I'd like to invite everybody to stand. Here this morning, Jesus' words to his disciples, to us, how we are to go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. We have a promise in the Psalms that has the same characteristics where God is saying, we will be exalted.

Psalm 46 verses 10 and 11 say, "Be still and know that I am God," and he's saying to these nations who are in such an uproar, he said, "Be still!" It's not like a promise box verse, "Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations.

I will be exalted in the earth." It's that divine authority, and he says, "The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress." We're about to sing "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" based on this psalm. I just want to remind us that these words aren't true because we sing them.

We sing them because they're true. "A mighty fortress is our God, the whole world ever failing. For still our ancient foe, the seed to work us whole, his wrath and power are great. An arm with brutal pain, on earth is not his equal. If we in our own strength would fought, our striding would be losing.

Word of the right and of our son, the man of God's own choosing. The task of that may be, Christ Jesus is king, for sovereign of his name. From age to age, the spirit changes and he must win the battle. And though this world with devils will should present to undo us, we will not fear, for God has built this fruit to triumph through us.

The prince of darkness thrift, we tremble not for him, his grace we can ensure. For though his doom is sure, a little word shall help him. And word above all earthly powers, O thanks to them abided. The spirit and the gifts are ours, through him who with us sided.

Let good and kindred go, this mortal life also, the body they may build. God's truth abideth still, his kingdom is forever. Amen! Let the glory, let the glory of the Lord, for ev'ry heart and soul, may retention be the theme of our song. For by grace we have been saved, and by grace we shall relate, to the corners of the earth that Christ has come.

Let the nations be glad, let the people rejoice, for salvation belongs to our God. Let the whole world be filled with the praise of the Lord, for salvation belongs to our God. Let the nations be glad. Though the age has gone before, through the trial and the sore, many saints and martyrs conquered, though they died, still we're holding out for the cross.

Crossing oceans of remorse, we shall endure all things to win the crown of life. Let the nations be glad, let the people rejoice, for salvation belongs to our God. Let the whole earth be filled with the praises of the Lord, for salvation belongs to our God. Let the nations be glad.

Let the whole world be filled with the praise of the Lord, for salvation belongs to our God. Let the whole world be filled with the praise of the Lord, for salvation belongs to our God. Let the nations be glad, let the people rejoice, for salvation belongs to our God.

Let the whole earth be filled with the praises of the Lord, for salvation belongs to our God. Let the nations be glad. Sing let the nations be glad again. Let the nations be glad, let the people rejoice, for salvation belongs to our God. Let the whole earth be filled with the praises of the Lord, for salvation belongs to our God.

Let the nations be glad. You know, a lot of us are going to return home to our churches and think, "This was amazing what we had at this conference, and I just want everybody in my church to feel what I'm feeling right now." We're going to be so discouraged by the response of people.

So I so appreciated what Joel said earlier. When you're discouraged in your ministry, remember your future. We get so caught up in what's going on right now. But there is a future that awaits us. He said, "We will gaze on Him and never have to look away." And John got a picture of that in the book of Revelation, and the Lord had him write it down for us.

Revelation 7, verses 9 and 10. "After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number." This is where we're headed, because of what Jesus Christ has done. From every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, "Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, to the Lamb.

You will never have to look away." So let's look at Him right now, to the eyes of faith. Crown Him, crown Him with many crowns, the Lamb upon His throne. Hark how the heavenly anthem drowns all music but its own. Awake, my soul, and sing of Him who died for thee, and hail Him as thy matchless King through all eternity.

Crown Him Son of God before the world's beginning, and He who tread where He hath trod, crown Him the Son of Man, who every grief hath known, that brings the human breast, and takes and bears them for His own, that all in Him may rest. Crown Him, Lord of love.

Behold His hands and side. Those wounds yet miserable of love, in beauty glorified. No angel in the sky can fully bear that sight. But Thou forbid'st his wandering eye at mystery so bright. Crown Him the Lord of life, who triumphed o'er the grave, and rose victorious in the strife for those He came to save.

