Glory Glory

Well, that gives me a little extra time then here this morning. Let's turn to John, chapter number 17. For some of you who were at the Brothers meeting this last time, we are starting these bi-monthly, I guess you'd call them cell groups or smaller groups.

We're going to divide up into four different groups. And our goal is to take what we learn on Sunday and discuss it and try to get people to open up and talk about those things. And in doing so, we can begin to obey them.

The scripture says in Joshua chapter 1 verse 8, This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. There's two aspects to the doing of the law, and that is taking it into your heart, but also letting it come out of your mouth. And you'll find, and one of the advantages of getting to teach up here is you'll find that truth, as you take it in, doesn't really set in you until you take that truth and then kick it back out.

That's why the Bible says that with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. He hears the gospel, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. You have to kick that out.

So there's both an inward and an outward expression. So oftentimes we come to church and we get the inward expression, we receive. But this is going to give us the opportunity to kick it out and to talk about it and to share some of the things that we're discussing and hopefully that will help us to be more obedient to those things.

Now this morning it's going to be one of those messages that we're going to try to direct toward those midweek meetings. And at the end of the messages, from here until we finish, this is the direction we're starting. We're going to ask some questions with the Sunday messages, and those who are in charge of the midweek services are going to take those questions and maybe adjust them, add to them, eliminate them, it doesn't matter.

But these are the things that I thought would be good to discuss during the midweek time. So the message this morning and next Sunday, you'll probably talk about them again, because that's what we want to do, we want to focus on not just hearing on Sunday, but also regurgitating and talking about it. And praying with each other and saying, hey, here's what I see, here's my issues, here's where I'm short, here's where I need help.

And letting other people hear and you talk, they talk, and hopefully that will be a help to each one of us. So at the end of the message I have some questions that we can consider. Some of you group leaders maybe ought to take those questions and write them down.

You may have others. All right, we've come now to John chapter 17, and I'm going to look here at John chapter 17 starting in verse number 1 down to verse number 5. And this is a prayer. The Lord is no longer teaching His disciples.

I'm assuming here as we've read this that He is walking from the city of Jerusalem through the Kidron Valley and up to the Mount of Olives where He's going to have the prayer there at the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane. And He's going to cry, as it were, drops of blood, cry out to His Father, if it would be possible, remove this cup from me. And so as He gets there to the Mount of Olives, He's finished His communications that we've been going over the last few months about the Comforter and how the Comforter is coming, and then He's going to lift His eyes up to heaven and pray.

And His prayer is in large part praying for what He's just communicated to them that the will of God would be accomplished in them. And we're going to see some of these things as we go on down through this prayer in the next couple of weeks. But the prayer is divided up into three sections, and the first section is in these first five verses, the Lord is going to pray just between He and the Father.

Communicating between He and the Father, and then His prayer shifts to praying for the disciples. Now He starts to pray for them, they who have received the Word, I'm going to send them out, they need this, they need that, and His prayer moves to the disciples, and then at the end, it's just a beautiful picture of our Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He says at the end of His prayer, the last three or four verses, Father, You and Me, now they are with us, and we're all in one.

So He brings all three together, and He prays. And so this is a prayer of about, I think about 30 or so verses, or 26 verses, that we're going to take a look at here. And so let's have a word of prayer, and then we'll jump into the first five this morning.

Let's bow our hearts here. Heavenly Father, we come to Your Word again with great reverence and awe, and realizing that this is the truth. Down through eternity past, and all the way into eternity future, this is what is truth.

And this is what we can build our life on and trust in completely, because it's the authority of Your Word. And Lord, may the truth find a place in each one of our hearts today, and may we be changed into the image of He who was the truth made flesh, the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, bless me and those who are here today as we open up Your Word.

Lord, will and give us grace. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

I want to read down through these first five verses, and I want you to notice the word glorify or glory. This is a section here about glory. So, follow along here as I read.

These words spake Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify Thy Son that Thy Son also may glorify Thee, 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 hast sent.

I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee before the world began.

So, He's communicating here about Himself and His Father. And He uses this word glorified or glory a number of times here. What does this mean, glory or glorified? This idea, Father, that You might be glorified and that I might be glorified.

