If you're a believer in Christ, do you realize God had your salvation planned even before the world existed? We'll learn why that's true to day on Truth for Life, and we'll hear how each person of the Trinity God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit is involved in the process. Alistair Begg is teaching from chapter 17 in the Gospel of John. What we've done so far, or tried to do so far in the first five verses, is pay attention to the timeline in relationship to what Jesus says as he begins his prayer, the hour has come.
so that we've thought about it, if you like, within the framework of time. But here in verses 4 and 5, we actually move beyond that. And so we consider verses 4 and 5. the words that he addresses to his father in light of eternity. And we have this amazing phrase that closes verse 5: before the world existed.
which comes back again in the 24th verse. When he says, Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory, that you have given me, because you love me, and here we go again, before the foundation of the world. I want to make two observations from this this morning. First of all, to observe The report that Jesus gives in verse 4. to which we'll come.
And the request which Jesus makes in verse five, which is where we'll begin. His request there of the Father is clear. And now, Father, glorify me. in your own presence with the glory I had with you before the world existed. And with these words, Jesus...
Takes us beyond the realm of time and takes us across all the years that ever existed. Before there was time, Before there was anything. There was God. The created world was brought into existence by God. There is God.
who is the ultimate reality. And then there is everyone. and everything else. It's very, very important that we understand the way in which the Bible makes this perfectly clear. God The creator And then everyone and everything else.
The created. God in charge of it all. In fact, Here, God creates. God sustains. God orders God directs The entire cosmos.
At the macro level, And at the micro level. That is why it is such a staggering thing that you read, and we read last time in verse 3. And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. And in verse 2, which is what I meant to say, and you have given him authority over all flesh.
Now, this may sound sort of very theoretical, very theological, very far out, and it is a stretcher, that's for sure. But let me just remind you of how vastly different the things that we're just affirming. To begin this morning, are from common mentality in relationship to to our world and to the things that people say about God. David Wells, in one of his books, addresses this in just a sentence or two. where he says contemporary spiritualities.
And he says, for example, of many different forms, Hinduism, or New Age things, or Kabbalah, the crossbreed of Judaism and other New Age nonsense. Um included with that radical environmentalism. All of these are self-made spiritualities. And what they have in common is a view of reality that is pantheistic.
So, in other words, completely antithetical to what we have just said. There is God, And then there is everyone and everything else. From a pantheistic point of view, all of them assume, in one way or another, That nature encloses and contains God. The assumption is that the way we make contact then with God is by finding him within. Within nature or within ourselves.
To declare, however, one's belief in the Christian God. Is at one and the same time to reject this cultural spirituality. God is indeed one in his being. But he is not one with nature.
Now Jesus' request here takes us into the very heart, not only of the fact of the immensity of God, but it takes us into the heart of the Bible's teaching of the Trinity or the doctrine of the Trinity. And when we read our Bibles, we immediately are made aware of the fact that there is only one true God. I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. He says through the prophet Isaiah, Isaiah 46.
Paul, who grew up as a monotheistic Jew. By the time he is writing to the Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 8, he says to them, though there may be many so-called gods in heaven or on earth. There is one God. the Father, from whom all things are, and for whom we exist.
Now We don't need to say more on that because where it becomes particularly demanding of our thinking. Is that the one true and living God exists eternally? In Trinity. God in three persons, blessed Trinity.
So the one true and living God is In three persons. The Father is not the Son. Nor is the Father the Holy Spirit. Nor is the Son the Holy Spirit. Each person in the Godhead is distinct from the other person's.
but not separable. Because they are interwoven with one another. In essence, No person in the Godhead, no person in the Trinity. exists without the presence of the others.
Now you're just sitting there looking at me and I I'm glad you're looking at me. I hope you're thinking as well. But the fact of the matter is, at best when we consider the doctrine of the Trinity, we don't go to our Bibles and find an explanation. There is no paragraph, there is no consecutive teaching on the subject. We do not have ultimately an explanation, but we have a formulation, if you like.
As we consider the way that progressive story, the unfolding story of the Bible, is given to us. And we acknowledge the fact that the Trinity is a mystery. I mean, John begins here. Mark's Gospel begins, the beginning of the gospel about Jesus and straight into John the Baptist and the baptism of Jesus. John starts way back.
In the beginning. was the word. And the word was with God. And the word was God. He was with him in the beginning.
