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[0:00] 17. The Gospel of Matthew chapter 17 and that black Bible, go towards the back, find page 14, they renumber the New Testament. Page 14, Matthew chapter 17. Matthew chapter 17, I'm going to read verse 5. There's other verses we're going to read, but this is kind of the starting point. Matthew chapter 17, verse 5, again page 14 in that black Bible.

[0:30] Matthew chapter 17, verse 5. While Peter was still speaking, look, a bright cloud overshadowed them and look, a voice out of the cloud saying, this is my beloved son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to him.

[0:53] The Me Too movement, hashtag Me Too movement, was founded in 2006 to help survivors of sexual violence, particularly young women of color from low wealth communities, find pathways to healing. Their vision, this comes from their website, is to, quote, address both the dearth and resources for survivors of sexual violence and to build a community of advocates driven by survivors who will be at the forefront for creating solutions to interrupt sexual violence in their communities, end quote.

[1:46] One of the many things that these women have to deal with is shame. There's an article this past week put out by CCEF on biblical counseling about shame.

[2:01] I believe it was Ed Welch, either him or David Powelson, wrote the article and he said this, quote, shame identifies that we are unacceptable, dirty, and disgrace, sent away, distanced from people and God's promises. We notice that life can feel more like death.

[2:27] We can feel this way, unacceptable, dirty, disgrace, because of how someone has sinned against us. Those women who have been violated, they understand that. They feel shame, disgrace, even guilty. We also feel shame because of our own sin. Do we not feel shame because of our own sin?

[3:07] Do we not feel disgrace because of our own sin? Do we not feel guilty? Because of our own sin? Because of our own sin and our association with things like weakness, disease? Something happens to us and we feel shame. And yet, God's words to the shamed in the gospel are attractive. Like, come. Receive a new name. Come near. Look, touch, believe, embrace. Embrace the fact that the blood of the Lamb extends to your guilt, extends to your shame.

[4:02] He takes it away. He takes it away. And He replaces it with His love. So that you are forever associated with His purity and a beneficiary of His love. Jesus says, I love you. Your sins are forgiven. Your shame is gone. Those are great words to hear, aren't they?

[4:32] Especially if you're here today and you feel shame for your own sin. Shame from the sin of what someone's done to you. We are in a unique time in our nation's history.

[4:52] This is what this article mentioned. And I believe that he's right. We're in a unique time in our nation's history. Never before has there been so much openness about oppression, abuse, demeaning words. That's a good thing. Shame has come out into the open. Shame wants to stay hidden, right?

[5:11] But it comes out in the open. The world is acknowledging that it has been treated shamefully. That's a good thing. Yet, even in the midst of those who have done shameful things, like Dr.

[5:25] Paige Patterson, we as Christians hold the key to be able to diminish the overwhelming, contaminating power of sinful mistreatment.

[5:40] It's in the gospel. We proclaim the gospel of grace to the humiliated, to the rejected, to the discarded, to the weak, to the helpless, to the shamed, to those who are guilty.

[6:04] We proclaim this gospel. And what this gospel brings out is this is how the shame is able to go away.

[6:17] How is the shame able to dissipate? How is the guilt able to dissipate and go away? Here's my argument. God delights in you like he delights in his son Jesus.

[6:36] This is my premise for this morning. I don't normally do topical messages, but I periodically have been doing Lord's Supper messages to focus us on where we're going to celebrate the gospel, the tangible nature of the gospel and the bread, oops, the bread and the juice.

[6:55] And so my argument that I'm going to present before you today and what I want you, desire for you, us together, to focus on is this. God the Father delights in you the same way he delights in his son Jesus.

[7:13] So here's my point, that you would have a deeper, richer joy in the Lord Jesus Christ because of this fact, God delights in you like he delights in his son.

[7:27] Now I'm going to unpack this for you in the next 20 minutes. And I'm going to focus you towards the gospel, the tangible nature of the gospel and the elements, the Lord's Supper.

[7:41] Let me give you some verses that correspond with this. I told you Matthew 17, verse 5 is one of them, but here's some other ones. And I'm going to read these. You don't have to turn there unless you would so desire to do that.