The idea here is to give someone an exalted position, to honor someone, to lift someone up, to give them an exalted position. There's a number of examples of receiving glory or giving glory, and I want to read two of them to you. You don't have to turn there.

In Revelation chapter 5, there's some good examples here of the Lord and the Father getting glory. In Revelation 5.11, we're told, This is John. What a huge crowd this is.

You are worthy to have all riches. Wisdom. You are worthy to have all understanding and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing.

And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them is, heard I saying, blessing and honor and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb forever and ever. Here is individuals giving glory to God. Exalting Him.

Giving Him honor. Giving Him the highest place. Lifting Him up.

And there's many areas that they lift Him up in. They lift Him up in the area of authority. You are the supreme authority.

You are the supreme power. They lift Him up in the area of strength. There is no one as powerful and as strong as you are.

They lift Him up in riches. There is no one who has the wealth that you have. They lift Him up in wisdom.

There is no one who is as wise as you are and on and on and on. And they give honor and blessing and glory to Him. There's a number of places in the Scripture where this happens.

This idea of glory. Giving someone a high place. A high place.

A beautiful example of this is Joseph. Joseph was very low. He was rejected by his brothers.

Cast into a pit in the Old Testament. Sold into slavery. You know the story.

He was forgotten there in the jail even though he gave the dream for the king. He was left there and forgotten. He was in a very low place until later on he interpreted another dream.

And then the Scripture says that he was exalted. He was lifted up. And he was made the right hand of Pharaoh.

And he was given power. He was given authority. He was given riches.

He was given honor. I mean everywhere Joseph went the Scripture says that Pharaoh commanded them to bow before him. And so he was given a place of glory and honor.

That's what we're talking about here. We talk about this idea of glory. It's to lift up an individual.

Now God desires us to give Him glory. The Bible talks about all glory. To come to Him.

But you know we are made in the image and the glory of God. We are made in His image. And because we're made in His image I know that each one of us, I'm this way.

I know that we also desire glory. Anybody here desire glory? I know it's hard for you to say. But inherently we all have a desire for glory.

Because we're made in the image of God. And that is in us. And God is going to fulfill that someday for those who are right with Him.

For those who give glory to Him. But we all have that same desire. Romans chapter 2 verse 7 says this, To them who by patience, continuance, and well-doing seek for, what's the next word? Glory.

Seek for glory and honor and immortality. You know I know this about all of you. You're all seeking for immortality.

You're seeking to live forever. But you're also seeking for honor and glory. And it's a part of us.

It's a part of our nature because we are made in the image of God. And these things are good things. There's nothing wrong.

I know some people don't like this idea of rewards. And yes, the Bible teaches rewards. And God wants to honor and give glory to His children.

We're going to see that in just a little bit. And it ought to be in our hearts to receive glory. Now the problem, and I know here's where we get a bad name, but the problem with fallen humanity is that we seek glory, but we seek glory from all the wrong places.

And that's the problem with the fallen man. He is seeking for something. He is seeking for glory, but he's seeking for it in all the wrong places.

And that is the praises of men. The praises of men. And so you have, I thought about in my past experience, you have the Emmys, you have the Oscars, you have the Nobel Peace Prize, you have the Most Valuable Player Awards, you have all of these awards that are given in our world, and all of them are given to try to satisfy an appetite in humanity that wants honor and glory.

And so we have all these places and positions and rewards to try to satisfy that. But all that glory is coming from our peers. Coming from man.

And yet the glory that we ought to be seeking is that which comes from God. And that's the glory that I want to encourage you all in. You know, I remember as a young man, I was just looking, I have a box at home, and I was going to bring it today, but I didn't want to be vain.

I have a box at home, all these newspaper articles, 50 or 100 of them, of my golf experiences when I was 15 to 21. And you know, it fed something in me. I would read my name in the newspaper.

I would have all these trophies. My mother finally boxed them up and put them on the shelves in the basement. And all these things were to feed a desire in me for glory.

And I know that all of us have that. We all want to be honored. We all want to be appreciated.

We all want to be lifted up. In John 5, and here's what the Lord says regarding glory. How can you believe which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that comes from God only? You see, we ought to seek the honor and glory that comes, but not from man, but from God only.