To what is he referring here? In him was life. That life was the light of man. There was nothing made except that it was made through him. It's a mystery, isn't it?
John chapter 14, it comes across the whole idea of them being in the presence of one another. Jesus says to his disciples, I will ask the Father. And he will give you another helper. to be with you forever. Even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.
You say, go to your friends at work and say, you know, there's only one true and living God. That'll. Get you off to a good start. And when you have tried to push your way through that, let them know that this one God exists in three persons, that He is one in essence and in substance, that every part of the Trinity is distinct from one another, without confusion, and in collusion with one another, co-inherence with one another. without any kind of loss of the distinction.
God exists. Eternally as a trinity. And that mystery is actually fully understandable By God. God, here's one for you: God understands everything. God is the ultimate reality, God is the ultimate beauty, God is the ultimate truth, God is the ultimate justice, and everything else is derived from God Himself.
So that when you remove yourself in your mind from the realm of God's jurisdiction, you end up with the chaos that is represented in our world. whether it is in Eastern mysticism or whether it is in contemporary expressions that are part and parcel of our Western culture. If you remember, and I hope you do our studies in Romans chapter 1, the second half of Romans chapter 1, we consider there the fact that God's word says that He has given enough of Himself in the disclosure of His world to render us accountable. But he has not provided in nature enough for us to know him savingly. He has given us not only the external reality of nature, but he has given us also the internal reality of our conscience.
Well then, what has happened to us? Our consciences are distorted. by our rebellion against God. Which is why in 600 BC God speaks through the prophet Isaiah. And he pronounces war on the people.
This is what he says. Woe upon those who call evil good And good evil. Who put darkness for light? and light for darkness. who are wise in their own eyes.
And shrewd. In their own sight. You see, the Bible's explanation of our world. which starts with God. and goes from there through our rebellion and so on.
You may not like it. But it certainly coheres. Jesus is in that context asking his Father. I want you, Father. to glorify me again in your presence.
With the glory that I had with you before the world existed, the glory of the co-equal, undivided. Godhead, the Trinity, enjoying one another. God created the world, but he didn't have to create it. God did not create the world because he needed a world. God created the world out of the depth of his own being.
In the reality of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit live within the mutuality of perfect love. Everything else is an extrapolation from that. And in the incarnation. It involved in some measure A Jesus Laying aside. that shared glory of eternity.
And so Jesus now says, Father, I'm looking forward to the glory. I'm looking forward to being back with you. If Jesus were a mere man, this is ludicrous. Mm-hmm. He considered that?
I mean, If Jesus is a Galilean carpenter, Somehow or another the world has hung on to his recollection. And some crazy people throughout the world still revere his memory, and so on. If that is all we're dealing with, It is in it is actually A measure of the incapacity of our minds to worship, to follow. and to obey him. And that is why you see when we talk with our friends and neighbors, if a person is going to come to know God, to know God, They're not going to know God as a result of rationalism.
Nor are they going to come to know God as a result of a kind of irrational mysticism. It is as we consider the words and the works of the one who is here praying to his Father. that we then are made to understand. That God has made himself known. Finally.
Unmistakably. Savingly. In our real historical Man. Not in a mantra. Not in a philosophy.
Not in a scheme. But in a man. And the word became flesh. and dwelled among us. Tired.
Hungry Sad. Joyful. Whatever. And we, say his friends, we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace.
And truth. Only those who have faith. See The glory of God. in his word and in his works. If you do not see something of the glory of God, If you do not marvel at the wonder of all that he has given you.
If you do not Give thanks for your foot from a genuine sense of the awareness of his provision. If you do not see God's glory, The chances are it's because you are unconverted. Interested? Engaged. From time to time emotionally stirred.
But I'm converted. The second observation concerns verse 4. And that is from the request that he makes, I want Father to be back with you and see this glory, to the report that he gives in verse 4. I glorified you on earth. having accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
So it's as though he is returning to headquarters. having completed the assignment that he's been given. And he is reporting once again. Ah, to the Father. The work that the Father has planned, he the Son has now Procured, and it will be the work of the Holy Spirit then to apply the reality of that.
to all who believe. It's as though God had said from eternity to his son, go and accomplish the work of the world. of salvation. And when we read the Bible, we realize this: that it is out of love for the world. That the Father sends the Son.
And it is out of love for the world that the Son lays down his life. Love for the world. For God so loved the world. That he gave his only begotten son.
