Gospel—C. Hendricks
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To introduce my subject tonight, let's turn to 1St John four and verse 9.
In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world.
That we might live through him.
Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us.
And sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Verse 14.
And we have seen and do testify that the father sent the son.
To be the savior of the world.
These verses introduced my subject tonight.
Which is to go through the Gospel of John.
And see the Lord Jesus here as the sent one.
Sent one of God, verses 9 and 10. It was God who sent him, and also the sent one of the Father, verse 14.
Comment on verse 9 before we leave it In this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world. And what does that tell us? It tells us that He was the Son, His only begotten Son, before He was sent into this world. He sent Him into this world that we might live through Him and needs life.
And that's the first essential in order to enjoy God, we need His life and nature.
And then in verse 10 here in his love.
Not that we love God, but that He loved us.
And sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.
And who was that God who sent him? Well, verse 14 says, and we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son.
To be the savior of the world.
Now we're going to take a trip through John's Gospel, starting at Chapter 3. Please turn back.
John's Gospel.
And look at these precious verses that speak of him as the Saint one.
This is the heart of the Gospel of John.
That God sent him.
And that the father sent him.
And that he came.
But to consider him.
As being sent is most precious indeed.
Verse 17 First instance in John's Gospel. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world.
But that the world through him, might be saved.
We learned three things from that verse, that he was the Son before he sent him.
God sent him into the world, and he was the only begotten Son.
The one who was of the same essence, the same nature, the same essential being as the Father.
And it was God who sent him.
That whosoever believeth in him should not perish.
But.
Have everlasting life. That's verse 16.
Verse 17 tells us that he didn't send him to be a judge.
He sent him to be a savior.
God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world or to judge the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
First time he came was as a savior. The next time he comes it will be as a judge.
But we must meet him one way or the other. Either meet him as Savior or meet him as judge.
We will notice as we touch these precious verses in John's Gospel, Speaking of him as being sent.
Brings before us the place that He took in lowly grace coming into this world. Sent of the Father to reveal the Father, to make us know who God really is. No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son who's in the bosom of the Father. He hath declared Him, He hath told Him out. He hath made Him known to us.
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Most precious and the love of the Father.
We'll step our way through verse 34. For he whom God hath sent, speaketh the words of God.
For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him.
Not only was he not sent to judge, but to save, but he was sent to speak the very words of God. This very gospel begins in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, the very one who spoke the very words of God. It wasn't. It wasn't an Angel speaking. It wasn't a prophet speaking. It was God the Son speaking.
Every word He spoke was given him from God the Father, and as we hear what He says and as we see what He did, we see the Father in all his words and in all his actions.
For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God. For God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him. He received the fullness of the power of the Holy Spirit, not by measure, as the prophets of the Old Testament, where the Spirit came upon them, and they uttered the prophecy, and then He retired from them. No, He was given to the Son to be in that perfect manhood that was his, to be the living power, and the.
The the force of all that he said and did.
In the 4th chapter.
Verse We know the story of the Samaritan woman.
Verse 31. We'll pick it up there. In the meanwhile, his disciples prayed him, saying Master.
But he said unto them, I have meat to eat that she know not of.
Therefore said the disciples, one to another, hath any man brought him ought to eat?
Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.
We learned 2 added truths from that verse that he came to do. He was sent to do the will of the Father that sent him and to finish his work. And it's in John's Gospel when he prayed to the Father in John 17, he said, Father, I have finished the work which thou gave us, me to do. And again on the cross he cries out, it is finished. Yes, He was sent to carry out.
All that the Father had entrusted to him.
As we go through these verses, you will see that that's the theme of John's gospel. He's presented to us as scent of God and scent of the Father, that we might know God and might know the Father.
My meat is that which sustained Him is very sustenance. Here is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work. How often do we do our own wills?
He never, he always, he ever did the will of his father imperfection, and he finished the work that was entrusted to him.
In chapter 5.
Chapter 5.
Let's start in verse 21.
For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them.
Even so, the sun quickeneth gives life to whom he will.
For the Father judgeth no man.
But hath committed all judgment unto the Son.
That all men should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father.
He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which hath sent him.
