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OK.
Realize that John 17, has talked and taken off of. I'll just have it before me, brethren.
The exercise.
That would be the mind of God.
John Gospel chapter 17.
These words fake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour has come, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee, as thou given him power over all flesh, that he could give eternal life to as many as thou has given him. And this is light eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, who now has sinned.
I have glorified beyond the earth, I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do, And now the Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gave us thee out of the world. Thine they were, thou gamest them me. And they have kept thy words. Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me, are of thee. For I have given unto them the word which thou gavest me. And they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee. And they have believed that thou did send me.
I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou has given me. For they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine are mine. And I am glorified in them. And now I am no more in the world, But these are in the world, and I come to thee, Holy Father, keep through thy own name those who thou have given me, that they may be one as we are.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Gold was the dog gave us me. I have, captain. None of them is lost, but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee, And these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Thy word, and the world have hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
I pray not that thou should have staked them out of the world, but that thou should have keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is true. As thou hast sent me into the world, Even so I also sent them into the world, and for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Either pray I for these alone, but for them also it shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I and thee, that they also may be one and us. But the world may believe that dollars sent me, and the glory which thou gave us me I have given them that they may be one, even as we are one, I and them thou and me.
That they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and that love them as thou hast loved me.
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Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee.
But I have known thee, and these have known the dollars sent me, and I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the laws were without love Me may be in them, and I in them.
For me, I was just thinking of these verses.
Verse 3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast said a wonderful that we can say that we know God. God hath revealed himself in Son, and then in various 4. I have warranty on the earth.
I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do, and to realize that God hath been glorified.
That sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross, we can marvel and rejoice that God had been grown upon. And then he says.
In verse 5 And our Father, glorify thou me, if I don't self with the glory which I have with thee before the world.
You asked for something.
The blessed man Christ Jesus, and then as we go down through the chapter.
In verse 21.
That they also may be.
One as thou father, art in thee, and thy in thee, that they also may be one in US, that the world may believe, that God has sent me, perhaps when in testimony.
Then in verse 22.
And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them that they may be one, even as we are one.
What in glory?
Verse 24 Father I will that they also whom does given me.
It includes all of redeem.
Be with me.
Where I am.
That they may behold my glory, which thus given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
What we think of that day, we think of what's before us.
Now we realize our weakness here and our evil testimony here.
And now the church has failed in this testimony, testimony to the truth.
We are lost, Lord Ajay. That's.
That the Lord speaks of verse 24 speaking to his Father. Father I will.
Oh, interesting it is to think of the world of the Son of God when he has before him.
And puts before us, I will, that they also, whom thou has given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory.
Which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me.
For the foundation of the world.
Lies before the redeem.
But a day of glory.
To see his glory and deserve.
The person.
Who is speaking here? Jesus.
In the beginning of John.
It is made known as the word.
In Revelation 19, he takes that name.
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Says his name is called the Word of God.
Let's go back to Ecclesiastes and connect the remarkable verses with the chapter we have read, The End of Ecclesiastes.
The book that we have in our hand is also the word of God. We speak of it that way.
Our chapter begins these words now in Ecclesiastes.
Chapter 12.
Read a few verses from verse 9.
And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge we need that don't. Yeah, he gave good heed and thought out and set in order for many proverbs the preacher sought to find out acceptable words. These words fake Jesus in our chapter and that which was written was upright. Even words of truth. This book we have in our hands.
Is the word of God and they are words.
Of truth the words of the wise are as good as nails, fascinated by the masters of assemblies, which are given from 1 Shepherd, and in John he is the Good Shepherd.
And he is feeding us.
From that pasture that we need.
And down in our chapter John 17, the Lord in his prayer to the Father, says this.
Verse eight of our chapter. For I have given unto them the words which thou gave us me.
How intimate it is to see him in prayer to the Father, talking about his own and giving us words of truth. I would value this blessed book and learn to know the person who was speaking these words and the Spirit of God had recorded it for our good.
These words are the very innermost breathings of the Lord Jesus as he lifted up his eyes to heaven and prayed on this occasion.
And I think it's helpful as we take up this chapter to see the context in which this chapter is situated. He speaks of an hour here in this first verse where we began. And when we go back to the 13th chapter, we find that there was He speaks of an hour there again. It was the hour of his return to the Father. It says there, I'll just read it. It says when Jesus knew that the hour was come, that he should depart out of this world under the Father.
