Let's take our Bibles once again
and turn with me to John 17. John 17, verse 25 and 26. John
chapter 17. The Lord Jesus Christ is now coming to the conclusion
of this high priestly prayer. And His disciples have been listening. I'm convinced of that. The last
verse of the 16th chapter, the Lord is speaking to His disciples
and He says, These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me you
might have peace. In the world you shall have tribulation,
but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world." And
then the scripture says these words spake Jesus to them and
to the Father and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, and
he began to pray. These disciples listened to the Lord Jesus Christ
speak to the Father and heard His words. And in the conclusion
of this high priestly prayer, here's the one to whom He's been
praying. Verse 25, O righteous Father,
O righteous Father, Now to understand the beauty
and wonder of that for which our Lord is praised concerning
his people, we've got to understand the words that he's using. He said concerning the Father,
righteous. Father, you are Right. You're right. That word that we see and hear
our Lord used, it means you are just. You are without prejudice. You are without partiality. You're just. You're righteous. You're right. Psalm 97, 1 and
2, the Lord reigneth. Let the world rejoice. Let the
multitude of isles be glad thereof. Clouds and darkness around about
him. Righteousness and judgment are
the habitation of his throne. So when he prays to his father,
addresses him as the righteous father. Oh, righteous father. Here's what he's saying. Father,
that which you do is right because you're righteous. You think back when the Lord
was praying in this high priestly prayer. The Scripture sets forth
in verse 2 of John 17. He said, "...as thou hast given
him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him." Here's what he said. Power from the Father given to
him as the servant of Jehovah. One that humbled himself. One
that made himself of no reputation. The one that was made in the
likeness of sinful flesh. The one that took the form of
his servant. He said, Father, power from you. Now as God The Lord Jesus Christ
is omnipotent, all power, but that He would humble Himself,
that He would humble Himself as a man, as a man. Now this
is what we've got to understand something. He is God Almighty,
all powerful, and He took upon Himself flesh, with all of its
weaknesses, yet without sin. And here is God, omnipotent,
the man, Christ Jesus. And he said, Father, that you
would give me all power, all power in heaven and earth, given
unto the Son, that He, the Lord Jesus Christ, the One that submitted
Himself to the Father, that He would have all power given to
Him to order everything and direct everything as the submissive
Son of Man for this reason, All power was given unto him that
he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.
He orders everything. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ,
the submissive servant, in the form of sinful flesh. And the Father gives him all
power. And he said, Father, that was right. That was right. Because you're the righteous
Father. For him to pray, verse 9, not for everybody. He said, I pray for them, I pray
not for the world, but for them which Thou hast given me, for
they are Thine. Listen. He was praying according
to the Father's will, according to His will, in submission to
the Father. And for him to not pray for the
world, Pat, for Him to not pray for the world, but for those
that the Father had given Him. Listen to me. That's right. That was right. That the Lord should pray that
His people not be taken out of this world. They're in the world,
they're not of the world, but to pray that the Father, and
pray that the Father keep them from the evil. Keep them. That's
right. Because He's the righteous Father. This is right, verse 17, that
they should be sanctified. Sanctify them through thy truth.
Thy word is truth, that they should be kept, taught. Sanctify, that the Lord should
pray not only for those that did believe on Him, but that
He would pray for them that shall believe on Him through their
word. That was right. It's right that
they should hear the gospel preached. That's the Father's will. That
He should pray that those that the Father had given Him, that
they should be with Him where He is, that they may behold His
glory. That's right. You let the world scoff at Him
who is right. Let the postures of this world,
you know, let them argue and everything with the broken postures
of this world. But I can tell you this, Deuteronomy
32.4, He is the rock. His work is perfect. Perfect
in creation, salvation, in providence, everything that comes about is
brought about. Do you realize that the One that is ordering
everything that is coming about right now is this One right here
that was praying to the Father? All power has been given unto
Him. And I'm telling you what He's
doing right now. He's ruling. And He's reigning. And He's bringing
about all these things, everything that's happening in this world.
