The multifaceted concept of "glory" as presented in John chapter 17, beginning with Jesus' prayer to the Father for glorification in anticipation of the cross. It highlights the reciprocal nature of this glory, where the Father glorifies the Son by accepting his submission, and the Son glorifies the Father through his obedience. The message then shifts to the glory of an accomplished work, emphasizing Jesus' fulfillment of his earthly commission and applying this to believers' own stewardship. Finally, it delves into the transferable glory, explaining how Jesus shares the glory given to him by the Father with his disciples, enabling them to express God's presence on earth and ultimately join him in future, visible glory.
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remembering as I was sitting here as I looked at you all valiant souls that come up tonight brought your bodies along with you first time I went to help a little in the work in Costa Rica the Christians arranged for us to meet in the little hall there and we sang and we talked and we sang some more and we prayed a little and then we sang again and after our visit was over. They told us, now, don't forget we're going to meet in the little hall again before you go tomorrow. So, we'll go the following day. So I was quite impressed because when we got to the little gathering, it was much larger than it was the one when we arrived.
Not only did we sing and pray and chat and talk and so forth, we also had food supplies. Tamales. Any of you who know anything about tamales know that in these Latin American countries, they make it, and they make it in different fashion. We had a companion with us, and he'd never seen tamales before, and when he opened up the banana leaves and saw this little corn cake in there with a prune or a piece of pork or something in the center of it, he didn't think he could go for it at all. It was greasy, it was running with oil, and so he sat over against the window, and he disposed of this undesirable object, outside and it wasn't long before we had some four-footed friends come around and help them out with the disposing of it so I was asked to say a few words before we left and I said well I'm very much impressed the fact that you're all here tonight and that there's a larger company here tonight than when we arrived and also that we've got food now that we're going so I must I can't do anything else but conclude you're much happier to see us go than you were when you arrived so they said oh no no no no I said well I'm just comparing one Occasion with the other, that's all.
And also, this was our last night together, and I think it was considerably larger than last night was, so maybe I'll draw the same conclusion. We're just delighted to see you go. We all want to be there to say, bye now. Alright, I wasn't aware of the fact that I had promised to speak with you last night on the subject of glory. Brother John said that. I did say I know that we were going to look at the subject of glory in this chapter, but I didn't know that I had specified it was to be last night. So if I have let you down on that, just chalk it up to experience, yours, and don't hold it against me too long.
However, we're going to look briefly at the subject of glory in this chapter this evening. And I think I did suggest to you on another occasion, it's a very difficult word to define. It's a very difficult word to describe because of the very uses that are given to us to this word in the Scriptures. And I think I suggest to you we have celestial glories and terrestrial glories. We have human glories and we have angelic glories. We have even material things of which we read in the Scriptures that there is a glory attached to them. So it isn't easy to just put in one short sentence the full complementary meaning of the word glory. Not easy to do. And I think I did suggest to you too that even in the marriage relationship that we were speaking of a little this morning on a formal occasion, we have the man being made in the image and glory of God and that the woman is the glory of the man.
And then that the woman's glory is her own and so on. So that... It's a wide consideration. It's a wide field of this matter of glory. Which reminds me of a little incident that took place in connection with this man-woman relationship, partnership, companionship. I always said to me before I came, now, look, don't be telling too many stories. You never used to tell stories when you were preaching years ago. What in the world is getting unto you? You're telling far too many stories. Well, wives are not only supportive, but they're kind of corrective too, you know, at times. And not that we, public speakers, don't need just that. But it reminded me of an incident over in England when my father was a young man.
There were two brothers over there. I don't know if anybody here would remember the Goodman brothers. There was George Goodman and Montague Goodman. And they were contemporary with my father. Back then, when they used to get on their bicycles and go out and do what they called the village work. George Goodman had a very ordinary sort of a name, George, you know, let George do it. But they were both able teachers of the scriptures and able gospel preachers as well. But George, he's written several books. Some of you may have some of George Goodman's books. And I don't know that Montague wrote any books or not. But anyway, he had a very elitist name, didn't he? What's George alongside Montague?
