Open your Bibles, if you would,
to John Chapter 17. John Chapter 17. We'll continue
our study in this wonderful chapter. We've already looked at the first
five verses, where our Lord Jesus Christ was praying about Himself
to the Father. And this is a prayer set before
us by God the Holy Spirit, through the pen of John the Apostle,
but again the true author of this chapter as all the scriptures
is God the Holy Spirit. Again in the first five verses
the Lord Jesus Christ prayed for himself to the Father. Now we enter into the second
section of this wonderful prayer. Where our Lord Jesus Christ is
going to pray for his disciples. But also you're going to see
through the verbiage that our Lord uses that he's also praying
for all the elect of all the ages as well. Just as we saw
in the first section as well. My oh my. And you know what this
shows us? This shows us the intercession
of Christ. This next section is especially
going to show us the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. And our Lord in this section
is going to pray for all those whom the Father has given Him.
And especially in the verse that we're going to look at today.
He's going to pray for all those whom the Father has given Him.
Now, He hasn't just given Him those 12 apostles, has He? No,
there was 500 more, too, that were around after the Lord has
risen. And also, all the elect of all
the ages are a number that no one can number. So he's praying in this section
also for all the elect of all the ages. In verses 1 to 5 again he was
praying for himself, his own glorification, which is the great
end that he had in view was glorifying the Father, wasn't it? That's
why he came here to this world, to glorify the Father. In John
17 1, he says, glorify thy son that thy son also may glorify
thee. And in John 17 5, he says, glorify thou me with thine own
self. Take note. I found this interesting. I didn't notice this until one
of the commentators brought this out. This was magnificent. Take
note whom he prays for first. In the first five verses, He
prays for himself, for the glory of God the Father. Before he asks a single thing
for his people, just as in the prayer that he gave us to pray,
our Father who art in heaven, we're to address the Father first,
aren't we? In our prayers to God, we always say, Heavenly
Father, or Righteous Father, or Holy Father. However way we
say it, we always address the Father. Through Christ, right? But we address the Father first.
And notice, notice that our Lord, before he asks anything for his
people, He prays for Himself. Do you
know why? Turn if you would to Colossians
chapter 1. Do you know why? Do you know
why He does that? Because He must have all the
preeminence, right? In Him is all the preeminence. He gets
all the preeminence. A long time ago, a preacher friend of mine,
before I came here, told me, always remember when you go there
to Almonte to preach, that Christ gets all the preeminence. It's
not about you. It's all about Christ. And I
never forgot that. That was Jean-Claude that told
me that. And I never forgot that. Always make Christ the preeminent
one. Whether it be in preaching, or
whether it be in pastoring. Always make Him the preeminent
one. He is the most important thing.
And so, we see here, just as in The prayer that he told his
disciples to pray, our Father who art in heaven. We see him
say right off the bat in verse 1 of John 17, Father, the hour
has come. Glorify thy son that thy son
also may glorify thee. Right away he addresses the Father.
Right away. First word he speaks, Father.
Father. First word he speaks. And this
shows that in all things he must have the preeminence, because
he's the head and what? We're the body, right? Look at
this in Colossians chapter 1, verses 18 to 22. And he is the
head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he might have what? The preeminence. That means he must be first.
He must be first, beloved. For it pleased the Father that
in him, that being Christ, should all fullness dwell. And heaven
made peace through the blood of his cross. He made peace not
for himself, right? He already had peace with God,
didn't he? He's the sinless one. He's the spotless one. He already
has peace with God. Who did he make peace for? You
and I, sinners such as we. That's where he made peace with
the father. I was thinking about this today. I was thinking about
this today. I was being honest with myself. I'm sitting there
and I'm thinking, Lord, you know, I've had people wrong me in my
life, wrong me as a believer. Would I give my life for them?
And you know what my answer was? No. I'm being honest. My answer was
no. And then I thought, would I give
my life for the ones I love? My answer was yes. And I asked the Lord, please
change my heart. Please change my heart. Because I should be able to answer
yes to both questions, shouldn't I? But see, we're humans, aren't
we? We're sinful. I'm being honest
with you, that was my first answer, was no, right away, without even
a hesitation. Would I give my life for my enemies?
