Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to Romans chapter 8, and reading
for our text, verse 34, but just the last part of that verse. Who also maketh intercession
for us. The intercession of our Lord
Jesus Christ. The whole verse reads, Who is
he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. The verse of our text, it begins,
who is he that condemneth? In the beginning of the chapter,
we read, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus. And it is a reminder that by
nature, we are under condemnation. As Adam fell, so did also sin
come upon all the human race, and death came upon all, and
all have sinned, and therefore all are under the curse. Cursed
is he that continueth not in all things written in the law
to do them. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God, and therefore All by nature are under condemnation. The provision in the Lord Jesus
Christ is a deliverance from that condemnation. It does not
make those who are partakers of it to be sinless in this life,
but it does make them that their sins are pardoned and forgiven,
and that they desire to live holy and upright lives here,
living upon the Lord Jesus Christ, following Him and not following
their sinful and corrupt nature. And it is the provisions of the
Gospel in the Lord Jesus Christ in what He has done upon the
cross and what He is doing in heaven that ensures that those
that were given by the Father to the Son to redeem shall be
redeemed, they shall be delivered from their sins and from eternal
condemnation and that after death they shall be in heaven and at
the end of the world their bodies also, the creature that we read
of in this chapter, shall be resurrected and in a glorified
body appear in the presence of God. In this life there is a
conflict between that new nature of faith and spirit of life in
Christ and our old nature, our old flesh. The world also is
the adversary of the people of God and so is Satan himself. We have still a wicked and an
evil heart. And against these things, the
Gospel has a provision, and it is a living Saviour that intercedes
for His people in heaven. Not only did He die, not only
did He rise again, but He is at the right hand of the Father. And in our text, we have a provision
which ensures that those whom the Lord has died to redeem and
has loved with an everlasting love, are brought safely through
this world and brought to be with Him at last. And it is because
the Lord Jesus Christ is at the right hand of God and He makes
intercession for us. Now intercession means intervening
on the behalf of another. This chapter sets forth such
a complete provision in Christ. Even if we don't understand every
verse, every statement, or how it is coming to pass, yet we
cannot escape, in reading this chapter, to see here is a provision
that delivers from condemnation. Here is a provision that ensures
that those that are Christ's and given to him shall never
be separated from the love of Christ. In verse 35 after our
text, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? And there
is set before us the various things of tribulation, distress,
persecution, famine, nakedness, peril or sword. And then the
persuasion at the end, that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. So we cannot escape the fact,
the message of this chapter, is a complete deliverance from
condemnation that doesn't have any weak links in it. And part
of that provision is this intercession of our Lord, Him intervening
on our behalf, speaking for us in heaven's high court for good. So I want to look this evening
at three points. Firstly, the need of intercession
for us. Why do we need someone to speak
on our behalf? Why cannot we do it ourselves? Secondly, the intercessor is
Jesus Christ. He is set forth in the earlier
part of this verse. And then thirdly, the intercession
Jesus makes for us. And in that, and under that heading,
we shall go to John chapter 17, the Lord's beautiful intercessory
prayer, where we find there very clear four headings under which
His intercession falls. Firstly, the need of intercession
for us. We've already mentioned the fall
of our first parents when sin entered into the world, as they
rebelled against God, believed Satan, and so brought upon them
the sentence of death. In the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. They died spiritually, immediately,
not capable then of knowing God, of being with God, of having
fellowship with Him. cast out of the garden, but then
also physical death, that though those first patriarchs lived
many hundreds of years, in the end, they all died. And we all
must die because of sin, and after death, then the judgment. And so in that alienated condition
from God, we cannot come ourselves in the presence of God and speak
for ourselves. God cannot look upon sin without
utter abhorrence and there's none that can see God and live
and that way unto God it needs to be there a mediator, one that
can speak for both sides, one that can stand in the breach,
one that can speak on the behalf of those that sinners and so
we have right from the early history of the world and that
described in the Word of God those illustrations of intercession. We have the case of Abraham when
God saw the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah and Abraham's Lot
was in Sodom and he made intercession to the Lord. Would he destroy
the righteous with the wicked? Would Lot be destroyed as well
with the wicked? And he said that if there be
found fifty in the city, the Lord would not destroy it for
fifty saints. And if there were then lacking
of that 55, the Lord said he would not destroy it. For if
there were 45 righteous people in that city, and he got down
to 10, he would not destroy it for 10's sake. But there were
not 10. And the angels were sent to Sodom,
and Lot was brought out of Sodom. And in the day that he came out,
