In that passage of scripture
that I just read to you from 1 John chapter 3, and you don't
have to turn back to it if you've closed your Bibles, but in verse
18, this is what John says, my little children, he says, let
us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed, and in
truth. And as we open our Bibles now
back to John chapter 17, we see our Lord speaking in word unto
the Father on the behalf of his children. Really this prayer
divides itself and Many others have had this outline. It divides
itself into three portions. First of all, the Lord Jesus
prays for Himself concerning His own glory that the Father
would give Him. And then He prays for His disciples,
for His apostles. Remember, these men, these men
will go out carrying with them the gospel of the grace of God
to sinners through Christ. These are the only preachers,
and these have been instructed at the feet of the Master. He
has, in chapter 14, 15, and 16, specifically spent time with
them, teaching them, instructing them, encouraging them, for the
work that lay ahead for them. Upon these men, upon their shoulders
will rest the burden of sharing the gospel of the grace of God
to many, many thousands of people. And from this little band of
men, from these 11 who love Him and who are loved by Him, From
these men will go forth that message of God's saving grace
to undeserving and ungodly people. Now I know that these men themselves
were sinful. There's no question about that.
And there's much growth that is needed for them to be prepared
to go forth. And our Lord spends a great deal
of time in Word in word, teaching them, speaking of His love for
them. But He doesn't speak only of
His love, because as John said there in 1 John 3 and verse 18,
let us not love in word only, but in deed and in truth. And
you see our Lord Jesus, though in chapter 17, He is going to
speak to the father on their behalf. And in chapters 14, 15,
and 16, he's speaking to these men on the father's behalf. Even
before that, he had loved them indeed. Do you remember back
in chapter 13? He gathered all 12 of the disciples
together to wash their feet. In fact, hold your place here
in John 17, look back in chapter 13. And here's His first deed
of love for them in this continual scenario of our Lord not only
speaking to them and teaching them and speaking to them of
his love for them, but here's the first deed that he did for
them in this golden string of jewels of actions on his part. He washed their feet. And you
remember the story, and I'm not gonna read all of these verses,
but our Lord, you remember He wore a robe woven from top to
bottom. It had no seam in it. And He
took that off. He had undergarments under that.
He took off that robe and He draped around Him a large towel. And as it were, He stepped down
from His majesty, from His throne. He is the King. And He did what
the disciples were utterly shocked that He would do. He began to
wash their feet. It was always one who was inferior
who washed those who were superior. But here is the superior one. Here's the Lord of glory and
He girds Himself with a towel and He begins to wash their feet. And like Peter, Peter had a natural
response to this as he saw the Savior washing the feet of other
men because this was what was done when people came into somebody's
house. It was an act of love. an act
of consideration. Hey, they didn't have sidewalks
back then. They didn't have hardtop roads.
They had sandals on. They walked through the streets,
walked through the fields, walked through the desert. Their feet
were dirty, and here they are meeting together with the master,
and nobody has washed their feet, but he will. And he's washed the feet of several
of the disciples, apparently. And verse six says, then cometh
he to Simon Peter. And Peter said unto him, Lord,
and he rightly addressed him, for he is the Lord. But he says,
Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto
him, What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt
never wash my feet." Don't dictate anything to God. You can't tell Him what to do
or what not to do. But Peter, Oftentimes he was
all mouth. His brain didn't send signals
to his tongue to watch what you say. And he said, thou shalt never,
never wash my feet. Now watch the master's answer.
Jesus answered him, if I wash not thy feet. Is that what he
said? No. He said, if I wash thee not,
He says nothing about washing Peter's feet. He says, if I wash
thee not, thou has no part with me. Our Lord, you see, is speaking
of another washing. It's the washing of regeneration. It's the washing of by the blood
of the cross of Calvary that was coming up. If I don't wash
you, if I don't cleanse you, if I don't purify you, you have
no part with me. You won't spend eternity with
me if I don't wash you. And he had just said, you don't
really know what I'm doing, but you will know. And we know what he was doing
because the Savior doesn't say, if I wash not thy feet, thou
hast no part with me. But he says, if I wash thee not,
are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Have you been cleansed? As Hebrews 1, 3, did Christ purge
you, purge you, washed you from your sins? You have to be washed. You have to be purified. And
in verse nine, Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only,
but also my hands and my head. And Jesus saith unto him, he
that is washed, he who is completely bathed. Washed by God. Oh, child of God, think of this. Our Lord has washed you thoroughly. And he has so washed you so thoroughly
that he sees no sin in you. For he sees you in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is to be clean indeed. And that's how God sees, he sees
us in Christ. So the Savior says, he that is
washed needeth not save or accept to wash his feet because we come
in contact with the world. He says, but you're clean every
whit. It's good every once in a while
to look within and see what a cesspool of iniquity is within you. But
as I put, I think I put it in last Sunday's bulletin, or maybe
it was today, I can't remember, Robert Barry McShane said, for
every one look within, look a hundred times at Christ. Wear every wit clean. Isn't that
amazing? What kind of grace is this? That
lifts up vile, putrid, corrupt sinners, and washes us thoroughly
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, and you're
clean, but not all of you, because there was one man there numbered
among the 12. He was filthy in his own self-righteousness. But here is our Lord. Here is
His deed of love. You see, as we get on over, you
get over into chapter 14, even chapter 13, after Judas is gone,
He talks about His love for them. Look here with me in chapter
13, Look at verse 31. Therefore when
he was gone out, Judas is gone, he's gone now. And I'll tell
you, our Lord never spoke of his love for his disciples until
Judas has made an exit. Because he had no love for Judas.