No. But what did Christ do for us? Scripture says we were enemies
in our mind, and that just put me right on the desk, my head
down on the desk. I was an enemy to Christ. in my mind. Now he's always loved
me from eternity, which we're going to see tonight. But in
my mind, I was an enemy towards him. I might not have verbally
said, I'm your enemy, Lord. But my actions sure spoke that.
My words, oh my goodness, my words were horrible. They sure
spoke that. And yet he died for me. What
love. What love. See, we can't do that. As a matter
of fact, I was listening to Donnie this week, and he says, the scripture
tells me to love my neighbor. He goes, but I don't love my
neighbor like I should. He goes, actually, it's impossible
for me to love my neighbor as God tells me to love my neighbor.
I just can't do it, but Christ did it for me. Aren't you thankful
that Christ done that for us? that although we were enemies
in our minds, the scripture says, by wicked works, which is by
sinfulness, yet he died for us. Oh, see how far above us he is? He's wonderful, isn't he? He's
absolutely wonderful. He's so wonderful, it's absolutely
incredible. His ways are not our ways. Look
at this, and having made peace through the blood of his cross,
he made peace for us. through his death, through the
blood of his cross. And oh, I listened to a message today on the blood.
How important is the blood of Christ? How important is that
shed blood? Do you know it has such value?
It has infinite value, beloved. It's so valuable. that it's what
purchased my salvation, and yours too, if you're a believer. It's
so valuable, it's so precious, that it wiped all our sins away. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. Not maybe, not well, depending
on how good of a person you are. Well, I ain't good at all. I'm
a sinner. Praise God. He says, when I see
that blood, when I see the blood of Christ upon you, I'll pass
over you. Oh my, the substitute died for a sinner like me. And
now all I want to do is proclaim how wonderful he is, how amazing
he is, shedding his precious, precious blood for us. And look
what it says here. And heaven made peace through
the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto
himself. He's reconciled us to God. By him, I say, whether they
be things on earth or things in heaven. Now, I once had a
lady who was attending here at one time. She's not here anymore. But she came up to me and she
said, well, I've never been an enemy with God. And I said, really? She said, no, I've never been
an enemy with God. I said, well, then you don't know Christ. Well,
I didn't go over very well, let me tell you that. Didn't go over
very well. But see, this is not my opinion. The reason I can say that is
that we were enemies with God is because look what the next
scripture here says. And you that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind. How? By wicked works, by our
sinfulness. That's not my opinion. That was
me! That was me! Before the Lord
saved me. Yet now, look at this, oh praise
God, yet now hath he reconciled." Brought together! And do you
know what? I wasn't the offended party,
I was the offender. God was the, He was the offended
party. And the perfect man, the God-man,
the Lord Jesus Christ gave his life to reconcile me, and if
you're a believer, to reconcile you to God the Father. Why? Why did we need to be saved?
Because we were enemies in our minds by wicked works. That's
what we were. That's what the scripture declares. My. And the body of his flesh
through death. Look at this, to present you.
Okay, now I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner from the top of
my head to the bottom of my feet. I'm more aware of my sin now
than I ever was before the Lord saved me. Before the Lord saved
me, I didn't have a clue, to be honest with you, about my
sin. I did something wrong. I knew it was wrong, but nobody
caught me. And then when the Lord saved
me, I realized the eyes of the Lord are in every place. So everything
I thought I was getting away with, God saw it all. Everything I thought, oh my,
oh my, everything I thought, the wickedness of my mind, the
wickedness of my actions, He saw it all. He just laid bare
in front of them. Right? But He saved my soul,
beloved. And He can save anyone who comes
to Him by faith. And that faith is given to us
by God, but He can, anyone, He saved to the uttermost. He saved
me? He can save anyone. I know what John Newton means
now, when he said that. And it's so true. You know what? There was one old-timer, he wrote,
he said, I'm a great, I'm a great sinner, but praise be to God,
Christ is a great Savior. Now look at this, what comes
next. So He's reconciled us through His blood, right? The body of
His flesh through death to present you holy. Dave, He's gonna present
you holy. And He's gonna present you holy
one day. When we leave this world, then
He's gonna present you holy. We're sinners. But this is, see,
this is not my opinion, right? This is not your opinion. This
is what God, the Holy Spirit, has written about His people.
