Last time I was here speaking
we looked at the righteousness of God. Eternal life, according to the
Lord Jesus Christ in John 17.3, is to know God. This is life
eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. To know God, and that word knowledge
so much in the scriptures, involves notions of intimacy and notions
of love. It's not just knowing about Him,
it's being in a love relationship with Him. But let's turn to verse
25 and let's look at what the Lord here brings to our attention
today, and may He be the teacher. He says, O righteous Father,
the world hath not known Thee, but I have known Thee, and these
have known that Thou hast sent Me. I want to look at what it
is for the world to live in active opposition to God Almighty. The world hath not known thee. It's an active, active activity
of this world. I love how extraordinarily comprehensive
John 17 is. I've loved studying it, I've
loved reading it, I've loved meditating on it, I've loved
how it is so comprehensive. It speaks of the glory of God. It speaks of what was going on
before the world began. There was a union, there was
a communion between God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy
Spirit before the world began. This prayer spans all of time. And we know what God was doing
before there was a twinkling star. We know that there was
a glory that they had, a glory in union, a glory in communion,
a glory in love. We know that there was a covenant
entered into before the world began, that there was a promise
made, there were a people given by God the Father into the hands
of the Lord Jesus Christ as the surety, the one who was fully
responsible for them, fully responsible to bring them back into union
and communion with God Almighty, to live and to dwell with Him.
We know that there is a God who has a purpose in all things.
that this creation is not a random set of events. This creation
is a creation that is going and is ordered and all things are
ordered exactly as our God declares them to be. This prayer speaks of all humanity. All humanity is laid out here
before the all-seeing God. It speaks of the power given
to the Lord Jesus Christ to exercise everything to do with His covenant.
Don't you love verse 2, isn't it? Thou has given him power
over all flesh. It's a pretty simple statement,
isn't it? But how profound is it? He has
power over all flesh. Thank God that he has power over
the flesh of his people. He says, they will be willing,
my people shall be willing in the day of my power. When he
exercises his power, his people are made willing. His people
come, his people bow. His people come in love, they
come in repentance, they come in faith. But they come because
he exercises all power. Don't you love that? Why are
we here today? because he has exercised all
power. Why aren't we in other places where all sorts of things
are being said about God which are contrary to John Chapter
17? If you hear such a comprehensive prayer, I often think of how
wonderful Paul's prayer for the Ephesians was and how comprehensive
it was. If you turn with me to Ephesians
Chapter 3, it's lovely to be in prayer with the praying people
in the Scriptures. But Paul's prayer is similarly
comprehensive and it speaks in such extraordinary ways, isn't
it? He says, for this cause, let's begin in
verse 1 because it's so beautiful. For this cause, I, Paul, the
prisoner of Jesus Christ, God has exercised a power over all
flesh, including the apostle Paul's flesh. The prisoner of
Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation
of the grace of God which was given me to you would, how that
by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote in
a few words, whereby when you read you may understand my knowledge
in the mystery of Christ. which in other ages was not made
known to the sons of men, as it is now revealed under his
holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles
should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of his
promise in Christ by the gospel. Whereof I was made a minister. Paul didn't put himself in the
ministry. No one puts themselves in the ministry. God puts his
people in the ministry. He makes them ministers. According
to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual
working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the
least of all saints, this grace is given, that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make
all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery. which from the
beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things
by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now, unto the principalities
and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church
the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which
he purposed in Christ Jesus. and the Lord's Prayer in John
17 have so many similar markings, haven't they? In whom, in whom
we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him. What's our reason for coming
into His presence with boldness and confidence? Because He's
faithful and He's done it all. God for his faithfulness. Whereof,
wherefore, I desire that you faint not at my tribulations
for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees
under the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole
family in heaven and earth is named. that he would grant you,
according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with
might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in
your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded in
love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the
breadth and length and depth and height, and to know the love
of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with
all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to
do, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according
to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the
church, by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Paul's prayer speaks, as the
Lord's prayer in John 17 does, what is the breadth? The breadth
and the length and the depth and the height. It's the breadth.