And so I want to encourage you. I know that inside of each one of you, you want to have honor. You want to have glory.

And you want to be lifted up. But I want to encourage you to seek it in the right place. Not from these people here.

Not from the people in the world. But seek the honor that comes from God only. Now the opposite of glory is shame and contempt.

Heaven is a place where we receive glory. And this is an amazing thing. You know, people talk about going to heaven and going fishing or playing golf or doing your hobby.

But heaven is a place where you're going to be glorified. Heaven is a place you're going to sit with Jesus Christ in His glorious place and you're going to receive glory and honor also. It's a place where you're going to be lifted up.

It's going to be a wonderful place. But the opposite of that is hell. And hell is a place where you're going to be shamed.

You're going to be despised. Daniel 12, verse 2 says, Many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Well, that's how you describe hell.

The opposite of glory is shame and everlasting contempt. In other words, in hell, you're going to feel like you're being shamed. And you're going to feel like you're condemned and that you're despised.

And that's the way you ought to feel. In heaven, you're going to feel like you're lifted up, you're praised, you're glorified, you're honored. But to those who go to hell, there is nothing but shame and everlasting contempt.

That doesn't sound very good to me. Well, let's go back here and look at John 17. Look at verse 5. I want to talk about this glory.

Verse 5 in John 17, it says, And now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. Now think about this. Jesus, before the world was ever created, Jesus was in heaven with the Father and He had glory.

He was in a place of great glory. I mean, all of creation, the angelic world, all of creation, the thousands upon ten thousands day to day would glorify Him, would honor Him, would praise Him. He had a place of glory.

It says here, before the world began, He was with the Father. He was exalted by creation in every area of life. Then, He was sent into this world.

And you read about it in Hebrews chapter 8, I believe it is, it says, Father, I've come to do Thy will. He who was with the Father before the foundation of the world, He was living in a place where He was glorified and honored and praised. Then, He was sent into this world.

And I could go through an entire list of these things. I'll just mention a few of them. It says in Isaiah 53, He is despised and rejected of men.

He is hunted from the moment He is birthed into this world. They are after Him to kill Him. He is hated in His life and there are attempts on His life to throw Him over a cliff, attempts to stone Him.

He is lied about. He is mocked. He is spit upon.

He is beaten. Finally, He is crucified as a criminal before an angry mob of people in humiliation. Now, can you imagine someone who was with the Father throughout eternity past who was just receiving glory and honor and praise and adoration.

And then He voluntarily says, I'm going to go down into this world. And that's the life He lives for 30 years here. Hardly any glory or honor or anything of that nature.

And so Jesus was in a place of glory and then He came into this world. The Bible says, in His humiliation, His judgment was taken away. When He came into this world, it was called in the Bible His humiliation.

This, to come down to this world, was truly a humiliation. His judgment was taken away. In other words, you don't get any justice.

People are going to lie about you. You're not going to do anything about it. People are going to crucify you.

You're not going to do anything about it. You're going to have no courts to go to, no one to stand for you. They're going to spit on you.

You're not going to be able to spit back. There's going to be no judgment for you. Your judgment will be taken away and you'll just be humiliated.

I don't think I can over-exaggerate that right there. I can't over-exaggerate the glory He had before the foundation of the world. Neither can I over-exaggerate the humiliation that He faced when He came into the world.

Coming to the earth was called His humiliation. And I know that these here are some familiar verses, but in light of what I just shared with you, let me read to you the book of Philippians chapter 2. It says, Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, that was when He was with God in the beginning, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, He was at the same place, but made Himself of no reputation. That was a choice He made.

He made Himself of no reputation. He humbled Himself, took upon Himself the form of a servant. These are all humiliations.

And was made in the likeness of men. That was certainly a humiliation. And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

I mean, it just keeps going down, down, down, down, down. To finally Him dying on a cross, basically mostly naked, being laughed and ridiculed and mocked, and no one there, even His disciples, were sickened and fled. So He is despised and rejected of men.

A man of sorrows. But then it says in verse 9, Wherefore God has also highly exalted Him. There's the glory.

And given Him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And so He went from there all the way up. And we're going to see this here in a minute.

