The following message was delivered
on Sunday evening, November 27, 1994, at the Trinity Baptist
Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may we unite our hearts in
doing precisely what we have just sung, that is, with confidence
to draw nigh to the throne of grace to cry, Abba, Father, and
in particular to call upon our God for this our special time
of need for the illuminating ministry of God the Holy Spirit
upon all of our hearts. Let us pray together. Our Father, we thank you for
all of the great realities that have impinged upon our ears and
entered the chambers of our minds this night. and the opening scripture
in which we beheld our Lord Jesus coming forth upon that white
horse of triumph and victory and power to crush all of his
and his people's enemies, his vesture dipped in blood. O Lord, we tremble when we think
of what it will be when the Lord Jesus, who for these many centuries
has sent forth the overtures of His mercy, has stood by the
door, inviting men to come. O God, to think of the terror
when His wrath shall be unleashed, and He will come as we have seen
Him in the Word, with His vestures dipped in the blood of His enemy.
O God, these are sobering realities, and we pray that Your Holy Spirit
will help us as we come to Your Word. May we be those described
by Your servant Isaiah the prophet who come with poor and contrite
spirit and who tremble at Your Word. We ask the help of the
Holy Spirit for preacher and for listener alike that together
we may all be conscious that we are being caught up in your
presence as you by the Spirit bring the Word to our hearts. Hear us, bind the powers of darkness
that the Word may run and have free course and be glorified
amongst us. We ask through our Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen. Now I'm approaching the Ministry
of the Word tonight in the assumption that most of you were here for
the Ministry of the Word this morning. And for the sake of
the few who may not fit into that category, let me introduce
our study by giving a very contracted review of the central issues
addressed in the Ministry of the Word this morning. In the
course of opening up a number of texts, which I believe Bill
has entitled, Texts for Tried and Proven Saints, or something
like that. I'm not very good at these titles,
but they are texts that I have deliberately chosen that I trust
will be a means of encouragement and comfort and the strengthening
of the faith of those who, having come through this period of intense
self-examination through the summer months, have on biblical
grounds come to renewed convictions that they are indeed the true
children of God having entered the narrow gate and are presently
walking upon the restricted way that leads to life. And in the
course of opening up such texts, we came to Hebrews 7 and verse
25, where the writer to the Hebrews declares, Wherefore he that is
the Lord Jesus in his office, and function as a high priest,
he is able to save to the uttermost those that draw near unto God
through him, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them. And after expounding that text
with its assuring affirmation, he is able to save to the uttermost
them that draw near unto God through him, and its satisfying
explanation, seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them,
the response of many of you was such that I believed it would
be helpful to expand this biblical doctrine of the intercessory
work of the Lord Jesus on behalf of his people. And so, in doing
that, we consider the place in which he intercedes, at the right
hand of God, before the face of God, Romans 8,34 and Hebrews
9, 24, the ground of his intercession,
namely his once-for-all sacrifice for sin, and we establish that
again on Romans 8.34, and the context of Hebrews 7.25 and Hebrews
9, and the Old Testament typology of the priesthood in which the
priest activity was carried on at the brazen altar and at the
golden altar. before the veil in sacrifice,
through the veil in the immediate presence of God in intercession. Then this morning we began to
address what I call the specific concerns or the content of His
intercession. Do the Scriptures give us any
data to help us to have some clear understanding of what it
is for which our Lord intercedes at the right hand of the father. And in response to that question,
we examine together Luke 22 verses 31 and 32, the incident in which
our Lord speaks to Peter saying, Simon, Simon, Satan has desired
all of you to sit you as wheat, but I have prayed for you, Simon,
prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not, and when you have turned
again, strengthen your brethren. Now tonight we shall consider
two more passages which give us some insights into the specific
concerns of the intercession of the Lord Jesus. And I want
to state, for the sake of any who wonder why I have not turned
to Hebrews 2 or Hebrews 4, that Christ's ministry at the right
hand of the Father as our High Priest is not exclusively a ministry
of intercession. It is also a ministry of succoring
His people, and that's the emphasis of Hebrews chapter 2. It is also
the ministry of mediating our approaches to God, the emphasis
of Hebrews chapter 4. But I'm concerned with the more
limited dimensions of his present priestly work of intercession,
and this is why I have not addressed those passages, because they
enter into a broader sphere of the more glorious aspects, or
further glorious aspects, of the continuous high priestly
ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now having considered the Luke
22 passage, I would be very surprised if many of you have not already
anticipated that we would be considering tonight John chapter
17 as the second major passage that gives us some indication
of the contours of the basic patterns and concerns of the
present intercessory ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. This
passage has often been designated as our Lord's high priestly prayer. And it is obvious from verse
13 that our Lord Jesus prayed this prayer in the hearing of
at least some of his disciples that it might be recorded for