So that whoever believes in him Should not perish, which is our eternal destiny as sinners, should not perish, but have eternal life. That's John 3. 1 John chapter 4 in verse 10, the John who wrote the gospel writes three letters and he drives it home. 1 John 4.10, in this is love. Not that we have loved God.
But that he loved us. And sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. to provide a sacrifice. that bears the wrath of God. turning it to the favour of God, in the lives of those.
Who believe?
Now when you think about that, surely it is the preacher's responsibility, the preacher's privilege, to persuade men and women of that love of God. To persuade men and women that God loves them. And that he loves you so much that he has taken this action in order that despite us having turned our backs upon him, he is the one who pursues us. And this is love.
Now that we love God. But that he Love does. Did you ever write a love letter to somebody and they never even replied. Unrequited love. at a far deeper level is a painful reality.
The supreme love of God. For sinners. in many cases remains unrequited this is not sentimentalism incidentally. This is not um I love you just the way you are, you know. Oh, give me a break.
Okay.
So people think that as soon as somebody starts about the love of God, oh, the love of God, he loves, loves, loves, loves, loves, oh, well, that's what it is. I'm glad of that. He loves me just the way I am. No, he doesn't. He loves me.
Despite the way I am. That's the difference. Not because I'm an attractive proposition. But because I'm a sinner. In need of a Saviour.
And from the very beginning of his life, when we read the Gospels, and we must wrap this up, but when we read the Gospels, Jesus was unreservedly committed to doing what the Father had given him to do. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. But if you look carefully at this, Jesus is speaking here as if this event has already happened. I glorified you on earth, having accomplished the work that you gave me to do. But here this is in prospect of the cross.
Well, he's actually are speaking proleptically. He is speaking of an event that as yet has not taken place. As if it was already accomplished. His death and his resurrection and his ascension are so about to happen that there's no question that they won't happen. In other words, consider it done.
What he's saying actually is mission accomplished. The word that is used here for accomplished is the same root word that he uses on the cross when he declares from the cross, it is finished. It is accomplished. And here in the prayer, and the disciples listen in on the prayer. And no doubt they would have said, Wow, that was what he was talking about when he says, I have accomplished.
What a contrast to Mission Impossible. Mission accomplished versus mission impossible. Mission impossible, the attempt to save ourselves. It's an impossible task. And again, when we studied in Romans, we realized that when we turn away from the true God, we don't go for nothing, we go for invented gods, we go for little idols of our own invention.
Exchanging the glory of an immortal God for things that creep and crawl and fly, for images of birds and men, and so on. What a picture that Isaiah gives us of overburdened, people overburdened by the idols that they've invented. And there's only one word that sounds out. from the dumb mouths of these crazy inventions of our own. Defeat.
Defeat. Defeat. That doesn't mean that we don't make it through our lives. But it does mean That if we're going to be able to stand before God and face the bar of His judgment. It will not be on the basis.
of our own attempted clean-ups. or endeavours. But it will only be on the strength. of he who completed the work that his father gave him to do. Because only in Jesus Is though that triumph?
And as Paul says, He constantly leads us in a triumphant procession.
So that facing all the challenges of the day, the parts and the pieces of our lives all the things that we deal with as men and women. Jesus does actually make a huge difference. And I commend Christ to you today. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alastair Begg. If you would like to commend Christ to others like Alistair just did, we have recently released a short evangelism book to help you talk to others about Jesus and what he accomplished on the cross.
The book is called The Man on the Middle Cross, and we're offering it today as a three-book bundle when you support the ministry with a donation. In this short booklet, Alistair tells three powerful stories about individuals who had life-changing encounters with Jesus. And then he asks the reader to consider the all-important question: Are you going to heaven? Easter is the perfect opportunity to give away the Man on the Middle Cross booklets as a way of starting a Gospel conversation give a copy to a friend, a neighbor, or a colleague, and invite them to your church's Easter Sunday service, or meet them for coffee and a follow up conversation. We hope you'll keep copies of this compelling evangelism tool on hand to use during the Easter season and throughout the year.
Ask for your copy of the Man on the Middle Cross booklets today when you donate to Truth for Life online at truthforlife.org slash donate or call us at 888-588-7884. I'm Bob Lepine. Does your faith feel weak and faltering? Do you struggle to understand the Bible's teaching? Do you fear this means your salvation is shaky?
Join us Monday for an encouraging message. The Bible teaching of Alastair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Yeah. Where the Learning is for Living. No.