It's about you, holy and unblameable. Sister D, you're going to appear
in the presence of God unblameable because of what Christ has done
for you. Brother Brian, you and I are going to, we're going to
appear in the presence of God with all those things too, but
we're also going to be unreprovable. No fault found in us. Sister
Jill, you too, all the same, all of us. Isn't that amazing?
Isn't that incredible? We're like, oh, I'm such a sinner,
though. But now we're reconciled. Now we're reconciled. This is
what makes salvation in Christ so wondrous, so amazing, that
the darkest sin that I've ever committed, that no one else will
ever know but me and God, is gone. I remember it, but he don't
remember it. He says, your sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Praise be to God. Is it any wonder
we worship and adore our great God and King? Oh my, think, you know, I don't
want us thinking about the worst thing we ever did, but it's gone.
In God's eyes, it's gone. Now sin is sin, isn't it? Doesn't
matter if it's a little sin or it's a great big sin. It'll condemn
you to hell just like the other one, one or the other. Sin is
sin in God's eyes, you see. How much sin does it take to
condemn us to hell forever? Just one sin. You ever lie? Well, we're all done there, aren't
we? Well, hallelujah. One day Christ
is going to present us, because of his death, because of his
precious, precious blood, his sinatonin blood, we can present
as holy and unblameable and unapprovable in his sight. That's wonderful,
isn't it? Now let's read verses 4 to 10
of John chapter 17. That's just the introduction.
Let's read verses 4 to 10 of John 17. Oh my, this is wonderful. Our master says, I have glorified
thee on the earth, speaking of the father. He's glorified the
father on earth. I finished the work which thou
gavest me to do. And now, oh father, glorify thou
me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before
the world was. Here's our verse tonight. I have
manifested thy name unto the man 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 surely known that I come out from thee. They have believed
that thou didst send me." Now look at that, twice there he's
making reference to the Father sent him. He said, that I came
out from thee. So the Father sent him into this
world. And then he says, and they have believed that thou
didst send me. Do you believe that God sent Christ into this world? Yeah. Yeah. You don't know if
everybody believes that? God's people do though. And we know who he is that came
into this world. He's God. He's God. 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 they have known surely that I came out of thee, and
they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them,
I pray not for the world. Oh, look at that. Oh, that'll be an interesting
verse when we hit that, won't it? He says, I don't pray for
the whole world, but I pray for those who you gave me. Do you
know that in this prayer here, he's praying for us. 2,000 years ago, God in the flesh prayed for you
and I as believers. My. And this has come true now, right?
We now believe the words that the Father gave him, don't we?
By the grace and mercy of God, we believe. There was a time
when we didn't believe, now we believe. We believe. But for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine. Do you know that before the Father
gave them to Christ, before the Father gave us to Christ, we
were his? I just, that hit me today and
just knocked my socks right off. We were his by choice. Before
he gave us to Christ, we were his by choice. And then he gave
us to Christ. That's what it says, right? For
they are thine. And all mine are thine. Look
at that. He's just reemphasizing it. All
you gave me are yours. are yours. So the Father chose
us, right? We were His, by choice. And we're going to look in a
passage in Isaiah, and it's not God looked down through time
and saw who would choose Him. You know that scripture that
says He knows the end from the beginning? Think of this. He looks down
in time and sees us all dead in trespasses and sins. Every
single one of us. Because He knows the end from
the beginning, right? He's the inventor of time and space. He's outside of time and space.
He doesn't dwell in time and space. He dwells outside of it.
And he's actually the one who made time and space. I was having
a good conversation with my son last week about this. That Christ,
God, is outside of time and space. He's not affected by time like
we are. So he knows the end from the
beginning. We know from when we live to
the end, right? He knows the end all backwards
to the beginning and back again. So when he looked, saw us all
dead in Adam, all fallen in Adam, scripture says we're a chosen
generation. He chooses us out of our generation, beloved. Isn't
that amazing? That's just, we can't comprehend
it, can we? Makes our mind fizz, but it's
true. That's the truth. It's the truth. Let's read verse 6 and take note
of the word gavest in this verse, which is give. He gave us to
the Father or to the Son. And be amazed that God the Father
had chosen us. We were His. Can you imagine that? Can we
even fathom that? That's truth though. God the
Father chose us. There's nothing in us to make
Him choose us. He saw us dead in trespasses and sins, lost,
no hope. And by His free grace, and by
His mercy, He chose us. He said, you're mine. You're mine. Why did He do that? Because of His love for us. That's eternal love. Before there
was ever a world, before ever time began, He chose us in Christ.