Make no mistake there. Our God doesn't have a general
love for everybody. He has a love for his elect and
the rest he hates. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated. But once Judas is gone, Jesus
said, now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him.
If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself
and shall straightway glorify him. Little children, yet a little
while I am with you. He didn't call them little children
when Judas was there. because Judas was not one of
his little children. Little children, yet a little
while I am with you, you shall seek me. And as I said unto the
Jews, whether I go, you cannot come. So now I say to you, a
new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as
I have loved you, you 11. He never mentions his love for
the disciples until Judas is gone. But now he speaks to them in
words of compassion and affection. I love you men, that's what he
said. He said, a new commandment I give you that
you love one another as I have loved you. I expect that'd warm their hearts. And if he would but whisper these
words into your heart, you'll be much encouraged. I know everybody's
got things going on in their life and people have this trouble
and that trouble and so forth, surgery. aches and pains, people
have falls, hurt themselves. But I'll tell you what soothes
the heart is when the Savior says, I love
you. I love you. In chapter 14, he's going to
say, Greater love hath no man than this, than he lay down his
life for his friends. But you see, our Lord, he not
only spoke words of love, he performed deeds of love. Washing
their feet, that's a work of humility. Later, he will do a work of protection. when these 11 were with him in
the garden and the soldiers and the Jewish delegation came to
arrest the master. He said, if you seek me, let
these go. That's an act of love. You can't have me and have my
brethren. You can't have me and have these
for whom I'm going to lay down my life. It's an act of love,
it's a deed of love, a work of protection. The washing of the
feet is a work of humility, the protection of them, that was
a work of concern for their welfare, and then He's going to lay down
His life for them. Look again, and I quoted it,
John 15, 13. Then there's the work of salvation,
the deed of salvation. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." For his
friends. And in just a very few hours,
Simon Peter is going to deny the Master three times, and yet
the Savior says, I'm going to lay down my life for my friends,
and Simon Peter was one of them. He didn't act like a friend. But the Savior said, he's my
friend. And how many times have you and I conducted ourselves
in a manner that would seem to indicate we're not his friend? But he forgives. All is well. He will perform the work of salvation. Now remember, Judas is no longer
with them now when he talks about laying down his life. Judas isn't
there. His sins will not be borne by
the Savior. The master will not endure the
wrath of God in the stead of this evil one. whom our Lord
purposefully put among the number of His apostles. A man who heard the gospel, who
learned the gospel, and who even preached the gospel, hated the
gospel of God's grace. Isn't that something? Our Lord manifested His love
to these men by enduring the wrath of God that they deserved. So he acted for them, and he
would continue to do that. But he had spoken to them. You
see, real love not only says, I love you, but manifests itself
in deeds. And our Lord did. How many times
have you said to somebody, or I've said to somebody, I love
you. Easy to say, isn't it? Well, where are the deeds? Where are the actions to back
up the love? Our Lord had spoken to them in
chapters 14 through 16 of many things. And they listened. He's instructed them on the work
of the Holy Spirit, the fact that He's going to the Father,
many things that He mentioned to them. But then after instructing
them in chapters 14, 15, and 16, here is another jewel which
reveals His great love for His disciples. He prays audibly. so that they can hear. I've already
told you he prays for himself and the glory of the Father,
the first five verses. He prays for his apostles, the
first ordained preachers of the gospel, verses six through 19. And then he prays for the entire
body of believers at all times and in all places to the end
of the world in verses 20 through 24. In reading, in my preparation
for the message tonight, in my reading, I came across something
in a book that is no longer in print. But the author made an
interesting statement. He said, this chapter is the
simplest in all of the Bible as far as words are concerned. There are no long words in this
prayer. He says it's the simplest in
all the Bible as far as words are concerned, but it is the
most profound in meaning. You don't have to use what we
call five-dollar words to speak of profound things. The Savior in this prayer speaks
in language that All of us can understand, at least mentally. But He speaks of glorious things.