Then God rained fire and brimstone and destroyed those cities of
the plain for their wickedness. But we read this word, when God
destroyed Sodom, then he remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the
overthrow. And we can see the benefit, the
blessing, the pointing to how effectual intercession was intervening
on his behalf that large part of chapter 18 in Genesis where
Abraham is pleading really for Lot in this situation where he
was living in the midst of wickedness and it's not that where we are
today. The world itself today is very
much like Sodom. men declaring openly their sin
as the sin of Sodom and the people of God in the world, but not
of it. It was said of Lot that he vexed
his righteous soul day to day with their wicked deeds. And
we must needs be in the world. We should be careful where we
pitch our tent, as Lot should have been. But nevertheless,
we have that evil round about us. and we would value the intercession
of one on our behalf in the situation that we are in. We think then
also of Moses for Israel, when Israel had made the golden calf
and they worshipped it, and God was so angry with them that he
said that he would destroy them and that he would raise up Moses
and other people. But Moses pleaded on behalf of
Israel, and he used as his plea God's own word, his own undertaking
to bring them out of Egypt and into the promised land, and that
if he didn't do it, then the nations around would say that
he was not able to, and therefore he destroyed them in the wilderness.
And he pleaded then God's own honour and glory and righteousness,
his faithfulness, and it was an effectual prayer, an intercession
based not upon the goodness of Israel, because they had none.
They had sinned, shamefully sinned. But his intercession was all
based on God himself, God's promises, God's work, and he's a real lesson
to us. of the need of intercession,
of what is effectual intercession. What would not have been effectual
is if Moses had tried to find some good thing about Israel
and prayed that before the Lord. That would not have been effectual.
And for you and I in our prayers as well, when we are under conviction
of sin, when we know we have sinned, don't try and drag up
some goodness and something that we've done as a reason why the
Lord should. have mercy upon us. Remember,
mercy can never be deserved or earned, but when we plead for
mercy, we plead it for Christ's sake, a basis on what He has
done. So we have in Moses a type of
the intercession of our Lord, an illustration of the need of
intercession as the children of Israel needed it. We think
of the case of Samuel. And there's a couple of occasions
when the children of Israel pleaded and said to Samuel, the priest,
that he would make intercession for them to God. One time was
when the Philistines were coming to attack them. That was after
the ark had been in the land of the Philistines. And then
another occasion was when they had desired a king. And again,
the Lord showed his displeasure upon them in sending the thunder
and rain hail on their harvest time. And they, the children
of Israel, desired that Samuel, as their priest, would speak
on their behalf to God, making intercession for them. He did. And again, we have another time
of the need of an intercessor, and one that is provided in the
form of a priest for Israel within the wilderness. It was provided
in Moses. Moses, who said, A prophet shall
the Lord thy God raise up unto you, like unto me, him shall
ye hear. Moses, he spoke of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Then we have another type of
that intercession in the long prayer of Solomon in the dedication
of the temple. In that prayer, he supposed many
situations that the children of Israel would come into, whether
it was in famine or carried away as a captive. or when they knew
the plague of their own heart, and that if they then were to
look and pray toward this place, then hear thou in heaven thy
dwelling place, and when thou hearest, forgive. Now the place
was literally the temple that he'd built, and that temple was
a time of our Lord Jesus Christ. And we have two characters that,
in their times of need, as specifically stated in scripture as looking
toward Jerusalem or looking toward the temple, just as Solomon had
made that intercession, that if they should do that, the Lord
would hear. One of them was Daniel, when
he had been carried away captive and there in Babylon, opening
his window three times a day and making his prayer toward
Jerusalem. Daniel, a man of faith. Yes,
in the first part of Daniel's captivity, the temple would have
been still standing. But then after 25 years or so,
that would have been destroyed. But these would have still been
remembered. Then we have the case of Jonah. Jonah, when he was running away
from the Lord, not doing the Lord's bidding, cast into the
sea, Swallowed up by the fish and in the belly of the fish,
then he cried unto the Lord, I'm cast out of thy sight, yet
will I look again toward thy holy temple. And the Lord spake
unto the fish. He said, Joan had said, salvation
is of the Lord. And the Lord spake unto the fish
and it vomited him out onto the dry ground. And so again, the
intercession is remembered, it is pleaded, it is looked for. And may we be, when we get into
those low places because of our sin, because of what we have
done, because of our captivity, because of being far off from
the Lord, that we remember His intercession. We look to Him. We look to the Lord when we feel
we cannot pray. We read in this chapter, Romans
8, didn't we? The Spirit maketh intercession
for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. To remember that
when we cannot pray, we have one that prays for us and speaks
for us. The hymn writer speaks in the
Joseph Irons in our last hymn, in the hymn book, hymn 1156.