He was brought back to His place of glory. And even more glory. He was restored to.

Look down to John 17. In verse 4, I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.

And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world began. So He says, Father, you know, I was with You before the world was founded and I had great glory there with You. And I was honored and respected and praised.

And then I came down into this place. And for 30 years, I've been living in humiliation. And now, Father, I'm wanting to come back to You.

My work is about done. The cross is before Me. I'm going to leave this world, return to You, and now, Father, restore to Me the glory that I had with You from the foundation of the world.

So His work is being finished. And of course, you and I all know that that is the cross. He is coming to fulfill or pay for the sins of this world at the cross.

And He's going to be restored to His former glory. And so you have, I believe, even more glory. The praise in the book of Revelation would not have been given to the Lord Jesus before the world began.

Many times in the book of Revelation, they fall down and say, Praise be unto Him for the blood that has redeemed us to God out of every kindred and nation and tongue. Praise be to You! And we didn't hear that praise before. The foundation of the world.

And so here the Lord in John 17, verses 4 and 5, He's praying for the future glory. And since the resurrection, I've got good news for you if you're following this story. Since the resurrection of the Lord Jesus when He ascended up and He sat down on the Father's right hand, since that, Jesus has been seated in glory.

And all of the heavenly hosts are glorifying Him and honoring Him and praising Him. But there's this period of time called His humiliation. On the road to Emmaus, you might remember the Lord speaking to His disciples there.

Here's what He says to them. And then said He unto them, O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken, ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? Right? Don't you understand, disciples, that I needed to suffer these things and then enter into My glory? There goes my sign. I like that sign.

Did you do that, Brother David? No? There's no glory there. Acts 2.32 says, This Jesus hath God raised up whereof we are all witnesses, therefore being by the right hand of God exalted. And so the Lord is right now.

He's at the right hand of God. He's exalted. There are angels, creatures, the four beasts around Him right now saying glory and honor and praise and adoration be unto You, the Lord Jesus Christ, into the Father.

We give You honor and glory and praise. I think we ought to do that too down here. I thought it might be good for all just to loosen up a little bit, just stand up and just raise our hand and just start shouting, glory and honor and praise.

Better get used to it because when you get to heaven, you're going to be doing a lot of it. So He's in glory right now and someone says, you know, boy, I'd like to be there too. Well, look over at John 17, the end of this prayer here.

I've got some good news for you. Look at verse 24. Father, I will that they also, He's talking about the believers, 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.

His prayer is, Father, I'm going to go back to this glorious situation where I'm honored and praised and exalted and these people who are My sheep who have followed Me, I want them to be with Me in My glory. Now some of you sit there and think, boy, that would be a great place to be where Jesus was. I've got news for you.

Some of you are going to be shocked. You're going to find yourself there someday. The Bible says we are seated with Him at the right hand of God and you're going to find yourself someday all the creation of the world saying glory be to the church! Glory be to those who followed the Lamb! And you're going to be exalted in creation.

You're going to be seated with Christ at His right hand. Turn with me back a few chapters to John chapter 12, verse 23. I don't have a lot of illustrations today, but I want to have you look at a number of verses.

John chapter 12, verse 23. The Lord, we've talked about this before, but He prepares the disciples for this because we're going to switch gears here a little bit and talk about what we're supposed to be doing here in John 12, 23. And Jesus answered them saying, the hour has come that the Son of Man should be glorified.

Jesus saw the cross as this entrance into glory. He is going to come to the cross. This is His last act of humiliation.

He's going to be buried and raised up to sit at the right hand of God having been humiliated for 30 years. Verse 24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone, but if it die, it brings forth much fruit. Humiliation.

Think about this. Always precedes exaltation. We all know that.

Pride comes before a fall, but humility brings what? Exaltation. That's why the Scripture says and nature teaches us that a corn of wheat has to what? Fall. And it has to fall first.

A corn of wheat must first fall into the ground. And you'll notice this in all of creation. The corn of wheat goes down.

It falls from a tree, a flower, a plant. It always falls down first, then it dies, and then what direction does it go? Do those corn plants go six feet down into the ground further? They come up, don't they? Creation teaches us this all the time. First the seed falls.