The greatest insult that man can give to God, to the Father.
Is to dishonor the son whom he sent.
The one who was the perfect representation of the Father.
The one whoever spoke the words of the Father. The one who always did the works of the father.
The one that was perfect in representing the father to reject the Son.
Is to insult God the Father.
And will be met with severe judgment.
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You cannot have God, you cannot have the Father without the Son. He revealed him.
He is the living expression of him. He is one with him. He was sent of him.
To represent him and he did it perfectly.
That all men verse 23 should honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son, honoreth not the Father which hath sent him.
Again, verse 24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word.
And believeth on him, or believeth him that sent me hath everlasting life.
Shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. Wonderful verse has eternal life Will not come into judgment, but is passed out of death into life, believing on.
The one.
Who sent the son?
Believeth him that sent me hath eternal life.
Again.
In verse 30.
I can of mine own self do nothing.
Those that do not know who he is.
Will take a verse like this.
And use it to dishonor.
The sun and to show that he was not God.
He says I can of mine own self do nothing. He came into a position of dependence.
He came not to command, but to obey.
In the form of God, He always commanded and everyone obeyed him.
But now he takes the form of a servant sent of the Father, and in that place of dependence he obeys perfectly.
Perfectly.
I can of mine own self do nothing as I hear I judge in my judgment is just because I seek not mine own will.
Man.
Never sought his own will, always did the will of his Father. That was his meat, that was the delight of his heart. My delight, he said on coming is to do thy will. Oh God.
I seek not mine own will, but the will of whom the Father which hath sent me.
And then he brings forward in the last part of John 5 the witnesses that he had to him. He says in verse 33, He sent on to John, and he bear witness unto the truth, John the Baptist.
But I receive not testimony from man, but these things I say that you might be saved.
He was a burning and a shining light, and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
But I have greater witness.
Than that of John.
For the works which the Father hath given me to finish.
The same works that I do bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me.
When we see the works that he did, we're seeing the works of the Father. When we hear the words that he spoke, we're hearing the words of the Father. We're getting to know the Father.
As we learn the sun.
Study Him, read the four Gospels, ponder Him, meditate upon Him, and you will learn who the Father is, for He is the living embodiment and expression of the Father. Verse 36 again. But I have greater witness than that of John for the works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me again in verse 37.
And the Father himself which hath sent me.
Hath borne witness of me. You have neither heard his voice at anytime, nor seen his shape at the river Jordan. The Father himself bore witness of him. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. Again on the Mount of Transfiguration. This is my beloved son, and whom I am well pleased.
The father himself. His voice was heard declaring his delight in his son.
Then he says to these unbelieving Jews in verse 38, And ye have not his word, abiding in you for whom he hath sent.
Him, he believed not.
Whom he had sent him he believed not.
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Solemn, serious thing to reject the words and the works of the one whom the Father sent. Chapter 6 Now.
Chapter 6. Verse 27. He had just fed 5000 men, besides women and children, with five loaves and two fishes. And he says to them, Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you for him that God the Father sealed.
Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?
Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that you believe on him whom he hath sent.
They said therefore unto him, What signs showest thou? We may see and believe thee. What dost thou work? Our fathers did eat man in the desert, as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven to eat. He had just fed with five loaves and two fishes over 5000.
Probably 20,000 with the women and children and they asked him what sign he showed.
And then they present what Moses did, probably to say that was a far greater sign than you did. He fed the he fed the whole people of Israel for 40 years with bread from heaven, the manna.
And notice how the Lord meets that.
Verse 32 Then said Jesus unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
Verse 38 For I came down from heaven not to do mine own will.
But the will of him that sent me?
Verse 39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day. Verse 40 And this is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth on him may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
Eternal security. I will lose nothing.
And I will raise him up at the last day, everyone that seeth the son and believes on him.
The one scent of the Father again in verse 44. No man can come to me.
Except the Father which hath sent me, draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. Every one of us here that saved is saved, because the Father has drawn you to his sent one, his beloved Son. Left to ourselves, let's face it, we would not have come.