To the glories now we sing, who died and rose on high, who died eternal lives to bring, and lives that death may die. Crown Him the Lord of lords, who over all the grave, who once on earth incarnate were for ransom sinners slain, now lives in realms of life where saints with angels sing.

Their songs we pour Him day and night, their God, Redeemer, King. Lord, we look forward to that day when wherever we look, we will see You. We'll never have to turn away. Thank You that You are worthy of endless praises of all creation, and in Your mercy, You've called us to be a part of that endless praise.

Use us, we pray, by Your Spirit to bring You glory, not only in our songs, but through our lives. Amen. Amen. Let's be seated. And can we welcome Michael Reeves. Brothers, it is my simple but awesome privilege to hold out the glory of God now. For the glory of God is the epicenter, the genesis, the principle of all healthy mission.

When the mission of the church goes wrong, it is always because she has become man-centered. Sometimes it is that Christians fear God more than man. And so they do no mission not wanting to offend or confront. Sometimes they lose sight of God's truth, and so they do no mission, or only a mission which is giving sinners the worldly things they already want.

And sometimes they love the glory of man more than the glory of God, and nobody notices the problem. Because they seem orthodox. They seem zealous. But they are preaching Christ out of selfish ambition, making little empires for themselves. And so as a remedy, we're going to look at the first three verses of John Chapter 17, Jesus' High Priestly Prayer.

Let me pray as we come to God's Word. Oh, Holy Father, open our eyes that we might know you better. And so have the life that comes in knowing you. And so may we, weary ones, proud ones, tired ones, all be enlivened by the knowledge of you. Have life and overflow with life for the blessing of the world and the glory of Jesus Christ.

And in his name we ask it. Amen. Amen. Well, here in Jesus' High Priestly Prayer, our great high priest, we enter the true holy place of God's presence. And you remember, just as the Old Testament tabernacle, which was its copy and shadow, that was filled with God's glory. So look at what fills this place.

I'll read the first five verses. Jesus spoke these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, even as you gave him authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him he may give eternal life." And this is eternal life, "that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

I glorified you on the earth, having finished the work with which you have given me to do. Now, Father, glorify me together with yourself, with the glory which I had with you before the world was." Here is a glimpse behind the curtain to see a heavenly conversation, and one that lifts our eyes to heaven.

And all John's gospel has been ramping up to this moment. At Cana in chapter 2, Jesus told his mother, "Woman, my hour has not yet come." Later, he was teaching in the temple, and no one seized him because his hour had not yet come. Now, he says, "Father, the hour has come." This is the hour he described in chapter 12, the hour for the Son of Man to be glorified as he is lifted up from the earth, lifted up on the cross, lifted up in his resurrection, lifted up in his heavenly exaltation.

This is the hour for which Jesus came. And you see, his whole purpose in it is that the Father might glorify the Son, that the Son might glorify the Father. Now, I want you to notice the logic of verses 1 and 2. Look closely. Jesus says, verse 1, clause A, "Father, the hour has come.

Glorify your Son." Clause B, "That," consequence, "that the Son may glorify you." Connecting even as or just as-- you see the mirroring here between verses 1 and 2. Clause A, "You gave him authority over all flesh." Clause B, consequence, "That to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life." So the Son's glorification of the Father, verse 1b, is the consequence of the Father's glorification of the Son.

And in parallel, verse 2, the Son's giving of eternal life, verse 2b, is the consequence of his being given authority, verse 2a. So the two verses parallel each other. They work together so that we can see the overall logic, which is, ultimately, the glorifying of the Son, "that eternal life be given." You could compress it like this.

"Glorify your Son, that he may give eternal life." Life flows from the glory of the Son, which glorifies the Father. In other words, dear friends, mission starts not with you. It starts with the glory of God. The giving of life is the consequence of glory with this God. Mission does not start with us.

Mission does not start with us finding the zeal within ourselves to go out and do something in our own strength. And yet, we often talk as if it did. We separate the glory of God from mission, as if we have our devotional lives on one side, where we glory in God, and know him, and enjoy him.