Once it falls, it's coming up. And that's a good principle for your life. If you want to come up, if you want to be honored, glorified, exalted, you need to first go down.

You need to first be willing to follow Jesus' example and enter into humiliation. Some of us are proud people. We don't like to be humiliated.

But a corn of wheat must fall. Verse 25, He that loveth his life shall lose it. And he that hated his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

You know what loving your life means? Loving your life means refusing to be humiliated. I'm not going to be humiliated. I'm going to seek the glory of this life.

I'm going to seek the glory of this world. I'm going to seek the glory of the praises of men. I am not going to seek humiliation.

Hating your life is to embrace the humiliation. Verse 26, notice this. Verse 26, If any man serve Me, let him follow Me.

And where I am, there shall also My servant be. If you're going to serve Me, I want you to follow Me in My humiliation. And there My servant will be where I am.

If any man serve Me, him will My Father honor. Yeah, that's right. My Father will honor you.

Just like He honored me. He'll honor you. Verse 27, Now is My soul troubled? What shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour.

But for this cause came I into this hour. Father, glorify Thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again.

Because Jesus is willing to go down this road of humiliation, the Father says, I'll glorify it. I'll honor you. And there's a word for us here too.

If you're going to follow Jesus, if any man serve Me, let him follow Me. If you follow Me, My Father will honor you. What does it mean to follow Jesus? Well, one thing Jesus did, He's left the glory and He came down and was humiliated.

He embraced humility. He embraced being cursed and not having a response. He embraced being hated and turning around and loving.

He embraced the injustices of being stolen from and not asking for anything in return. He embraced the idea of being cursed and blessing them in return. He embraced humiliation.

And in doing so, He was given by the Father honor and glory. So that's the direction the Lord is calling each one of us here. He showed us the example and we get this privilege today to follow Him.

When Jesus said, follow Me, you know what He said? Deny yourself, take up a cross. You know, cross is a very humbling thing, very humiliating thing. Take up a cross and follow Me.

One more verse I'm going to ask you to turn to Colossians and we'll switch gears here. Colossians chapter 3. Paul writes to the church at Colossae here and he talks about the glory. Colossians 3, verse 1. If you then be risen with Christ, if you're up there at the right hand positionally, seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

That's where He's at now. So you seek those things. You want honor.

You want praise. You want the glory that Jesus has. Seek those things that are up there.

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. You know, many today are seeking the praises of men. Even here in the church.

I want the praises of men. I want to seek the adoration, the praise, the honor of people. Well, it says to set your affection on things above, not on the things on the earth, for you are dead.

We need to learn that lesson, don't we? You are dead. And your life is hid with Christ in God. Now notice verse 4. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory.

I like that. You're with Him positionally now. You have been raised up and seated with Him.

As far as the Lord is concerned, your life down here is dead. You're dead to the flesh. You're dead to the law.

You are dead. You are seated with Him. And when He comes, He is going to catch you up to be with Him in glory.

While you're here, you get to follow Him in humiliation. A life of humiliation, because the glory is coming. Back to John here.

John chapter 17. So the Lord is praying to the Father. He says, My hour has come, verse 1. It's time for the Son to be glorified.

Jesus says in verse 4, I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do. I have come.

I have humbled Myself, even unto death, the death of the cross. Now, Father, glorify Me again, even more, with the glory that we had before the world began. Now, I know all of you, because you're made in the image of God, you would love to be in that glory.

Isn't that right, Naomi? You'd love to be in that glory. Because if you're not in that glory when He comes, with all His glory, and you take part in His glory, and I like the book of Romans, chapter 8, I think it is. The Bible talks about all the creation is groaning and waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.

Do you know there are certain people, the sons of God, who are going to be glorified with Jesus when He comes. And the only thing that's left if you're not in that group is shame and contempt. You don't want to be in that group.

Some to everlasting life and some to shame. Nobody likes to be shamed and everlasting contempt. Let me just throw this out to you.

This is a true statement. You're going to have to suffer shame and contempt somewhere along the line. You're going to have to suffer it in this life or in the life to come.