We would not have come, but He's drawn us, and we're His. Verse 57 As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father, by reason of the Father, on account of the Father, that was His whole purpose down here, to live for Him.
So he that eateth me, even he shall live by me. We are to live.
On account of the son, as he lived on account of the father who sent him.
Chapter 7.
Jesus verse 16 Jesus answered them and said my doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.
His doctrine, his teachings, that's what doctrine means. His teachings is they were mine. They were the fathers who sent me. To reject the Son is to reject the Father. Absolutely impossible to know God, to believe in God, to have him as your God, if you do not receive the Son. My doctrine, my teaching is not mine.
But his that sent me again, verse 18 he that speaketh of himself or from himself as a source.
Specific His own glory, but he that seeketh his glory that sent him, and that was the Lord Jesus. The same is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.
Again verse 28 then cried Jesus in the temple as he taught, saying, you both know me and you know whence I am, and I'm not come of myself, but he that sent me is true, whom you know not.
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But I know him.
For I am from him, and he hath sent me.
That's the cardinal truth of the Gospel of John, that he was here as set of the Father to represent him, to speak his words, to do his works to.
Glorify Him to do His will and to manifest Him. Verse 33.
Then said Jesus unto them, Yet a little while am I with you, and then I go unto him that sent me.
He was about to return to the father.
And he tells them he was leading.
And about to go to the Father Chapter 8 now.
In verse 16. And yet if I judge, my judgment is true, for I am not alone.
But I am the father that sent me.
Verse 19 I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.
Verse 26 I have many things to say and to judge of you, but he that sent me is true, and I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him.
You reject everything that the Lord Jesus said or anything that He said. You're rejecting the words of the Father because those are the words that He spoke.
You cannot.
Dishonor the Son without dishonouring the Father. Can I reject the Son without rejecting the Father? You cannot have God without the Son.
Impossible.
Greatest insults you can give to God is to reject his Son whom he sent, the darling of his bosom, the Son of his love, the one whoever lay in his bosom, came down into this world, so that we might know God.
We might know who he is.
And all about him and the Son has told it out in perfection.
I speak to the world, those things which I have heard of him.
Again, verse 29.
And he that sent me is with me.
The Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please Him.
That's not true of any of us. That's not true of any of us.
That we do always, those things that please the Father. Not even close.
Speak of myself.
But he was the perfection of obedience.
Always pleasing to his father.
Never had to take a word back, never had to retrace a step.
Never had to say I'm sorry.
Never had to say I was wrong.
When they asked him, Who art thou, He said, I am altogether absolutely what I say to you.
My mother used to say do as I say, don't do as I do.
Whatever he said he did, and whatever he did, He said He was perfect in everything. And if he hadn't been, we wouldn't have a savior, because our salvation depends upon perfect obedience even unto death. And that the death of the cross, had he failed, faltered in one point.
Even one thought.
Those that say he could have sinned, do they know who he is?
Do they know who he is?
Can holiness sin?
Holiness is delight in what is good and abhorrent of evil. They are very suggestion to him.
Of going counter to the will of his father was painful to him.
Satan tried it.
If thou be the Son of God, you are hungry. Prove it by making these stones into bread.
And you said, None shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. He lived by the word of God, and he didn't have a word from the Father to do that, so he wouldn't do it. He never would act independently of his Father. If thou be the Son of God, he set him on a pinnacle of the temple. Cast thyself down. For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee.
He leaves out in all thy ways to keep thee.
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And he leaves out part of Scripture. Satan quotes scripture, but he doesn't quote it right. And it not wasn't one of the Lord's ways to act independently of his Father.
Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
He meets every temptation with the Word of God. He was in a place of dependence.
And he acted in that place in perfection.
The greatest truth.
In the Bible.
In the word of God.
Is that God the Son?
Became a man.
Live perfect life as a man.
Died as a man to glorify God as to the sin question and to save poor sinners like you and me. Rose is a man is seated in heaven as a man.
And will be a man forever.
Forever. That's the gospel story.
That's the most wonderful love story ever.
Ever.
Chapter 8.
And verse.
26 I have many things to say and to judge of you.
But he that sent me is true.