It covers all the events of all people. The length, it goes from
eternity past, for want of a better word, into eternity future. The
depth, the foundation is on that rock, on that covenant God, as
deep as God and eternal, and love as deep and secure as God. The height, the glory of God
is the destiny of all of his people. The glory of God revealed,
the glory of God given, the glory of God shared. and to know the
love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be
filled with all the fullness of God. Our God is revealed in the Lord
Jesus Christ, and our God in his and grace and mercy has granted
for some of these people to know Him and to love Him. And in righteousness He has left
others to not know Him. O righteous Father, the world
hath not known Thee. If you know God, it's an act
of His righteousness. For the people who do not know
God, this verse says that they are active in their rebellion
and their rejection of Him, and God is righteous. You might hear, as I have heard
so often, that I find it hard, as someone wrote to me a while
ago, I find it hard to love a God, as I know that all the suffering
and all the evil in this world is ultimately His responsibility. This verse says, please, please,
please don't say that. And please bow. Our God is righteous. He's righteous. He's righteous. Essentially, it's His righteousness
is essential to His very character. He's righteous eternally. His
righteousness is the habitation of His throne. He's righteous
in His decrees. He's righteous in His covenant
of grace and love. His blood is righteous blood.
He's righteous in His mercy. He's righteous in giving a bride
to His Son. He's righteous in all of the
surety ships, the covenant engagement that Christ made to bring her
back. Everything He does is going to
be righteous. All of it is going to be righteous.
He's righteous in all His promises written in Scripture. He's righteous
in His coming. He's righteous in all the acts
of His holy heart. He's righteous in hiding and
he's righteous in revealing as he sees fit. And what he does
is righteous. So this is such an important
prayer, isn't it, that the Lord Jesus Christ prays here because
it puts an end, I trust in the hearts of all of God's children,
it puts an end to that argument that Paul brings so clearly in
Romans 9. If God is absolutely sovereign
and he's in charge of everything, how on earth can I be held responsible
for what I do? That's the argument of Romans
9, and the answer in Romans 9, you can go and read it at your
leisure, but the answer in Romans 9 is a wonderful answer, isn't
it? Who are you, O man, that replies against God? Shall the thin form say to him
that formeth, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter
Power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honour and another unto dishonour. This passage of Romans 9 begins
in verse 14. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? Is it unrighteous of God to say
that He loves Jacob and He hates Esau? is not unrighteous and
that's what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying here in his prayer,
isn't it? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on him, I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on him, I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. For the scripture saith unto
Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I
might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared.
throughout all the earth. Therefore he have mercy on whom
you'll have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth." I no doubt
have told you the story before, but I came back from India and
was asked to do a Bible study in one of the home groups in
the church that we belonged to in those days, and I thought
I'll just read Romans 9 with very, very little comment. And
I read Romans 9 slowly, quietly, as clearly as I possibly could. And one of the men in the Bible
study immediately remarked as soon as I finished, that is not
the God that we have preached in our church. That is a different
God. And he was right. We have to encounter, and we
ought to be so thankful that the Lord does it in this glorious
high priestly prayer, we are encountered with the fact of
God's reprobation, God leaving people in the hardness of their
hearts. And that man, like a multitude
of others that I have spoken to over the years, went on in
his religion, and stay in his religion. And I keep thinking,
I hear people say things and you think, when is that going
to come into their hearts with a conviction that just causes
them to bow to God Almighty? One of the things I really love
about traveling is that you have all of these random meetings
with people and I had a I had more this trip than I've had
on some of the other trips, and I've had long taxi drives. I had a long taxi ride in Los
Angeles the afternoon I arrived, and the fellow had his crucifix
up on his thing, and he was happy to talk about God. And we talked for 45 minutes,
and we talked about the nature of God and the character of God.
I talked about some of the things in John chapter 17 and he was
absolutely stunned. And he asked me, he said, can
you send me some messages? And so I got his number and I
sent him a whole stack of messages. I think I sent him six or eight
different messages and then I wrote to him. pleading with him to
think. He said, I need to go back and
talk to my priest about this. And I said, you don't need to
go and talk to your priest. You need to go and talk to God Almighty.