our instruction. Look at verse 13. In the midst
of the prayer, he says, But now I come to thee. And these things
I speak in the world, that they may have my joy made full in
themselves. So that our Lord was conscious
that His prayer was not only addressed to His Father, for
that it was, according to verse 1, these things spake Jesus,
and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, Father, the hour is
come. But he was also conscious that
his prayer was not only the genuine engagement of his own heart in
prayer with the Father, but that it was also to be instructive
to his disciples. These things I speak in the world,
that they may have my joy made full in themselves. Now, generally
speaking, it is not appropriate to preach in our prayers. However,
there are times when it is proper to consider our prayers not only
as real addresses to God our Father in heaven, but a source
of instruction to those who hear us pray, and if that is wrong,
then Christ sinned because He consciously did that in this
prayer. Now the basic outline of this
prayer is clear to anyone who reads it with any degree of thoughtfulness. In the first five verses, Christ
is praying primarily for himself or with respect to himself. Then, in verses 6-19, he is praying
for the eleven disciples, and then, beginning with verse 20
to the end, he is praying for all of his people at all times
and in all places. However, as in many parts of
the Upper Room discourse, John chapters 13, 14, and 15, there
are some things that are said of the apostles that are true
of them, not because they were apostles, but because they were
believers, and therefore those things are in a one-to-one way. For example, in John 15, when
he says, Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself, so neither can you, except you abide in me. That is not spoken to them because
they are apostles, but those truths are spoken to them as
believers. And therefore, when preaching
that part of John 15, we need make no qualification in its
one-to-one application to us. However, there are other parts
in which our Lord says that when the Spirit is come, He will guide
you into all the truth. Well, that has a unique fulfillment
in the apostles, who were the foundation stones in the doctrine
delivered to them by the Lord Jesus Christ. And we cannot apply
that in a one-to-one way as we can other parts. Well, in the
same way, when we come to this prayer, there are things in the
section where the apostles particularly are in our Lord's perspective
and within the scope of His vision, verses 6-19, that are said of
them and prayed for them, not primarily as apostles, but because
they were believers in Himself. They were designated, for example,
in verse 8, the words which you gave me I have given unto them. They received them and knew of
the truth that I came forth from thee, and they believed that
you sent me. Well, you see, that's the very
essence of saving faith in all ages, to receive the words of
Christ. and by the illuminating ministry
of the Holy Spirit to believe that Christ is the one sent of
God to be the Savior of sinners. Now with that broad introduction,
let us together consider the four major concerns of the intercessory
ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ as found in John 17. And I believe you will see and
be convinced that these four central concerns of His intercession
are the central concerns applicable to all of His people in all ages
and in all circumstances, and therefore that we have warrant
to believe that at the right hand of the Father, whatever
the peculiar mode of His intercessory labor and work may be, whether
verbal or nonverbal, that these four strands of concern are the
burden of the intercessory ministry of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
the first is what I'm calling the preservation of His own. And note this emphasis in verses
11, 12, and 15. I am no more in the world. And these are in the world, and
I come to thee. You see, our Lord is already
envisioning Himself as leaving the world. He was in the world
when He prayed this, but He prays it from the perspective of having
already left the world and then about to leave the world. I am
no more in the world, and these are in the world, and I come
to Thee." So you see there is a strong suggestion that the
burden of this prayer goes into the estate of our Lord's exaltation
when He would go back to the Father. And then He prays, Holy
Father, Keep them in thy name which thou hast given me, that
they may be one even as we are. While I was with them, I kept
them in thy name which thou hast given me, and I guarded them,
and not one of them is perished, but the son of perdition. That is, not one of those whom
you gave to me has perished, but the Son of Perdition has
perished and will perish in order that the Scriptures might be
fulfilled. The Son of Perdition was never
of the number of those whom you gave to me. Those who were given
to me I have kept. But now, he says, I am coming
to you, and therefore, Father, and notice, The Lord Jesus calls
him Holy Father. He who knew the Father as none
of us knows Him. He who knew Him in a relationship
in which sin never disrupted the communion was not flipped
in the presence of His Father. Flippancy and lightness is not
a mark of faith and of piety, but of low views of God and of
an unsanctified heart. But his burden for them is that
the Father would keep them. Verse 15, I pray not that you
should take them from the world but that you should keep them
from the evil, or from the evil one. So do you see the burden
now of these verses? Verse 11, I am coming to you,
I have kept them, now Holy Father, keep them in your name which
you have given me. While I was with them, I kept
them, I guarded them, not one of them perished. I pray not
that you should take them out of the world, the theater of
their spiritual danger, the theater of spiritual opposition, the
place where there will be struggles with remaining sin and with the
world and with the evil one, but that from the evil or from
the evil one. Now, it is clear from the Scriptures
that you and I are commanded to keep ourselves in the love