And I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. Verse 29. And he that sent me with me, Father hath not left me alone, for I do always those things that please Him.
Again.
42.
Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, you would love me.
For I proceeded forth, and came from God, Neither came I of myself.
But he sent me.
He sent me now Chapter 9. Very precious. We know it very well. I'm going to read from the first verse.
And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
And he asked his disciples, asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?
Jesus answered, neither had this man sinned nor his parents, but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.
I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day.
The night cometh when no man can work.
As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.
Now notice this beautiful type of his incarnation.
When He had thus spoken, he spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle. What does that speak of? God was manifest in the flesh.
God was manifest in the flesh, the word became flesh made clay of the spittle, the word, and then he picks up that that earth that he made Adam from and he makes it into.
Clay and anoints the eyes of the blind man, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay. But that's not all.
And he said unto him, Go wash in the pool of Siloam, which is by interpretation sent.
He went and washed and came, seeing heart into mind. Our blind eyes, blind spiritually, are opened.
And we see.
We see as this minds man's physical eyes were opened and he saw, but he got his spiritual sight at the end of the chapter when they cast him out of the synagogue.
They said, we know that this man is a Sinner, for we know that God spake to Moses. As for this man and this fellow, we know not from whence he is. Why hearing is a marvelous thing that you know not from whence he is, and yet it's opened mine eyes since the world began. One born blind was never given sight. This man were not of God, he could do nothing.
I was altogether born in sins, and they cast him out. Dost thou teach us They cast him out.
They couldn't answer.
The logic of his words.
The truth of his words.
Jesus found him an outcast from religion.
Is telling my Barber today he was talking about religion. I said religion only sends people to hell, it's only Christ that can save them.
You trust in religion, you go to hell. That's the opiate of the people. Religion without Christ is nothing.
All it does is puff up the pride of man.
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Make him think that he's fit for heaven because he's done his religious duty.
Oh, no, never. Well, this poor man was cast out of religion. He was cast out of the synagogue, and the Lord finds him and he says, dost thou believe I'm the Son of God?
He said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on Him? He said, He that speaks to thee is He and He. And He fell his feet, and he worshipped him.
So not only did he get his physical sight, he got his spiritual sight as well.
And that's the way we got our spiritual sight to to accept the Jesus as the sent One, the one who came and became a man.
Became one of us so that we might truly know who God is, who the Father is.
Now the 10th chapter.
Verse 36.
Say ye of him the Lord is speaking whom the Father hath sanctified.
And sent into the world.
The blasphemous because I said I am the Son of God.
The Father sanctified him, set him apart for this work, this mission that he sent him on.
And then He sent him into this world to accomplish it, and he did so in perfection. Now again in the 11TH chapter, we have Lazarus. We know the account very well. I'm going to pick up the story. It's very precious. In verse 38, Jesus therefore again groaning in himself.
Cometh to the grave. It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it.
Jesus said take you away the stone, Martha, the sister of him that was dead.
That saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead 4 days.
Jesus saith unto her, said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldst believe, thou should see the glory of God.
Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid.
And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, Father.
I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
Now notice this next verse.
And I knew that thou hearest me always, but because of the people which stand by, I set it.
That they may believe what, what? What may they believe that thou hast sent me?
That they may believe.
That thou has sent me. That's the critical truth of John's gospel, that the Father sent the Son.
To be the savior.
Of the world.
Now in the 12TH chapter, the end of the chapter, we have some very precious verses. I've often been asked.
Possibly you've been asked. Will we ever see the Father question?
Well, this verse answers it. Verse 45 answers it, but I'll read verse 44. Jesus cried and said he that believeth on me believeth not on me, but on him that sent me, and he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. Will we ever see The Father will be in the presence of the Son, who is the image of the invisible God, who is the.
Representation of the Father. Whoever spoke the words of the father, Whoever did the works of the father. Yes, in the person of the son we will see the father.
He that seeth me, seeth him that sent me.
Now the last two verses of chapter 12 are very profound and precious.
Deep and wonderful.
For I have not spoken verse 49. For I have not spoken of myself.
From myself as a source, as the force of that.
But the father which sent me.
He gave me a commandment.