Amen? There's no way around it. If you're going to follow Jesus, He came and He suffered shame and contempt and now He is glorified. Do not think that you're going to live this life and receive glory from men and praise and honor from men and then go off and receive glory and praise and honor from the Lord.

It's not going to work. It's an impossibility. If you save your life, you're going to lose it.

And if you lose your life, you're going to save it. So the call of God, when Jesus said to His disciples, and maybe you're a crowd of His disciples, and He said, if any man wants to come after Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross. What He was meaning is this.

I have left the comforts of heaven, the glory of heaven. I have come here. I have suffered humiliation.

I am going to a cross and then My Father is going to raise Me up to glory. And if you're going to follow Me, that's where we're headed. Amen.

So who is going to participate in that glory? Well, if you go back to verse 2. Verse 2 and verse 3 talk about those who are going to participate in this glory. He's talking about these that the Father has given Him. Let's look at verse 2. As Thou hast given Him, speaking of Jesus, power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given Him.

Now God the Father gave Jesus certain sheep when He came into the world. And we've talked about this already in the book of John. But God has a foreknowledge.

And God knew who would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Actually, He knew that from the very foundation of the world, even before the foundation of the world. And so when you read Revelation 17.8, I'll read it to you.

It says when Jesus came to the world, He knew all the names of the believers. I want to read this passage to you. Revelation 17.8. There was a book that was written before the foundation of the world.

And that book had, I hope, many of your names in it. Can you imagine? Wouldn't it be wonderful to get a look at that book? It's called the Lamb's Book of Life. But in Revelation 17.8 it says this.

The beast that Thou sawest was and is not and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit and go into perdition. And they that dwell on the earth shall wonder whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. Their names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world.

In other words, at the foundation of the world, there was a book, and the names of every one of God's sheep was already in that book. You know, when you get saved, the Lord doesn't say, hey, angel, give me a pen. I've got another one.

Put another name in there. No, those names it says were there from the foundation. You know why? Because God foreknows everything, right? He which foreknew, Romans 8 says, He also predestined.

Those He predestined He also called. We are the elect, Titus says, according to the foreknowledge of God. God foreknows.

And so when Jesus came to the world, God the Father said, here's my sheep. Here they are. I'll tell you who they are.

And that's what Jesus meant here. Father, you gave me these sheep here in John 17. As thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him.

Do you remember John 6, 64? Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray Him. And so the Lord knew when many disciples went back and walked no more with Him. He knew that they would do that.

He even knew Judas from the very beginning. Judas didn't surprise Him. Oh my, Judas, he just totally surprised me.

It says even before Judas ever betrayed Him, He said, I knew who He is. So when the Lord came into the world, the Father gave Him, here's the sheep. He knew from the foundation of the world.

So it didn't surprise the Lord when many went back and when Judas betrayed Him. And let me say this, it shouldn't surprise us either. Amen? There's going to be many go back.

Many are going to betray one another, Matthew 24 says. And it ought not to surprise us either. Jesus said in John 10, 14, I am the good shepherd and know my sheep.

And not only do I know my sheep, I am known of mine. There's a good question for you. I know who they are and they know me.

My sheep know me. Go to John 17, verse 3, and this is life eternal that they might know Thee. The only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent.

Verse 2 says God knew you and He gave your name to the Lord Jesus. Here's your sheep. And these sheep are your sheep because they know me and they know you, the Son of God.

Now, I hope you can put yourself in this place in sincerity. I'm going to read this passage and you ask yourself, can I put myself in the place of Peter here? I hope you can. In Matthew 16, verse 13, it says when Jesus came to the coast of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, some say thou art John the Baptist.

Is that a good answer? Some say that thou art Elijah. Is that a good answer? Some say you're Jeremiah or one of the prophets. All those, they don't know Him.

They don't know the Father. And they don't know the Son. These are the Jews.

I don't know who He is. I think maybe He's John the Baptist. I think He's Jeremiah.

I think He's one of the prophets. Well, what you're showing is you're not one of His sheep. And then, He said to them, but whom say you that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

You believe that with all your heart today. Can you say that? I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now here's something interesting, if you can say that.

Here's what Jesus says to Peter. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father which is in heaven. My Father.

