Thou must have loved me first. Deuteronomy 7.7 is a glorious
description of the love of God. Why does he love? Why does he
love a particular people? Because he will. That's the only
explanation scripture gives of it, because he will. The Lord
did not set his love upon you nor choose you because you were
more in number than other people. For you were the fewest of all
people, but because the Lord loved you, and because he would
keep his oath. That's why he reveals himself
to his people. Thank you for reading those verses,
Simon. I love the pictures of marriage, as you know, and I
love the glory of that particular passage of scripture, and that's
what the Lord has. come to do is for him to be the
proclaimer of the gospel and he's the one who preaches the
gospel. If the gospel is going to be preached and the gospel
is going to be heard, then he must be the preacher. And we
have this treasure, which is him, in vessels of clay. And so this particular vessel
of clay is feeling pretty ordinary at the moment, but I'm trusting
there's a treasure. There's a treasure in the Word
of God. So turn with me to John Chapter 17. I've given you out
some printed out some copies of John 17 for you to take home
but also I'd love for them to be used as an opportunity for
witnessing to people they are. John 17 is just a glorious, glorious
passage of scripture and I pray that the Lord would allow us
to to enter into the beauty of it, to be captivated by the promises
of it, to be enthralled by the prospects of what is promised
here for his people into the future. It finishes with some
of the most glorious, glorious words. He says at the end of
this prayer, he says, Father, I will. John 17, 24, I will that
they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou
lovest me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father,
the world has not known thee, But I have known thee, and these
have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto
them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou
hast loved me may be in them. Remarkable promise. What a remarkable
prayer. The title of my message this
morning is found in John 17 verse 9. I pray for them. I pray for
them. How remarkable it is to be the
recipient I pray for them. There is a them
in this world that he's praying for and he makes it very clear
in the next phrase. He says, I pray not for the world
but for them which thou hast given me for they are thine and
all mine are thine and thine are mine and I am glorified in
them. What a glorious picture! It's
union with the Lord Jesus Christ. As Simon said out of Isaiah chapter
61, that picture of marriage is a picture of union, the two
becoming one flesh, the two being united. An eternal union, an
everlasting union, a union in His blood, a union in His life. a union in His resurrection,
a union in His exaltation, a union with Him as He is seated now
on Heaven's throne and rules everything in this world, a union
when He comes back, a union with Him on the Day of Judgement when
all of His people stand alongside Him and with Him and in Him,
and they have no sin, a union into the new creation forever
and ever. we have to declare, isn't it?
Our union with the Lord Jesus Christ is all of our salvation,
it's all of our hope of glory, it's all the desire. That was
all David's desire, wasn't it? The end of his life when he lay
on his pillow and he was dying and he knew that he was about
to meet God Almighty. And he knew that he was a sinner. And he says, my house is a mess. My house is a mess. Everything
about my house, whether that house is his personal flesh,
which was a mess and getting more and more messy, whether
that house was his own family which was in disarray, or whether
that house is the nation of Israel which was equally in disarray.
He says, even though my house be not so with God, yet, but,
he hath made with me an everlasting covenant. And I need to remind myself,
and I need to remind you, we think everlasting is something
that begins now and goes on forever. That's not everlasting. That's
limited, isn't it? Everlasting means that it had
no beginning, and it has no end, and we're living in it now. That's
everlasting, isn't it? It's not something that's out
there in the distant future that we get to later on when we leave
here. Everlasting is everlasting according to the scriptures.
He's made with me. Not that I'm made with him. Not
like the law that was made of Moses. He's made with me an everlasting
covenant. He's made it. Don't you aren't
you thankful even John 17 we are reading the terms of this
covenant as the Lord prays for his people before he goes to
the cross of Calvary and seals that covenant on this earth with
his blood. He's made with me an everlasting
covenant and it's ordered in all things and sure And he says, this is all my salvation. All of my salvation. All of my
salvation. It's like all of David's salvation.
It's all tied up in what the Lord Jesus Christ has done and
what he did a long, long time ago. And he says, it's all my
desire. It's all my desire. And then
he says, although we make it not to grow. Why doesn't he make
it to grow? There's absolutely no need for
something which is an eternal everlasting covenant to be changed
in any way at all. Aren't you thankful that it doesn't
grow? Aren't you thankful that it doesn't diminish? Aren't you
thankful that it's ordered and sure and set? This is why God's children like
David and like Abraham just rejoice to declare the eternal things
of God Almighty which is what this prayer is so so so instructive
in isn't it How precious are the prayers of our mediator. How precious are his prayers
for us. The Lord was a man of prayer. How precious that they
must be heard. He says, I've always been heard.