And I that I what I should say and what I should speak. Everything he said, everything he spoke, was in fulfillment of the commandment the Father had given him. He sums up everything he did and everything he said as a commandment from the Father. He was in perfect obedience. He was not here to command, He was here to obey.
And he did it in perfection.
I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which sent me. He gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. And I know verse 50 now.
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That his commandment, his life everlasting, life eternal.
Whatsoever I speak, therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak. I know that His commandment, Father's commandment.
Was the.
Was the living expression of who He is and what eternal life really is.
His commandment is life eternal.
We will notice as we go a little bit farther in John's Gospel, the fullness of eternal life is to know the Father, to know his Son.
And as he carried out the Father's commandment, he gave expression to what eternal life really is. It's his person and all that he carried out in obedience to the Father. That's what eternal life.
Is in expression down here in a man, whatsoever I speak therefore.
Even as the Father said unto me.
So I speak.
Chapter 13. Verse 16 Verily, verily, I say unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord.
Neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him.
And I was in Red Bluff, we had a cottage meeting.
And it was somewhat informal.
And a couple had invited four people, two older couples and two middle-aged.
To come they they were of the buy high religion.
I know something about it because I was raised in Wilmette, IL and there is a Bahai temple, a central temple for that religion in the United States of America, is in Wilmette, IL. It's right in the harbor, the Wilmette harbor.
And I've seen it before many times.
When I was a young boy, way before I was saved, I went through it to be the thing to me. It's got nine sides to it. It's supposed to be at a conglomeration of all the nine major religions in the world, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism.
Muslim religion and so on. Don't know all nine. Well, that's of course an impossibility to get the mall harmonized. And it puts the Lord on the same level as these other prophets, which is totally false. The whole thing is false.
And the.
I spoke on John 1.
Colossians 1 and Hebrews one and the person of Christ. I felt that's what they really needed.
And certainly was. And then we threw the meeting open to questions. I said that all but your question must be on the person of Christ. Stay on that subject. Don't get off into something like prophecy or the church or something else. I'm the person of Christ.
And this the younger man who had married a Bai Hai woman, she was born in it and he had come out of the Church of Christ.
And he was now, I guess, by high.
And he asked this question. It's based on John 14. Turn over to that verse 28.
You have heard how I sent, how I said unto you, I go away, and came again. Come again unto you. If you loved me, you would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I.
Now he wasn't being contentious. There was a serious question, he said. How can he be God and the Father be greater than He?
And I said to him, I said, you have touched the mystery of his person.
In his Godhead he is equal with Father. In his manhood He is subject to the Father. He is obedient to the Father. He ascent of the Father to do the will of the Father, not to act as God, but perfect man.
And in that sense, he could say my father is greater than I.
That's the mystery of his person, which none of us will ever fully understand.
In Matthew 11, he said.
No man knoweth the Son.
But the father?
No man knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him. The Son reveals the Father to us, but the Son, the Father, is God.
Nothing diff, nothing less than God, nothing more than God. God can't be more than God. The Holy Spirit is God.
But the Son is God and man in one person.
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That's beyond our comprehension. It's our puny minds cannot fathom that the incarnation God becoming a man.
Coming to where we were so that we might really know God.
You had to come in our likeness.
He had to become a man, had to become a servant. He had to show what perfect obedience was dependence.
And he did it.
And he'll be a man forever.
Awfully, awfully.
Astounding truth and never cease to be a man.
That's how we know God, and without that we could never know Him.
And he accepted that.
Accepted it. I don't think he'd ever heard that before.
That in the sense that he became a servant, he could say my father is greater than I.
In the sense of his essential deity, he could say I am my father are one. Both are true.
Remember speaking to an old sister once.
And I said we were talking about things we can't understand, but I'll tell you when you can't understand. And that is God and man and one person.
She said, well, that's simple. I understand that he's God and he's man in one person.
Well, to her simple mind, yes, that's it was simple. But the depths of that truth, it's beyond our ability to comprehend.
That he could know everything.
And at the same time the learner.
That he could be the one who never slumbers nor sleeps, and yet he slept in the boat and they had to awaken him.