You can see right away, I put him in another category altogether. And Montague was quite an elaborate speaker. He was a very fluent orator, actually, and was much in demand speaking in the assemblies in England back in those days. So his wife, his companion, she also got to be quite in demand for speaking to ladies' meetings and ladies' conferences. In fact, she was very capable, evidently. And one night she was coming home from, just to show you how wonderfully supportive these wives are, not to mention corrective. She came home from a lady's conference. Montague, the Lord, was sitting in his study at his desk.
And she came in the front door, was walking down the hall, and she stopped at the door of his study, just to say good night to him. He's sitting there very deeply engrossed in his study, you know, and then he senses that she's there at the door. So he said, hello, Mathia. And she said, hello. And how did you get along? She said, no, fine, thanks. He hadn't looked up yet. He's still deeply engrossed in his book, you know. One of these men who isolates himself into his books and his study and his concentration and so on. So he hadn't even... turn a glance to her at all at this point. And I guess his wife kind of felt it. It was sort of an automatic response.
So she said, he looked up and he said to her, Oh, my dear, what of my sermons did you preach tonight? And she said, Neither of them. And here is a man who was noted for his voluminous collection of messages and sermons. He had them by the score. And that was the end of that lesson. She let on that he only had two. Well, we need these wives to see sometimes. This woman is the glory of the man. All right. Let's look at the glory.
There are six or seven of them. Distinctive glories in this chapter, chapter seventeen of the Gospel by John. And we were run over some of them rather quickly and then get to the others. We have already looked at the first verse. when our Lord said, speaking to his father, that the hour has come, and he said, Glorify thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. This word glory, we have it in the noun form, we have it in the past completed verb tense form, we have it in the conjunction, conjunctive form, rather. And so it's interesting to see how the word actually is used and the occasion, the surrounding material. Glorify thy son.
The son... is requesting to be glorified in order that thy Son also may glorify thee. Now right away you see you have a problem to understand just exactly what the word is used and how it is used and what the Lord is meaning. He says the hour has come and is looking forward to the immediacy of the cross and all that lies before him before the cross and all that the cross itself will involve. He was to go from Gethsemane to Gabata to Golgotha. And he knows, as we have mentioned before, all the details which are going to happen to him. And he says this, in relation to the fact that the hour has come, that hour which from, we say, eternity passed, has been known, it has been planned, it has been anticipated.
And now as our Lord stands here in the hour, encompassed, it seems to me, in all the features and all the incidents and all the experiences that that hour is going to mean to him. And he says, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy son. And I say to you again, I believe that these first statements of this chapter are in relation to the cross. And you ask yourself immediately, what did the Lord Jesus need when he speaks to his father and says, Glorify thy Son. And the complementary statement to that is that thy Son also may glorify thee.
It is to be a mutual and reciprocal glory. And it's in association with the hour. That very intense hour. That hour that was so filled and into the congested, compacted experiences of all the ages past. For he was foreordained, for before the foundation of the world, to be and to come to just this hour. He says, Glorify thy son. And I have puzzled over this. I freely confess to you. What did the Lord mean when he said to his father, Glorify thy son? And all I can see in it so far, some future date, I hope to get more understanding in this matter, all I can see in it so far is that He is asking the Father to accept his submission to go with him into the hour.
They have come together. They have planned this from before, as he says later, the world was. And they have come down through the succeeding ages of the Old Testament experiences. And now they have come to this supreme moment unto which all past ages converged. and from which all succeeding ages will emerge. It is the focal point. It is the center. It is the climax. It is the... I got two Spanish words I just thought of. Epihel. Well, it is the ultimate. There is nothing higher than this.
And all that we have and all that we expect to have and all that we enjoy in our Lord Jesus now... is going to proceed from this hour. And I think he is saying something to this effect. Because it is twofold. Father, glorify thy son. By accepting his submission, his obedience, his offering, his service to thee in this hour. For whatever God is pleased to accept from our hands glorifies our offering, doesn't it?