He is the One who has opened up your heart. He is the One who has allowed the truth of the person of Jesus Christ to come to you. And so you can sit here today and you can say, and maybe some of you sit here and say, I'm not sure.

I don't know. I really question whether Jesus is the Christ. I question whether all this stuff is true.

This guy up here preaching every Sunday, I just don't know. Well, if that's the case, you're not one of His sheep. At least not yet.

But if you're sitting there and in your heart you're saying, I am totally, 100% convinced that Jesus is the Christ and how He is revealed here, I believe it with all my heart. You know who opened your heart to that? The Father. And so if you're one of His sheep, your name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life and the foundation of the world.

And when Jesus came into the world, He knew who you were, even though you weren't even born yet. There's one of my sheep. So you ever wonder why when Jesus walked along, He said, hey, you over there, Peter, follow me.

How did He know to choose Peter? Was He going around asking a bunch of people and Peter finally, whichever one said, and everybody was saying no, no, no, no, and Peter said, I'll follow you. Oh, there's a good guy. No, He knew.

He came to Peter. Okay, there's Peter. And this Nathanael guy, I saw you while you were sitting under the fig tree, and I said, how did you know that? I know who you are.

And so when the Lord came, He already knew who His sheep were. He already knew who would believe. I believe with my heart that even before the foundation of the world that if you'd have went and looked in the Lamb's Book of Life, if it's in alphabetical order, if you looked under the word M-A, there's my name there.

And I hope there's a bunch more Mehoras in that list. There's not a lot of Mehoras in the world. I lived in two major cities, Houston, Texas, and Chicago, and I went to their phone books to see if there was any Mehoras.

There was none. There was volumes of Smiths and Millers and all those kind of names. And so is your name in the book? Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

Well, one of the ways we know we are His sheep is when we hear Jesus say this, My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them. He says that again.

I know them, and they follow Me. Now you can't get away from that. The piper, He's going.

Certain people hear that sound and they follow. And so the voice of the Word of God is coming forth through preaching, through teaching, in many ways, and the sheep hear it. And you know what they say in their heart? I'm going to follow and walk in obedience to those words.

Now if you're sitting here today and you hear the Word of God and you don't want to walk in obedience, well, you can be assured you're not a sheep. You're just not a sheep. Because His sheep hear His voice.

And He knows them. And they follow Him. Now I realize we're not perfect.

The Bible says if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. But in sincerity, you are trying by the grace of God, pursuing the will of God, seeking to obey the Lord Jesus Christ and follow Him. And may I say here this morning, maybe most importantly in this context, to follow Him in humiliation.

Amen? Because He has to go through humiliation to get to glory. And so when we follow Him, we take up a cross. And that's humiliation.

And follow Me. Let me ask you this. Are you hearing the voice of the true Shepherd that is calling you to follow His example and to go into humiliation and then to go into glory? That is the voice that leads you into life eternal.

The voice that is calling you to take up a cross, to deny yourself. The Gospel to Luke breaks it down into certain ways. It says, Blessed are you that are poor.

Blessed are you that are poor. Blessed are you that are taking the way of humility with regards to your money. You're not hoarding.

You're not trying to be rich. You're not like the rich man in Luke 16. Blessed are you who are following the road of humiliation.

Blessed are you that weep now. Blessed are you that weep over the sins of your own life, weep over the sins of others' lives, not that you take pleasure in sin or you rejoice in the wickedness that's all around you. Blessed are they that are taking the road of humility, of humiliation and weeping.

Blessed are you when men shall speak evil of you, shall hate you. That's the same road of humiliation. The Bible goes on to say, Woe unto you that are rich.

Woe unto you when all men speak well of you. Woe unto you that laugh now. Woe unto you who are living life for the present glory.

Living life to get the praise and adoration of men, the honor and glory of men. Woe unto you! But blessed are you who are following Jesus in His humiliation. So this goes down to just basic living.

I don't need to acquire wealth. If God does bless me, I'm going to take the low road and give. You know, Jesus didn't have much money.

As a matter of fact, the Bible says He didn't even have a house to live in. He could be truly called a homeless man. Jesus was not one who partied and had a lot of pleasures and fun and run here and run there and just enjoy life and do whatever He wanted to.