My father hears me always. He's in constant communication
with his father and he's always heard. How precious that he continues
to intercede for his own in heaven right now. You can read about
it in Romans 8. How precious the place where he now intercedes. How precious the wounds he now
bears as he intercedes. How blessed the saints of God
must be to see him praying now, interceding now. Precious they
must be in awe. Obviously this is a remarkable
encouragement for us to pray and the children of God are people
of prayer. But what an encouragement for
us to pray in the words that the Lord Jesus Christ prayed
and in the terms and for the things for which he prayed. Let's
go back to the beginning of this remarkable chapter of scripture
and read what he says. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven. He lifted up his eyes to heaven.
When the people of God pray, they bow themselves to the ground.
He can lift up his eyes to heaven. And he said, Father, the hour
has come, glorify thy son, that thy son may glorify thee. The
first point of his prayer, isn't it, is the glory of God. The
first thing is the glory of God, that thy son may glorify thee.
He then speaks of the fact that he's an absolute sovereign. It's
the glory of his absolute sovereignty. He's got power over all flesh,
over all humanity, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. And then he describes what eternal
life is. It's really simple, isn't it?
This is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true
God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee
on the earth, I have finished the work which Thou gavest me
to do. And now, O Father, glorify Thou
me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee
before the world was. And then on the basis of that,
What an order of prayer. What a particular thing to pray
for. We're not praying to a God who tries and fails. We're not
praying to a God who offers salvation. We're praying to a God who saves. We're praying to a God who has
power over all flesh. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we
prayed to have power over our flesh? Thankfully he does. Listen
to what he goes on to say as he begins speaking about his
apostles. In John 17 verse 6 he says, I
have manifested thy name. In the fall of Adam we lost sight
of who God was entirely. Under the influence of Satan
and his words and his enticing words, we lost all knowledge
of God. The people of this world don't
have the foggiest notion of who God is. Not the foggiest notion
of who God is. Otherwise they wouldn't be filled
with so much idolatry and imagery of him. He's revealed. Listen to what he says, I have
manifested. He's revealed and he's made known
what was hidden. He's manifested the name, he's
manifested the character of God unto the men which thou gavest
me out of the world. This is his work that he's finished,
isn't it? 9. Thine they were, and thou
gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. 10. Now they have
known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee,
and I have given them the words which thou gavest me. The Lord Jesus Christ gives his
words to a particular group of people in this world, and they
receive them as the Word of God. Listen to what he says. When
he gives them, he says, and they have received them, and they
have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have
believed the result of this work of manifesting the glorious name
of the Father, the glory of Him revealing the words, giving His
people the words, and giving them in such a way that they
know that they're the words of God, they receive, they know
surely, they have believed. That's His work, that's His promise. Wouldn't it be wonderful for
us to pray in those terms? I love what David said when David
was given those remarkable promises, those remarkable promises in
2 Samuel chapter 7. And he turns to the Lord in prayer
and says, Lord, do as you have said. Isn't that wonderful? Lord, honour your word amongst
me. Just do as you have said. So
that brings us to this prayer. I have prayed for them. I pray for them. I pray for them. James says that the fervent,
the effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth
much. fervent prayer of a righteous
man, isn't it? It avails much because all of
these things that I have just read are promises from God. They're
just statements of fact about His work in the hearts of His
people. I pray for them, the Lord prays
for His own. He just prays for them. He says,
there is a vast number in this world A number which cannot be
numbered when they're all gathered finally in heaven. A huge multitude. The victory of the Lord Jesus
Christ will be evidently magnificent. But he's praying for them. He's
praying for them. He prays for these. These that the Father gave him. Six times in John's gospel, he
says, as many as thou has given him. The Lord doesn't waste his prayers,
nor his words, nor his work, nor his efforts. He says, I pray
for them. That's one of my prayers for
us today, that we would just be so thankful for his prayers,
that we would be just rejoicing that God Almighty in human flesh
prays for us, prays for us. Right now he's interceding for
us. He says, I pray for them, I pray about them, is what that
word means, I pray concerning them, I pray on account of them,
and I pray because of them. Our God is infinite. I love Psalm 137 verse 5. It
says, Great is our Lord and of great power, and then listen
to this, His understanding is infinite. In the infinite mind
of our great God and Saviour, He knows precisely every single
one for whom He prays. He knows their names. John 10
says that He calls their names individually. He has a name for
all the stars. You go out there on a clear night
and just look up at the sky and be amazed and be blown away by
the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has a name for every single
one of them. We don't even know how many there
are. Each time we look and get a better telescope, we find more
of them. And the numbers have just got so many zeros on them,
they don't mean anything to anyone anymore. And he has a name for
every single one of them. He put every single one of them
exactly where it is, twinkling exactly as it does, those twinkles
reaching us exactly at the right time we're looking out at them.