[7:58] Psalm 147, verse 11. The Lord favors or delights in those who fear him, those who trust in his loving kindness.

[8:13] Isaiah chapter 62, verse 4. It's talking about Israel, but we are grafted in. We're part of the covenants now as Gentiles, so it says this of us as well.

[8:29] It will no longer be said to you forsaken, nor to your land will it be any longer be said desolate, but you will be called. My delight is in her and your land married.

[8:40] For the Lord, Yahweh, delights in you and to him your land will be married. And even verse 5, for as a young man marries a virgin, your sons will marry you. As the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, your God will rejoice over you.

[8:54] God rejoices over you. Zephaniah chapter 3, verse 17. Yahweh, your God, is in your midst a victorious warrior.

[9:15] He will exult over you with joy. He will be quiet in his love. He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy. I read to you Matthew 17, verse 5.

[9:28] And then to unpack this even more, which I believe is really the clincher to the argument, is there John chapter 17, verse 22.

[9:39] Jesus says, And the glory which you have given me, Father, I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one, I in them, you in me, that they may be perfected in unity.

[9:52] And here it is, that the world may know that you sent me and love them even as you have loved me. God loves you the way he loves his son.

[10:05] Did you see that? God delights in you the way he delights in his son. And even Galatians chapter 4, verses 4 through 7, when the fullness of time came, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order that he might redeem those under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

[10:30] And because your sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Therefore, you're no longer a slave, but a son. And of a son, an heir of God.

[10:44] These are amazing words. So we can say, the Father loves his people like he loves Jesus.

[10:58] I mean, think about those words. Because of the death of our Lord Jesus, the Father loves us, his own people, in the very same way he loves his eternal son.

[11:09] What does this do? This truth. It frees us from the shame that sin places upon us.

[11:25] It doesn't relieve us of our responsibility, but reminds us of God's amazing grace toward us in Christ Jesus, how much he loves us, and what he will do by that same grace to change us, to reflect the very image of the son that he loves.

[11:45] This is my argument for you this morning. This is what I present to you, and this is what I'd like for you to have us dwell in our minds.

[11:56] How God delights in us like he delights in his son Jesus. Now, I give a warning to you though. There is a danger in this message. The danger in this message, we end up making much of ourselves instead of making much of God.

[12:18] That's the danger. We can end up in reality selfishly relishing and delighting in God's delighting in us instead of delighting in God himself.

[12:29] our exceeding joy from last week, Psalm 43. That's why I said my point to this message is that you would have a deeper, richer joy in the Lord Jesus Christ because of the fact that God delights in you like he delights in his son.

[12:47] It would drive you to have God be your exceeding joy even more. Not that you start relishing the fact that God delights in you.

[12:59] Yeah. Good job, me. No. That's the danger. John Piper, he says this, quote, what if the bottom line of what makes us happy is not God himself but God's attention?

[13:14] God's praise. If that is the bottom line, then we're not delighted in God but only using delight in God to get commendations.

[13:26] End quote. Now, mind you, it is delightful that God delights in us. It's enjoyable to know that but it should drive us to delight ourselves more in him.

[13:47] In our fallenness, we love to be made much of for who we are and what we have done, right? Instead of making much of God for who he is and what he has done.

[14:03] So this is the danger I present to you. So may this drive you away from the thought that there's something lovable in you because quite honestly there isn't.

[14:17] No offense. And you're looking at somebody, when you look at me, there's nothing very lovable in me, just ask my wife. Nothing very lovable. We are not lovable people.

[14:32] That's why it is just flat out amazing that God enjoys us. And yet he gets the praise because of his grace. Do I have that on the screen?

[14:46] Yeah. It's just flat out amazing that God enjoys us. I mean, it's like how the song goes, God, you don't need me but somehow you want me. That's a good statement.

[14:59] God doesn't need you and yet he wants you. God doesn't need you and yet he rejoices over you. Why does God delight in us?

[15:12] Because we are united to his son in whom he takes great pleasure. Okay, so I present this argument. Let's break it down now, okay? There's three different parts to this.