And then there's this separate extra thing called mission, which has a different motivation. And when you think like that, one of two things is going to happen. You will burn out, and/or you will do your mission and your ministry with another glory in mind-- the glory of man. So brothers, here's a litmus test for you.

Do you find yourself constantly overwhelmed by ministry, sensing the burden stops with you? You're the initiator. Or do you find yourself constantly concerned with what people think of you? Do you long for more approval, fame, recognition? Either way, in good part, the root problem is probably the same. The glory of God has dipped in your esteem, has ceased to be your energizing motivation, and therefore, taking your eye off the glory of God, you are looking for life and glory elsewhere.

And of course, it hurts and doesn't satisfy. And so for our health, and the health of our ministries, for the healthy mission of the church, we need to refocus on the glory that gives life. So let's do that now. Now, what is this glory? What does Jesus mean when he says, "Father, glorify your Son"?

Now, throughout John's gospel, Jesus has been setting us up to see Jesus' glory is something entirely unexpected. We assume, and the Pharisees assumed, glory means searching for the acclaim of others. But Jesus said, "I do not seek my glory. If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing." No, the one who is the very glory of God himself, he does not need glory.

He's not acquisitively seeking glory, for his glory is not He has no need. His is a self-giving glory. The Spirit glorifies the Son, Jesus tells us, by taking from what is mine and giving it, disclosing it to you, John 16. Or John 12, Jesus describes exactly what it means for the Son of Man to be glorified.

Remember John 12, verse 24? "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears fruit." That death-bearing fruit, that is the hour of his glorification. When he dies, it is when he is lifted up from the earth, then we see most clearly who he is.

Then we see the glorification of the glory of God. We see the deepest revelation of the very heart of God. And it is all about laying down his life to give life as a seed. Or as he puts it here, "That to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life." So his self-giving is the hour of his glorification.

It is the nature of his glory. Or in Paul's words in Ephesians, it is in the riches of his grace that we see the riches of his glory. He is the radiance of the Father of glory, the one who is so superabounding in life and blessedness that he generates glory.

Without need or lack, his is the glory of the overflowing fountain of life. In his hour, we see a divine glory that shines light into darkness, that confers good, that gives life and righteousness to unworthy, helpless sinners. And in that, with that end of verse 1, the Son glorifies the Father.

And so on the cross, their God is glorified. For when you've seen the Son, you've seen the Father. When you've seen the self-giving of the Son, you've witnessed the very heart of the Father who sent him. You've witnessed the superabundant graciousness and goodness of God himself, loving first before we ever loved him.

That is what the only true God is like. The Son, who is the radiance of God's glory, shows us that God's glory is an outgoing, radiant thing, which is why throughout Scripture, the glory of God is so often compared to a pure and dazzling light ever shining outwards. Arise, shine, your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

The shepherds kept their flocks outside Bethlehem. The glory of the Lord shone on them. In the new Jerusalem, it has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God illumines it, and its lamp is the Lamb. As the sun in the sky gives of its own light and heat, so this God glories in giving of himself because he is so full.

Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God shines forth. And verse 2, then, even though it does not mention glory, is actually unpacking the meaning of glory developed by the thought of verse 1. Now, remember the logic. Verse 1, clause A, "Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son." B, "That, in order that the Son may glorify you, even as," mirroring clause A, "you gave him authority over all flesh," clause B, "so that to all whom you've given him he may give eternal life." Now, see the mirroring there.

Now, glorifying your Son may not sound obviously like giving him authority over all flesh, but we know they're connected, "even as." So the Father lifts up the Son on the cross, in the resurrection, in his exaltation, to glorify the Father, "even as." That means to give eternal life. This is just what Paul said in Philippians 2.

"God exalted him, bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee may bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." God is glorified and revealed for who he is in the giving of life through the lifting up of the Son.