And whatever expression of submission and obedience we realize because of what he has called us to and commissioned us to perform adds to that concept. He is glorifying us because he is receiving something at our hands. And then when you go on to the next statement, he says that thy son also may glorify thee. And how is the son going to glorify the father? By willingly, submissively, move into this hour. By willingly and submissively and humbly come to all that the hour is going to bring him, simply because he has come in obedience to him who sent him.
So he says, Father, glorify thy son. Accept that my hands, the submission of myself, and all that I am going to experience as an offering to thee. Glorify thy son in this hour. And if then this is done, he said, that thy son may in turn glorify thee. And as I suggested to you once before, I believe in John chapter twelve, when the Lord is feeling the pressure of the cross increasing as he had done when he left the north part of Galilee and came down by that eastern route through Jericho and up the long road to Jerusalem on the way to the cross, his last journey, when we have some of his famous parables, some of his memorable sayings and that is taking place along the journey.
When some of the weakness and frailty of his disciples is brought out to light, as the Lord moves into the ever encroaching, ever closing in on him the moment of the cross. And he says, Let thy son glorify thee by accepting his submission, his work, the fulfillment of what thou hast sent him to do. I realize the deficiency of that explanation, but at the moment I don't know how better it is not only to understand it but to express it as well. This, again, is the prime object of his heart. And that's when he said in John twelve, Now is the judgment of this world.
Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw everything. Everything. Everything. And all men unto me. Well, what am I going to say? My soul is troubled. Well, I say, Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause I came unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. So it comes out again, as we have it here, that this is the deep ambition of the Lord's heart. That though he is troubled in anticipation, yet what is of prime importance to him is that the Father would be glorified in what he is going to experience.
And I suppose that is one of the deeper lessons of life that you and I experience. That regardless of the situation, regardless of the terms that life takes, regardless of the shadows that fall across our pathway. And they're not, of course, as somber or as frightening shadows as the shadow of the cross increasingly made itself felt in our Lord's heart and soul. Regardless of the circumstances, gain and loss, misfortune and good fortune, failure and defeat, that in all things, as we read this morning in First Peter chapter four, God might be glorified through our Lord Jesus Christ in us. That's the example that the Matthew gives to us in this passage.
Then we move on down. These are two distinct glories, though in part of a kind. And now we read from verse four, and we're not going to carry here too long, and I call this the glory of an accomplished or a finished work. I have glorified thee on the earth, or I glorified perfect past tense. I glorified thee on the earth. The Lord is considering himself as no longer being in the world, you remember. And I did not, I know, adequately explain that to you when he said later on, I am no longer in the world. What he was saying is, not where he was physically, but where he was in the course of his service. His commission was fulfilled.
And I think that is proven to be true. when he says I'm no longer in the world but these are in the world his disciples they are here and they have a work to perform they have a commission to fulfill because they are in the world I am not in the world I'm no longer in the world my mission is fulfilled in the world and I remind you again that what the Lord is saying here is what is in the past not what is yet to come because he has fulfilled these things that we noticed the other night as the details of his personal stewardship So he says, I have glorified you in the earth, having finished the work which thou gave us me to do. And my brethren and sisters, this will be our glory in the day of our departure.
If we finish the work that he gave us to do, if we complete the task that he has imposed upon us, if we have carried out the service that the gift with which he has endowed us has led us into. If we have finished that work, we will have glorified him on the earth. And if this is our main object and our chief goal and aim, then let us move forward to it. Finish the work that he has called us to do. For there is none of us. There is no one of us who has not been called to serve us. There is no one of us who has not been given a task to perform and a work to fulfill.
And you will remember that that's what he said about Sardis in his complaint. In his criticism of Sardis was this, I have not found thy works perfected or finished or fulfilled before God. One who had a name to live and were dead. One who had works to fulfill and they had not fulfilled them. They showed in themselves what I suppose is a natural human deficiency. I don't know how you get along. But... I have a lot of things that I plan to do when I set order. Is that what you do? And I have a number of things which I started and never got finished.
