merely knowing the facts about God, but understanding who

He is and trusting Him completely. D. A. Carson said this, to know God is to be transformed, and that's to be introduced to a life that could not otherwise be experienced.

You have this intellectual knowledge, but unless your life is changed, there's no true knowledge of God.

Once you are saved, a lifetime of change begins, culminating in eternity in heaven.

Let me put it this way. If you do not love the Father, Son, and Spirit in this lifetime, why would you love them in the next lifetime?

If you don't love the Triune God now, if you're not thankful for Jesus Christ now, why would you be thankful after you die?

And the answer is you wouldn't. You'll be just as rebellious and just as spiteful and just as hateful toward God as you are right now.

There is one God, holy and just, incapable of letting even one sin go unpunished, and nothing tainted by sin can enter into His presence.

And our problem is all our thoughts and our deeds are tainted by sin. We fail to obey out of pure motives.

We fail to love God, and we fail to love our neighbors. But God is not just holy and just.

He's not just some taskmaster who wants us to perform. He's also loving and forgiving.

Therefore, in the eternity past, knowing Adam would sin, plunging us all into sin with him, the

Father, Son, and Spirit, the Triune God, agreed on a plan to save sinners.

The Son would come to earth, humble Himself by taking on an additional nature, that of a man, live a perfectly obedient life, even dying in the place of those the

Father chose. And then the Holy Spirit sustained the Son on earth, as He does now those who believe.

The Father accepted the Son's sacrifice, raised Him from the dead, and forgives every sin of every person who truly comes to know

Him and the Son He sent. Do you know the

Father and the Son? If you do, it is by the work of the

Holy Spirit. Father, Son, and Spirit, the covenant of redemption.

Let's pray. Father, how glorious it is to think that from all eternity, before anything existed, before even time existed,

You would plan for the salvation of Your people. Father, while many will grumble the sovereignty of God, we rejoice in it, knowing that we would not have chosen

You, left to our own devices. But You caused us to be born again.

You gave us a new nature, so that we would willingly choose You, that we would willingly want to know

You, want to know Your Son, and rejoice in His work, believe fully in Him.

Father, for any here, from the youngest to the oldest here today, who don't know You, I pray that even today would be the day of salvation, that by Your Spirit, by Your grace and Your mercy and Your love, that You would so transform their affections, that they would love

You and the Son, Jesus Christ, whom You sent. And it's in Jesus' name we pray.