Look, the heavens declare the glory of God. Do you think he
has a problem knowing every single one of his sheep, every tiny
member of his body? Do you think he has a problem
knowing all the circumstances of your life, everything that
you've been through, everything that you're going through, everything
that you will go through, all the And he loves. I want you to be
reminded there's not a single mention in John 17 of sin. He is now in the midst of his
elect. These apostles, these 11 apostles,
are representative of all of his elect. And there's not a
mention of their sins, and their sins were grievous previously
that night, and later this night they're going to be particularly
grievous. Evident sins to them, but the Lord Jesus Christ makes
no mention of their sin. Why is that? Because they're
gone. They don't exist. That's what
justification is. God's children have never sinned
before him. And God's children are the only
people in this world who own themselves to be sinners. And
all of our sins were carried by the Lord Jesus Christ. He
bore them in his body, and he bore them in Calvary's tree,
and they're borne away. Sinners love to think of a Saviour
praying for them. What's a sinner? Who are sinners? Are there any sinners here today?
Let me read two verses which give a very clear description,
and I don't want you to say anything to yourself or anyone else, but
I just want you to think about this and come before God. God
saw, Genesis 6, 5, that the wickedness of man was great in the earth,
and listen to this, is this a description of you? Don't tell me about it,
you talk to God about it. that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Does that describe you? If you're a sinner like that,
you'll rejoice in a Saviour who prays for you. There's one other
verse that I would like you to ponder, and may the Lord cause
us to see. Are you a sinner like God describes
sinners in Romans chapter 2? He says, Therefore thou art inexcusable,
O man, whosoever thou art that judges. You've judged other people. I do it all the time. We look
at other people and we make assessments of them. Good, bad, indifferent,
wrong all the time. And we always judge on the basis
of our own righteousness because we have the right to do it. But
listen to what God says about those who judge other people.
You are inexcusable, O man, thou that judgest, whosoever thou
art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest another,
in every single instance where you have judged another human
being, Thou condemnest thyself, listen to what this goes on to
say, for thou that judgest doest the same things. Every time you
have judged, you're condemned because you're condemning something
in them that you do yourself. Can you own that? Sinners love a Saviour. Only sinners love a Saviour. He prays for them. How we need
prayer if you're a sinner. How much you need the intercession. How much we need the blood of
the Lord Jesus Christ to cover us. I pray not for the world. I want to briefly describe what
the world is, but I want us to do it in the context of John
chapter 17. He says, I just want to read
a few verses. He says in John, just read John
17, 14 with me. He says, I have given them thy
word. The word that the people of God
receive and know surely and believe, I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them. That's the world that he's not
praying for. The world has many descriptions in John's Gospel.
You can read about them and study them and you'll see that there
are times when he's talking about this world as just a great big
place. A great big place to store a
lot of books at the end of John's Gospel. He says, now I'm no more
in the world. He's no longer in this realm
of this creation. He says, the world hates them.
The world hates them that have the word of God given to them. We've experienced that, my friends,
haven't we? I don't like being hated. but
the word of God will stand and his promises will be fulfilled.