I don't suppose any of you have that difficulty in life. But I've planned all kinds of things. In fact, the first time that I read that the Lord spent all night in prayer, I thought, well, that would be a wonderful thing to do. I think I would try to do this. Did you ever try it? No? No. Well, I was reading Hivik of India one time, that remarkable man of prayer, and the miracles that were performed by his messages didn't even understand Hindu language. But he was over there, and he was constantly in prayer. Here's the man who could get up and preach in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the soldiers of the British army were all moved to tears and saved through his ministry.
And I was reading about his prayer life. And I thought, this is what I have to do. I have to... Enlarge my usefulness and fulfill my work. I have to do what Hewitt was doing. I have to do what the Lord did every on more than one occasion. Spend all night in prayer. If you want to know how weak you are, I suggest you try it. I tried it. And I wasn't down beside my bed very long before I found I had more places that were itching and needed to be scratched and more pains. Here, there, and everywhere. More times my position had to be altered.
And it was just a horrendous task. I couldn't nearly begin to complete it. I don't think I got a quarter of the way through the night before I capitulated. I just couldn't do it. I didn't have the stamina. I didn't have the strength. I didn't have the dedication to do it. To spend just one night in its entirety in prayer. Get up in the morning and go to work. I couldn't do it. The Lord did this more than once. And this is how it shows to us his total dedication and the care that he had for his own and that he was working towards glorifying his father by completing the work which his father had given him to do.
And if he had to do that, if he had to spend these long hours in prayers, how can I expect to accomplish what I am supposed to do in my prayer life? It's so weak and so empty and so short. He said, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. So there is the glory of an accomplished task. Then he comes down to verse five and he says, Now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Now I am thrilled in the consideration of these words. I do not have the mental or spiritual capacity to to embrace all that the Lord is saying here.
He steps out now of the work of the cross, and he's moving forward, and he's looking in anticipation to that which was waiting for him. And he says, Glorify thou me with the glory that I had with thee before the world was. An anticipated glory and a past remembered glory. The glory that I had with thee. How do you describe this glory? It's the glory of the fellowship of the members of the Godhead before there ever was a world. Before there was anything that is. Before anything came from his own hand as a product of his creatorial power. Here we look back and we say, we talk about going back into eternity, but I don't think that's a very good expression.
Eternity is hard in the past, except in the connotation that we give it in relation to time. Here we are on earth. I remember saying one time, we used to have an old hymn we sang at home, you know, time ends and then eternity. And I said to my audience one time, I said, there's no such thing, you know, it's time ending. We talk as though we're here like this and we go across the stage of time and then we drop off and we go into eternity and there's no more time. But that's a fatal concept, isn't it, of what time and eternity are, the one in relation to the other? For... Time is not a platform set up in eternity with a beginning and an end.
And you don't come to the day of your death and drop off time or out of time into eternity. For eternity surrounds all. I was going to say time. Well, that's what you're doing with it. It surrounds all time as the universe surrounds the world. So that this globe of ours, this world in which we live, is surrounded by the universe. And there's no beginning or end in that sense. So eternity is all about us. And we who live now are living in eternity. Or don't you have eternal life? Well then if you have eternal life, you have that life which is eternal.
That means you are in eternity now. And you're not going to step off time and fall into eternity. You're living in it. And isn't the light that you have eternal life? Well, then the characteristics of the light that we have are to be retained in the ages that lie before us. And I said to you, of course, that there's no such thing as an end to time. And one brother, he very kindly picked me to task about that. And he quoted me the verse in Revelation chapter ten, when the angel stands one foot on the scene, one foot on the land, and he lifts his hand to heaven, and he swears by the God of the universe, that there will be no time no longer. But you see, the word is improperly translated time, because the word means there shall be no more delay. The judgments of God are running their course, and there are specific periods of these judgments.