And so, as he prepares to go to the cross and offer himself without spot to God, then rise from the dead and ascend back to the Father, having accomplished the work of eternal redemption, he gathers his own around himself. And I think this is very precious to see to my own soul. It's just as if he says, I'm going to go away and leave you. I'm not going to be walking with you the way I have been during my public ministry. I'm going to leave you and return to the Father. But he says I'm going to make full provision for you in my absence.
And so in these chapters that precede the 17th chapter, here we find he makes full provision for them. He brings before them how he's going to take care of them. Even though he's going to be a glorified man at God's right hand. He brings before them his eternal love and how nothing will ever change that love. Having loved his own, which were in the world, He loved them unto the end, He brings before them the truth of foot washing and the refreshment that comes from the practical application of God's Word in our lives.
He brings before them the joy of obedience to that word. He tells them too, that he's going to send down the the Comforter, the Holy Spirit who would be with them, and in them the power for their life, so that they could walk for His glory here in this world. He brings before them to the truth of abiding in Himself and fruit bearing, and the joy that comes from that all these things were His provision for them in his absence. And then He lifts up his eyes to heaven at the end of it.
And He prays here. And Brethren doesn't just pray for the little company that was around him on that occasion, but He prays for all those who would believe through the preaching of the Word. And so, brethren, isn't it wonderful to look up this morning into the open heavens and realize that there's one who not only prayed for his own here in this world on this occasion, but He's praying for his own at the right end of God every hour of every day, It tells us in Hebrews 8. And we haven't such a high priest.
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Who is set down at the right hand of the throne, of the majesty in the heavens. And so He's there and we can look up and find our resource in the one who's made full provision for our pathway. And we're linked to Him in a wonderful way. He's head over all things to the Church, which is His body.
This wonderful portion is calculated to touch our hearts, isn't it? I've often thought of those 11 disciples there. And just as if in this meeting the Lord himself was present and he stood up and he prayed for us here as an assembled company, wouldn't every one of our hearts be deeply touched? And wouldn't we listen to every word to know what His desire for us is? Well, that's exactly the privilege President that we have when we read the 17th of John.
Because our brother has said he was not just praying for those 11 disciples who were there, but he prayed for that not for them only, but for them which would believe through their word. And so of course it doesn't carry us into church truth in this, but it's the introduction, if we might say, to the enjoyment of all that's given to us of God. Because we needed to have divine life the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
Neither can he know them for their foolishness unto him, for their spiritually discerned. And so I think this is a very beautiful thought here.
And verse 3. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God. And Jesus Christ whom thou has sent now, that is, He's given us a life by which we can enter into and enjoy what is in the heart of God.
The natural man doesn't have that. He receives not the things of the Spirit of God, but every believer has within him the very life of Christ, a life that is capable of entering into these thoughts that are brought before us here in this chapter. That's what life eternal is. It's not just the fact that it's forever, although of course it is. Even the unsaved will endure forever. But it's not called life, it's eternal death. But how blessed that we have this?
And then he's given to us his word. He have that in this chapter?
I have given them my word. He's given us the Holy Spirit so that we might know these things that are freely given to us of God, and He's given us the glory. It's not looked on in this chapter as something that we're going to possess in the future and all that in a sense is true. But it says the glory which thou gave us me, I have given them so that we can here in this world, in a world full of confusion and unrest and.
So many things that, as the Bible says, man's hearts are failing them for fear. You and I have a life that's suited to heaven and we can enjoy these heavenly things and we can walk through the world with all its confusion. And I've often said, I repeated, I trust it's not repetition. Here is a group of people, as far as this world is concerned, in significant nobodies and God has told us.
All his purposes from before this world was ever made.
He's told us what purposes he had. He's chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world. He's gathered us out, He's given us his mind, and we look on what is going on in the world with absolute assurance and certainty. It's not what is going to happen, God has told us, and the future is all as bright as the promises of God, as someone has said. And here we can sit in a simple way, in the mercy and goodness of God.
To enjoy these things and to listen as I say to the Lord himself, praying and praying for us, and desiring that we would enter into and enjoy these things, I say that every spiritual blessing belongs to every believer.
Given to us, like you might give a jewel box to a person, He looks at 1 jewel. It's so beautiful, he says. That's enough for me. But he's missing a great deal. The whole jewel box is his. He can enjoy everyone that's in the box, and God wants us to know what our portion is. In Christ and brethren, he's given us the capability to know it and to enjoy it.
