Let's begin our prayer meeting
with prayer. Almighty God, the creator and
sustainer of heaven and earth, we bow before thee once more
at the throne of grace. We thank Thee, Lord, for the
way of prayer that has been given to us through Thy beloved Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank Thee that we can enter
into Thy presence and we thank Thee, O Lord, that Thou art the
true and the living God, that Thou art able to hear and to
see and to answer our distresses and our petitions. and that thou
are able to do far more than we can ask or think and we've
come before thee once again to worship thee and we would ask
Lord that thou would teach us how to pray that Thou art to
enable us to worship Thee in spirit and in truth and to receive
our praise through Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that
the brothers may be helped in prayer, that we may be granted
freedom and liberty to enter into Thy presence. And we pray,
Lord, that we may be knit together in the unity of the spirit and
the bond of peace and that we may being able to witness the
answers to our petitions and to know that we indeed have a
Father who art in heaven. Do draw near to us now we pray,
enable us to sing thy praises as we ask it in the name of thy
beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Our first hymn this evening is
from Hymns for Worship, hymn number 54 to the tune 124. There is a name I love to hear,
I love to sing its worth. It sounds like music in my ear,
the sweetest name on earth. Hymn 54 to the tune 124. I love to hear, I love to sing
it well. It sounds like music in my ear,
the sweetest flavor. It tells me of a Savior's love,
who died to set me free. It fills my trembling soul with
joy, and drives me, drives me, drives me onward. me in a still, strong voice to
trust and never fear. Jesus, the name I love so well,
the name I love to hear, as saints on earth before can tell, ? Of life's holy rock ? ? As we
descend the flooded hill at its peak above us ? I'd like us to turn together
in God's word to the Gospel according to John and chapter 17. The Gospel according to John
and chapter 17. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son
also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him. And 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. I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given
unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received
them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they
have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them. 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. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine
own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one
as we are. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou gavest me I have
kept, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition that
the scripture might be fulfilled. And now come I to thee. and these
things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. I have given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them
from the evil. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth,
thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for
their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word,
that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world
may believe that thou hast sent me, and the glory which thou
gavest me I have given them, that they may be one, even as
we are one, I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made
perfect in one, and that the world may know that thou hast
sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, 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 lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous
Father, the world hath 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 wherein
thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. May the Lord add his blessing
to the reading of his word. May we be helped together this
evening to consider verse three. And this is life eternal. that
they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent. which is a very wonderful prayer
in the scripture. We know there are many prayers
that are written in the scriptures, but this is the only one which
we can say we know fully comes from the Word of God, which is
the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the prayer of the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to his Father, before he was
going into the Garden of Gethsemane and before he was to be judged
and crucified for the sins of his people. lays out some very deep truths
in this prayer, particularly about those who are his people,
those who had been given to him before the foundation of the
world, even reveals to us that he was with the Father before
the foundation of the world, that he was, and that is what
he desired, that his church would see his glory, the glory which
he had before the foundation of the world. And what I really
loved about this prayer is we know that, out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speaks. And what we have written down
is the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ concerning his Father,
his work, and his people. That he has a complete delight
and love in the Father. He has a complete delight and
love in his people. And he desires that they may
be one. As we know, it's one church knit
together in the unity of the spirit as the father and son
are one and that they are one in that church, in that group
of people. And so it represents that love
that Christ has for his people and also the love that the church
should have for him, for God and for each other. And he begins in verse 2. He says that he is to give eternal
life to as many as the Father has given to him. The Lord Jesus
Christ came into this world as we know to do a work. His life was to live in complete
obedience to the Father, to obey the whole law of God and to satisfy
the justice of God that he might save a people from the consequences
of their sins and to save a people for himself and to give to them
eternal life. We know by our nature we are
facing away from God. We are in the darkness and we
have no desire to seek after God. And so God in his mercy
created a way of salvation to bring people to himself. And one of the great blessings
of salvation is that that person is blessed with eternal life. And not only eternal life but
the great privilege of knowing God. The scripture tells us that
by our nature we are at war against God. And God in his mercy turns
us to himself and establishes a relationship between the sinner
and himself through his beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he gives them this eternal life and he says, and this is eternal
life, that they may know thee, the only true God. What a privilege
that is. that someone who was an enemy
of God can be made a friend of God and not only a friend of
God but a close friend of God. For the word know doesn't just
mean to know about. There are many people aren't
there that we know about that we may call them our acquaintances
or our mates. We don't have too much to do
with them but we know them. But there is a deeper friendship
to be had. There are those friendships that
we have where we know each other like a husband and wife. It is
a close bond. And it is the same with God.