What voice is that which speaks for me in heaven's high court
for good? From the curse has set me free,
it is Jesus' precious blood. And so there are those that had
a mind to the intercession set forth by Solomon in that prayer
of which the Lord said that prayer was heard. Thinking of Daniel,
we have Daniel himself in captivity making that intercession for
his people. In Daniel chapter 9, when Daniel
understood by books that the time of captivity was coming
to an end, then he set himself by prayer and supplication, sackcloth
and fasting, and prayed to the Lord. Made confession, joining
himself with sinful Israel, though he was a godly and upright man
himself, yet he numbers himself with his people. and he makes
intercession for them. We read in the ninth chapter
from verse 17, Now therefore, O our God, hear the prayer of
thy servant and his supplication, and cause thy face to shine upon
thy sanctuary that is desolate for the Lord's sake. Notice what
sake and what he is pleading for the Lord's sake. O my God,
incline thine ear and hear, Open thine eyes and behold our desolations,
and the city which is called by thy name. For we do not present
our supplications before thee for our righteousnesses, but
for thy great mercies. O Lord, hear! O Lord, forgive! O Lord hearken and do defer not
for thine own sake, O my God, for thy city and thy people are
called by thy name. And notice this intercession
that he is praying to God on behalf of his people all the
time. He is doing it for the Lord's
sake and for his name's sake and not for anything good in
Israel. And when we know our sinnership,
When we have nothing in my hand I bring simply to thy cross I
cling. We will value such intercession
as this, because it does not base upon anything good that
we have done. Then we think of the case of
Esther. And I'll just briefly mention
this. You remember in the book of Esther
that Haman had devised to have all of the Jews destroyed. And
Esther had been raised up in the providence of God to be married
to King Ahasuerus and to be then queen. And she was in a position
to speak for her people and to make intercession to the king
for them, that they might not die but that they might live.
And she did that in two parts. She did it first to expose what Haman had done. And then when
that had been exposed, then to put away the mischief and make
a second decree, giving the people power to fight and to resist
against all those that sought to destroy them. When that second
decree was known, it was a cause of great joy to the people. And maybe remember under the
gospel, that our Lord Jesus Christ has dealt with Satan, he's dealt
with our sin, and also given us authority to resist the devil,
and he has promised that he will flee from us, and to fight the
good fight of faith and to lay hold upon eternal life. And though we are weak and our
enemies are strong, yet we have that authority from the King
of kings and Lord of lords. to fight and to seek those things
which are above and not to be under dominion to sin and evil. So we have these types that run
through the scriptures of those that spoke for another and emphasizing
each time that there was need of an intercessor, need of one
to speak on another's behalf and that one was not able to
speak on their own behalf. The effectual way, the gospel
way, is that there is one in heaven, one in an authority,
in a position to be able to speak for us. So on to look then secondly
at who this is, the intercessor Jesus Christ. Now in our text it speaks of
three things that define who he is. It is Christ that died,
yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God. Christ died, Christ rose, Christ
is. at the right hand of God. Thinking of the first point here, if Christ were but a mere man,
a sinful man, then his dying would avail nothing, because
as a sinner, he had no choice but to die. His death would not
have put away his own sins, let alone anyone else's. For Christ
to die and his death to be effectual, he must be truly God, spotless
and sinless. The whole scripture emphasizes
the need of the doctrine of Christ to be right. Let it not be that
he is a created angel, but that he is Immanuel, God with us. The Jews rightly interpreted
our Lord's own words to be that he testified that he was God. They put it in this way, that
thou being a man, makest thyself God. The truth was that he being
God had made himself man. But God and man He is in one
person, two distinct natures. God cannot die, but the Lord
Jesus Christ could, by voluntarily act, to lay down His life. And that is what He did. I have
power to lay down my life, I have power to take it again. This
commandment have I received from my Father. I lay down my life
for the sheep. Those are those whom the Father