He begins by saying in chapter 17, these words spake Jesus and
lifted up His eyes to heaven. He said, Father, Father. And that sets the tone for the
whole prayer. He doesn't say, Our Father, as
we're taught to pray. For to say our father would be
to put himself on the same level as his disciples. He doesn't say our father, he
just says father, putting himself on the same level as the father. This is his equality with the
father. This is his deity. Later on,
He will say over in verse 24, Father, I will. Nobody else can
pray like that. We say, Thy will be done. We can't will anything, but He
did. How can He speak in such a fashion
to the Father? Because He's equal with the Father.
I and my Father are one. Here's His deity. You see, God is indeed our Father
by adoption, by regeneration, the new birth. But He addresses
God as Father for Christ Himself is the brightness of the Father's
glory and He is the expressed image of God. This is God praying to God. And therefore, six times in this
prayer, He addresses the Father. And two times with a distinguishing
mark. In verse 11, He calls Him Holy
Father. In verse 25, Righteous Father. And then He says, The hour has
come. The hour. And that's not talking
about a specific like six o'clock or seven o'clock. That's not
what it means. It means a season. The season
has come. The set time has come. The time
set back in old eternity concerning when our Lord Jesus would bear
the indebtedness of all of His people and by His substitutionary
sacrifice, render to divine justice the price that fully paid for
our redemption. The time has arrived. He said in John 2.4, Mary, but
he didn't address her as mother. He said, woman, what have I to
do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. At
the Feast of Tabernacles, he talked in the temple. And he
told them, you men don't know God. And they sought to take
him. But no man laid hands on him,
because his hour was not yet come. In John 8, again, he clashed
with the Pharisees. And he said to them, Ye neither
know me, nor my father. These words speak Jesus in the
treasury, as he taught in the temple. And no man laid hands
on him, for his hour was not yet come. In John chapter 12,
Jesus answered them, answered the people. He said, the hour
has come that the Son of Man should be glorified. John 12,
27. He said, now is my soul troubled,
agitated. Stir it up. Similar to like your washing
machine with that agitator. It's stirring the water. That's
the meaning of the word here. There's a stir going on in his
soul, in his heart. He says, now is my soul troubled,
and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour?
But for this cause, for this reason, came I unto this hour. And then in John 13, where he
washed the disciples' feet, he said, the scripture says, and
now before the feast of the Passover, the fourth Passover that he would
celebrate as in his public ministry, Before the Feast of the Passover,
when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart
out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were
in the world, he loved them unto the end. Says the hour has come. And now he prays, Father, glorify
thy son. That thy son also may glorify
thee. You see, our Lord Jesus was glorified
as a result of His death. He was glorified. God rewarded
Him. God gifted unto Him that which
He determined to do back in the covenant of grace. Give Him the
kingship and the lordship of the universe. glorify thy Son, and as Christ
was glorified, Christ would save His people from their sins, thereby
glorifying the Father. For you see, the glory of God,
I know it's seen in creation, and I know it's seen in providence,
but it is mainly seen in the cross death of our Lord Jesus
Christ. There's His glory. laying down
his life for the sheep. That's why we must emphasize
the cross death of our Lord Jesus. You see, you know, when we were
on our trip, I usually got up early and turn on the television,
get some news and switch it over and see some kind of false prophet. taking glory unto themselves
and manifesting their ignorance concerning
the things of God. But they're not glorifying God.
And these men preaching salvation by work, salvation by personal
righteousness, they insult, they insult the God of all grace and
the God of all glory. But in one of the messages that
I was listening to, this man was talking about Jesus laying
down his life with the hopes that people would receive the
gift that he was earning for them. Listen, our Lord Jesus
did not die with hopes of anything. He died with the assurance, with
the assurance that based upon His obedience unto death, even
the death of the cross, God would exalt Him. God would put Him
in charge of everything. And therefore we read in the
next verse, as thou hast given Him power over all flesh. This
is the reward for His death. His death was not a shot in the
dark with the hope that sinners would activate His blood and
add their faith to what He did. There is no place for that in
the Scriptures. God has given Him power over
all flesh in order to do something very specific, to give eternal
life to as many as God gave Him. Our Lord, when He died on the
cross of Calvary, He knew the price that He must pay and He
knew the reward that He would have for His obedience unto death. He's given all authority. And
you see, he has to have all authority. And the word power there is authority. He has to be given authority
and power over all flesh in order to give eternal life to those
that the father gave him. He's gotta have total control
over everything. And he does. And then he says this, and this is life eternal. We're
talking about eternal life. This is life eternal. What is
it? That they might know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." Eternal
life. I told you about those false
preachers. They miss God's greatest glory. They'll talk about creation And
they should. And they'll talk about providence,
though they have a limited understanding of providence. But the greatest
glory of God is the glory of the cross. There's where His
glory is seen. It's a glory that outshines creation
and providence. And this is why we must insist
upon the cross death of Christ. I listen to several preachers
and they barely touch the cross, if they even mention it at all.