But when you come to chapter ten, having waited all through these pre-ages, now they have come to the moment when the angel says, there shall be no more delay. He's not saying there's no more time, because you know that eternal life is described in the Bible by the Greek expression unto the ages of the ages. Now if there are ages, that's time, isn't it? Of course. There is an age. And then there are succeeding ages. We've already had that in connection with the history of the world. So if there are ages yet to come, there must be endlessness in this eternal life that we have.
And there is no such thing as there be coming to a point where one of the ages of the ages of the ages is going to terminate and there be no more ages. I haven't lost any ages, have I? Right. So what our Lord is saying here, he says, the glory that I had with thee before the world was, I cannot capture that concept. For when we move back in our thinking to the beginning, we come to a blank wall. We have nothing to judge by. We have nothing to go by. We have no point of reference. You go back in your mind, if they were in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Yes, but before that, before that, our Lord says, and here he is standing in all the fullness of his humanity, born of the virgin, he has lived his life as man in service, and he is saying, this man here with his disciples on the edge of the Garden of Gethsemane, glorify thou me with the glory that I had with thee.
Before... the world was. I can understand that. Because my thinking cannot grasp what it must have been like when there was none and nothing but the Godhead. And he was dwelling with the Father. Did you notice it was a mutually participated glory? The glory that I had with thee before the world was. Of course, it's an explanation of his eternal person. It's the endlessness of the Son of the eternal. He was always the Son.
Because the Father was always the Father. Because he's speaking to the Father. He speaks about the glory that he had with the Father before the world was. Then we move down farther down the chapter. And he speaks about the disciples. And he speaks about being glorified in them. And that's verse ten. And I just want to make a brief comment on that. He says, Speaking of the disciples, he says, All mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them. Now, prior to saying that, and subsequent to saying that, the Lord has mentioned that these are they who have believed that he was sent from the Father.
And I judge, this is what the Lord is saying here, I am glorified in them because they have believed. It was very important to our Lord that those whom he had chosen realize that he was the one who had been sent by the Father. And he says, I am glorified in them because they have believed that thou did send me. They believe that I came forth from being beside thee, which is the preposition that is used there. So there he was with the Father. The glory that he had with the Father, he relinquished and he comes down to earth as God manifests in flesh. And he says that he was sent, as I mentioned this already to you more than once, he was sent to the world.
He was sent into the world. He was sent to represent the Father. He was sent to display the Father. And it was very crucial to the Lord and very important to the Lord that these disciples had believed that the Father had sent. I don't know if we understand that correctly or not, or if we adequately know what that meant to the Lord, but he repeats it. They have believed that I came forth from beside thee. They have believed that thou didst send me. And he says, for that cause they have, our I am glorified in them. So, my brethren, let us remember that our confidence and our faith in our Lord, too he is. Why and where he came glorifies him.
Faith in himself for that manner glorifies him. Now, I want to come down what I consider to be perhaps the most important part of this little study on the glory and read with me in verse twenty-two. I call this the transferable glory. The Lord speaks of glory here in this chapter that was unique, unique to himself with his father, that was pre-world experience. But now he is going to speak of another glory, which I want you to notice with me, is very important, and which is transferable. He speaks about having sent the disciples into the world as the Father sent him, and that's in verse eighteen.
As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified in truth. And then he goes on to say, neither pray I for these alone. for them also which shall believe in me through their word, that they all may be one. Please note that they all may be one, as thou father art in me, and I in thee, that they may be one in us, that the world may believe, that thou hast sent me. Here we have the expression again. Then he says, and the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them. Now here's a very interesting statement.
The father conferred upon his son glory. And the Lord says, the glory that thou gavest me, I have given to them. Now he's not talking very evidently about the glory that he had before the world was. He's not talking about the glory that he's requesting from the father or to be glorified by the father in the early verses of the chapter. He's not even talking, which comes later, about the glory that awaits him. He's talking about a glory that he was given by the Father when he came to earth, which he in turn has given to his disciples.