of God. Jude, in verse 20. In 1 John
5.21, we are commanded to guard ourselves from idols. And in
1 John 5.18, we are told that the true believer keeps himself
And though we are active in this whole process of being kept and
preserved, ultimately our confidence that we will be preserved in
the way that is consistent with persevering faith and holiness
is not in our endeavors, is not in our efforts, it is not in
our prayers, not in our mortification, but ultimately our confidence
is in our Lord Jesus Christ who died that we might be preserved
to His everlasting kingdom and who intercedes at the right hand
of the Father with one of the focal points of His intercession
being the preservation of His own. But then, secondly, he prays
not only for the preservation of his own, but for the sanctification
of his own. Verses 17 through 19. Sanctify
them in the truth. Thy word is truth. as you did send me into the world,
even so sent I them into the world, and for their sakes I
sanctify myself, that is, I set myself apart unto you, my God,
for the remaining redemptive activity that must be accomplished
here upon the earth, I must yet go through the ordeal of the
cross, the forsakenness, and the abandonment of Golgotha,
and for their sakes I set myself apart, that they themselves also
may be sanctified in truth." Sanctify them. Verse 17. This sanctifying work is to be
done in the realm of truth, and that truth is to be identified
with the very Word of the Living God. And this sanctification
that is to be effected by the influence of the truth, the Word
of God, upon His people, is a sanctification that flows out of the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus. I set myself apart to die, that
they may be a sanctified people." And so he prays for the sanctification
of his own, that there may be a moral and ethical transformation
by the power of God, which was one of the great ends for which
he died. He prays, make them holy in the
truth, And as Hendrickson comments, that they may be set apart from
the world by actual sanctification of life, so that in thought,
words and deeds, they may live more and more in accordance with
the will of God. Now again, our Lord knows the
enemies that will face His people in this process. He knows that
by saying, I pray not that you should take them out of the world,
that He's leaving them in the theater, where there are all
kinds of things that are in no way sympathetic to or productive
of their sanctification. And yet it is for this that he
intercedes, that in this world where sin is active and seducing,
where error is present and often exerts its subtle influence upon
the minds of men, he is praying, O Father, sanctify them in the
truth, Thy Word is truth." So His intercessory work has as
its focus not only our preservation in the way of persevering faith
and holiness, guarded from the powers of sin and of evil, but
that we should also, in a positive way, be a sanctified people. It is one thing to be preserved
from the things which, if they had their way, would destroy
us and damn us. It is quite another thing to
know the dynamics of grace that are conforming us more and more
to the likeness and image of the Lord Jesus. And so at the
right hand of the Father, even this hour, He prays for His own,
that they shall not only be preserved, but He prays for their sanctification. He is praying that what you hear
of the word of truth tonight will not go in one ear and out
the other ear. but that it will, by the influence
of the Spirit, sink down into your heart and have an impact
upon your life and enable you, by the grace and power of God,
to be a more sanctified man, woman, boy, or girl. But then notice, thirdly, that
the burden of this prayer is not only the preservation of
his own, the sanctification of his own, but he prays for the
unification of his own. Verses 20-23, neither for these
only do I pray. Notice the transition now from
praying for the eleven Neither for these, O me, do I pray, but
for them also that believe on me through their word." And it's
very interesting in the original, it's a present tense of the word
believe. He envisions them as already
coming to faith through the apostolic word or message. Not only do
I pray for the eleven, but for them also that are believing
on word or message. So certain is
it that that message preached by the apostles will accomplish
its divine intention and design that our Lord can envision them
as already coming to faith. And He says, neither for these
only do I pray, but for them also that believe on Me through
their word. that they may all be one, even
as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they may also
be in us, that the world may believe that thou didst send
me, And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto
them, that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them, and
thou in me, that they may be perfected into one, that the
world may know that thou didst send me, and lovest them." You
see how I emphasize the word, one, one, one. Lord is praying
for the unification of His own. Now I must pause and say that
many of us have a negative, knee-jerk reaction to these verses. And
for a very good reason. There has been over the past
several decades a worldwide movement called the ecumenical movement. And it is a movement that would
seek to take now not even just Christian religions, but even
non-Christian religions, and make them all one massive religion,
all having their own ways to God. But back before that became
part of the ecumenical movement, the spearhead of that movement
was people who denied almost every fundamental doctrine in
the Bible. The doctrine of God, the doctrine
of sin, the doctrine of creation, the doctrine of substitutionary
atonement, justification by faith, regeneration by the supernatural
agency of the Holy Spirit, there was no portion, no sacred truth
of the Word of God that they did not treat with disdain and
arrogance. And about the only verses they
treated as though they had any worth whatsoever were these verses,
that they may be won. That was their great watchword.