They barely mention the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus. Make sure
you understand this, and I want you to listen to every message,
every message from this pulpit, every message that comes forth
out of my mouth, out of his mouth, out of his mouth, whoever happens
to be up here speaking, you need to listen to every message, not
with great criticism, that's not what I'm talking about, but
you need to listen to every message and see if the man behind the
pulpit is exalting the cross death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Because where there is no cross, there is no gospel. I don't care who it is that's
preaching. A man may say many good things and accurate things
and truthful things about the Lord Jesus Christ. And many men do. But if they
miss substitution, if they miss satisfaction, if they miss that
Christ died, that God might be a just God and a savior, if they
miss that, notwithstanding all of the good things that they've
said about the Lord Jesus Christ, they have not preached the gospel. And I'm a stickler on that because
the word of God's a stickler on that. A man can say, I believe in the
deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, they've been, so do I.
I believe in His true humanity. So do I. I believe He had power
to work miracles. So do I. I believe He's the Savior. So do I. But tell me how He saved. If you don't tell me how He saved,
if you don't set forth the blood, If you don't set forth the cross,
and Robert Hawker, he tends to always say, the cross death,
the cross death of our Lord Jesus. And I love that. But that's where he satisfied
God. That's where he paid our indebtedness. And because of that, God has
glorified him to give eternal life to as many as the Father
hath given him. What is eternal life? Number
one, it's a life without end. And I'll tell you this, you may,
some try to draw a distinction between eternal and everlasting. I will tell you this, look it
up in the concordance, they're identical. It may be, and I,
I tend to agree with this. Eternal takes in the great quality
of this life because it's a knowledge of God and it's a knowledge of
Jesus Christ. Whereas everlasting sets forth
more the duration of this life. But really they're virtually
interchangeable. We have eternal life, it's a
life without end. Christ said, my sheep hear my
voice and I know them and they follow me and I give unto them
eternal life and they shall never perish. What does it mean not
to ever perish? It means you have eternal life,
that's what it means. And know this, that eternal or
everlasting life really is a life without beginning and without
end. But as to our own experience,
we experience eternal life when we're regenerated. Because we're
given a life that will never end. It already existed in the
mind and purpose of God. But we didn't experience it until
Christ set up his throne in our hearts and gave us new life. In fact, he is our life. Isn't that right? He is our life. So don't think that, well, when
a believer dies, he then enters into everlasting life. He enters
into life eternal. No, you already have it. When we enter into eternity,
that which we drop is a cumbersome, sinful nature. We're rid of it. But we don't enter into eternal
life. We already got that. It's the life of God in the soul.
It begins here. Remember what Matt brought a
great message this past Wednesday night from the book of Colossians. Colossians 3 and verse 4 says,
when Christ who is our life shall appear. And this eternal life, quickly,
and I've got to hurry, this eternal life is traced to the purpose
of God. In Acts 13, 48, and as many as
were ordained to eternal life. That's who believed. And if you
believe, you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you were
ordained. You were ordained to eternal
life. by the Lord. I'll tell you something else
about the eternal life. It's a gift of God. Do you remember
the rich young ruler? What good thing must I do to
inherit eternal life? I want to do something for it.
Well, you can't do anything for it. It's got to be given to you. It's a gift of God. 1 John 5,
11 says, this is the record that God hath given us eternal life,
and this life is in His Son. What is it? It's the knowledge
of God. It's what Christ says here. That
they might know Thee, the only true God. And I'll finish up
with this, and I'll come back to this, the Lord willing, next
Sunday night. You know, in the garden, in the
garden, Adam and Eve had a knowledge of God. They had all the knowledge they
needed. And you know what the temptation
was? More knowledge. More knowledge. God doth know that in the day
ye eat thereof, you'll be as God's, knowing good and evil."
Knowledge. Knowledge. And ever since men
have been thirsting for knowledge, but the only knowledge that really
is worth anything is the knowledge of God. And Adam, who was not
deceived, he willingly turned his back on a knowledge of the
Holy One. And man's been searching for
knowledge ever since. But he can't find it. Because
the knowledge of God has to be given. And you see, that which we lost
in Adam, not only life, but we lost knowledge. We lost knowledge
of God. And our Lord Jesus came to restore
knowledge, to give us, give us a knowledge of God and of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I'll stop. May the Lord bless His Word that's
gone forth tonight. Let's sing 56 as we close.