gave to him, chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world,
and they are they that he has put their sins away through his
bloodshedding, through his death upon Calvary's tree. There is
in the previous verses here a beautiful linked chain of which we are
told in from verse 29. For whom he did foreknow, he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom
he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called,
them he also justified. and whom He justified, them He
also glorified. We have this link chain. The
link that we know first is the link of calling. When we are
called by God, the same as being born again, the same as being
drawn by the Father to the Son, the same as being regenerated,
the same as being given eternal life, It is that calling that
makes known our election. It makes known that God foreknew
us. It makes known that He had predestinated
us to be in this life His people that know and feel their sin
and therefore are conformed to Christ, who in this life bore
the sins not His own, but of many. to that end, we were then called,
changed, given a new nature. And when that happens, then we
not only can look back to what has been, but look forward. And of course, the chapter that
we're in, Romans 8, then He justified what is justified to set free
from condemnation or account free from guilt, and this whole
chapter sets forth that, and then not only justified, but
glorified, that is brought to heaven to be with the Lord. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
must vitally be made under the law and made of a woman, made
like unto his brethren, but sin accepted, to be in a position
to be able to lay down his life as a ransom, to pay the debt
his people could not pay, to settle accounts for them, to
bear the wrath of God in their place. And this is what is set
forth about the intercessor. It is Christ that died, the one
who is making this intercession, the one who is speaking for his
people, died, laid down his life. Then we have, yea, rather, that
is risen again. He hath given assurance unto
all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead. Death could
have no power upon him, because he had not sinned. And the price
that he'd paid, it shows that it was accepted, an acceptable
sacrifice. Of him he saw no corruption because
there was no cause of death in him. Pilate could not see it,
no, but the Lord knew for whom he died, for whom he has laid
down his life. And so we have the risen saviour,
We may remember how vital and important that this is. There's 40 days between when
Christ rose from the dead and when he ascended up into heaven.
40 days is a testing time, a proving time. Our Lord was tempted 40
days and 40 nights in the wilderness by Satan. A very comparable temptation
to what Adam had. had all the food of the Garden
of Eden, he had everything to the full, he wasn't hungry, he
wasn't in want, but tempted with one forbidden thing, he fell.
And Lord Jesus Christ, he fasted 40 days and afterwards, we are
told, he was unhungered. Then came Satan, command ye these
stones, that they may be made bread. And he was on this premise,
if thou art the Son of God, you command and do it. Our Lord resisted
that temptation. He was not going to be the servant
of Satan, alleviating his own hunger by a miracle and making
himself a servant of Satan, no. Man shall not live by bread only,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. We think
of the children of Israel, 40 years in the wilderness, to try
thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether
thou wouldst serve the Lord or no. We think of the 40 days that
Goliath stood up against Israel, and no deliverer was found, not
in Saul, not in his mighty men, but only in David, when David
was sent by his father to the battle. And so David was propelled
in front of all of Israel as the next king of Israel. 40 days was a vital time. We think of the Ninevites, Jonah,
40 days the city shall be destroyed. It is a testing time. And in
that 40 days after Christ rose from the dead, he appeared to
his disciples, not to the world, to those that were before chosen. Paul has a very clear summary
of that in the first epistle to the Corinthians in chapter
15, where he says that our Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins
according to the scriptures, that he was buried and that he
rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And then we
have the witnesses. seen of Cephas, that is Simon
Peter, then of the twelve, after that, seen above five hundred
brethren at once. And he speaks of James and of
all the apostles and last of all of him. The many witnesses
testify the resurrection of our Lord. When our Lord appeared
in the upper room, they were so fearful that it was a spirit.