You need to go and deal with Him. But I keep thinking when
I've had these conversations, I've had several more on long
trips in Orlando and other places, and you keep thinking that that
conversation just disappears into the ether, into sort of
endless sort of history of the interactions of mankind in this
world, but not in God's presence. And I keep wondering when these
people come to me and say, well, I need to hear more about that.
That's nothing like the God I heard about. I read scriptures to him
and he was absolutely horrified. He said, why wasn't I ever told
this? Why hasn't my priest told me this? And there's a very simple
reason. His priest doesn't know God and
his priest doesn't want him to know God. When it comes to this issue that
the Lord raises here for us. We just are confronted with the
fact of the depravity of man and the depth of the fall of
man. And the Lord summarises it in John chapter 3 verse 19,
this is the condemnation, this is the crisis, this is the judgement,
that light has come into the world and men loved darkness
rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds
should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh
to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they
are wrought in God. If someone comes to the light,
it is the work of God Almighty. Be thankful. When we see the
depth of the depravity of mankind around us and we see the depth
of the lostness of people in religion, it's extraordinary
how merciful God has been to his remnant people in this world. There is just one God. There is one glorious, righteous,
holy God. The world that he speaks of here
is the world that he has told us about in many other parts
of this particular prayer. In John 17 verse 9, it's a shocking
verse to so many people, isn't it? I pray for them, I pray not
for the world. The world here is the unbelieving,
the non-elect. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Verse
14, I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them. Why do they hate the children
of God? Because God has given them his
word. The word made flesh, the word
revealed. In verse 15, he says, I pray
not that thou should take them out of the world, but thou should
keep them from the evil one. This evil one who rules over
this world under the sovereign hand of God Almighty, the evil
which is in them to which they're enslaved, the evil nature they
acquired at the fall. In verse 16, he goes on to say,
these ones that you give me, they are not of the world. Their
origin is not of the world. even as I am not of the world. We've got to remember that the
Lord Jesus Christ here is speaking about a religious world. He's not speaking about what
we see as the pagan, immoral world out there. He's talking
about the greatest immorality and the greatest darkness in
this world, and that's the darkness of religion. The darkness of
false religion. And throughout the Old Testament
scriptures they are warned again and again and again the people
of Israel. Psalm 81 verse 11 says, But my
people would not hearken to my voice, and Israel would none
of me. And what's the end result? So
I gave them up under their own hearts' lusts, and they walked
in their own counsel. The wicked, through the pride
of his countenance, will not seek after God. God is not all
in his thoughts. The world hath not known me. It's an active not knowing. It's an active turning from the
light. You know those verses in Romans 1. It's a great description
of this world, isn't it? We think the world is ignorant
and we think the world has an excuse. Listen to what God says
in verse 18. They are suppressing the truth
in unrighteousness all of the time. It's like being in a swim swimming pool and having three
soccer balls, isn't it? You're trying to keep them down
all the time, they keep popping up. God keeps revealing something
of himself in creation, not enough to save people but enough to
cause them to know that there is a God. And what do they do?
They suppress it and they suppress it and they suppress it. Listen
to what he goes on to say. They hold the truth in unrighteousness,
because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for
God hath showed it unto them. Did he show it unto them? He
says he did. They're holding it down in unrighteousness. For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse. Because that, when they knew
God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful, but
became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible
God into an image made like unto corruptible man, unto birds,
and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore, listen to
what God says. Wherefore, as a result of this,
God gave them up. God gave them over. God, righteous God, left them. Three times there in the rest
of that passage of scripture he talks about how he gave them
up. Then the Lord Jesus Christ is saying, O righteous Father,
the world, in its active unbelief, has not known you. He's not making
an excuse. He's making a statement of fact
and a lived reality. It's an evidence of a crime against
light, against holiness, against righteousness. It's a crime against
God Almighty committed in His state. It is a state from which
nothing within a man can remedy it. That's why you would think
the simplest word that you could ever explain out of the scriptures
was what it is to be dead. Spiritually dead. Dead to God. Unable to see how glorious he
is. Unable to hear how wonderful
he is. Unable to taste and see and feel. Dead. Dead. And yet, mankind
thinks that the solution must be that man needs more information,
man needs more knowledge, man needs more of whatever it might
be. This state of these people is
a salutary reminder to us that salvation is all of grace and
entirely of grace and we need to be thankful to our God. This
is a righteous activity of God to leave these people in this
state. You've got to remember that these
people we're speaking of here, that he's speaking of here, are
the people who had seen three and a half years of the most
extraordinary activities of God Almighty. They had seen prophecy
after prophecy, hundreds of prophecies fulfilled. They had seen God
Almighty in human flesh standing in their midst, claiming to be
God Almighty, doing the things that only God Almighty can do.