Because He knows the end from the beginning. Yes. Yes. Look at verse 6 again. I have manifested thy name unto
the man which thou gavest me out of the world. In time and
space, right? Out of the world. Thine they were. Look at that.
They were yours, Father. Dave, did you ever think you
were the fathers? That's what the scripture tells
us. We were the fathers. God chose us. We were his. We
were his. And then look what it says next.
Look what it says next. And thou gavest them me. So the
Father chose us. We're his. And then he gives
us to the son. You know why? Because he's the
bridegroom. We're the bride, beloved. He's
the bridegroom. We're the bride. Ponder this. God the son loves those whom
the father has given him. And the father has given him
this people. by His sovereign, almighty choice. There's nothing in them. There's
nothing in us that would merit this, is there? Is there anything
in it that would cause us, anything in us that would cause God to
choose us? There's nothing in us, is there?
We're just like everybody else. So what, who makes the difference?
What makes the difference? God's sovereign grace is what
makes the difference. It's God who makes us to differ
one from another. It's God who chose us, passed
by others. I'm the only one in my family
who I know the Lord saved. And I just rejoice that he had
mercy upon me. Now, I pray he saves my brothers. I pray he
saves my nephews and nieces. I pray he saves my daughter and
my son. I hope he does. But only he can save them. I
can tell them the truth. which I do when the Lord opens
the door like Brian and I were talking about. I don't try to
shove my own foot through the door. I used to do that. I don't
do that no more. This week I ended up talking to my son for about
an hour and a half. He just started asking me questions just out
of the blue. Vicki was listening from the other room and I was
talking to him. Next thing you know, Vicki and I are both talking
to him. It was wonderful. But it was very calm conversation. Which was a blessing. Now he
asked some tough questions, but again, you guys know me, I always
answer from scripture. That's what we do, just answer
people from scripture. Answer them from what the word
says. Don't give our own opinion, answer them with the word. Because
that's what penetrates, beloved. But look at this. And we were
talking about this election, him and I. We were talking about
this. And this was all done, this sovereign
choice by God, was all done before we were even born. Before we were even born. Was
done before the world was even created. And it was all done because of
the Father's love to us. But I have nothing in me that
the Father would love, but it's His sovereign choice, isn't it?
It's His sovereign choice. So Christ loves His people because
they are His by the Father's choice. They are His by the Father's
choice. The only reason we are Christ is because the Father's
chosen to be so. That's the only reason. There's nothing in us, nothing
in any of the elect, that would cause the Father to choose us.
Nothing in us that would merit this wonderful choice by God.
It's all determined by the eternal love of God. Now, I don't know
how you were raised in your family. I don't know how your mom and
dad raised you, but I had a interesting relationship with my dad. And someone told me one time,
you will not understand the father's love. Dave, someone told you,
you did not do the same thing. That because of what the relationship
I had with my dad, that I wouldn't understand the father's love.
But you know what? The more I study the scriptures,
in these last seven years being with you, The more I realized
that my dad's love was absolutely nothing compared to the Father's
love for me. This love is an eternal love. This love doesn't change because
of my things I do. This love doesn't make the Father
mad at me because of my sin. No, it's been dealt with at Calvary's
Cross. We're reconciled now. Remember the scripture we read?
Now we're reconciled by the blood of Christ. So now the Father's
wrath has been turned away. Let's turn to Isaiah chapter
46. Let's look at this quick. Isaiah chapter 46. We'll read verses 9 to 11. And this is where we're going
to see again, which I've mentioned in the past, it's worth repeating,
that God knows the end from the beginning. And this will help
us to understand his everlasting love for us, because he's outside
of time and space. So his love is eternal. It has
no end. It has no end. It's unchangeable
by anything in time, right? It doesn't change by circumstances
because he's outside of time. Right? And he's, remember, he's
in charge of all that's happening on this earth. Right? So all things are happening according
to his will and purpose. Right? All things. You know, someone
asked me, well, if that's the case, then he's the author of
sin. No, he's not the author of sin. Not at all. Not at all. You know why there's wickedness
in this world? Because of sin. Do you know why men can't find
peace in this world? You know, they sign peace treaties
and then a month later they're fighting each other again, lobbing
missiles at each other, right? Because they're a bunch of sinners.