That's the banner of the ecumenical movement. Surely if Christ said
anything worthy of being listened to, it's these words, that they
may be won. And so all the religious leaders
with all of their stupid garb and their big gobby crosses hanging
around their necks and miters on their heads and all kinds
of things that make them look like grown-up kids going trick-or-treating
gather in their councils and plot how we're going to all become
one. Well, that's as far removed from
the prayer of Jesus as heaven is from hell. Remember for whom
Christ is praying in this prayer. He's praying for His own. They are described seven times
in this prayer as those whom the Father had given Him. In other words, He's praying
for the elect. Seven times He makes it clear
that He's praying for those whom the Father had given Him. Four times in this prayer he
describes them as those who are not of the world. They have undergone
such a radical, transforming work of God the Holy Ghost that
they are no longer a part of this world system. He describes them as those who
have received the words of Christ. Verse 8, The words which thou
gavest me I have given unto them, and they have received them,
and they knew of the truth that I came forth from thee, and they
believed that you sent me. Who is he praying for? He's praying
for those who do not sit as judges over the Bible, but who sit under
the judgment of the Bible. He's praying for a people who
have been humbled to embrace Christ as their prophet, and
they receive His words, not only His words about oneness and His
words about love one another, but His words about a place where
the worm dies not and the fire is never quenched. His words
about a place where there's weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. His words about cutting off right
hands and plucking out right eyes. His words about taking
up a cross and denying self. His words about needing to love
Him more than father, mother, brother, sister, yea, and our
own lives also, or we cannot be His disciples. And those whom
he envisions as coming into the orbit of his prayers are described
further on, as we've already noted in verse 20, those that
believe on him through the apostolic message. That's what the phrase
their word means. When you find their word, it
means their message. And what was the apostolic message? Christ died for our sins according
to the scriptures, and he was buried, and he was raised again
from the dead on the third day according to the scriptures,
and he was seen, and he was seen, and he was seen. No, these words
for the unification of His own are not words that can be taken
and held up as a banner for an ecumenical movement that has
no respect for the words of Christ, for the uniqueness of the person
of Christ, for the finality of the apostolic testimony to Christ. They have no right to these words. none whatsoever. And having sought
to blast them away from them so that we can rightly lay hold
of them, he nonetheless prays for the unification of his own,
doesn't he? Whatever abuse Ecumenists may make of the passage, surely
we cannot avoid that Jesus is praying in his intercessory work
for the unification of his own. I am praying, verse 21, that
they may all be one, and this thought staggers me. even as
you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they may be in us,
that the world may believe that you did send me. Verse 23, verse
22, the latter part, that they may be one, even as we are one,
I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one. He's praying for the unification
of his own. And what is that unification
for which he prays? Well, at least on the surface
of it, it involves these two things. It is, first of all,
the vital spiritual union of believers with the Father and
with the Son. the vital spiritual union of
believers with the Father and the Son. He is praying that those
who already believe on Him, and those who shall believe through
the apostolic word, that they may all be one, as you, Father,
are in me, and I in thee, that they may be in us, that the world
may believe that you sent me. In other words, The validation