Look at all of them, just lump them all in one basket. And I
tell you, who the source, who the author of all these things,
all things work together for good. To them that love God,
to them who are the called, according to His purpose, He is the rock,
His work is perfect for all His ways. Our judgment, that is,
according to His wisdom, everything that He brings about. O righteous
Father, You do that which is right, for You are righteous,
a God of truth, without iniquity, just and right is He. Deuteronomy 32 for. Our Lord said in His high priestly
prayer, He said, O righteous Father, the world hath not known
Thee. These men and women are born
into this world unregenerate and they don't know
the Father. They don't know Him. He must be revealed. And the
Lord Jesus Christ, He is the one that has declared the Father. He is the revealer of the Father
Himself. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee. He says, O righteous Father,
the world hath not known Thee. But I'll tell you this, his people,
regenerated by the grace of God, taught through the scriptures,
blessed by the Holy Spirit of God, God Almighty gives them
light by and through him who is the light, the light of the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. They know Him. The world doesn't
know Him. I mean, they know He exists.
The devil knows He exists. But experientially, in their
heart, they don't know Him. They don't know Him. I'll tell
you, a person that knows the Lord Jesus Christ in truth is
the one that believes that He is. Who He says He is. Sovereign. God, the world hath not known
Thee, but here's what He says, but I've known Thee. One with the Father. The Son
knows the Father. Same nature as the Father, same
glory as the Father. His thoughts and His purpose,
His will toward His people is the Father's will and the Spirit's
will. The world hath not known thee, but I have known thee. And these have known that thou
hast sent me. These know. I tell you, a believer
knows that the Father sent the Son. This is what a believer
knows. The believer knows that the Father
chosen people. He knows that. He knows that
the Son has eternally stood as the surety. A believer knows
that. God's taught him that. He taught him that. And he knows
that in the fullness of time, he knows that when he pleased
God, the Lord Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of God, that God sent
Him for this reason, to seek and to save that which was lost.
His people, you know that. The ones that He prays for, you
know. A believer knows. And he knows why He came. He
came to redeem them. He came to save them. Call His
name Jesus. Why? He shall save His people
from their sins. He knows that. A believer knows
that. He knows that He didn't come to make salvation possible. He knows that. He said, Father,
the world have not known Thee, I've known Thee, and these have
known that Thou hast sent me. He said, they know that you've
sent me as the Messiah. And they know who I am. The Lord
reveals Himself to them. Who do men say that I am? Well,
some say Jeremiah, some say one of the other prophets. He said,
who do you say? Who do you say? Peter said, you're the Christ.
You're the Christ. You're God. You're God in human
flesh. John said, we touched Him. We've
handled the Word of life. We've seen Him. He's the one
that was ever before the Father. The one that came up with Him.
The one who is daily. his delight. And he said in verse
26, and he said, I've declared unto them thy name. He said, I've declared unto them
your character. When we say the name of God,
this is what we're saying. I've declared unto them your
nature. You know why you that believe,
you know why you know something of the character of God. You
know why you You know and believe that God Almighty is truly God
in heaven and earth? You know why you know that He
rules and reigns and He chooses and He raises up and puts down
and orders? You know why you believe that?
Because I've declared unto them thy name. These blessed scriptures
right here. These precious, precious scriptures. This is God's Word. Blessed by
God's Spirit to our heart. And we know it. We're taught
of God. We'll all be taught of God. The
Holy Spirit takes the things of God, things of Christ, and
teaches them. He speaks of the Son. He speaks
only of the Son. I have declared unto them thy
name. And he said, and I will declare
it. I will declare it. I need to
hear it again. I've declared it and I will declare
it. Faith cometh by hearing. I want to hear this again. I want to hear about the righteous
Father. I want to hear about my friend. I want to hear about
Him as my Redeemer. I want to hear about the great
High Priest. I want to hear about Him. I've declared Thy Name.
I will declare it. Ever teaching, ever instructing,
ever growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior.
And here's the reason. that the love where which thou
hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. He shall continually
declare the character of the Father." You know, it's so easy
for us to think, well, I've heard this before, and I already know
this. Know, oh, that we might know
him. that we might know Him, He that
cometh and cometh and cometh. I need to meet together with
God's people. I need to hear the gospel. Faith
cometh by hearing. I need to hear. I need to hear
the gospel preached. I need to hear that truth of
the love which the Father has for the Son and for those in
the Son. Tell me again how God Almighty,
for Christ's sake, loves me in Him. A great, great
mystery. I know it in part. I see it. I see through a glass darkly.