That's why. That's why. That's the bottom
line. Why is there death in this world?
Because of sin. Right? The wages of sin is death. But
the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Oh my. Look at this in Isaiah 46 verses
9 to 11. You remember we're all dead in
trespasses and sins and God sees this. Look at this. Remember
the former things of old for I am God. There's a statement
right there. I am God. Right? I'm God. He's saying this. I'm God. And
there is none else. I am God and there is none like
me. Now remember, he's speaking these
words from a divine mind, right? He knows he's the only true God.
But man in a human, this is one thing I had a good talk with
Joshua this last week was, I said, you're asking these questions
from a man with a human nature. God says this and he has a divine
nature. That's why we can't understand
what he's saying in our natural state. That's why Christ has
to reveal him to us. Now, if I had read these words
before the Lord saved me, I just thought, well, okay. Now I read
them and I'm in awe. Look what he says this year,
declaring the end from the beginning, the opposite of how we live.
The end from the beginning. He already knows how it's all
going to wrap up. He already knows. He's not affected by it
because he's outside of time and space. Look at that. And from ancient
times, from eternity. And I'm not going to say old
eternity because eternity is eternity. The things that are not yet done. Look at that. Same. My counsel
shall stand. What he says shall stand. You know why the oceans can't
come any more further than what they are? People are all worried
about, oh, there's going to be this flooding everywhere and
all this stuff, and the ice packs are going to melt, and there's
going to be waters flooding everywhere. No, they can't. You know that
ocean can't go beyond its boundaries? Where is that? In the scriptures? Now, should we live in a way
that helps things? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Right? If you want to recycle,
recycle. Right? There's nothing wrong
with that. But it's when people start forcing
these things upon you, right? Saying, you've got to do this
and you've got to... See, man thinks, oh, the world's going to end because
of man doing something. Let me tell you this, the world's
gonna end when the Lord ends it. Then it's gonna roll up like
a scroll and burn. But it won't happen until the
Lord commands it. I'll tell you that. Oh my. How do we know that? Because
my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure Look at this. Now he's so intricately involved
in the things of this world that he says, call in a ravenous bird
from the east. Who fed Elijah? Birds. Amen, brother. Birds. Oh, look at that. The man that
excused my counsel from a far country. Yea, I have spoken it.
I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. He said that He'd save His people
from their sins. What has He done? He purposed
it, right? He's done it, hasn't He? Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Those who the Father
gave to Christ, spoken of in tonight's verse, were and still
are beloved of the Father with an everlasting love. Just because
the Father has given us to Christ, He didn't stop loving us. You
know the Holy Spirit loves us the same as the Father and the
Son? Because they all do things all according to their counsel
and will. The three are one, right? They have the same will
and purpose. Oh my, it's wonderful, isn't
it? God the Father, in his everlasting love, chose the people in Christ. Gave them to him. Think of this. God the Father, in eternity past,
set his love upon us. set his heart upon us. I was
thinking about that today and I was just fizzing right out.
But it was a good fizz out, I'll tell you that. My what love! What a miserable love the Father
has for his people. What a miserable love the Son
has for the people who are a gift of love to him. Do you know we're
a gift of love to Christ? The Fathers loved us, right?
He gave us to Christ as a gift. Sinners such as you and I? Me?
Yep. I'll believe it if the Word says
it, right? I don't understand it all, but I rest my eternal
soul upon Christ and Him alone, do you? There's no other hope
for this fella. You know, if you take away Christ,
there's no salvation. There's no salvation if you take
away Christ. But praise be to God. He's an everlasting Savior,
isn't He? He's the King of kings and the
Lord of lords. No one's going to take us out of the Father's
hand. Think of that. That's why Christ says, no one's
going to take you out of the Father's hand, and no one's going to take
you out of my hand. Why? Because we're in their hands. The Father
gave us to Christ, right? Now he has a responsibility to
care for the sheep. You've heard me often say the
shepherd has a responsibility to care for sheep that are his.