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And as we witness the words of our Blessed Lord, one of the characteristics that strikes our attention is the intimacy with which he speaks to the Father and the naturalness with which He addresses the Father. And since we have a divine life, the life of the Lord Jesus Christ, and resurrection given us, we have the same precious portion of being able to intimately address God as our Father.
In the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ, he addressed God in the most intimate terms of ABBA Father. And as has been indicated, the Holy Spirit has been giving us, given us to enable us to enjoy the portion that is ours in the Lord Jesus Christ. And one of the precious privileges that we have is that that Spirit indicts in us the same blessed term of intimacy, so that we by the Spirit say ABBA Father as well.
So when we hear the Lord Jesus Christ just simply saying Father, the hour has come, we see how quickly.
And easily he addresses the Father because he was always in communion with the Father.
And so now that's our blessed portion. And we need these heartwarming words that the Lord Jesus Christ speaks to the Father here to encourage us to do exactly as he is doing here, and that is to enter in with intimacy to the Lord, to the communion with the Father about that which concerns us in this sea.
I've always enjoyed in this chapter, 2 words.
And it's woven there throughout the chapter have given.
And beloved ones, if we just get that have given in Exodus chapter 6-7 times. The Lord said I will, but we are today in the position.
Have given We have received all the blessings we'll ever have in the glory. And in that glory day the Father will open up to us all that his beloved Son has done for him and for his glory. And the Lord Jesus could say, All that the Father has spoken unto me, I have spoken unto you. Beloved ones, do we realize?
Our portion, our present position now of the sweet.
Intimacy that we have been given.
That's very heartwarming, isn't it? Very.
Real to us when we enter into it and think of those words.
The Lord Jesus said.
That we might enter into the truth, God knows God, he said to the woman.
For us to realize that God is giving God. God finds his pleasure, his joy in giving.
Says in the Psalms. If I were hungry when I ask thee.
So often we think of God, and we live in a world where we feel that if they give them some little offering to God, God's going to bless them.
But as we think of God, we think of God as the one who gives who gave is only begotten Son the retarning of his blissful You have pleasure in that hole that he might have for those that would be like him there in the glory, sons and daughters.
Why? So I could love us, So I could bestow his love upon us. And thinking of these words and you go to Ephesians, chapter one and chapter 2, and over and over you have that word, have, have, having.
And in it's we have the possession that it's in Christ and we can't have the blessing apart from Christ Jesus the Lord. So we need to have himself before, we need to have the Lord Jesus before.
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We need to see God with the human Son. We need those words. He'd have seen me, have seen the Father. How much is in God's heart that he would show to us of his wondrous love?
So just enjoy what you said.
He is asking and what?
Massive.
Possession. We have all in, right? It's all there. Nothing that we could ever lose because it's in Christ and in the heavenlies.
And forever.
And Peter's a pestle, it says. His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness. And I just there are many young people here that are just like to pass on the word of another. When you go to school, you hear a great deal about things that you need to learn, and it's good to listen to the things that they say. But there's two things that we need to remember.
There is no wisdom in this world on moral and spiritual issues. That is right unless it comes from this blessed book. Because a man has he has the God created Adam and SAD be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it. And there are many, many practical things, and you need those things that you learn at school for your education. But remember this when man attempts to deal with moral and spiritual issues.
He will go after we. Contrary to the Word of God, the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. That doesn't mean the wisdom in how to build an automobile, but it does mean in moral and spiritual matters.
The only way that we're going to have a right standard of morals is to learn it from God's blessed book. The only way that we're going to know is 1, Wise Man said. I spent all my life trying to find out where I came from and where I'm going to. Where will he ever find that out? Unless he finds it out from this blessed book? This book gives us then all things that we need for life and godliness, and I just like to encourage that here. Young people, each one.
Read it. Establish your standards of what is right and wrong.
And what the present place of the Christian is, what our destiny is. Get it from this back and you'll get it right. Because it's the word of God. It lives and abides forever. And we can enter into and enjoy these things because it's not only made known, brethren.
We have two things here in this world that we won't have when we leave this world. We have the flesh in us and we have bodies of humiliation. The Spirit helps us in both these avenues. It tells us the Spirit helps our infirmities, and I'm sure there are people sitting here with headaches. And the Spirit helps you to rise above that and enter into the enjoyment of the portion that you have in Christ. The Spirit helps our infirmities. The Spirit of God also helps us in the conflict with the flesh.