But I do know, and I do see, and I want to hear, and I want
to see. Not only does He pray that the love wherewith the Father
As for the Son, may be in them, but He prays and He said, and
I in them. Here's a great mystery. You've heard this before, but
listen. Christ in you. The hope of glory. Christ in me. The hope of glory. And me in Him. And He in the
Father. that we all may be one as the
Lord Jesus Christ and the Father are one. And I just, I can't
get a grasp on the depth of that, but according to His Word, I'm
in His hand and in the hand of the Father. I give them eternal
life. They're never going to perish.
And according to His Word, His Father is going to bring to Himself
and His precious Son all those that have been redeemed and cleansed,
spotless, robed in the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
white linen, righteousness of the saints, beholding His glory
before Him because they've always been in Him. I got two questions in closing. I know that he is the righteous
father. Here's my first question in closing. Where is that righteousness revealed? He is the righteous father. I
know that. I know that means he's just.
I mean he's right. He's just! He's just! Where is
it revealed? Turn to Romans 1. Romans 1. Romans chapter 1, verse 16-17. Where is the righteousness of
God? That God Almighty is going to deal with sin. Where is that
revealed? Where it is? I'm going to tell
you why you're looking and I'm going to tell you the second
question. He is the righteous Father. And when you hear that,
the righteous Father. He is righteous. He is just. He is right. He will by no means
clear the guilty. I know that. Why? Because He
is right. He is just. He is just. But He is the Father. He is the Father. He is the Father
to His people. Father. Father. Righteous Father. Where is His righteousness revealed? And how can He be just and the
justifier? How? How? I want you to look,
first of all, Romans 1, verse 16-17. Here Paul said, I'm not
ashamed of the gospel of Christ. I'm not ashamed of this gospel. For in is the power of God. Here's the revelation, the truth
concerning the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth,
to the Jew first, also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the
just shall live by faith. Where is His righteousness revealed? It's revealed in the Gospel. How did God turn to 2 Corinthians?
We've read this many, many times. We'll read it one more time.
2 Corinthians 5.21. Here's what
the Scripture says concerning the gospel, the truth, how God
Almighty can be just and the justifier. How He can be just
in dealing with my sin. and declare me just, righteous,
holy in His Son. How? How can He be the righteous
Father? Just and justify. How? For He hath made Him sin
for us who knew no sin. Now I can tell you what happened.
You know this, when the Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life
and was made sin. And as Brother Scott so, I mean,
this is a marvel of explanation to me. This is a marvel of explanation. Of course, we're talking about
simplicity, saying things simply. He said when he was made sin,
he said it wasn't a pasted on sin, he just kind of put a little
sticker on it and said, sin. It's like when the Lord made
wine out of water, it wasn't water, it just had wine. Wine. It was wine. And when he made him sin, do you know what? He was made
sin. And He who was, Scripture says,
who knew no sin, He was made sin for us. And where the law, that is right
and just where the law found sin, It dealt with it in absolute
justice. And he died. He died under the
judgment of God. And God is just. He is righteous. He is righteous. He is righteous. The scripture says that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. He who bore our guilt in his
own body, he paid the debt. And God Almighty who is righteous spewed out all that was due,
poured out the debt of an eternal punishment in hell, if we would
have been there. He who is the eternal God, you
know why men will be in hell eternally? Because they've sinned
against an eternal God. The debt's never paid. He's eternal
God. They sinned against an eternal
God, and they'll be there forever. But what they owed, what they
owed for what they are, what we are, sin. We're sinners because we're sin. What we are, we do what we do
because of what we are. And the righteous one dealt with
the eternality of our debt in one sacrifice. by one sacrifice. One sacrifice. Oh, the precious,
precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. How precious. Indescribably
precious. But I can tell you what that
precious blood did. What it covers. It covers a multitude of sin.
It covers an eternal debt owed to the justice of God Almighty.
And when he laid down his life and was made sin, the righteous
one dealt with him in absolute justice and forsook him. And what we
owe for an eternal debt, all of his elect, that precious blood
paid that debt. Oh, the preciousness of that
blood. He said, when I see that blood,
I'll see that blood, I'll pass over you. But not only did He
put away our debt, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him, again, He robed us. He robed us in Himself. He paid our debt in full, full
payment. God Almighty is righteous now,
is the righteous father. And he's well pleased. And I'll
tell you something else. We're accepted in the beloved,
accepted. Oh, righteous father, the world
has not known thee, but I've known thee. Lord bless these
words to our heart for Christ's sake.