He says, because they are not of the world, even as I am not
of the world. John 17, 16, they are not of
the world, even as I am not of the world. John 17, 25, our righteous
father, the world has not known thee. The world is completely
ignorant of who God is. They are not of the world, John
17, 16 and 14. That word of means origin. The
children of God have an origin, according to God Almighty, before
the foundation of the world, in the covenant promise and gift
of God the Father to the Son. How infinite is his mind? Did
he know all of them? Do you reckon he did? His knowledge is infinite, he
knows them all. They had an origin, they had
a reality in the mind of God before the foundation of the
world. And he says, even as I'm not
of the world, in the same way that he's not of the world, That's
why he came into this world sent by his father. He had an existence
before he came. He entered into a covenant before
he came. He entered into a suretyship
engagement. He promised the father that I
will be fully responsible for returning every single one of
these ones you've given me, and they will return to you holy
and unblameable and unreprovable, and they will be perfect. Not
because of what they have done, but because what I have done.
And that's what manifesting his name is about, isn't it? When
the Lord Jesus Christ promised to manifest the name of God and
give the words of God, he's giving the words about the eternal covenant
of grace in his blood to his people and they rejoice. He rejoices in those things and
he finds glory in those extraordinary events from before the foundation
of the world. He's not praying for them. I
love that he does pray. Don't you love that? He says,
Peter, I've prayed for you. Satan wants to sift you like
wheat, and if Satan gets permission to sift you, you'll be shaken
up in a way which is just mind-boggling to us in ways that we never ever
possibly imagined. Lead us not to temptation is
the cry of the child of God. on behalf of others. It's interesting
in that Lord's Prayer it's always us. Lead us not into temptation. Why? Every time you're tempted
you're full. He prays for these. Why does
he pray for them? He gives us the answer in the
next verse, doesn't he? No, in this particular verse.
He says they're yours. He prays for them because they're
the fathers. They belong to the fathers. And
he prays for them because they're all his. They are each individually
named and loved and kept by God the Father. All mine is thine. All mine. Isn't it a simple, simple description?
This is my phone. It's mine because I went down
to a shop. And I exchanged my hard labor into cash and gave
the people the money, and it's mine. It's mine, isn't it? It's mine, even if you steal
it from me. It's mine, even if it's lost,
isn't it? It's still mine, isn't it? property of the one I bought
it from. You're not your own. You've been
bought with a price. We belong to Him. We do belong
to Him. It's mine because I hold it in
my possession. I have it. This is what He's saying. They're
mine. I have them. They're mine. Isn't that lovely? I'll be your God and they'll
be my people. My people. Thine as a possession. He has the right of ownership. He has the right of rule. He
has the power over all flesh to do as he pleases. They are
held in joint ownership. That's why, he says, that doesn't
mean mine. They're mine. They're mine and
they're thine. That's why he prays for them. How do God's children respond
to that? Lord, I come and I keep coming. Lord, hold me tight to yourself. Embrace me Lord, fulfil your word of promise
to me. Lord, will you keep manifesting
your name to me? I forget your name all the time. I look at myself and internally
I look into myself and I forget your name. I look at this world
and I forget that you're absolutely sovereign. Help me. Help me, Heavenly Father. If I'm in union with Him and
you're in union with Him, then we're united to one another.
If we've been drawn, I keep repeating that verse out of Ephesians chapter
2, isn't it? But now in Christ Jesus. ye who were sometimes afar off. We're as far off as we could
possibly be. When you think of this congregation,
we think of our congregations throughout the world, we're as
far off in terms of our history and where we've come from and
all of our origins. We're far off and we are far
off from God, scattered and wandering and doing what Adam did, hiding
in the garden, trying to work out a righteousness of our own
by our own. hands. You are far off. Listen to what his promise is.
You are made nigh. You are made near. I want to be near to my brothers
and sisters in Christ. I want to be near to them. I
want to be dear to them. Lord manifest your name. Give
me your words. Make your words real to me. Cause
me to receive them. Cause me to believe them. And
how are we made nigh? By the blood of the cross. That's what we're made nigh.
We get close enough to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, we'll
forget about all the pettiness of our lives and the pettiness
of our desires. And we'll be sprinkled in his
blood and we'll gaze upon the one whom we pierced and we'll
weep because we've been brought nigh. I love what he says, you're made
nigh. We have a covenant that the Lord
Jesus Christ is praying in the terms of that glorious covenant
and the glorious words of that covenant is always I will and They shall. Who originates all
the glory of this word? I will. They shall. They shall have my name manifest
to them in my words. May the Lord bless and add his
blessing to those words.