The Lord showed them, he said, the spirit doth not have flesh
and bones as ye see me have. Behold my hands and my feet,
that it is I myself. And he ate before them. He proved
to them, as we have stated in our articles of faith, that the
same flesh and bones that hung upon the cross are now glorified
in heaven. And so we have the intercessor,
Jesus Christ, set before us here, not only that died, but yea,
rather, that is risen again, then ascended up, who is at the
right hand of God. How do we know that? We know
when Stephen was being martyred, the stones falling upon him,
he looked up into heaven and he testified to see the Lord
Jesus Christ there. We know also that the disciples,
they were led out as far as to Bethany. He lifted up his hands,
he blessed them, and he was carried from them into heaven. And while
they stood looking up into heaven, there stood by them angels in
wine, saying, ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus that went into
heaven shall come in like manner, and he shall come the second
time without sin unto salvation. We would remember as well that
Elijah was, when he died, when he was to be taken up into heaven,
asked Elisha who was with him, ask a thing that I may give thee
before I am taken from thee. And Elisha asked for a double
portion of his spirit. Elijah said that was a hard thing,
but if he saw him when he was taken from him, then that would
be granted. Well, Elisha did see him, and
those that looked on when Elijah went, Elisha went back over Jordan,
They said, the spirit of Elijah resteth upon Elisha. And we find that Elijah, he wrought
about eight or eight miracles, Elisha 16, double portion. And the sign of it was that if
Elisha was to see him, when Elijah was taken from him, then that
would be granted. Elisha did see. Elijah taken
up by whirlwind in the chariot of fire into heaven. The disciples,
in light manner, the Lord had said to them, and greater miracles
shall you do than these because I go unto the Father. And the disciples as well saw
the Lord taken from them. And he had given them a sign
that I will pray the Father or make intercession to the Father
and he shall give you another comforter which shall abide with
you forever. Tarry at Jerusalem until you
be endued with power from on high." And at the Day of Pentecost,
that power came. They spake with tongues, they
believed, thousands believed. And these miracles, this blessing,
followed the preaching of the apostles. They always ascribed
it to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter, even his shadow
falling on those that were left by the wayside, was the means
of healing them. And he raised the dead, healed
the sick, preached the gospel, many believed, many were saved,
and there was abundant evidence that he that was crucified, risen
again and ascended into heaven, was working with them. The disciples
went everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the
word with signs following. So we know that our Lord ascended
up into heaven, His power is still there, His power is still
put forth for His disciples, His people, and that there He
makes intercession. There He is at the right hand
of the Father, a living Saviour, a voice that speaks to us, appearing
in the presence of God for us. God and man in one person, a
mediator. We're told the mediator is not
a mediator of one, but he must be of two, between God and man. We have a beautiful type set
forth in Hebrews chapter seven, for such, wherefore he is able
also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing
he ever liveth to make intercession for them. For such an high priest
became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,
made higher than the heavens. This is our intercessor. This is the Lord Jesus Christ,
who speaks for us and intercedes for us in heaven. Well then in
our third point, what is his intercession that he makes for
us? Well this I want to direct you
to the gospel according to John and chapter 17. We have in this chapter a beautiful
intercessory prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now before we look
at four very distinct headings of what the Lord is making here
intercession for his people, let us think of who the intercession
is made for. In verse Six, we have, I have manifested
thy name unto the man which thou gavest me out of the world. Now in the first place, of course,
this is speaking of the 12, of the apostles. Thine they were,
thou gavest them me, and they have kept thy word. But really,
that does apply to all of God's people that are given to the
Lord from the world, they will have the name of the Father manifested
to them. He says in verse 9, I pray for
them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine
are mine, and I am glorified in them. So again, we have a
distinction between the world and between those that are not
of the world that have been given by the Father to the Son. Then
we have in verse 20, Neither pray I for these alone, but for
them also which shall believe on me through their word. And that then embraces all of
the people of God right through to the end of the world. The
Lord makes intercession for His own, for those that were given
to Him as the Father, those that He makes a distinction with as
different from the world, those that He makes intercession for. If we are amongst those that
have been given the Word of God, God manifested to us that we
are delivered or separated from the world, because we are not
of the world, then we know that we do have an interest in the
intercession of our Lord. And I believe when we look quickly
then at these four headings, we'll see there are things that
really should be a great rejoicing to us, that the Lord should ever
speak to His Father and make intercession regarding these
points. The first one is that his people
be kept. In verse 11, we have the intercession,
Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast
given me. He says, I kept them in thy name,
those that thou gavest me, I have kept. None of them is lost but
the son of petition that the scripture should be fulfilled. That is Judas. And his praying
is that they might be kept from the evil. We think of how this
worked out in Peter's case. The Lord said to him, Satan hath
desired to have thee, to sift thee as wheat, but I have prayed
for thee that thy faith fail not. I have made intercession
for thee. Satan is desired to have you,
have all of the people of God. But when an individual like Peter
comes into Satan's sieve, then we know we have that intercessory
prayer of our Lord. When they are converted, restored,
then strengthen thy brethren. And so Peter in his epistles,
he speaks of those that are kept by the power of God through faith
unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last day. Dear friends,
when we feel sin within us and evil without us and evil all
around us, when we feel to have so many adversaries and so many
enemies, May this be a great source of comfort to us, the
intercession of our Lord, that we might be kept. Christ is the
keeper of our souls. No man can keep alive his own
soul, but we have the Lord speaking on our behalf in this matter.
