Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of John chapter 17. John 17, as I said a moment
ago, I began this precious chapter, the first service. And if you'd
like, you could hear those first few verses. And as I was ending,
In this chapter, I was actually in verse 11. And here is the
Lord in his high priestly prayer, praying for his people. I told the first group how often
we desire the prayers of the saints. Prayer is an amazing,
amazing thing. I've told you before, I know
so little of it, about it. I desire, I want to pray. The Spirit of God has told us
we don't know what to pray for, but He does. The Lord knows our
need. and the Father ever hears Him.
And that which He prays is always a factual. It's always a factual. And I want to just take up right
where I left off. Verse 11. The Lord is praying
and He says, And now I'm no more in the world, but these are in
the world. I come to thee, Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that
they may be one as we are. He's getting ready to go to the
cross. He's going to finish the work that the Father has given
him. He's going to redeem his people
from their sins. Shed that blood that the Father
has ever seen, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And now, He'd gone back to be
received of His Father as the victorious Redeemer, Lamb. But we're still here. We're still
in this world. And He's promised us that we're
going to have tribulation. In this world, you shall have
tribulation. There's some people in this congregation
right now that's going through some tough times. And I love
you and pray for you. You pray for me. But that he's praying for us. What comfort. He says, Holy Father, keep through
thine own name. Keep through your character.
Keep through your word those that thou hast given me, that
they may be one as we are. He said in verse 12, while I
was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name. Those that
thou gavest me, I have kept and none of them is lost. but the
son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled. Now, here
is the good shepherd. The good shepherd that gives
his life for the sheep. He said, I have kept them. I've kept them. I kept them faithful. I kept them from leaving. Why did that congregation that
was following the Lord in John chapter 6, why did they, when
they heard the word of the Lord that says, no man can come to
me except it be given unto him of my father. They said, that's
a hard saying. Who can hear that? And they walked
no more with him. But there were some that did
stay. The Lord asked them, will you
go away also? And Peter said, Lord, where are
we going to go? Let me ask you this, tried believer, where else
are we going to go? Psychiatrists, psychologists,
where are we going to go? Peter said, Lord, you have the
words of eternal life, and we're sure. You're the Redeemer. You're the
Savior. You're the Christ, the Son of the living God. And the Lord told him, he said,
Peter, flesh and blood didn't tell you that, didn't teach you
that, but my Father, which is in heaven. Here's the great shepherd. that's keeping us right now.
Why are we here this morning? Why did we come? Why did we just
not crawl up in a hole somewhere? Because this is where the Lord
is. Two or three gathered together
in my name. I'm in the midst of you. I wanted
to be here. You that know him, love him,
you did too. Father, keep them. And none of them that you gave
me are lost, but the son of perdition that the scripture might be fulfilled. that was one out of his apostles. He chose all of them. The Father,
the scripture says in verse 10, all mine are thine and thine
are mine. I'm glorified in them, those that you've given me. He said, verse nine, I pray for
them. I pray not for them which thou
hast given me. All these apostles were given
unto the Lord for the Lord's purpose, God's
will, Lord's purpose. And Judas was within the twelve. He was one of the twelve. He
was numbered with the twelve. And he was absolutely part of
the Lord's ministry. He was part of the Lord's ministry,
not part of the Lord's elect. But he was given unto the Lord
Jesus Christ according to God's will, God's purpose, for the
very purpose of betraying the Lord Jesus Christ. That was according
to God's will, according to everlasting counsel. You with wicked hands. Predetermined counsel. He would
be betrayed, handed over. And he said, I've not lost any. except the son of perdition,
that the scripture might be fulfilled. Psalm 109, verse 7 and 8. All that you've given me, I've
given. All that the Father giveth me, John 6, 37, they shall come
to me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out. In verse 13, and now come out
of thee. And these things I speak in the
world that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. In just about six weeks, the
Lord Jesus Christ would be seen no more by his apostles. They've been with him now for
over three years. And they've watched him. They've
learned from him. They've heard him preach. He's
taught them. But he's saying these things,
not only the things that he just said in chapters 13, 14, 15,
16. But this prayer, they're listening
to him pray. He said in verse 33 of the 16th
chapter, these things have I spoken unto you that in me, he's talking
to his disciples now, that in me you might have peace, in the
world you shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I've overcome
the world. These words spake Jesus talking
to them, and he lifted up his eyes to heaven. He said, Father. And they heard him. They heard
him pray. They heard him pray for them. In particular, they heard Him
say, Father, those that you've given Me, they realized, you
mean I was a gift to Him? The Father gave Me to
Him? All that you've given Me, all yours are Mine. I prayed