Now, what glory is that? It's rather thought-provoking, isn't it? He has a glory that he is turning over to them. It was a glory that was given to him on coming to earth. Now he's leaving. He's no longer in the world in this capacity. He's going away from them. He has been glorified in them because they have believed him. They have accepted the fact that he came from the Father. And they have set their whole affections on him that he was the sent one of God.
Now he says, I'm leaving them. And the glory that thou gave us me, I have given to them. Now, you've heard this verse quoted, in fact, you know that they all may be one. And it is quoted often in the sense of ecclesiastical confederation or confederacy. In fact, I remember the present Archbishop of Canterbury in one of his, well, early speeches, if not the time when he was inaugurated or whatever they did to him. I remember him saying, quoting this verse from John chapter seventeen, I've heard it several times from theologians since, that this was the desire of the Lord that we should all be one ecclesiastically.
A consideration of one body composed of many segments of that body, we should all be one ecclesiastically. And he said, he made it quite clear. that he was looking forward to the day when the Anglican Church and the Roman Catholic Church would fulfill this desire of the Lord Jesus and become one. And he must have infuriated some of the historians of the Anglican Church. And I think of some of these divines whose works I have and Dean Farrer and some of these very spiritually minded and very astute intellectual men and what did cost many of them. to stick to the division that existed way back yonder.
The Church of England, the Anglican Church, the distinction that was made, the separation that was enforced between them and the Catholic Church. And now here's the Archbishop of Canterbury where he's saying that he's looking forward to the time. He is looking forward to the time when these two will become one again in fulfillment of the Lord's request as stated here. And he said, of course, we understand that the Pope will be the preeminent leader. I guess he never wore an orange sash and never will. But I was really shocked when I heard him say, does this man not know his own history? Does he not know the history of his own church? Does he know how they suffered persecution, how they suffered execution in order to make this division between the hierarchy of the papacy and what they were going to enjoy in the freedom of the clergy amongst themselves?
Father, the most what he called it, this verse. The Lord said that they all may be one. Now, please, please stop a minute with me to notice when the Lord said it and why he said it. Look what he said. Father, the glory that thou gave us me. Now, what glory is that? I have given it to them. What did he give to the disciples of the glory that the Father gave to him? Well, let's look back here. a little bit. Back at the close of verse eleven, he says, Holy Father, keep through thy known name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are.
Second in, he'd do with ecclesiastical federation. Is that all the churches coming together? And then he comes down and he says, of course, they don't belong to the world because he's given them his word. And then he goes down to say in verse eighteen that he sent them into the world. Why? What for? Then he goes on in verse twenty to say, Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through the word, that they all may be one as thou, father, 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. And the glory. which thou givest me, I have given them with a view to, and this is a conjunction purpose, clause of purpose, that they may be one, even as we are one.
I in them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. I refuse to believe for one second that this has anything to do with church federation. I don't see how we can think that. When you read words like these, is it three times, he says, that they may be one, as, according as, in like manner as. Thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee. And he that has seen me has seen the Father. What's he saying? What was the glory that God conferred upon his Son when he came in human flesh, with a human nature, a human home, human sensitivity and human senses.
What was it? Here is man, totally man, verily man, truly man. And there's been a glory imposed or given to this man that no one else ever had. What was that? It was a oneness with the Father, the invisible God. He who saw him saw the Father. That was the glory. That there's a man walking on earth who is the full expression of the unseen God in heaven. That was the glory a man who in himself displays, represents, shows out that he's one. As thou art in me and I am in thee, that they, he says, speaking of his own, may be one in us.
What's that got to do with church federation? Nothing. Nothing whatsoever. But it is a glory not only of representation. That takes us back to Adam, doesn't it? Let us make man in our image, do you remember? That we may represent God on the earth. Now says the Lord, this is the glory that I have carried. While I am here, he says something similar in John chapter six, as I live by the Father. Even so, he that eateth me shall live by me. As I am one with the Father, even so these, my disciples, I give to them that glory, that they may be one in us, that thou, Father, in me, in me, and I am in thee.