The flesh lust against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and these are country, the one to the other. And so we have the spirit of God. You say? Well is an awful pole. Yes, the world does, because this is a system of things of which Satan is the God and Prince. But you and I have a superior power.
We have the Holy Spirit of God within us that will enable us to go on even alone. The flesh never improves, never changes. The flesh is just the same in the brightest Christian in this world and the most worldly. 1 The flesh is the flesh that is born of. The flesh is flesh what abundant provision this is. And so this portion brings before us the Lord's prayer that we might knowing all these things.
Enter into and enjoy our portion and live in this world rather than the consciousness that God loves us. He's proven His love. He's taken up the question of sins and settled it. Having loved His own which were in the world, He loved them unto the end, and it's going to take all eternity for Him to bestow upon us the exceeding riches of His grace. Will I just say this because there are many young people and you're faced with all kinds of things, the wisdom of this world. I sometimes say what's happening today is as if they repeal the.
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Weights and measures act and say, well, we can just decide everything for ourselves. No, there are standards in the business world.
And there are standards in the word of God that we as Christians should abide by to have a happy and fruitful Christian life in this world.
I think it helps really too to see brethren in this first verse. God's eternal purpose is the glory of his Son, the Lord Jesus. And it's often been mentioned that this chapter contemplates really after the cross. He says in verse four, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished the work which thou gave us thee to do so.
In spirit, he's looking beyond the cross, even though that was still before him in a matter of time. Still, this is God's eternal purpose is the glory of his Son.
It says in Colossians chapter one that in all things he might have the preeminence. And now here in this first one, the Lord Jesus realizes that this hour has come.
As a man he goes back into the glory of God, and he says, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee, verse two, as thou hast given him power over all flesh, then that a tremendous thing to realize.
This is Christianity, a man in the glory of God.
Power over all flesh given unto him. O brethren, this is the Savior that we know. And I like to say to the young people, Christianity is very relevant to our day and age. The fact that we speak about a Savior in the glory of God is not a far away removed item of truth that you learn in your mind.
And that's all that amounts to. No, it's something that relates to today's world, the common, everyday affairs of life. There is a man in the glory of God that is the head over all things to the church, head of his church, in control of every situation of life in order to get that better before our souls. That's what Christianity really is, you find in the book of the Acts.
A man who is filled with the Holy Spirit and looking up steadfastly into heaven and seeing Jesus on the right hand of God, That's Christianity. So in this first verse we really beyond the cross and Spirit looking up into the heavens. The hour has come. The Lord Jesus says glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.
Would that mean that Jesus is saying I have already done all you've given me to do down here in ServiceNow? Take me up there and I'll serve up there.
Or if I got up there.
Nor if I got here. He's going to. He's now glorifying God up there.
And how does he do that? How does he glorify God? He says, Glorify thou Me, glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee.
He does it by giving eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. He gives us his own life. He is the true God and eternal life. He is in his own person, eternal life.
And he communicates that to us. Notice it starts with the word speak Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven.
In chapters 131415 and 16 the Lord was seeking to lift their eyes from earthly things, which was Judaistic, to heaven, to heavenly things. The new order of things that is introduced now by Christ entering the glory himself as a man, and now he gives eternal life to as many as the Father has given him. That expression occurs 7 times in this chapter. Those whom thou hast given me 7 times.
The first six applied to the disciples that were here, and the 7th 1 applies to all the Saints that would believe through him and that you and me. So we are given as a love gift from the Father to him. Father has given me, but he lift up his eyes to heaven, and he would have us to do the same. I was thinking of Colossians 3 If he then be risen with Christ.
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In his own resurrection life, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, for ye have died and your life is hid with Christ in God. Well, here He gives us that life, and He is himself that life. But where is he? While He's in the glory, he's not here, and that's where our portion is. So it isn't just that he would deliver us from worldliness.
But from earthly mindedness as well, which characterized Judaism, this is really the bringing us, bringing these Jewish disciples out of Judaism into the blessing of Christianity.
If any has any difficulty with the Lord Jesus Christ's point of view as though all things.
Have been accomplished and we are on the glory side of the cross, as it were.
One of the characteristics of eternal life is the knowledge of God.
And so we see the attributes of deity ascribed to this blessed man.
Who speaks of things in the present, even though historically?