We're God's sheep, beloved, given to the great shepherd of our
faith, the Lord Jesus Christ. And those who the Father loves
and those who the Son loves, the Holy Spirit loves also. Right? With the same everlasting love.
It's amazing. They're one nature. They're of
one purpose. They're of one will. They're
for all that the Son loves, the Father loves, and the Holy Spirit
loves. My! This is amazing. This is truly amazing. So what this text is bringing
forth is the everlasting love of God towards his people. Let's read it again. He says,
I've manifest thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out
of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
me, and they have kept thy word. Now, that's a strong chord, isn't
it? That's a strong chord. which binds us to Christ. Listen to this verse in Ecclesiastics,
in light of being a strong cord of love that keeps us. You bundle
a bunch of sticks together, right? You've got to unbundle or untie
that cord, don't you? If they're tightened, if there's
three or four, if there's three things of tight twine on there,
you've got to either cut that or you've got to undo all them
knots. My, my, listen to this. Ecclesiastes
4.12, and if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him,
and a threefold cord is not quickly broken. A threefold cord is not
quickly broken. So three cords wound into one. is not quickly broken. Look at our verse again. I have
manifest thy name unto the man which thou gavest me out of the
world. Thine they were, and thou gavest me, and they have kept
thy word. And in Ecclesiastes it says,
in a threefold chord is not quickly broken. Marvel at the wonderful
truth set before us in this verse. This is amazing. Christ has saved us by the shedding
of his precious blood, and he did it all according to the will
of God the Father, who chose us in Christ, before the foundation of the
world, and the Holy Spirit has regenerated us, right? And we are now born again, given
faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is all
because of a threefold cord of love. Loved by the Father with an everlasting
love. Loved by the Son with an everlasting
love. Loved by the Holy Spirit with
an everlasting love. A threefold cord that cannot
be broken. Cannot be broken. Cannot be. A threefold cord of everlasting
love. in the everlasting love of the
Father towards us, the everlasting love of the Lord Jesus Christ
to us, and the everlasting love of God the Holy Spirit towards
us, what mercy this is. Can anyone break that love? Can anyone cause that love to
cease? That's why the Lord said, no
one can take you out of my hand. And no one can take you out of
the Father's hand. Because you're in the Father's
hand and you're in my hand. Oh, it's amazing, isn't it? It's
absolutely amazing. What boundless love we see here.
Threefold cord, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And the
saints are drawn and held by that cord. That's why the son says, no man
can pluck you out of the father's hands. No one. Remember that night I said you
were in his grip? There it is right there. There it is. It is wonderful. Kept by the
almighty power of God, beloved. Saved. Kept by the almighty power
of God. And this three-fold cord, it
cannot be broken. It can't be broken. It cannot
be broken. You know what that tells me?
What eternal safety God's people have in Christ. That's eternal security, isn't
it? A three-fold cord holds me. has drawn me and now holds me.
Oh, praise be to God. That's wonderful. That's wonderful. And sometimes
we're weak in faith. Sometimes our hope becomes clouded.
Sometimes our love wavers, doesn't it? Yet we are bound together by
this threefold cord, my, which can never be broken. It's the
eternal love of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
for his people. Listen to this. As we read that verse again,
I have manifest 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. See, salvation is not according
to our performance, is it? It's not according to anything
we do. It's all because of what Christ
has done. See the word manifested there in the text? In the Greek
it means to make visible. To manifest. To make apparent. To make known. To show openly.