What is the glory that he gave to his disciples? It is the glory of being the expression in a human body and a human relationship with human sensitivities and human experiences. the representation of the Father in heaven as was seen in the sun on earth. Now it is our turn. That the world may know, he says, that the world may know, not by church federation, but by a oneness of essence and life and character displayed in daily experience, they who see us will see him. That, my brethren, is the glory.
We are in frail mortal frames. We are here with all the deficiencies, with all the defects, and all the weaknesses of a human body, soul, and spirit. But his prayer here, which has been answered, is, I have given them the glory that thou gave us me. And the glory that thou gave us me was that he who sees me should see the Father. And he has made us now one with himself, I don't know. I don't know how to say it. How do you say something like this? In all the vicissitudes, in all the experiences that we have in our human lives, in our human weaknesses, in all of that, He has so made us one in himself in essence, in life, that they who see us are looking at the glory again of God, manifest in human glory.
Terrific. concept, isn't he? Well, we're a little more charismatic. I just said, hallelujah, right there. But I know you would be greatly disturbed if I had done it. But when I paused to think of this, do you mean to say, Lord, that I am in a position here on earth that you occupied when you were here? You were living by, in, and through, and with the Father. And I, in my spiritual experience, am to be living by, with, and in both you and the Father. And that's my glory. My glory is that he has made me so one with himself that I am here, not only to be with him, but to display him.
The world may know, but we are not of this world, but we are of our glorious law. Please, when you think about this expression, that there may be one, read all the verses here that speak of it, and then you put it together, and you say, what a marvelous honor this is, that we should be so one with the Father and with his Son, that we are here to be as he was when he was on earth. Now, one closing word. Yes, I've got a second and a half on this block. I've lost a minute on that. Now, he says here, Father, I will. Verse twenty-four. Father, I will. I will. But they also whom thou hast given me to be with me where I am.
Companionship. We talked about the marriage relationship, didn't we, earlier in the week. The essence of which is companionship. The first important feature of marriage, by the way, you marriage folks who weren't here that night, on that day, is companionship. That's certainly missed with a lot of men I know. You forgot why they have their wives. They forgot, the wives had forgotten what they're supposed to be for their husbands. The very first reason in the marriage relationship in Genesis one and twenty-six was to establish companionship on a compatible level. It can't be found anywhere else. Now, father, I will, this is one of the times, the very few times that the Lord expresses his own will.
Here's his prayer. I will, this is my desire, that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am. And you move from likeness in essence to companionship in presence. He says, I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am. That they may behold my glory. Now here's a glory that is yet future and that is visible that we haven't seen yet. Probably have never in all the attempts of our minds to grasp what it would be like. It will be, and the word is to behold, that's the word that John uses in his epistle, you remember, and he also uses it in his gospel, to behold, to look very intently on something, to study it, to examine it, to make it part of yourself, that they may behold my glory, he says, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world.
So it's a glory, brethren, that we are yet to witness and to share with our Lord in the fulfillment of the prayer that he made. Father, it is my will. that the ones whom thou hast given me be with me. Companionship, the Lord desires it, of you and of me, and that we, in turn, may look on the full orb glory, part of which he had with the Father before the world was a magnificent, majestic, incomprehensible future that lies before us. Let us live up to the level of our relationship with Christ, and also through the character and kind of the future which lies before us, for we are called unto glory.
We pray. Our Father, we give thanks. What shall we render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards us? We who have the cup of salvation, we who partake of the cup of the covenant, we who partake of the cup of blessing, shall yet partake of the cup of the glory. We thank thee, our eyes shall see, and our souls and spirits shall embrace something of that which we cannot really understand or imagine now, the glory that he had with thee before the world was, and the love that has given to us the glory now of being one with him on earth, he or with him who is in heaven.
Let thy blessing be with us, Lord, and receive our thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.