This is what Christ has done for his people. He has created
a relationship that is a close bond, that they may know God
in an intimate and personal way. And that is the gift that has
been given. Not only can we know God, but
also we can know the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of the world and
how much effort they put into meeting those people that they
deem as famous. Pop stars, football players,
other celebrities. and they are so pleased when
they can get close or so pleased when they can see them and experience
them singing live and maybe get their autograph. It fills them
with joy yet it's just a one time meeting and yet it fills
them with delight. But think of the greater joy
that can be had for the believer who not only is he enabled to
meet with God once He's enabled to have free access to God, to
be a friend of God, to approach God as his father, loving heavenly
father. And Jesus says that that is the
gift that has been given to the church is eternal life. But not only is it eternal life,
but it's knowing God and having a relationship with God, the
creator and the sustainer of heaven and earth. In John chapter
eight, verse 19, when Jesus is reasoning with
the Pharisees, he explains to them, Then said they unto him, Where
is thy father? Jesus answered, You neither know
me nor my father. If you had known me, you should
have known my father also. Remember the Jews were very aware
that they were the ancestors of or the descendants of Moses
and Abraham. And that's where they thrived.
They said that we are Abraham's children. And Jesus says to them,
well, if you're Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.
If you were of Moses, then you would listen to the words of
Moses because Moses spoke of me. And so Jesus says to them,
you know, you have me in front of you. I have been with the
father. I know the father intimately. I'm well acquainted with the
father. And you cannot say that you know
God and you don't know me. For someone to know God, the
true and the living God, they must first come to him through
the Lord Jesus Christ. And so if you know God, you must
know Christ. And if you know Christ, you must
know God, the Father, for they are one. That's the condition
of the gift of eternal life. There are other so-called gods
around in this world but they are not the true God. They are not the true and the
living God. They're not the creator of heaven and earth. They're
not the giver of the spirit of life into people. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only way to the true and the living God. He's the only one
who can give true and true eternal life, not a fake counterfeit
that is just a lie of Satan, but he's able to give true eternal
life that begins at the point of salvation and will continue
on through death and through even to eternity. And so Jesus
says, and this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the
only true God. So it's not just knowing about
God, but it's knowing Him. and being in a personal relationship,
experiencing his blessing and favour on your life, experiencing
that communication with him and walking in obedience to him and
living a life of reverence and respect and love to him. Look at the way the Lord Jesus
Christ speaks to the Father. He has the utmost respect for
his heavenly Father. In verse 11, it says, And now
I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I
come to thee, Holy Father. Keep through thine own name those
whom thou hast given me, that they may be one as we are one.
He addresses him as the Holy Father. We know that God is holy. We know the cherubims and the
seraphims, the angels around the throne of God, cry out, holy,
holy, holy. God is separated from sin. He lives in heaven itself. There is no sin, no contamination.
His eyes cannot behold any evil. And so the Lord Jesus calls him
Holy Father. It shows a deep respect and an
acknowledgement as to who he is. In verse 25 he says, O righteous
father, the world has not known thee but I has known thee. And so the Lord Jesus being the
son of God showing utmost reverence and respect when coming to his
heavenly father in prayer. much more should you and I as
we come to God through the Lord Jesus Christ show reverence and
respect. Think of the prayer that the
Lord Jesus Christ taught his people. Our Father which art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name. It is right that we come to God
in a respectful way, understanding who we are before him who is
holy. But also to understand that relationship
that has been given to us through the Lord Jesus Christ, that we
are able to come with boldness and confidence. We are invited
to come. to the throne of grace and to
speak to our heavenly father but to acknowledge him as holy,
acknowledge him as righteous and just, to acknowledge him
as far above all things, in control of all things and knowing who
and what we are before him. that whenever he deals with us
and answers our prayers, it's not because we are worthy of
his respect or his acknowledgement, but he deals with us by his grace
through his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, our great high priest. Then to know God is to be in that relationship,
to know him and to come to him. If you have a friend who you
like dearly you want to be with them, you want to hear their
voice, you want to speak to them. If they are people of great wisdom,
great knowledge, you want to sit with them and listen to what
they have to say. You ask them questions. You ask
them for guidance. You ask them for direction. How
is it that I should act in this situation? Or what should I be
doing? Or how could I overcome this
and this and this? so naturally speaking we have
those people that we can go to and talk to in such a way but
how much more then God who is of all knowledge all-knowing
who has given us access to come to him and to speak to him and
to ask him questions and for direction. He has promised to
give us his Holy Spirit, the Comforter, to guide us and to
bring to our memory the scriptures. He has given us his Holy Word,
the Word of God, that we may feed and grow by reading it and
by meditating upon it. And so we're able to know God
We have his word laid out before us, we have his spirit in our
hearts and we have the Lord Jesus Christ as our high priest and
we are able to have an experimental knowledge of God through his
son. God himself is in the light. The scripture tells us in him
there is no darkness. We know that the believer has
been brought from the darkness into the light and there is that
drawing then to the light. Jesus says, I pray not that you
take them out of the well but you keep them from the evil of