And that is why the glory of God is the epicenter of mission. God gives life because he is so gloriously super-sufficient, so full, so overflowing. That is his glory, to shine out into the darkness in pure grace until that day when the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

And that is why the glory of this God makes Christians delight to lift him up, delight to proclaim the honors of his name. You see, if God were an empty God, if he were a needy idol, motivated primarily by getting something from us that he needed, that he didn't already have, if that were what God were like, then he would be a burden.

To be like him would mean loving the glory of man, because that's what clearly he loves. Proclaiming him would be a heavy, burdensome duty. All he's trying to do is take. But because God is the only true God, is so full, so overflowing with life, mission simply flows from who he is.

When we proclaim Christ, we are joining in with a pre-existent mission. We are joining in with the divine outgoing, with a mission that does not depend on us for its genesis or its momentum. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you, we just join in. Which means, if the glory of God outshining is the genesis chamber and the delight-giving motivation that makes saints go out and speak of him and shine out themselves then, it means, friends, if you take your eyes off the glory of Christ, the thought of proclaiming him to the ends of the earth will feel overwhelming to you.

If the buck's going to stop with you, that's a burden. And then other motivations will start to drive you. But see the glory that gives life, and you will be enlivened. His glory will eclipse yours and be a greater motivation, a preceding motivation that precedes any zeal you have, but stirs it up.

And come now to verse 3, where we see the nature of the eternal life he gives. "This is eternal life, that they may know you the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you've sent." Now, because life is in God, you cannot have any life apart from God. Life is not an abstract commodity he throws out.

Life is found in him, and so in knowing him, and not just knowing any God, but knowing the only true God, in knowing the Father by knowing Jesus Christ, his Son, through the enabling power of the Spirit. So verse 2, spot the logic here. Verse 2 had shown the Son is given authority in order to give life.

And verse 3 logically follows. If the Son is to bring that life, he must bring people to know God, because that is what life is. And how does he do that? By glorifying and revealing God in himself, because no one knows God, but through him, and only through him, we come to know the only true God, and so have life.

No one has ever seen God, but God, the only begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, he explains him. And so life is found in knowing the Father through him. Life is found in knowing God. That means, friends, if you would have much life, be a theologian, be a knower of God.

For the knowledge of God is not interesting trivia. It is not something to be enjoyed when you have a bit of spare time. The knowledge of God is life. And if your knowledge of God is shallow and weak, you will be shallow and weak. But Daniel 11:32, "The people who know their God will display strength and take action." The people who know their God will display strength because they have life.

But it's only those who know God who have that strength. It all means we must not separate mission, making Christ known, from knowing God. As if knowing God is an impractical nicety we put on one side when we feel like being active and going out and doing this thing called mission.

No. A good missionary must be a good theologian. You know, John Calvin is a marvelous example of this. We often-- we usually think of John Calvin as a theologian, and we should. But don't imagine Calvin cooped up in a library thinking heavenly thoughts, unconcerned with the growth of the church on earth.

No, he educated in Geneva, primarily through the academy, a generation of pastors in the knowledge of God in order to-- to use John 17 language, that he might send them out to the ends of the earth. So he gave them a knowledge of God and turned Geneva into a theologically-fueled center for the propagation of the gospel.

And there, he gave them the knowledge of God. And from there, pastors and missionaries were sent out to Poland, the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, even South America. He saw it must start with knowing God, so he raised up those who know God, for it's only those who know God who have life and can go out and give life.

And it's exactly the same logic you see in Calvin's great work, The Institutes. He starts the whole thing with knowing God and works from there towards the Christian life, because knowing God is the source of life. And it must then be the source of healthy mission. No knowledge of God, no mission.

Thin knowledge of God, thin mission. Weak knowledge of God, weak mission. But I don't want to stop there, because if we leave it there, we're going to misunderstand what knowing God means. See, especially when I say be a theologian, you all think, oh, please no. Because we easily imagine knowledge as this merely cerebral thing, knowledge about God, as if being a diligent student of Scripture and a careful exegete, that's knowledge, and therefore that's what gives life.