for Him. You kept Him. I kept Him in His
Word, I would, Father, You keep Him. Now He's, He's, He's, I
come to Thee. And these things I speak in the
world that they might have my joy, my joy of redeeming them. My meat is to do the will of
Him that sent me. I, I, I'm saying these things
and they're hearing them, that they might have my joy of being
your servant and their redeemer fulfilled in themselves. John, turn back page to John
15, 11. The Lord said, these things have
I spoken unto you that my joy, again, His joy of being obedient
to the Father, His joy of redeeming them, His joy of having them,
bearing their guilt, putting away their sin, honoring the
law on their behalf, robing them in His own righteousness, His
joy might remain in you. And your joy might be full. Think of the joy. He spoke these
words, the Spirit of God moved, on the Apostle John. Write them
down. And we're hearing the words that He spoke right in their
life. And we rejoice in Him right now. He loved me. He gave Himself for me. He died for me. He put away my
guilt. Verse 14, I've given them thy word, and the world hath
hated them, because they're not of the world, even as I'm not
of the world. Now, a lot of people heard the
words of the Lord with their natural ears. They heard Him
preach. Many of the Jews, the Pharisees,
they heard what He said, and they hated Him for what He said. The Lord asked the Pharisees
one day, What have I done in healing the
sick and raising the dead? What have I said? Why do you
hate me? Which ones are you hating me
for? Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's not for what you've
done. It's what you've said. It's what you've said. You said you're the son of God. You make yourself be God. That's
why they hate him. But he says, I have given them
thy word. I gave it to them. I put it in
their heart. And they heard me. And the world
has hated them because they're not of the world, even as I'm
not of the world. What did they do? What did they do? What does
any believer do that causes the world and its false religion
to hate them? What is it they do? They believe
him. They believe Him. And they walk in that. Why is this in other assemblies
like this? Why is it despised? Because we've
heard in our heart that God is God. He's not trying to be God,
He's God. And He's sovereign. And He does as He will in the
army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And
nobody stops Him. Nobody stays His hand. Nobody has a right to say unto
Him, What doest Thou? This is why. I've given them
Thy word. The world has hated them because
they're not of the world, even as I'm not of the world. Verse
15-16, I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world. but
that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They're not of
the world even as I'm not of the world. Believers are not
regenerated and then immediately taken out of the world. It is
pleased the Lord to save His people and then for the amount
of time that God's pleased to leave them here, They are to
preach the gospel to God's glory and they're good. He's pleased
to put them in this world and leave them and to suffer for
His name's sake and to be the exhibitions of His sustaining
grace. How in the world can one walk
and remain under trial, so He never allows His people to be
tempted above that which He's able to deliver them. He said, I'm not going to forsake
you. I'm not going to leave you. How precious those words are.
I will never, I will never, I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. And they're
left in this world to walk by faith. We're going to believe
God. We're going to prove by God's
sustaining grace, by being kept by the power of God through faith,
we're going to be the vessels by which God proves his faithfulness. Not us. We walk and adorn the doctrine
that we've been taught. Is God faithful? Be faithful. How do you know? We behold His
faithfulness. And we're thankful. Oh, not as
we ought to be. I wish I could be more thankful.
In all things give thanks. In all things give thanks. Is
that all things? Everything? Lord, everything? All things. If I but saw the
end from the beginning, I said, Lord, what mercy, what
compassion. Lord, that you would allow me
to be a vessel of your mercy. So the Lord doesn't pray for
our removal, but for our being kept. He told his disciples, when you
pray, You pray, our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts. Deliver us from evil. Deliver us from the power of
evil. Deliver us from the clutches
of evil. Deliver us. That's what he's
saying right here. He said, I'm not, I'm not, as
you take them out of the world, verse 15, but thou shouldest
keep them from the evil. Keep them from it. Verse 17 now,
sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. There is an absolute truth that
being found in Christ Jesus, created in righteousness. There's
a new man that is sanctified holy, set apart holy, Saints. That's the same root word. Holy. We are holy in Christ. So it's not that the Lord is
saying to do something. There's no progressive sanctification. God's people are holy. But we
do grow in grace. And that's what he's praying
here. Sanctify them through thy truth. Through the hearing of
this word. If you want to know how God grows
us in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ, here it is. It's through the hearing of the
gospel. We need to hear. We need to hear. We need to hear.
We need to hear again. We need to hear again of him
who loved us, gave himself up. Tell me again. Tell me the gospel
again. Remind me one more time that promise to never leave,
never forsake us. We grow by experience. Someone might say something to
me and say this, this, that, and the other happened to me.