[15:24] and then we'll kind of consolidate it at the end and kind of summarize it at the end, okay? First, the father takes, truly takes full pleasure in his eternal son.

[15:42] By the way, a side note, eternal son, the son is eternal. He's not created, it's the eternal son. That's what differentiates us from Mormons. because Jesus is the fullness of deity.

[15:59] He's God the son and the father's soul infinitely delights in his son. Again, John Piper, quote, when the father looks at his son, he enjoys, admires, cherishes, prizes, and relishes what he sees, end quote.

[16:17] The father delights in the son, and the son delights in the father. You see this in those verses.

[16:30] I've read Matthew 17, verse 5, we know what that says. I'll also read Isaiah chapter 42, verse 1, about the servant that Isaiah brings up, and this is Messiah to come.

[16:44] Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one, in whom my soul delights. Matthew chapter 11, verse 25.

[17:09] At that time, Jesus answered and said, I praise you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and intelligent and revealed them to babes. Yes, Father, unless it was well-pleasing in your sight.

[17:21] And here it is. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows a son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him. The Father loves the Son.

[17:36] The Son loves the Father. That's the relationship between the two. And the gospel that makes that so apparent is John's gospel. I have that there. Look at John 3, John 5, John 17.

[17:48] Those are just three different places. It's all throughout John's gospel. John 3, 35, very clear. I don't know how much more clear you want to get.

[18:01] The Father loves the Son and has given all things to his hand. Well, that's pretty clear. Chapter 5, verse 20. Jesus says, for the Father loves the Son and shows him all things that he himself is doing and greater works than these will he show him that you may marvel.

[18:20] And if there's any place in John's gospel where you see this highlighted, it's in the high priestly prayer of Jesus in John chapter 17, verse 24.

[18:32] Father, I desire that they also whom you've given me be with me where I am or that they may behold my glory which you've given me for you've loved me before the foundation of the world.

[18:48] The Father loves the Son. The Son loves the Father. The Father so delights in his Son. So there's the first part. Here's the second part, number two.

[19:00] Second, we become united to the Son through faith alone in the Son. This is where the gospel comes in. We repent and trust Christ Jesus alone that only he can save us from our wretchedness.

[19:17] He can save us from our evil. And we keep repenting and we keep trusting. It's not just a one-time thing.

[19:29] It's a continual thing. And listen, this is the only way a person can be united to Jesus. I think I have that. This is the only way a person can be united to the Son.

[19:43] You trust Jesus. The only way you can be united to the Son, the only way you can come in union with Jesus is when you turn from your sin and put your hope in Jesus Christ.

[19:55] You turn from your sin and you put your trust in Jesus who lived and died and rose. It's the only way. That's why I present to you the gospel.

[20:07] You must repent and put your trust in Jesus alone for you to be united to the Son. So now third, the Father delights in the Son, enjoys his Son, the Son enjoys the Father.

[20:23] You become united to the Son through trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting in the Son. Now third, because we are united to the Son, God delights in us.

[20:38] God delights in you. That's why just a few chapters before chapter 17 of John's gospel, chapter 15 verse 5, I am the vine, you are the branches, he who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit for apart from me you can do nothing.

[21:02] You're united to the Son and when you're united to the Son, God delights in you. And see, this is the mystery. The mystery is this, how can a righteous, just, holy God set his affection upon us, vile, wicked sinners and unite us to his Son?

[21:26] How can he set this kind of affection upon us? Piper, once again, the foundation of our salvation is the infinite regard that the Father has for the Son.

[21:43] This is the foundation of our salvation. This goes back to the second point, which goes back to the first point. Because in the death and resurrection of his eternal Son, Jesus, the Father, Piper says, quote, restored all the insult and injury, end quote, we have done to the Father's glory.

[22:05] What have we done to the Father's glory? We've spurned it, snubbed it, scorned it, despised it, disdained it. Our evil mars the glory of God, and yet his glory remains intact.

[22:21] And actually, we can say, his glory is even lifted up because the Son of Man was lifted up. The Son of God was lifted up. No, God, the Son, in whom the Father delights, he was lifted up.