So if I'm a careful exegete and a diligent student of Scripture, hey, I've got life. But the knowledge that Jesus speaks of here requires glorying in God. Now, some commentators, they read verse 3 about knowing God, and they see it as an aside that's got really nothing to do with the glory that the surrounding verses deal with.

But throughout John's gospel, knowledge is entirely bound up with glory. And I want to see this, because this is critical if we are to have the knowledge that gives life. Let's start with John 5 from verse 39. John 5 from verse 39, Jesus says to the Jewish scribes, "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life.

It is these that bear witness about me, and you are not. You are unwilling to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from men, but I know you, that you do not have the love of God in yourselves. I've come in my Father's name, and you do not receive me.

If another comes in his own name, you'll receive him. How can you believe when you receive glory from one another? How can you believe when you receive glory from one another, and you do not seek the glory that is from the only God?" So the scribes and the Pharisees, they thought they had life in the mere searching of Scripture, but they did not seek the glory of God.

And so they sought to be masters of Scripture in order to receive glory from each other. And so seeking the glory of man, they never recognized the true glory of God. And so they crucified him. They crucified the Lord of glory and mocked him, for they did not know God.

They were blind to who was right in front of them. It means because they didn't glory in him, all their knowledge was not true knowledge of God. Oh, dear friends, it means that to glory in Jesus is not an optional extra for some emotional types. You simply cannot know the only true God without glorying in him, because God is so glorious, he is not known where he is not adored.

If God, my friend, is not delightful to you, your eyes have not been opened, you are blind, and that reveals a deadness of head and heart. If God is not glorious, if he is not your delight and treasure, you may know something about him, but you do not have the knowledge that is eternal life.

Knowledge requires glorying in him. So glorious is he. Come on to chapter 8 from verse 42. Jesus said to them, "If God were your father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth and have come from God. For I have not even come of myself, but he sent me." John 8 43.

Why do you not understand what I'm saying? It is because you cannot hear my word. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. Now, the word "understand" there in verse 43 is gnosko, to know. Jesus is saying, "You do not know if you have the desires of the devil, and so do not love God." The knowledge of God is entirely bound up with love for, desire for God.

Hence the terrible words of Paul to the Corinthians, "If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema, accursed." And last reference describing the nature of true knowledge. Come back to John 17 verse 26. Jesus concludes his prayer saying, "I have made your name known." John 17 26.

"I've made your name known to them. I will make it known." This is knowledge. "So that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them." To know God is to love him. Now, a generation ago, Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones argued that a false view of knowledge had become the great error of the church.

He said, "If I understand the condition of the church today, and indeed during the last 50 years or so, I would say its great trouble has been that it has fallen into this particular error, the error of Sandemanianism, the idea that saving faith is nothing but bare belief of the bare truth.

Sandemanianism taught knowledge of God is bare assent to the truth. It is mere intellectual acknowledgment that the gospel is true. It imagined our real problem as sinners is simply that we're ignorant. What do you think that did to their sermons? If people's problem is just ignorance, what is a sermon for?

Their sermons were purely education. That's it. Nothing more needed. They never sought to deal with the hearts of their people, the affections, the desires. They never sought to deal with their own hearts. They failed to recognize that the human problem is deeper than ignorance. The reason people do not believe in Jesus is not simply ignorance.

It is to do with what they love. Sinners love the darkness rather than the light. The sinful mind is hostile to God and therefore refuses to love the truth and be saved, 2 Thessalonians. See, both faith and unbelief involve more than the head. Not less than, but more than.

Unbelief flows from a hostility of heart that hates the truth. Faith flows from a heart that has been turned to love Christ and so embraces truth. And so we who believe, it is not simply that we know certain things about Christ. Our eyes have been opened, our hearts turned so that we find to our surprise that He is beautiful, delightful.

We desire fellowship with Him. We cherish Him, we adore Him. And here's the danger with the knowledge of God that is purely cerebral. It will puff us up as it puffed up the Pharisees. And full of ourselves, we will even find ourselves looking down on those simpletons who love Jesus, but don't seem to know as much as we do.