They had seen Him throughout those three and a half years
as an agent of the most remarkable mercy. He went to the outcasts
and the lepers and the hearts and the helpless and the hopeless
and the miserable. and those in need, and he showed
the most extraordinary grace and love to every single one
of them. And yet, to the religious leaders, all of what they did
caused them to hate him even more. Religion, God is righteous. and man is responsible for his
sin and his unbelief. God is righteous in leaving people
in their sins. It's right for God to leave men
to their own wills, and they do exactly as they wish, and
God does them no injustice whatsoever. Mankind is neither innocent nor
ignorant. and his man-made religion does
absolutely nothing to help him whatsoever. In fact, it just
adds to the darkness. We know that we are of God and
the whole world lies in wickedness. 1 John 5.19, and we know that the
Son of God is coming and given us an understanding that we may
know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even
in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. And these men, these religious
men, as the religious people throughout the ages have done,
they'd rather defend their own righteousness than come and bow
and adore He who is all of mercy and all of grace. Mankind goes
about to establish his own righteousness. The Lord here is simply declaring
that it is a righteous thing for God to leave them, just as
it is a righteous thing for God to reveal himself to his own.
God is holy, God is righteous, God is true. He leaves men in
the sins that they love, John 3.19, and he does no injustice
to them in leaving them that. We are, as the Lord told Nicodemus,
flesh gives birth to flesh. Mankind can never rise above
what it is his nature to be. A fish can swim in the sea all
day long, but it can't fly to the mountains. Man needs a saviour,
and we have a glorious, glorious saviour in our great and glorious
Lord Jesus Christ. God is righteous. God is righteous. Just in this
last five minutes I just want us to turn to a parable that
the Lord spoke in both Matthew's gospel and in Luke's gospel.
If you turn with me to Matthew chapter 11. The Lord, if you read the rest
of this chapter when you have opportunity when you go home,
you will see that the Lord Jesus Christ is talking about the revelation
of John the Baptist's coming and the revelation of his and
John the Baptist's work and the judgment that falls upon the
cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida where the Lord Jesus Christ had
done many miracles. And he says that people are better
off in Sodom and Gomorrah than they were in the towns where
the Lord Jesus Christ performed His miracles. That's an extraordinary
thing to think of, isn't it? That on the Day of Judgment the
people of Sodom, in all of their wickedness, in all of their evil,
are going to be worse off than the people who hear the gospel
and have the gospel witnessed to them. It's more tolerable. Then he says in verse 25, I just
want to look at this very briefly. At that time Jesus answered and
said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hath
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, so it seemed
good in thy sight. God is righteous. God is righteous. So there are three people spoken
of here, aren't there? There's the wise and the prudent,
and there are the babes. The wise that he's speaking about
here are the religiously wise. The religiously wise are those
that we see around us in multitudes of different forms throughout
this world, where they want to introduce worldly wisdom into
the things of God and to bring human reasoning to bear on God's
truth. They want to stand in judgment
using their wisdom and their intellect. Stand in judgment
of God Almighty. From these people God hides divine
realities. And the prudent, a prudent person
is one who steers a path most consistent with his worldly interests. He's moderate. He wants to keep
saying, surely we can agree on all the fundamentals. Let's not
take this too seriously. Let's not be divisive. Let's
not stand separate from all these people. Surely they're all sincere
and good and we can all have fellowship together. Isn't it
wonderful when all the so-called Christians all gather together,
the Catholics and the Anglicans and the Presbyterians and the
Pentecostals. We all join hands together and
we can march down the broad road and everything's fine. and I
won't have any problem at all, and no one will persecute me.