of the mission of Christ is predicated upon the effect of a vital union
with Christ and with the Father. For if any man be in Christ,
as we heard from this pulpit a few weeks ago, a new creation,
the old has passed definitively. finality. The new has come and
remains, and it is that union for which our Lord is praying. And then the vital spiritual
unit are believers with each other. Verse 23, I in them, thou
in me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may
know that you did send me and lovest them even as you You loved
me. This is not an organizational
union. It is a vital spiritual union
of believers with each other as they come to drink of the
same spirit as they are brought to a saving faith response to
the same gospel. So our Lord is praying for that
unification of His own, which is spiritual in its nature, which
is predicated upon His own sovereign electing grace of His people,
the word of the gospel coming to them and being received upon
the authority of apostolic testimony and declaration, and embracing
Christ for who He is revealed to be, the one scent of the Father. And that prayer has not been
frustrated, for indeed there always has been this vital spiritual
union of believers with the Father and with the Son, and a vital
spiritual union of believers one with another. For the scripture
says there is one body. Not there ought to be, but there
is one body, even as there is one faith, one Lord, one baptism. one God and Father of us all
who is over all and in us all. And so our Lord is praying at
the right hand of the Father, even tonight, not only for the
preservation of His own, the sanctification of His own, but
the unification of His own. And every time God, by the Spirit
through the Word, brings a sinner to own his state as a sinner
and perceive the glory of God in the face of Christ crucified
and risen. And that sinner is regenerated
by the Spirit. and repents and believes on the
Lord Jesus Christ, and is given the gift of the ascended Christ,
even the gift of the indwelling Spirit, that prayer is answered. That sinner enters into vital
life union with the Father and with the Son, and into a vital
spiritual life union with all of the true people of God. And
then there is a fourth thing for which our Lord prays in His
high priestly prayer, and it's the apex of the prayer and the
apex of the hope and longing of every true believer, and that
is the glorification of His own. Verse 24. Father, I desire a
use of the verb fellow, which often is translated I will, I
will, I desire, that they also, whom you have given me, be with
me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which you have
given me, for you loved me before the foundation of the world."
Do you see how the Lord is in His own Spirit in this prayer
already at the right hand of the Father? Do you see that in
the prayer? Father, I desire that they whom you have given
me be with me where I am." Was he praying that we'd forever
be here on earth? No. He's envisioning himself
as back at the right hand of the Father. The days of his humiliation
over, having entered into his exaltation, now the object of
the adoring wonder of angels and seraphim and cherubim and
the spirits of just men made perfect. And he says, Father,
I desire that they whom you have given me be with me. where I am. What is heaven? With Christ, wherever He is. That's it. With Christ, wherever
He is. And isn't that the picture of
the redeemed in heaven given to us in the book of the Revelation
that says, and they follow the Lamb withersoever he goeth. It was very interesting after
church this morning as I was making my way back up through
those who mingled sitting in the various places after everyone
had made their exodus out the back doors as they often do.
I saw a young man sitting next to his dad and his dad talking
to another adult. I said to the little fella, I
said, how come you're not out with the other kids? No kids
your own age? Or is it because you just want to be with your
dad? He said, I just want to be with my dad. And I sat down,
put my arm around him, and I said, I'm so glad you just want to
be with your dad. Well, take that and augment it.