That kind of knowledge is not a taste and appreciation for the glory of God, that proud, puffed up knowledge. That is a lust for the glory of God. It is a lust for the glory of men. It is so easy for us to see the corruption in a sinner.

Take a sinner whose tastes have grown so perverted that they revel in moral filth. And we can think, I'm not like that. But if we are dead to the loveliness of Christ and we do not glory in Him. If the glory of men stirs us more than the glory of God, then, oh brothers, we are corrupted.

At the end of John's gospel, three times, Jesus asks Peter, do you love me? And so, my dear brothers, I must ask you, do you love Jesus? I am not asking, do you love ministry or study or preaching? Do you love Jesus? This is the life that God shares with us.

This is what God has always been about. The Father has always enjoyed knowing and loving His Son. That is what is most characteristic of Him for eternity. And through the Spirit, the Father shares with us His highest pleasure. He opens our eyes so that we know and love and enjoy His Son as He has always done.

And so, our love for the Son is an echo, an extension of the Father's love. That is the very heart of Godlikeness. It is the prime reason the Spirit is given. And so, the Puritan John Owen wrote, "Therein consists the principal part of our renovation into the image of God.

Nothing makes us so like the Father as our love for Jesus Christ." When you love Jesus Christ, that's when you're being like the Father, who loves His Son and is well-pleased in Him. And so, the Spirit not only opens our eyes to share the Father's love of the Son, He gives us the mind of Christ.

And so, the Son's love for the Father. And what is most characteristic about the Son is John 14, 31, "I love the Father." And so, the heart of our transformation into the likeness of the Son is our deep delight in the Father. Jesus, when He's filled with the Spirit, says, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth." And so, in our love and enjoyment of the Son, we're being like the Father.

In our love and enjoyment of the Father, we're being like the Son. This is eternal life. This is why the Son glorified His Father. We get to know God in that hour, "so that," John 17, 26, "the love with which you've loved Me may be in them and I in them." When God is glorified, life is given.

And this is why the glory of God is the genesis of mission. When we glory in God, knowing, enjoying Him as He is, we have life. Those who know their God shall find strength and life. And when we glory in God, we will overflow with life and go out radiantly, like Him, in mission, participating in the work of the Spirit to make Jesus known in all the earth.

In contrast, if we do not glory in Christ, we will not proclaim Him to the ends of the earth. And that's made very clear at the end of John chapter 12. Would you come with me to John chapter 12, towards the end, verse 42. John 12, 42, "Many, even of the rulers, believed in Him.

But because of the Pharisees, they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue." So what's going on? They are not confessing Him. Why? Verse 43, "They loved the glory of men rather than the glory of God." That was their root problem and the reason they would not confess Him.

They loved the glory of men more than the glory of God. With their eyes on others, hungry for popularity and praise, they would not dare confess Christ or go against the crowd. They're looking to scratch itching ears, because they want the applause. And so instead, said Jesus, they do all their deeds to be noticed by men.

They broaden their phylacteries, they lengthen the tassels of their garments, they love the places of honor at the banquets and being called "rabbi." God was not sufficiently glorious in their eyes, and so they preferred the glory of little creatures. Blind to the beauty of God, they became enslaved to the hamster wheel of people-pleasing.

Haven't we all been there? Enslaved to what people think of us. And it wasn't about their theological orthodoxy or their biblical competence, it was all about what they loved. Dear brothers, we will share and we will smell of what we truly glory in. And the fact is, we think we can, you cannot hide what you really glory in for long.

It gives off a stink. What you truly glory in will be an aroma about you. And out of the overflow of your heart, whatever is in your heart, you will speak. In my ministry as President of Union, we raise shepherds, church leaders, in church-based locations all around the world.

We do so that the church, the Bride of Christ, might be built up, that in all these locations around the world, we may deploy them out for the growth of the church and the spreading of Christ's glory worldwide. And so, to do that, Union provides biblical education, pastoral training, theological resources, but underneath all of that, we seek to raise leaders who glory in God.