it. And so the tendency of our sinful
nature is to go to the evil of the world. But Christ says, I
have prayed for them that they may be kept from that evil. And
so we are drawn to the light. We're drawn to God. We see the
darkness of this world, the temptations of the world, and we are Like
as we've been discussing the battle that we're in but we are
trying to lean ourselves to the light, to God, to the light of
his word, to the light of himself, to walk worthy of our calling. And that relationship that we
have in our lives, that two-way relationship when we love somebody
and we want to communicate with them, it's the same with God. often said to before King Charles
doesn't probably care much for us as individuals but God cares for his people
as individuals through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Those
individuals were given to the Son. God knew them before the
foundation of the world. He knew their names, the names
that they would be called. He knew them and he gave them
to his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And Christ clarifies that for
us. He says, As many as thou hast given him,
the Son. Verse 6, Thou gavest me them
out of the world. Thine or yours they were and
you have given them to me. So God the Father knew who he
had given to the Son. The Son knew who the Father had
given to him and he died for those people. beloved children,
the beloved sheep of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so not only
can we know God, but God knew us. Jeremiah was told, before
I formed you in the belly, I knew you. And we can say every single
believer was known before they were formed in the belly of their
mothers and at his time he birthed them into new life. He put his
spirit into them and drew them to himself. And this is eternal
life that we might know thee the only true God. and Jesus
Christ whom thou hast sent. And so as we can have that relationship
with God, that relationship must come through the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the ladder that is set
up onto the earth. And that is a knowledge that
can be experienced again. Salvation is a spiritual work
done in the heart of a person, not just a change of mind. But that change of mind comes
from a change of heart and God changes the heart to cause the
person to change direction and to have faith and repentance
and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as their only hope of
salvation. If you've ever been ill Someone
may tell you that they have experienced severe headaches or they've passed
through cancer, and you can listen to them and you can understand
the words that they're saying. You may have read about it before
or known other people also that have had it, but it's just the
knowledge that you have. And you don't know it experimentally. You've never experienced it physically
for yourself. It's just in your mind. But when
you get to that illness yourself, it is then that you're able to
experience the knowledge that you have of the illness. And so Christ, it must not just
be in our minds. It must be in our hearts. It
must be an experimental knowledge of him that we may know him. that we may know God in a true
and an intimate way to experience the love of Christ in our lives.
I spoke on Sunday that we cannot put that experience into a box,
but it is a spiritual experience. As a woman, as she gives birth
to children, labours are never the same. It will be different. And so it's the same with spiritual
birth. The end result is the same, a transformed heart, repentance
and faith in Christ, a change of direction. But the process
which God uses is his work. He is sovereign in that work.
But the end of that work, the birth, is a turning and a trust
in Christ and a love to God and that is experienced, it is an
experiential work of God in our lives and the product of that
is that we have that desire to follow. We have that earnest
desire to pray. As the baby is born it begins
to cry out, it begins to breathe. As the Christian is birthed into
new life it begins to cry out, it begins to pray, it begins
to breathe after holiness. It desires to follow the Lord
Jesus Christ and to obey the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, there
are attacks and temptations but there is that desire to walk
in the light and away from the darkness. In 1 John chapter 5 from verse 19 it says,
And we know that we are of God and the whole world lies in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God
is come and has given us an understanding that we may know him that is
true and that we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. Little children keep yourselves
from idols. Amen. And so he says that it's
something to be known and we know that we are of God and that
the whole world lies in wickedness. Something has taken place, a
knowledge of that they were in the wickedness. Now they're out
of the wickedness and they're in Christ Jesus and they're looking
at the whole world now behind them and that whole world they're
seeing lies in the wickedness and they've been brought out
of that. And we know that the Son of God has come and he has
given us understanding and that we may know him that is true.
And that we are in him, that is true, even the Son, the Lord
Jesus. That is the closeness then of that relationship. It's
not just a head knowledge. It is a heart transformation
that affects the mind, the body, the soul, the life of that person. And they are brought into union
with the Lord Jesus Christ. And they are brought into union
with God the Father. And they are brought into union
with the true and living church. of the Lord Jesus and this is
life eternal. They are given eternal life.
The whole world lies in wickedness. They're in eternal death. God
brings them out of that and gives to that person eternal life that
they may know him. By our nature we don't know God.
We reject God. But God gives us a new nature
that enables us to walk in the light and to know him. have a
relationship with him through his son the Lord Jesus Christ
who he sent. God sent the beloved son into
the world that whosoever believes in him should not perish but
have everlasting life. It was God's idea, God's plan
of salvation to bring eternal life to those who he chose before
the foundation of the world. Well may we be given hearts to
seek after that salvation and be given hearts to seek after
and to continue following after the Lord Jesus Christ, to keep
ourselves unspotted from the world and to be drawn closer
Now to walk more closely with the Lord Jesus Christ and God
the Father by the help of the eternal spirit of God. May he have his blessing. Amen.