I don't know how many times over. The deepest yearning of every
true Christian is expressed in the language of the psalmist,
I shall be satisfied when I awake beholding thy form. Psalm 17 and verse 50. Or in the language of Psalm 73,
Whom have I in heaven but thee? And there is none that I desire
upon earth besides thee. Or the language of Paul, I am
in a strait betwixt two things. I have a desire to depart and
to be with Christ, which is far better. A desire to depart and
to be with Christ and the Lord Jesus said, My desire, my prayer,
my will for all whom you, Father, have given to me is that their
deepest desire will be met by the desire of my own intercession,
that they may be with me where I am to what end. They may run
up and down literal streets of gold with a penknife whacking
off hunks of gold until their pockets burst in eating grapes
the size of baseballs. No, no, no, look at the language. That they may be with me where
I am. That they may behold my glory. That they may behold my glory. Why does he pray? that they may
be glorified with a glorification that will mean that they'll be
with him where he is to behold his glory. Because he knows that
in all those in whom he has worked his grace, that is the heaven
of heavens to every one of them. To be with him where he is to
behold him in his glory. You see, through the gospel,
what have they come to see? 2 Corinthians 4, 6. Once they
were blinded by the God of this world. They could hear of Christ
as some of you sitting here. And when people get excited about
Christ, they couldn't get excited. Why? The God of this world blinds
the minds of the unbelieving, lest the light of the gospel
of the glory of Christ should dawn upon them. But Paul says
in verse 6 of 2 Corinthians 4, look at the text, 2 Corinthians
4, in verse 6, what does he say is the very essence of God's
work in converting grace? Here it is, 2 Corinthians 4,
in verse 6, Light shall shine out of darkness,
a reference to the original creation. And God said, let there be light. And light was not created outside
of the darkness and then forced into the darkness. But God spoke
into the darkness and out of the darkness. Light shone by
his creative word, seeing it is God that said light shall
shine out of darkness. who shined in our hearts, he
spoke a redemptive, saving, creative word of power, and in our darkened
hearts the light went on. The first thing that the light
illuminated was the face of Jesus, and what we saw in it was not
someone who was trying to cut in on our turf and make life
miserable. We did not see some anemic, half
effeminate, pitiable Jesus drooping while he knocks at the door,
waiting for people to let him in. What did we see? Look at
the text. We saw the light of the glory
of God. in the face of Jesus Christ. Something of the very outshining
of all the perfections of God, as a God of holiness and justice
and power and love and mercy, we saw something of the mingled
rays of all the outshining of the beauty of God reflected in
the face of Christ. And when we so saw Him, we couldn't
do anything other and throw the whole weight of our guilty, helpless
souls upon Him, and in the process throw ourselves away at His feet. And from that point on, a true
Christian has as his greatest yearning, if I have seen just
His glory reflected in the Gospel, what will it be to see Him face
to face, face to face with Christ my Savior, Face to face, what
will it be when with rapture I behold Him, Jesus Christ, who
died for me? Face to face, I shall behold
Him far beyond the starry sky. Face to face, I shall behold
That's the glorification. And what will that involve? Well,
it means we must be kept in the way of faith and holiness until
the hour of our death or until the moment of His return. We
must be kept in the way of faith and of holiness. As we saw in
the prayer of Jesus for Peter this morning, Satan has desired
to sift you as wheat. He is accusing that you are nothing
but chaff and wishes to demonstrate it. So I'm allowing to agitate and to shake. But,
Peter, the root of the matter is in you, and I am praying that
the real faith that has already been implanted in your heart
will not fail and be totally eclipsed. And when that faith
has caused you to turn again, strengthen your brethren. It
means we must be preserved through death itself. The thought of
dying is not a pleasant thought. And you're not unspiritual if
you fear the experience of dying. Because you've never had it before. And it's an unnatural experience.
You've not known, apart from your dreams and apart from the
thoughts that you have when your eyes are closed and your mind
is ruminating, that's the closest you can come to even thinking
of existence apart from bodily reality. All you've ever known
is an existence in which all that you are, as a thinking,
feeling, rational, loving creature is connected with fingers and
feet and hands and tongue and eyes. The thought of this unnatural
wrenching apart of soul and spirit is a frightening thing. While
the Christian may have a sense of dread at the thought of dying
as an experience, He does not fear death in terms of what it
can do to him. For he knows that to be absent
from the body is to be present with the Lord. He knows that
the moment that violent, unnatural wrenching of soul and spirit
is effected, that that very moment, that spirit will be made utterly
perfect in holiness and join the company of the spirits of
just men made perfect. And if you see this prayer of
our Lord is to be answered, it means that our remains that have
gone into the earth and may lie there for a year, a decade, a
hundred years, a millennium, It matters not if Christ is praying
that we may be with Him where He is to behold His glory. He has bodily existence where
He is, and with eyes I shall behold. Not a disembodied spirit
alone, but in a glorified, resurrected body like unto His own. That's
what he's praying for, child of God, because that's what he
died to effect when he groaned upon the tree. When he poured