You never seen Him taking part in that activity. He was one who spent a lot of time reaching out and laying His life down to help others and to weep for sinners and to pray for men. Neither was He one who was well liked in His community.

He wasn't one of the false prophets who all men spoke well of. He was on this road of humiliation. So I want to encourage you to truly follow Jesus.

And in doing so, follow Him in His humiliation because after this humiliation is over, you're going to be raised up to glory. Can you imagine all of us here in the church seated with Christ when the Lord comes and we're in glory with Him and we and Him and all that are with Him are given honor and praise and glory. These are the sons of God.

These are the glorious children of the liberty of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are God's children. You know, many of you, I know, you're starving for some honor and some praise and some adoration.

Let me tell you a direction you can go and you can get praise and honor from God. That's what you really need from the inside out. You don't need a bunch of people out here saying, oh, you're so pretty.

Oh, that dress is so beautiful. Oh, I love the way you're looking. Oh, that car is so nice.

And you're trying to find honor and praise and adoration from people or, oh, that's such a great sermon or, and we can go everywhere. You're so good at that sport. Boy, I just fed on that one.

So looking for honor and praise and adoration, I want to encourage you to seek for the honor that comes from God only. And the world will laugh at you. They'll criticize you.

Some of you young people, I'm seeing all over the place. I'm seeing young people just falling, just falling. They're just giving in to the pressures of this world.

I'm meeting families. I met one this week. Boy, five, six years ago, I thought they were going to be ur.

And they're just too, it looks like. And other families, you're hearing, some of you are hearing of families who are just falling by the wayside. And you know what's causing that? We're seeking the honor of men.

We want to fit in. We want to hear someone say, oh, that's so pretty. Oh, you look so nice.

Instead of seeking honor from God, where'd you get that nice truck or that nice car? Boy, you're something. It would be good for all of us just to take a road of humiliation. Amen? Listen, your day of glory is coming.

You don't want to wake up some morning from the grave and have an eternity of shame and contempt in front of you. I don't. I don't know anything that's more hard to endure than being shamed.

So the prayer of the Lord is He wants to go back to the former glory. He has been in this state of humiliation for 30 years. He has come to the cross.

And now He is about ready to be raised up and enter back into glory. And then from that position, do you know what He does? He gives us the Holy Spirit of God and says now it's your time to go into your humiliation. And I'm going to come and dwell in you and comfort you in all of your trials and tribulations and humiliation because I'm going to take you down to the very end.

Lo, I'm with you always and I'm going to raise you up to give you glory. Do you believe that? Well, that's the truth. So that's one of the reasons why the Spirit of God came to comfort us in our humiliation.

Well, I'd like to give you a couple of questions here in closing. We're going to ask these questions so some of you can think about them, how to answer them, and you can ponder your own heart even today as I ask them. And I think our midweek time will just be a time of trying to open up our hearts, encourage the older people, the younger people, all of us to just say, hey, here's what I think.

Here's where I'm at. You'll help your small group leader. Let me ask you this.

Do you find yourself wanting glory and honor and praise? That's a good question to ask. Do you find yourself wanting attention, glory, honor, and praise? Question number two, where are you seeking that glory? And maybe here's one that's a little more soul-searching. Number three is, what in your life is hindering you from following Jesus into humiliation in order to be seated with Him in glory in the future? Follow His pattern.

Why won't you be willing to enter into humiliation? Just let the world laugh. Let the world mock. What? You give your money for what? Why don't you? You have a good job.

Why don't you have a nice house and a nice car? Why aren't you rich? Why don't you dress like everybody else? Why do you have to look so different? Question number three, what in your life is hindering you from following Jesus into humiliation in order to be seated with Him in glory in the future? And then the last question, and you can add to these questions, or you don't even have to use these questions. We're just trying this out as an experiment. Can you say, I think it's good to sit around and ask this question.

Can you say in the sincerity of your heart, as Peter did, that truly Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that you'd be willing to die for that? That's a good profession. Well, we'll continue next week with this prayer. We'll add some things to that.

But for those of you who are meeting during the week here in another week or so, be ready to be asked these questions. Talk about them, and maybe others. All right, let me open up the time here just for a few minutes.