I was told by a pastor some years ago, I can worship God in any
church in this town. You have no right to be separated
from all of them. He's prudent. Everyone's spoken
well of him. They have ever since that time. He finds a way to preserve himself
from persecution and finds his way to preserve himself from
contempt, keeping his good opinion of himself in the eyes of the
people of religion. That's a prudent man, isn't it?
So a wise man uses worldly wisdom to achieve the things of God
Almighty. A prudent man steers a path where there is no serious
conflict. God hides these things. He says,
I thank thee. In Luke's account, he rejoices
that these things are hidden. And you have revealed them unto
babes. What's a babe? A babe is someone who is dependent.
A babe is someone who is helpless. A babe is someone who is in need
of everything. He's in need of grace and mercy.
A babe is someone who is teachable. A babe is someone who just says,
Amen, when you speak. Abraham was a babe, wasn't he? When God said, you're 99 years
old and your wife is 90. She's long past menopause and
you're too jolly old. Next year, I'm coming back and
you're gonna have a baby. Abraham, as a babe, said, he
laughed with joy. My God can do that. My God can
do that. He's a babe, isn't he? He believed. He believed when the only evidence
was the word of God. Nothing added, nothing else needed. You say the word and it will
be done. He's revealed these things unto
babes. There are things hidden. What are the things that are
hidden? Well, firstly, all the things that the babe rejoices
in. Doesn't it? They're the things
that are hidden, aren't they? The babe just rejoices in intimacy. Babies are designed for love
and for cuddling. Babies are designed for nurturing,
aren't they? You just want to hold them in
your arms. Babies are designed to be protected by their families.
There are things hidden. There are things hidden, there
is, just the reality of who God is, is hidden from the wise and
prudent. I've had a number of people tell
me lately how much they love John chapter 17, and yet if you
challenge them and ask them about the character of God revealed
in John chapter 17, say, no, I won't have that God rule over
me, but I love John 17, it's really nice. This is an extraordinary
deep and profound prayer, isn't it? There are things hidden from
the wise and prudent. There is a fear of God, a reverence
for God as he is, that he has the right as a righteous God
to hide himself and he has the right as a righteous God to reveal
himself. We're in his hands and he's not
in ours and he has the right as the potter to do as he likes
with the lump of clay. There is hidden from these people
the three fundamental things, isn't it? There's hidden from
them the nature of what they really are as fallen sons of
Adam. It's hidden from them that they
are sinners, real sinners. It's hidden from them the holiness
of God and the holiness and the spirituality of his law. And
it's hidden from them the saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ
on the cross of Calvary. so many things are hidden everything
that the babe needs is given everything that the babe has
he has in and that's hidden from them.
They just don't know God. They don't know God, and it is
their responsibility, and God is absolutely righteous. God
beholdeth the proud afar off, and he taketh the wise in their
own craftiness. He's hidden from these people
the power of his word as it comes into the hearts of his people
with the truth that convicts them. This is true and everything
opposed to it is false in every way possible. Not just false,
if it's a lie, it's a demonic lie. God's children run like a little
child into the arms of a father. The wise in this world, the religiously
wise, always seem to know more than the babe. You've been in
the presence of religiously astute and intellectual people and you
feel inadequate in their presence, don't you? You think, dear, I
don't want to debate with that person, he knows so much more
than I do. Look at all the letters after his name and all the Greek
and Hebrew and all the history. The prudent seem always, the
wives seem to know more, the prudent always seem to be more
successful than the babe. They'll tell you of all the things
that they've done. They'll tell you of the triumphs
that they've had in religion, the great numbers, the esteem
of many, the many on their path that tell them and applaud them
as they go on in their religion. The kingdom of God is not in
word, but in power. And the kingdom of God stands
not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 1 Corinthians
2.5. What's revealed to the babes?
It's a who that is revealed. The babe cries out, God be merciful
to me. I am in my helplessness, here
I am in my ignorance, my nothingness, my sinfulness, the pollution
I am. The babe looks up to the table
and says, might there just be another crumb that might fall
into my lap? Might I just have more time in
your presence, glorying in who you are? May the Lord make us
babes. May he protect us from being
wise and prudent and protect us from the religion of the wise
and prudent. Amen.