out his soul unto death, he was procuring a redemption of your
whole being, body and soul. your non-material essence and
entity, along with your physical existence and entity, He died
that He might redeem the whole of you. And by His intercession,
He will secure the end of His death in all whom the Father
has given to Him. What an encouragement it should
be for us As the years pass, and for many of us, the realization
that should the Lord delay His coming, we're going down the
other side of the hill, and we're going at breakneck speed. All
of you over 50 know what I'm talking about. That right now,
as we anticipate that our days to live and serve and love and
laugh and weep and sorrow and grieve, are going to pass swifter
than a weaver's shuttle, that at the right hand of the Father
right now, my Savior is praying for me, Father I will, that that
one, and this one, and that one, and this one, and this one, and
that one, and the other one, whom you have given me, be with
me where I am, that they may behold my glory. And remember, this is the Christ
who said, I know that thou hearest me always. May I say it reverently? I'm as good as there. I'm as
good as there. And by faith is a sense in which
I can be there. We are saved in hope, the scripture
says. And upon the great reality of
the efficacy of the intercession of Christ, we rest the whole
weight of our presence, souls, in all of their need and vulnerability
and weakness and the reality that the outward man is indeed
decaying. As the aches and the pains and
the awareness of that decay increase with the passing of the years,
What a wonderful thing to know we have an interceding high priest
who will not be satisfied until we are with him where he is beholding
his glory. Oh dear child of God, isn't this
enough to make you dance with joy in the prospect of what is
yours? Because Christ is an ever-living
effective high priest. He is able to say to the uttermost
all that come unto God by him, seeing he ever lives, to make
intercession for them And as surely as we give thanks to our
Lord Jesus for dying in our room instead, let us in new measures
continue to thank Him that He lives and appears in the presence
of God for Hebrews 9.14, not only to succor us and to make
our prayers and praises and worship acceptable to the Father, that's
a whole other dimension of His high priestly work, but He's
there interceding for us. Interceding for us as He did
for Peter. And those great principles that
we focused upon this morning, there controlling the measure
of Satan's access to us, anticipating our need, praying that our faith
fail not, securing our restoration to the way of spiritual life
and vigor, and then for all of his people praying for their
preservation, sanctification, praying for their unification,
and their glorification. Blessed be God for such a Savior. If you're here tonight and you're
not a Christian, do you see why? Do you see why? Can you at least
begin to grasp a little bit of why we Christians are a funny
bunch in your eyes? We can be relatively indifferent
to the things that the world gets all excited about. Can you
see why we can't quite share the level of your enthusiasm
about politics and about your favorite basketball or football
team or these other things? Yes, we're in this world and
we want to be aware of what's going on in this world, but do
you see with such prospects before us why we can't be like Bunyan's
muckraker? Do you remember him? And His
eyes downward in His wraith was always there, raking over the
muck of this world. We can't be muckrakers, because
we know we have a Savior praying that we will be with Him where
He is to behold His glory. And that keeps our hearts in
another world, and causes us to sit loosely with the things
of this life. In the language of the Apostle
Paul, we look not on the things that are seen, but the things
that are not seen. The things that are seen are
temperate, but the things that are not seen are eternal. My friend, if these things are
not realities to you, if they don't excite and thrill your
own heart, it's because you're a muckraker. You're of this world,
and with this world you'll perish unless you flee to Christ. Unless
you are united to Christ, unless you are brought to the place
where you are described in this prayer, that you have received
His words, and you have known that the Father has sent Him,
and Christ has become to you the pearl of great price. You've
entrusted the weight of your soul to Him. You've seen Him
in the beauty that captures you, and you have joyfully said, Here,
Lord, I give myself away. that I can do. The third passage
will have to lead to another time. We spent our time on John
17, and I hope at least this brief overview of this priestly
prayer of our Lord will be the beginning of much meditation
and reflection on that portion of the Word of God in the days
to come. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you this
night for the wonderful reality of our Lord Jesus ever living
to intercede for us. Oh, we thank you that His intercession
even now secures to all your people the fruit of His sacrifice
upon the cross, and that by His virtue by His constant labor
in intercession for us and all the supplies of grace that come
to us by the Holy Spirit, that we shall be preserved, that we
shall be sanctified, that we shall be unified and glorified. For we know that our Lord Jesus
does not intercede in vain. We pray for those who know nothing
of these realities in their own experience. Make them jealous,
O God, as they face death and the grave and the endless ages
of eternity that stretch out before them. O God, may the thought
of a Christless eternity, never seeing the face of Christ, the
company of the devil and the damned, O may it strike terror
to their hearts and give them no rest until they flee to Christ,
as he invites them to himself in the gospel. Seal your word,
O God, we plead, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.