The cross was still before him, you can see that.
He had finished the work, and so God is in the present. He is the great, I am He is the One.
To whom time does not apply. God made time for us, that which is seen as temporal. We are told so with the Lord Jesus, not only in the aspect of having had glory with God before the world was.
Has that same attribute of deity to be able to speak of things in the eternal present.
He is the eternal Son of God and has brought out beautifully in this chapter before us.
Every work that was ever committed to the Son by the Father he completed or will complete in a future day. I've enjoyed that particularly in John's ministry, how He speaks here. I have finished the work that Thou gave us me to do, and He could say this in perfect confidence, knowing that he was going to complete every aspect of the work, not only of glorifying God in His pathway. He did that, but also in the work of eternal redemption at the Cross.
That's why at the end of those three hours of darkness, he said it is finished, the work was completed. He spoke of it in anticipation here, but then he said it is finished. And then there's a future work that's been given to the sun. All judgment has been committed under the sun and we won't turn to it. But I've appreciated how in Revelation 16, at the end of those pouring out of the judgments, it says a voice out of heaven said it is done. I say everything that ever was committed, every word that the Father ever committed to the Son he either has or will complete to God's satisfaction. Sometimes I give my children a task to do.
And I leave them to that task. And after a time when I feel the task should be completed, I come back to see the finished result. And sometimes I'm disappointed with the finished result, but not God. I speak reverently. He the Son has glorified the Father, and God the Father is fully satisfied for eternity with the work that his Son accomplished here in this world. That's why when you turn over to Hebrews, you find him seated at the right hand of God.
In fact I think it's in Ephesians 2 where it says God hath set him at his own right hand. Why has God said him at his own right hand? Well he said him there because it's a proof that God is satisfied with the work. In fact, I believe that the resurrection, the ascension, and the glorification of Christ are God's. Amen to the work of Calvary. I'd like to just say this in connection with this chapter 2. I believe we have 3 distinct things brought out in connection with the glory of the sun because in the first part of the chapter we find in the 1St 5 verses.
Is that the Father is glorified in the Son, and God has been fully glorified in the sun. No man has seen God at anytime the only begotten who was in the bosom of the Father. He hath declared him in his pathway through this world. He fully glorified God, and showed forth what God was. He was the express image of his person, He could say at the end of His pathway. Have I been so long time with you? And hast thou not known me? He that hasten me hast seen the Father? And so he glorified God in his pathway, glorified God at the cross.
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But then we have something else in the middle of the chapter. We find from we'll say verse 6 to the end of verse 21, the sun glorified in the Saints because it's been brought before us. The Lord Jesus isn't here in this world the way he was when he walked amongst men 2000 years ago, but he's made provision so that his own can walk through this world. And we sometimes sing that little hymn not I may live while here below, but Christ our life may be.
Our lives a reflection of Christ. They will be in the measure in which we are going on in communion.
With himself and the measure in which we are acting in obedience to the Word, there will be a reflection of Christ.
Brethren, isn't it a searching thing to think that all this world is going to see a price? And especially in a day when they closed the pages of God's Word, all that this world is going to see of Christ is what is manifested in your life and mind. We are to walk here as a reflection of Christ in this world.
And then we find at the end of the chapter and the Saints glorified with the Son, and what a wonderful day it's going to be, as we were saying, if we can be in the present enjoyment of this now. But there's going to be a full day of manifestation when he's not only going to have his rightful place in this world that rejected him and cast him out, but we're going to be associated with him in that day. And then, and only then, will his heart be fully satisfied.
It's interesting to notice that.
The Lord Jesus addresses the Father in three different ways. It's often been pointed out and in the in the 11Th verse when he is speaking about the redeemed he says Holy Father and those verses that follow on are in connection with the redeemed here but at the end of the chapter the 20.
25th verse when he is speaking about the lost and of a judgment.
Addresses the father is O righteous father, but in the intimacy and the sweetness.
Of the relationship with his father in the 1St 10 verses he speaks there in that beautiful way Father.
I think there's a contrast here that is drawn in the second verse with the first man. I'll read the second verse as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent you. Remember when Adam was created, it says God breathed and demands nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.
And then he said to Adam that he was to be the head over the whole creation. He was set in that place.
But what did he bring him? He brought in death. As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin. So death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned. So the first man placed in the position as head of the whole creation, he brought in sin and he brought in death. He brought in rebellion against the will of God. He didn't know the heart of God, or he would never have taken of that tree that was forbidden.