[22:33] All that was poured upon him so that what comes to you is the delights and the pleasure and the love and the compassion of the Father.

[22:45] That's what comes to us. Jesus takes upon himself our very sin so that we gain God's righteousness.

[23:00] 2 Corinthians 5.21, He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us so that we might become the righteousness of God. That's why it's called grace.

[23:14] Undeserved merit, undeserved favor, excuse me, unmerited favor. God didn't have to do anything with this. He decided to love millions and millions of people, choosing them before the foundation of the world, having his beloved son die for them, and having his spirit regenerate them.

[23:36] Unbelievable. So that now, when the Father looks upon us, he sees us in light of our advocate, his beloved son, the righteous one.

[23:52] 1 John chapter 2 verse 1 and 2. John the apostle, he says, I write these things so you won't sin. But if anyone sins, that includes everybody here, we have an advocate, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, and he is the propitiation for our sins.

[24:13] All our sins are taken away so that what comes to us is a delight that God has in us because of his delight that he has for his son. So, God enjoys, admires, cherishes, prizes, and relishes in us because we are united to his eternal son in whom the father enjoys, admires, cherishes, prizes, and relishes.

[24:46] once again, John 17. And the glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one as we are one.

[25:03] I in them, you and me, that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know that you've sent me, and you've loved them even as you love me.

[25:19] The father loves us the same way he loves his son. So, that way, when you read Matthew 17, verse 5, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.

[25:37] Now, you see it in a whole different light. he's pleased with me. He loves me. And notice, this is what should drive us to the next part of the phrase, listen to him.

[25:55] This is what drives us to this. It drives us to make much of God, it drives us to have him be our exceeding joy, it drives us for him to be the one that we focus on, not ourselves.

[26:09] At least it should drive us that way. So, what's the essence of Christianity? We love Jesus the way the father loves Jesus.

[26:21] That's the essence of Christianity. And God delights in the fact that we delight ourselves in his son, and he delights in us because we are in union with his son, and delight ourselves in his son.

[26:33] So, it's going all over the place now. He loves his son, so pleased with his son, so pleased he resurrected his son, and he looks at you that way, Christian, follower of Jesus.

[26:55] So, direct your heart to the son for what he's done. Direct your heart to the son for who he is. Direct your heart to God's grace in and through the son.

[27:06] Direct your heart to God himself. May he be your exceeding joy. As you come to the table, to the Lord's Supper, let that be your focus.

[27:19] Let your heart be directed to the son. Let your heart be directed to God's grace. Let your heart be directed to God himself. Again, what's the point?

[27:34] Where am I going with this? May you have a deeper, richer joy in the Lord Jesus Christ because of this fact. God delights in you like he delights in his son.

[27:50] We'll celebrate the Lord's Supper. For all of you who know the Lord Jesus Christ, you may not be a member here, but if you come from a church of like faith and practice, been baptized by immersion, this is for you to celebrate with us.

[28:05] If you don't know Jesus, it's not for you. And if you have something that you've tried to reconcile with another Christian and you have not tried to reconcile with another Christian because there's problems, we also encourage you don't partake of the Lord's Supper.

[28:20] Wait, go reconcile. Try to make things right with them. And then come the next time to partake of the Lord's Supper. this is for us to celebrate the fact of who God is.

[28:34] We're going to celebrate God. He delights in us like he delights in his son. Let me take a moment and pray.

[28:54] Our Father, we are dumbfounded that you would delight in us. why would you even waste your time? And yet we are in union with your son and so you delight in us, you enjoy us.

[29:12] So as we take this time to celebrate the Lord's Supper, encourage us with this truth so that the shame and the guilt, fear can be taken away.

[29:36] If you would take a few moments between you and the Father and the Son, proclaim this gospel truth to yourself, examining your heart.

[29:50] we keep repenting and we keep trusting in Jesus. And after a few moments I'll ask the men to pass out the bread to us. But let this time be a time for you to relish in God.

[30:08] for your time.

[30:25]  So I'm going to really talk for you to mar Training and look at the Oh, what's in God you arellen And God you