Who love the glory of God more than the glory of man, for no amount of education, training, or resources can make good one who loves the wrong glory. Now, of course, loving the glory of men more than the glory of God, it's an itch, a lust. We all feel, we all know it inside ourselves, and we see it everywhere around us.

So we must ask, please ask yourself, really, which is better, the glory of God or the glory of his creatures? Which is more life-giving? The glory of God is the only fountain of life, and we cannot depart from it if we are to have life or to give life.

The Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians had a very similar thought to John 17, when he says, "God, who said, 'Let light shine out of darkness,' is the one who has shone into our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ." Now, what is on Paul's mind there is how, you remember Moses saw the glory of God on Mount Sinai, and then he came down from the mountain and he did not realize his skin shone, radiant because he had been speaking with God.

He shone. That is glory. And likewise, says Paul, "We all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory." We're doing what Moses did. We, like him, turned to the Lord, and beholding his glory, we, Psalm 34 verse 5, "They looked to him and were radiant." Those who look to him begin to shine with God's own light.

The sight of the glory of Christ is what makes the faces of the saints shine. It's what makes them come alive, whatever their circumstances, for the glory of God in the face of Christ is like a sun shining us on a winter morning. It's like the turn of winter into spring, a warming, life-giving light grows, making life blossom.

The Puritan Richard Sibbes put it like this, he said, "The saints are like little birds shivering in the darkness of the night, quiet, cold, until the dawning light shines upon them. And then, in the light of God's goodness and glory, they begin to sing. Shine the light of the world on them, and warmed by him, glorying in him, they break forth in joy." Those who glory in God, who know him with an adoring enjoyment, brothers, they are the ones who become like him.

Those are the ones who become like God. As he is radiant, those who look to him become radiant. And they become like him, fruitful, life-giving, outgoing. They begin to shine like stars in this present darkness, this crooked and depraved generation. Look to him and be radiant. Look to Daniel 12 verse 3, "Those who have insight will shine brightly, like the brightness of the expanse of heaven.

And those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever and ever." Brothers, it is by the shining of his glorious face that he gives life, that he spreads his blessedness. So look to him if you would have life. Know him with a knowledge that falls on its knees in adoration.

It is those who know him and glory in him who are radiant with life. And so, dear brothers, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his glorious face upon you and give you peace.

Thank you. What a feast. Thank you, Michael. Well, we've had a pretty good day so far, haven't we? And it just is going to get better and better and better. I want to highlight a couple of books. And since Michael was in John 17, I want to highlight a book, a new book by Pastor John MacArthur.

And it's called A Savior Who Prays, and it's an exposition of Christ's prayer in John 17. Related to that, you can also visit John MacArthur Publishing Table on the patio. You can get a free study guide for this book and other books also from JMPG Books, Our Savior Who Prays.

And along that also same line, Stephen Charnock, who is the famous author of The Existence and Attributes of God, has a book that we have available, The Doctrine of Regeneration. The Doctrine of Regeneration. So just two books to highlight for you this afternoon as we move into dinner. We have food trucks out there, which is a very big favorite here at Grace Church.

There's a variety of Southern California multicultural meals provided near us. We have a Hawaiian barbecue. We have a Los Angeles Greek cuisine. We have a Thai-Mexican. We have Italian. We have American fusion. There's so many. You can see them in your app for Shepherds Conference. So go out there.

Find some that you can kind of limit tonight and then tomorrow night and Friday as well just to kind of try the different trucks. But more than anything else, just take a time to really contemplate what it is that we've just heard about the glory of God, the glory of Christ preceding just knowledge so beautifully done and so wonderfully heartwarming, my friend.

Thank you. Well, let me just pray for dinner and then you're dismissed. Father God, thank you again for just the lessons that we are learning from your Word, lessons that are transcending all things that perhaps we had even contemplated before. Our love for your glory, dear Jesus, our love for you is the source of all true knowledge.

And let that be a lesson to us today. Let it be the source of our conversation and let it be the joy of our heart. Bless the food that we're about to receive in Christ's name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.