It has been said that all our failures range from unbelief of the goodness that's in the heart of God.
If he had really believed that when God forbade that one tree that it was for man's good, that he forgot it because he knew what that would happen if he rebelled against the commandment of his of God. So the first man was the beginning of a creation that was spoiled.
The second man is the Lord from heaven, the Lord Jesus. He comes in and what does he bring? Not death, but he gives eternal life and a life by which we can enter into and know and enjoy what is in the heart of God. What a wonderful thing. This is the meaning of an expression that sometimes misunderstood in Revelation chapter 2. Where it says three, I believe it is that he is the beginning of the creation of God.
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It doesn't mean that the Lord Jesus had a beginning. He's the eternal Son. He's the eternal God.
But he is the beginning of new creation. New creation began with a man. There was a creation which began with the first man. It's all spoiled. You and I, when we were born into this world, were part of that fallen creation. But isn't it blessed brethren By being born again, we're brought into this new creation. Betty Mandy, in Christ there is a new creation. That's the way Mr. Darby's translation reads.
He is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new, and all things are of God. And then that chapter closes with showing us that we are in this world as the representatives of Christ who is the head says now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ, then be reconciled to God. We have made him to be soon for us.
Who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Isn't it blessed brethren? We can sit here and know that even lower by our natural birth. Part of this fallen creation, my new birth, were brought into this wonderful place, having a new life, knowing the heart of God, knowing the counsels of God, having the power, the life and the power by the Spirit to walk in this world as those who are representatives.
Of new creation, well may the Lord give us grace. And that's the Lord's prayer here, the desire that we should enter into and know and enjoy these things.
Would it be right to say that in the Lord's life he glorified his Father?
As the fourth verse says, and in his death he glorified God.
It's certainly true.
And all we have had before us, in terms of the delightful portion that is ours in the resurrection life of the Lord Jesus Christ, has a very practical application in this prayer, as has been pointed out the different ways in which God has been addressed relative to those who were the subjects of the Lord's Prayer. So I would just admonish all of us who have a responsibility to take a public part in praying, to be exercised, be intelligent.
As to those for whom we are praying, so that we address.
God in the bright relationship. And that also has a very practical application.
As to the persons of the Godhead, Stephen has been brought before us, and he addressed the Lord Jesus Christ personally, Lord Jesus, into thy hands. I commend my spirit. And here we have the intimate address to God as our Father, and that has been brought before us, oh righteous Father and O Holy Father. So those who have the responsibility to take a public part should be intelligent in the manner of the address to which God is, is spoken.
I'd like to just make a comment or two on what Brother Barry said that might be.
A little bit hard to understand in the 13th chapter of John verse 31. Therefore when he was gone out, Jesus said now is the Son of man glorified that refers to the perfection of his obedience even to the death of the cross.
Perfect man and God not the Father. God is glorified in him. Of course he was the Father, but I'm saying it's as God that he glorified him. This is the cross. God is glorified in him. On the cross, during the three hours of darkness. He he did not cry. My Father, my Father, why hast thou forsaken me? He did cry. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
It was God in all that. He is as God dealing with sin. It was His holy nature that was dealing with the sin question. It wasn't so much the thought of the eternal relationship which the Son and the Father had between themselves. The Father hath not left me alone. I do always those things that please him. That's in John 829. You don't get the cry of abandonment and forsaking in John's gospel.
You get him in the Father's bosom place, a hiding place of love. He was always there as the eternal Son. But on the cross it was the man, the one who had become a man, crying to his God. When did he become his God? The 22nd Psalm says thou art my God. Even from my mother's belly he was always the Father to him. He's the Eternal Son. But he was God. Since he became a man. Now he had to do with him as God, and it was God.
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Dealing with him. As to the sin question, before those hours of abandonment, it was Father. Forgive them, for they know not what they do. Afterward again it was Father. Into thy hands I commend my spirit, but during the three hours of darkness it was God, my God, my God, why is thou forsaken me? And so here it says.
God is glorified in Him. As to the sin question, if God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify in him and himself, and shall straightway glorify him. But that's God in in his holy nature the sin question had to be settled. That comes first. And then you have John 17 where he says, I have glorified thee, Father on the earth.
Verse.
For I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do, and now, O Father, glorify thou me The only time he used the expression directly speaking to the Father as God was on cross. And so it's that's even a more essential thing.