Did we know anything about the Father before the Lord saved
us? Nothing at all. Now we know something. We know
a little bit, don't we? Oh my. Turn if you would to 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. The Lord Jesus Christ has successfully
accomplished the work of salvation, which the Father sent him to
do. He's manifest God's name to his people. Our Lord in our
text, he says, I've manifest, or I've revealed, I've revealed
you, Father, to them. Oh my, look at this in 1 Corinthians
1, verses 21-22. to 29. For after that in the
wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For
the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But
we preach Christ crucified. That's what we preach. That's
what gospel preachers preach. We just preach Christ. Right? Unto the Jews a stumbling block
and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called
those who the Father gave Christ Those who the Father sovereignly
chose, that we looked at in John 17, 6, but of them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Jews and Gentiles, right? Christ, the
power of God, and the wisdom of God, because the foolishness
of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger
than men. For you see, you're calling,
brethren, how that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty,
not many noble are called. But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. And God hath chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things which
are mighty, and the base things of the world, and the things
which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not
to bring to naught things that are. Why? That no flesh should
glory in his presence. See, we got nothing. Oh my, we
know where we came from, right? We got nothing to boast in, do
we? Nothing at all. Wonder of wonders, God had mercy
on me, a sinner like me. That's a wonder, I'll tell you
that. Now turn, if you would, to 2 Corinthians chapter 4. See,
the gospel is one time, one time the gospel was hid to us, wasn't
it? It was hid to us. But by the grace and mercy of
God, it's been revealed to us now. To we who are the redeemed
of the Lord, it's been revealed to us. The gospel is no longer
hid to us. We know a little bit now about
God. Do you know that it's God who command the light to shine
out of darkness? And oh, how dark that darkness was we were
in. I know how dark the darkness
I was in. It was dark. Darkness of sin. Look at this. Look what God's done for us. 2 Corinthians 4, 1 to 6. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, which we have received mercy, we faint not. Every one
of God's people received mercy from God. But if we renounce
the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness or
handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth,
commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight
of God. We don't walk in the way we used to walk. We're new
creatures in Christ now. Still sinners, but we don't desire
to do the same things we used to do. But if our gospel be hid, it
is hid to them that are lost. Look at that. The gospel is hid
to them that are lost. Gospel was hid to me for a long
time. The Lord was pleased to reveal
it to me. And that was until my thirties.
My! It was hid to me before I...
I had no clue who God was. Not even... I had a God in my
own imagination, but He sure wasn't the God of the Bible.
He was hid. And whom the God of this world,
look at that, Satan, has blinded the minds of Them which believe
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves. If you find a man preaching himself,
you're not preaching the gospel. We have to exalt Christ, right?
As I said earlier in the message, he has to have all the preeminence.
Now we may tell you some of our experiences as gospel preachers,
but we're exalting Christ. He's the one who gets all the
preeminence, right? But if you get a man who's talking about
himself and what he does, and what you have to do, and there's
no mention of Christ, that man's not preaching the gospel. As
Paul said right here, we preach Christ. We preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Christ's
sake, for Jesus' sake. The preachers are God's servants.
We're servants to the congregation. You know, a preacher's called
to serve. Yeah. It's true. Not call the Lord
over anyone. We're called to preach the gospel
and be servants where God sends us to. My. We preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake
because of him because of what he's done Look at this. I love
this. This is what God's done for every one of us as believers
for God now look doesn't say well man walked in Nile or For
God who commanded the light to what? To shine out of darkness
now. I'll tell you what you ever try
walking somewhere in the dark when you're at home at night
I've done a few times. I got turn lights on now and
I end up banging into walls. I gotta have the light on my
phone now when I go in my room at night. And you know what,
sometimes when it's so dark, you can't see nothing. You're
just groping around, looking, where's the light switch, right? Or feel, oh, we've all done this,
right? You get out of bed and you start
walking, you're like, where's the wall? You got your hand in
front so you don't hit the wall, right? Oh, my. But you can't see it until the
light comes on, right? Oh, my. Look at this. For God
who commanded the light to shine. It's God who commanded the light
to shine in our hearts. The shine of the darkness hath
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He's given us
faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not groping
around in the darkness anymore, beloved. Now we see through a
glass darkly, Paul said. We don't understand everything
that's going on, but we have our hope, don't we? And that's
Christ. We're led by the light. He who is light of the world,
we're led by him. Christ was manifest to those
who the father gave him out of this world is again We see it
in in verse 4 of our text or our chapter go to John chapter
17 verse 4 I glorified thee on the earth I have finished the
work which thou gavest me to do and that was to save his people
from their sins You know scripture declares this
of of God and And he was in the world, and the world was made
by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and
his own received him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name, which were born, not of the blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God. John chapter one, verses 10 to 13. Let's read verse six
again, take note again. And notice we read this. Do you
know what Christ is doing? He's interceding for us. We're going to see at the end
of this prayer, and we've seen it so far too, Christ is interceding
for his people. This is before we were even born,
beloved. He's interceding for us in the
garden. Look at this. 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 my word."