That he could be the one who has never gets hungry because he's God and the Spirit and yet he hungered.
How do we understand those two things? How can we put them together?
We don't have to with our puny intellect, but simply to receive them by faith.
The mystery of who he is, this tremendous, wonderful person.
His son.
Verse 20.
Of John 13 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me, and he that receiveth me.
Receiveth him that sent me. To receive the son is to receive the Father. To reject the son is to reject the father.
John 14 and verse 24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings, and the word which he hears not mine, but the fathers which sent me.
We hear what he said. We are hearing the father.
John 15.
And he's talking to to his enemies here.
About them at least. And he says in verse 21, But all these things will they do unto you for my namesake, because they know not.
Him that sent me.
Chapter 16 verse 5. But now I go my way to him that sent me.
And none of you asketh me with her goest thou. But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.
There's another person in the Godhead that is spoken of in John's Gospel as being sent, and that's the Holy Spirit. It's another subject most precious he was sent to.
But we're on the person of the Sun.
John 17, six times in just in this prayer, he's the sent one. Let's look at them verse 3. And this is life eternal.
That they might know thee, the only true God.
And Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
I was asked at a young people's meeting, did the Old Testament Saints have eternal life? And I answered yes and no.
What do you mean?
Well, when they were born again, and they were born again by the word of God.
They received the same life that we received when we're born again.
But they had it in the baby state.
They didn't know the father.
They didn't know the sun. He hadn't come yet. Only by prophetic predictions of his coming, such as kiss the sun must he be angry. And he perished from the way. When his wrath is kindled. But a little blessed are all day they put their trust in him. Thou art my Son, this day of I begotten thee, and so on.
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But they didn't know him like we do.
When you have a baby, that baby has the same nature that you have.
But it doesn't have the same knowledge. No, they're just babies.
And that's the Old Testament state of things. But we know the father Son has revealed him to us. We know the son, he's come down here, become a man.
And so we have eternal life in the fullest sense of the word. This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast set.
That's eternal life in the full development of it. That's when the Lord said in John 10, I'm come that they might have life, that you might have it abundantly. That's the abundant life. And we'll touch on that a little bit more.
In in a moment, in another verse that we'll look at.
Verse 8.
For I have given unto them, addressing the Father in this prayer, we know that I've given unto them the words 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 didst send me. What a wonderful.
Truth.
Without believing it, you're not saved.
He talks about those accompanied with him when he was here on earth, he said. He said they've believed Father that you sent me.
Wonderful truth.
The world doesn't believe it.
No, they don't.
Young, godly, don't believe it.
We do.
We are part of his family.
And we believe.
As he says here, they have believed that thou did send me. Now these were those that accompanied with Him here on earth. But in his prayer he expands it, and he brings us in. In verse 20, he says.
Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word.
That brings us in. We'll come to that in a moment.
But there's another verse in verse 17. He says, I'll read verse 16. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. He's speaking about those who were his own, those that believed that the Father sent him. And then he says, sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Set apart and be sanctified, but in the power of that truth of knowing God is our Father.
As Thou has sent me into the world, Even so have I also.
Sent them into the world. He just has said they're not of the world. He's taken us out of it and now he sends us back into it. For what purpose?
For what purpose are we sent back into the world to represent him?
Even as he represented the father.
We're not here to make a big name for ourselves. We're not here to become popular. We're not here to be the best athlete or the best musician or the greatest artist or the greatest scientist. We might be. The Lord has given many talents to the Saints of God, but that's not why we're here.
We're here to represent him.
Just as he was here to represent the father.
As thou has sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world.
And then he sets himself apart on high as the heavenly object for us people. And for their sakes, I sanctify myself. That is, he sets himself apart to be the one we have as our object.
That they also might be sanctified through the truth.
And then that verse I've already read. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their word, that they all may be 1.
As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in US.
To what end? For what purpose? That the world may believe what that thou hast sent me?
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Did they ever believe it was this unity? Was this oneness ever manifested in the early Church? Yes, it was.
Turn to Acts Chapter 4.
Acts Chapter 4.
We'll pick it up in verse 29. And now, Lord, behold their threatenings.
And grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word.
By stretching forth thine hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy Child, or thy holy servant Jesus.
And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together. They were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Here you have a company, not just individuals, a company of people filled with the Holy Ghost.
The first effect of that was they was they spake the word of God with boldness.
They spake the word of God with boldness. The fear of man bringeth A snare, but when one is filled with the Holy Spirit, he speaks the word with boldness.
More and the multitude of them that believed were of 1 heart and of one soul.
Mr. Darby's translation reads. And the heart and soul of the multitude that believed was one.
What did he pray? That they all may be one, as thou, Father art in me, and I and thee, that they also may be one in US, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And that was realized in the early Church.
Didn't last long. Very next chapter failure came in.
And we're living at the end of the day of grace, and we know how.
Miserably, the church has failed, but it was realized.
Let me read on here, the multitude of them that believed were of 1 heart and of one soul. Neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things common, and with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
And great grace was upon them all.
Well, those days were wonderful.
Power of the Spirit of God ungrieved.
By man's failure wrought so wonderfully and produced a unity and a oneness that the Lord prayed about in John 17, going back to John 17, verse 21. And they all, that they all may be one as thou, Father art in the art in me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe.
That thou hast sent me.
Well.
The divisions amongst God's people certainly don't lead to that.
But they will believe it.
Let's read on 22 and 23 and the glory which thou gave us, me I have given them.
That they may be 1 even as we are one.
I and them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one.
And that the world may know. Not believe now, but that the world may know.
That thou hast sent me.
And more and has loved them.
As thou has loved me.
That day is coming.
Are walking together in unity would produce that the world would know it. It's a testimony, but here it's glory.
And the world will know it in that coming day.
And then in verse 25, the last mention of it in this prayer.
O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
Beloved, we are that company that know that the Father sent the Son.
To be the Savior of the world, to be my savior, to be your savior. What knowledge so precious? I can't help but think of the psalmist that said such knowledge is too wonderful for me. I cannot attain unto it.
Can't fathom it.
But it's for us to enjoy by faith.
The last verse that we'll look at is in John 20.
And then we close.
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John 20. The resurrection day at the evening of that day, verse 19.
Then the same day at evening being the first day of the week when the doors were shut.
Where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus.
And stood in the midst, and saith unto them, This is the risen Christ.
Peace be unto you.
And when he had so said, he showed them his hands and his side.
Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord?
Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you.
As my father hath sent me.
Even so, send I you.
And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
There was only two times in Scripture when we read of God breathing on man and this is the second time and the first time is in Genesis 2 when it was Jehovah God who breathes into Adam's nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul and he was created in the image and likeness of God.
He was here as God's representative, and God breathed his own life into him, became a living and never dying soul. That's what that means. That's why it's so solemn for.
Anyone to reject the Lord Jesus. He has a never dying soul. The animals don't. When they die, their soul dies.
But man has a soul that will never die, and the spirit.
That gives him God consciousness, which the beasts, the animals do not have.
And.
The second time we read of this person Jehovah, but not.
As God, but as man.
The risen man breathing into their nostrils the breath of his resurrection life. Let's read it.
Verse 22 and when he had said this.
As my father has set me, Even so send I you. When he had said this, he breathed on them.
And saith unto them, Receive ye.
Holy Ghost, I left the word, the article out. The Holy Ghost as a person was not received until the 2nd chapter of Acts, but here it was the Spirit as the power of His resurrection life communicated to them by the risen Christ Himself. He breathed on them.
He is a quickening spirit. 1 Corinthians 15 says man became a living soul, and the second man became a quickening spirit. And here he is the second man, a quickening spirit, a life giving spirit. And so he sends them forth.
Where we've been sent forth fully equipped, we have his resurrection life, we have the Spirit of God is the power of that life, and we have His Word.
And we have him as our high priest and our advocate.
We know God is our Father. We have eternal life. We shall never perish. None that the Father has given him will he lose.
And we're sure of heaven, we're sure of it all.
And he's sent us here to represent him.
During this short time of his absence, he's coming back soon.
Let's not waste the time.
By living for self in any way.
But only for him.