The very foundation of of everything is that God has been glorified as to sin God's nature.
Fully vindicated, glorified, not just satisfied as to the sin question, but glorified. And the Father was always glorified in the sons whole life, but during the during those three hours when he was abandoned of God he cries that cry. He glorified God as to sin and our whole salvation is founded upon that work. Praise forever be to his name.
It's beautiful too, Father Hendrix, to see that between the 13th chapter and the 17th chapter.
In that 16th chapter we are brought in and the Lord Jesus.
Is going to leave the disciples, and he's going to the glory. And he tells us now how to pray. And in the 16th chapter he says, when you pray now, you pray in my name to the Father. So we are now in that same relationship as the Lord Jesus was in all the sweetness of that communion between the Father and the Son. This is our position now.
And he says to them, he shall not speak to me, but to the Father in my name. And there are only two occasions that I know of who can remember when the Lord Jesus is addressed. One was already has been mentioned as Stephen. The other one was the thief on the cross, when he said, Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom. I want to be careful not to.
Make people uneasy.
Praying to the Lord Jesus. But I do believe that our prayers should be addressed to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus. But when it comes to service in connection with our service, we can readily speak to the Lord Jesus as the head of the Church.
In 2nd Corinthians 12, the Apostle Paul asked the Lord three times to take away that affliction. And the Lord that's the Lord Jesus. He said no. And in the 1St Corinthians 11.
Of the Lord Jesus was dealing with his own He's the head of the Church.
And on this count many slept and it was the Lord in discipline. So both are true. We can address the Father and in the family way, and we address the Lord Jesus when we're talking to him about his assembly. It's a proper to address him as to rest the Lord Jesus, He's the head of the assemblies.
Really, Chuck?
In verse 9, the Lord Jesus says in the new translation. I demand some thought on that.
I think the thought that Brother Darby, the reason he expressed it that way was it's the expression of an equal to an equal.
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It's not the expression of a subordinate to a superior, It's the expression of an equal to an equal. And so he says I demand.
The right Doug, I believe it.
In the French language that word ask and French is demond demand, but it's not a reverence. But it is that in the form of a request. But we can't use that. Yes we can, we can pray to him, but but we're not. We're not equals. No, there's a there's a difference.
Like to say too in this verse three a little bit more. I know it already has been remarked about life eternal and we often think of eternal life say for the sake of the younger that it is a life that is forever and that's true, but.
The thought is more the quality of life than the duration of life.
It's the knowledge. Eternal life is the full knowledge of God as Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. What a tremendous thing to think that we have that full knowledge now in the person of the Lord Jesus. We can, O God as Father.
And the Lord Jesus Christ? Tremendous to think about it in the 6th chapter of First Timothy, the new translation.
Renders eternal life that which is really light.
We can say that a person that doesn't know God is Father, the Lord Jesus Christ really doesn't know what it means to live yet.
Oh dear young people, you want to know what living really is? Get to know God in the revelation that we have of him and the person of the Lord Jesus. God was revealed in the Old Testament times.
In a certain measure he has been revealed in His creation, His power, his wisdom, his evidence. And there were revelations of his righteousness when the law was given His Holiness. But now, in the coming of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, into this world, we have the revelation of God complete. We have the God made known in the face of Jesus Christ just to think of it.
You and I have the privilege of knowing what it means to really live. This is the reason God has made us, has put us into this world like our brother, Gordon said. Men can study all their life, longs. They can get a string of PhDs and other titles after their name, but if they don't know this, they don't know what living really is. Yet This is life.
Eternal, that they might know thee. The only truth God.
And Jesus Christ, whom he has sent, Oh, what a privilege to know God.
Dear young people, again, I challenge you. You want to know what living really is. It's the knowledge of God as Father and of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me just summarize that, putting it a little differently, the sum and substance of all blessedness, both in this life and in that which is to come, is to know God.
And he can only be known in the person of his son.
Perhaps he could just say too that in the Bible we find God the Father in council. He had the purposes. We were chosen in Christ by the Father before the world was. Then we find the Lord Jesus, the one who carries out the councils of the Father.
And so when he was in this world, he was carrying out the counsels of God, his Father.
Walking here as the obedient man, the perfect example for us accomplishing that glorious work on Calvary, he was accomplishing what was in the heart of God. God's desire was the blessing of man and Christ said, I come not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me and to give my life a ransom for many. So He came to accomplish the will of God His Father and the Holy Spirit is the power. He's the power in creation. By His Spirit He garnished the heavens.