Here's the great interceder right here. The mediator between God
and man. The one mediator between God
and man. The man Christ Jesus. Who gave himself a ransom for
all. Who did he give a ransom for all? All his people. All
that the Father gave him. He said, I don't pray for the
whole world, remember? He says, but I pray for those who gave
me. And if he gave his life a ransom for all, that's not everybody
in the world, because then he failed, right? Because there's
people in hell. But our Lord, he didn't fail, did he? No, he
didn't fail. He redeemed every one of his
people. Every single one that the Father gave him in love,
he's redeemed them. Why? Because he loves them. See,
that's what drove him there, beloved, was his love for you
and I. That's what drove him to die
for us. to give his life for us, to shed
his blood for us. What love, what love he has for
us. He says, where I am, you're going
to be there. Oh my. And you notice too, he presents
himself I have manifest thy name unto the men which thou gavest
me out of this world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, and they have kept thy word. The great interceder here
is interceding for his people, and he presents his own along
with himself in this prayer. Because remember,
he said, I finished the work. And now he's presenting all those
the Father gave him with himself. Note the connection between he
and his people. Again, he's the head and they're the body. He
reminds me how long ago the prophet of old said, Behold, I and the
children whom the Lord hath given me were one, were one with Christ. It was a fulfillment of that
which had been so strikingly foreshadowed by the high priest
of Israel. Aaron, scripture says this, and
Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the
breastplate of his judgment upon his heart. Here he's going before
the Father, the High Priest, and he's bearing our names with
him before the Father. The breastplate of judgment upon
his heart, and when he goeth into the holy place for a memorial
before the Lord continually, Exodus 28-29. So here before
us we see our great High Priest going before the Father, in the
presence of the Father, and He bores the names of His people
upon His heart. He's praying for us, beloved.
He's praying for all the Father gave Him. My, oh my. Note in our text that
the Lord brings forth that He has manifested the Father's name
to those whom the Father has given Him. It says this again,
I have manifest 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. He's manifested the Father's
name to them. You know, Christ is the only revelation of the
Father. If you don't know Christ, you'll
never know the Father. But if you know Christ, you know
the Father. Remember he said to one of his
disciples, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And when the Son manifests the
Father's name to chosen sinners, He assures us of our adoption. He makes us to know that God
is our Father. He makes us to know that Christ is our elder
brother. He makes us to know that the Holy Spirit is our comforter.
He makes us know that Christ is our Savior. He makes us to
know that He's our Redeemer. He makes us to know that heaven
will be our home. He makes us know that we're heirs
of God and joint heirs with Christ. Why? All because of the Father's
eternal love, unchanging love towards us. We are His by choice. And He loves us. And we're given
to the Son, who loves us also, with an everlasting, unchanging
love. And what else is revealed to
us? That Christ is the righteousness of God. He is the righteousness
of God. And that our God is the only
God. As He said in Isaiah, right?
The one true God. Our God is a just God. Sovereign
God. And praise be to God, He's the
one true living God. And we've been saved. He's also
the saving God, isn't He? He's the saving God, all according
to His plan and purpose. And it's impossible to know the
words of God until you've been made to receive them by grace. Oh, He is the revealed Word of
God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know Him as the incarnate
God now, don't we? We know him as the sent one of
God. We know the Lord Jesus Christ
is the only divinely appointed substitute and savior of sinners. We know him as the only accepted
sacrifice by God for the sins of all his people. And this wonderful
salvation comes to us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ
by his precious, precious shed blood. He is the Lamb of God,
which takes away the sins of the world. He takes away the
sins of all his people, beloved. Gone! Gone as far as the east
is from the west. And marvel at this wonderful
truth. Think about this. I'm going to close with this.
Think about this. We belong to God by creative right. He created
us. He created us. We belong to Him.
He's our Creator. We're the works of His hands.
We also belong to God. We are the people of God by His
sovereign right. As King of kings and Lord of
lords, He has the sovereign right to choose whomever He shall save. We are His by-fatherly right. His love has everlastingly been
set upon us, the Father's love. And if we belong to God, we belong
to the one who is all wise, the one who can keep us, the one
who has the power to keep us, and the one who loves us with
unchanging love. And I ask you, are we safe then? Oh my, we're safe in Christ,
aren't we? safe, safe, safe in Christ. We're
in the city of refuge and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Praise his name.