The second one is that we might be sanctified. In verse 17, we
read, sanctify them through thy truth, Thy word is truth. Again reinforced in verse 19,
for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. That is separated. What a separation
there is when he says, I have given them thy word. and the
world hath hated them. And yet it's that very Word that
is separating them to the Lord, and as the washing of water by
the Word, teaching us to walk in a holy way, an upright way,
and to be a vessel prepared unto glory. This again should be a
great comfort to us. It is the Lord that sanctifies
us. It is his intercession that brings
us to the Word and the Word to us and causes us to be new creatures
in Christ Jesus. Remember that, dear friends.
We not only have an intercessor that prays for our keeping, but
also our sanctification. The third intercession is in
verse 21, that they all may be one as thou father art in me
and I in thee. God's people are not to be separated
individuals, they are part of one church, a redeemed church. We read in John's epistles by
this, or our Lord saying, by this shall all men know that
ye are my disciples indeed, in that ye love one another. And
John, in his epistles, gives us a token of being a child of
God. We know that we have passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren. So the great blessing
for the people of God, and I hope it is our desire, is that there
be a oneness with the brethren, that we walk together in love,
in union, in peace, edifying one another in love, as iron
sharpeneth iron, so the countenance of a man is friend. And at last
to be brought to the temple above, brought there to be part of that
innumerable multitude, a multitude that sees eye to eye, that all
have been redeemed by the same precious blood of Jesus Christ,
shared at the same place at Calvary, at the same time that he died,
no difference between the people of God in how they were redeemed
and saved and washed in the precious blood of Jesus. And so, when
we feel, when we know the divisions in Zion, when we have the strains
between the brethren, May this also be a comfort to us that
the Lord's intercession regards this point, that there be that
reconciling, there be that oneness. They shall see eye to eye, every
one of them, appearing in Zion. So then we have the last point
of intercession, and that is in verse 24, Father, I will that
they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory which thou hast given me. For thou
lovest me before the foundation of the world. Many of the people
of God we fear, lest we make shipwreck, lest we shall not
get safe home to glory, lest some sin, something shall come
in between, or we shall fall away, and when we see some that
have, we fear less we will be like them. But we know those
for whom Christ has died, he will make intercession for, and
this is part of his will, his intercession, that they are brought
to be with him. That is his will. And that again
should be a great comfort to us, that the voice that we have
that speaks to us, speaks for us in heaven, is speaking in
this way, Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given
me, be with me where I am. May that be a real comfort to
us. This is his will. This is what he prays for. And
under these headings, you think of many situations in our lives,
that there'll be many different intercessions, many times the
Lord has come in for us, spoken for us, that would be gathered
under these hands, but they are the essential points that are
set before us in this intercessory prayer that the Lord would have
us to know that He that is the same in heaven as what He was
on earth speaks to these same things and makes intercession
for us. So we have then this beautiful
word, this precious truth of an intercessor, one
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. It may be this evening we had already thought of Christ
dying for us, risen for us, and even in heaven, but may this
remain with us, also, who also maketh intercession for us, something
perhaps you or I have forgotten, or not realised the importance
of, or the comfort of. And may this evening this be
renewed to us as being a wonderful precious truth that we bless
God that ever there was this also in this verse, who also
maketh intercession for us. Amen.