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The heavens were created by Jesus Christ the Son. The Spirit is the power. The Spirit is the power for our life as Christians. And so it's very important. The Word of God presents to us God in Trinity, the Father who counseled all, the Lord Jesus, the Son who carries out those councils, and the Spirit the power by which those councils are all carried out. It's summed up in that verse in connection with the work of the Lord Jesus in Hebrews.
It says who by the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God. That is the Lord Jesus the Son by the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God. And if you have turned to the First Corinthians 15, you see how it's kind of summed up there in the.
1St Corinthians 15.
And verse 24.
Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father.
When he shall have put down all rule, and all authority and power, for he must reign till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all under his feet. But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is accepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him. That God may be All in all who are Speaking of the first man, he spoiled it all, but in the eternal councils of God there was.
The second man, the last Adam, he comes in and he's going to set everything right That has been spoiled by the 1St man. And so he reigns until all enemies are put down and that the triumphant cry in the 11Th of Revelation. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever. And so that goes on until the final judgment at the great white throne.
That's the Last Judgment. And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
The wicked dead are raised there to stand. Then it says he delivers up the Kingdom to the Father.
Father's counsel was that there should be a scene with his beloved Son at the head of the scene, and that person a man yet still the eternal Son. And so he accomplishes this. He turns the Kingdom over. And now when we have this expression that God may be All in all, it's the whole 3 persons of the Godhead in that word. That God may be All in all everything spoiled by the 1St man, but everything brought about into order again.
And as it's been brought before us so nicely all to the glory of God and all accomplished by the Son who glorified his Father. And there is going to be that eternal scene where God is All in all, where righteousness dwells a new heaven and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. While we're living, as we might say in the time when these things are going on in this world, but all leading up to this glorious time when.
The God of the Bible is fully accomplished as accomplished. All that was in his heart accomplished it through the sun and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
I would just like to say a little bit before we close in connection.
And I say it and love to.
The younger ones that salvation, there may be just a tendency to think well.
They often put it yes, I'm saved. I have salvation and as if it were something that we could.
Tuck under our arm and say, yes, I have that, but it's much deeper as we find it here. What is it? It is to know God and to know the Lord Jesus Christ and the Apostle Paul, even late in his life in Philippians.
Toward the end of his life, he could say that I may know him.
Well, may this just impress itself. Honest that it's it's a growing, a daily growing more and more to know the Lord Jesus Christ and even into the glory. The Father is going to reveal to us throughout eternity what his blessed Son has done for him. May we learn more about Christ, whether we're young or old.
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The heavens declare the glory of God, so I can see the power of God as I look around the each of us look into the heavens and see the glory of God or the power of God. But I really have to go to the cross and that's why just remembering peace that through the Lord's.
Mercy and grace we might have tomorrow. When we come together to remember the Lord Jesus, we really come to understand the heart of God. God wants us to look into his heart and to understand that he loves us. And the sacrifice of Calvary was to make God known. But God's heart love, sees the gods. That's why it's so important that I'm in the spirit on the Lord's day.
And as I sing those hymns.
And as I view that cross, I see the heart of God and the giving of his beloved Son. What a sacrifice Calvary wants, but a manifestation of thoughts are new. We enter more into it, and may we be able to praise him in the dark. One more remark, if I could make it on that line, just to complete a thought that I was enjoying, Have enjoyed it in the past and along the lines of what our brother Barry was remarking.
All through this upper room ministry, we find the Lord Jesus as a divine person.
Looking upon the work as if it were already done, and bringing the disciples into the blessed relationship of all of that. But there's one thing I've noticed He doesn't anticipate. He always refers to the Father as the Father. Sometimes my father, but he emphasizes just what our brother Curry has remarked on. And our brother Barry, he saves that blessed relationship of your father until the work on the cross was completed. And then he sends Mary Magdalene with that triumph. Triumphant message.
I ascend unto my Father, and your Father, my God, and your God. Could he and I say it reverently, have anticipated that I believe he could have. As a divine person, He knew absolutely and for sure does that work that we completed, and that you and I would be brought into that relationship. But as it were, he sets that especially apart to emphasize, I believe the value of that relationship.
For 265.
255.
Oh God, Appraiser.
We will.
Fly by.
Flavor Blazing All the Human Alliance.