And unless I've experienced it, I cannot say truthfully, I know
how you feel. If I've not walked in your shoes
and experienced what you're experiencing, I might have experienced something
else. But unless I've experienced what you're going through, I
can't say. But I'm telling you by trials
and tribulations and testings and chastisements that are sent
by Him who loves us, Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and
scourgeth every son that he receiveth. And we need it. We need it. Whatever you're going through
or I'm going through, I needed this. It was for my good. His glory. And I'm going to be
put in a position to where I'm going to trust Him. I'm going
to have to trust Him. Because I don't have any other place
to go. To lean upon Him. Casting all your care upon Him. Why? He careth for you. He cares. He cares. Verse 18. As thou hast sent me
into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. He was sent. According to God's everlasting
covenant of grace, there's a blessed revelation
of the character and the work of each of the persons of the
Godhead. The Father who chose a people
in Christ, and here's Christ's, here's His part, His work to
redeem them. You come into the world, and
you live for them and die for them. And the work of the Holy
Spirit, you regenerate them, and you teach them, and you seal
them, and you guide them, led by the Spirit of God. He said,
as thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I sent them
into the world. He told his apostles right there
before he left, he said, you go into all the world and you
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and confesses
that belief in baptism, knowing that salvation is of the Lord,
not that baptism saved him, but he's gonna be saved. Verse 19,
and for their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be
sanctified through the truth. Now, again, when he says he sanctifies
himself, he's not saying that he makes himself holy. He's holy. He's God. He's God Almighty,
who knew no sin. But he declares here, when he
says, I sanctify for their sakes, I sanctify myself, being appointed
of God, his Father, What He was saying, He said, I willingly
bow to the will of my Father and I set myself, I give of myself. He willingly did what He did.
I set myself to be the obedient servant of Jehovah for the joy
that was set before Him. He endured the cross. He's saying,
This is my heart. Now for a believer, let me ask
you this. The Apostle Paul said it perfectly because that's the
way the Spirit of God told him to say it. He said, to will is
present with me. Now, to do that which I will,
I find not. But let me ask you this, believer.
Don't you want to be obedient? Don't you want to? Don't you
want to? I want that. I want to walk. I want to walk in such a way
that I honor the Lord. I want to. I grieve over that
which I see in myself that is so disrespectful. But I want to. I want to find
myself. So he says in verse 19, for their
sakes I willingly give of myself, I set myself apart, sanctify,
set apart, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. I'm doing what I'm doing willingly
that they might, through my work in obedience to your command,
that they might be made holy. I mean, what other hope would
we have of being set forth, being sanctified? Truly. My margin says truly sanctified,
truly holy. How would I have any hope in
being found accepted in the Beloved if the Beloved Himself had not
set Himself apart to be obedient? All of my hope is in what He
did. The Lord said, I do what I do
willingly for God's honor and their sake. Verse 20, 21. Then he says, neither pray I
for these alone. Now he's been praying for his
apostles in particular. But neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their
word, that they all may be one as thou father art in me and
I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world
may believe that thou hast sent me. Now here's a precious verse
for us this morning. Now the Lord had been praying
for his apostles, in particular, truly for all his people, but
in particular, he prayed in the first few verses concerning his
relationship with the Father. Then he prayed in that middle
portion of this chapter, in particular for those apostles that would
be sent, that he personally had kept, and prayed the Father would
keep them. Now he's praying for all his people, all of his people
that he's collected, all of, But he said, I'm not praying
for these only, but for those which shall believe on me through
their word. Think of the word that has come
down through these ages that we're hearing this morning. Through
the same gospel, that precious promise that he's
going to bless the word, Paul said, Romans 1.16, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation,
everyone that believe it. That's the power, that's what
God uses. So the Lord's saying, I'm praying
for all that will in time. Those elect, if the Lord has
still a people that have yet to be born, he may come back
today, I don't know. But if they are yet to be born,
the Lord still knows them. He still loved them. He's always
loved them. He died for them. And He's going
to call them. He said, I'm not praying for
these only, but I'm praying for those that shall believe that
they all may be one. As thou, Father, art in me, I
in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may
believe that thou hast sent me. Now here's the Lord. praying
and declaring the oneness and the unity, the union that He
has with the Father in nature and power and purpose that we,
His people, might be found to be knit together. As He's one
with the Father in will and purpose and power, that we in Him and
also then in the Father, that we all might realize the completeness
of, though we don't understand it. You talk about seeing through
a glass darkly. How do you grasp hold of that? They all may be one as thou,
Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in
us, that the world may believe. There's coming a time when the
world's gonna know this. The world's gonna believe this. If I don't err here, for sure
in the day of judgment, everybody's gonna know. Everybody's gonna
know. He's gonna separate the sheep
from the goats. He's gonna say to the sheep on the right hand, You enter into the kingdom that
was prepared for you from before the foundation, or enter in. And to those on his left, he's
going to say, depart. Everybody's going to know. Everybody's
going to know that the Lord was sent. And the scripture says
in verse 22, and the glory which thou gavest me, I've given them. that they may be one even as
we are one. Now here's a very, it's so extremely
in my little mind, deep, but there's one thing that I can
glean from this that I pray will be of help to you as it was to
me. The glory which thou gavest me I've given them. Now there
is a glory of being God Almighty that will never be communicated
to us. There is the glory of Him being the God-man mediator
and being the substitute. That glory will never be given
unto us. But what He's saying is, He says,
the glory that you gave Me to be the head, the Redeemer, the
substitute and Savior of the church, I have given unto them
as they are my body. And the fruit, the fruit of that
which He has accomplished is ours. We are the recipients of
that which He's done. All the honor and glory and praise
belongs to Him. And we know that. We know that.
But there is declared in our Lord's prayer an experience that
we can't grasp right now. We don't get it. We see through
a glass darkly. We don't get it, but we believe
it. Someone says, do you believe you're one with Christ? Yes. Explain that to me. I can't.
But I believe that I'm in Him. I believe when he died, I believe
he died for me. I believe he knew me. I believe he knew Marvin
Stoner. I believe he did. And that's
a precious thought to me. I believe when he laid down his
life, I believe he laid down his life to redeem me for myself. I believe when he died, he died
that I might never die. I believe when he raised, I believe
I was raised in Him. And I believe that the Scripture
says, being glorified in that great mystical declaration of
truth, Him being seated at the right hand of the Majesty on
high, and all of His people there with Him. And we're right here
this morning, on Sunday morning. I don't understand it, but I
believe it. I'm so thankful that He's a God that I can't figure
out. But I believe Him. Verse 23, I in them and thou
in me that they may be made perfect in one and that the world may
know that thou sent me and has loved them as thou has loved
me. One writer, I'm going to say
this as I begin to wrap this up. He said, as God dwells in
the sun, I'm just going to read this to you. And the sun dwells
through the spirit in his people. then the believers are partakers
of all the riches that are in Christ. Being found in him, we
possess his righteousness. He is our wisdom, and we're accepted
in him. And there's coming a time when
the whole world is gonna know this precious union to be so. That's true. Lord, as you say,
you're in us. And the Father is in him. I in
them and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that
the world may know that thou sent me and loved them as thou
hast loved me. And then he said in verse 24,
a precious, precious passage that we all have heard and we
love, the will of the Lord Jesus Christ that when we leave this
world, to actually be with Him. Verse 24, Father, I will, they
also whom Thou has given me be with me where I am. He told that
thief on the cross. That thief said, Lord, When you
enter into your kingdom, would you remember me? He said, verily,
verily, I say unto thee, today, today, you're going to be with
me in paradise. I can't even imagine what went
through his mind. He's thinking to himself, this
is all going to be over for me pretty quickly. But according
to his word, I'm going to be where he is. Believers? According to His word, all that
have been given heart, trust Him, believe on Him. According
to His prayer and His will, Father, I will. And you know He only
willed what the Father willed. I will. They also whom Thou hast
given Me, those that You've everlastingly loved and chosen, be with Me
where I am. Isn't that where we all want
to be? With it, know it. Where is it? Where's Paradise?
Where He is. What's it like? I don't know.
Paul said he was a man caught up. He said he heard things that
he can't even say. He didn't even know how to say
them. Unspeakable things. That they
may behold my glory as the Redeemer, the Lamb, slain. That they may behold my glory,
which Thou hast given me, for Thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world. Father, you've always loved me
as your Son, as your Lamb, as your Redeemer of your people.
Verse 25-26, O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee,
but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent
me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare
that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them,
and I in them." And again, the world and its false gospel doesn't
know. They don't know. This is life
eternal. That they might know thee. Know thee in heart. Know thee as God. Truth. God of the Bible. But every regenerated
vessel of God's, every regenerated sinner does. know that the Lord
Jesus Christ is the one that has laid down His life for them. He died for me in particular. The one who ever lives to intercede
for them. The one who is praying for us
right now. When the scripture says, He ever liveth to make
intercession, you say, you mean to tell me He is still praying?
Yes. Has our high priest ever liveth,
ever liveth to make intercession. They've heard in their hearts
the declaration of the gospel in power. And they believe it. And they rest on it. And they
come to Him, Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast
out. And every one of them says, Lord,
I come. I come. I come again. Lord, I want to
come again. Lord, thank you for your promise. Thank you for your word. Thank
you for your grace. Forgive me where I've thought
so disrespectfully. Lord, have mercy. Thank you that
you will in no wise, I give unto them eternal life. My sheep hear
my voice. I know them and they follow me.
I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. What a blessed, what a blessed
promise. Never perish, never perish. Lord save me by your grace, for
your glory my good.