Well I'd like to just look in
this half hour we have before we participate in the Lord's
Supper, I'd like us to be able to do so with a sense of worthiness
and a sense of what it is for us to be in union with the Lord
Jesus Christ. The union with the Lord Jesus
Christ is all about salvation, it's all the hope of glory, it's
all the desire of God's people. To be found in Him, says the
Apostle Paul. Not having any righteousness
of my own, but His righteousness. robed in His righteousness, washed
in His blood. Union with Him is an eternal
union, union with Him in His perfect life, union with Him
in His death, union with Him in His resurrection, union with
Him on the throne of glory now, union with Him when He returns,
union with Him in the great day of judgment, union with Him in
the new creation. He says in John 17.21, Let me go back because there
is a that at the beginning. Neither pray I for these alone,
but for them also which shall believe on me through their word,
that This is what believers, this is a result of believing,
this is a result of the shall believing, this is a result of
the proclamation of the gospel, when God brings it with power
to the hearts of his people, that 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. I want us to have a look at what
it is for us to be one. I know this thought is repeated
again. It was something the Lord prayed
for his apostles. He says, In verse 11 he says,
Now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world. And
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. And here in this verse he speaks
about oneness and in verse 23 he says, I in them, and thou
in me, that they may be made perfect in one, that the world
may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou
hast loved me. As you are aware, I like looking
up Greek and Hebrew words to see the nuances of it, and I
looked up this word one. It only has about one entry, because
it just means one. It just means one, one as in
number, one. So we don't have any doubt about
what one is. We don't have to look for any
nuances in it. It's just one. And this is a oneness that's
exclusive to these particular people that he's praying for,
these people now. that they also may be one in
us. They are the ones that shall
believe. They are the ones that will hear the gospel preached
with the power of the Holy Spirit. They will hear the gospel as
truth. They will hear the gospel as
spirit and life because God has ordained that through the preaching
of the gospel all of his people will believe. And so people say,
what happens to those people in the jungles of Africa? What
happens to those people in far-flung places? The issue is not man,
is it? The issue is, can God get that
person to the Gospel and the Gospel to that person? Paul in
Acts chapter 16 is banned by the Holy Spirit from going into
the very places where Lydia, who happened to be over in Philippi,
was. Can God get the Gospel to Lydia? Sure can. You'll get Lydia to the gospel.
One or the other, won't it? It'll happen. It must happen.
It shall happen. And the Lord opened her heart
and she received the apostolic testimony and was baptized. So let's look at this whole business
of what it is to be one, this whole extraordinary declaration
of union. And so just from our text, It's
something exclusive to those Christ prays for. It's something
exclusive to the children of God, the ones he prays for. If
he's praying for you, then you will know about this union in
time. If he's prayed for you, you are
saved. If he loves you, you are saved. If he died for you, you
are saved. And you may not know it, and
you might like all of us have in one way or another, we've
wandered around in very dark places thinking that our religion
was actually worthy of the name of God, and then we find out
when we finally meet God that that religion that we thought
was wonderful is actually deeply, deeply, deeply offensive to Him. And at the same time we find
that the true Gospel, the true Lord Jesus Christ is much, much
more imagine him to be, and his work is much more complete than
you can imagine it to be, and his sovereignty is much more
wonderful than you can possibly imagine it to be. So it's something
exclusive. to those he prays for or something
exclusive to those given him in this covenant of grace. Upon
those he will give and he will exercise faith. He will create
faith. Faith is the gift of God, it's
not of yourselves. You have no reason to boast.
Faith is the sign of God. It's not the cause, it's the
evidence of life. Faith is the evidence. These people shall believe. There
are no ifs of man's work in the covenant of grace. So this is
something exclusive to believers, something exclusive to those
for whom he plays it, something exclusive to the believers who
will believe the preached word of the apostles and they'll rejoice
in it. Our gospel is their gospel. Our gospel is their gospel. And
if it's not, may the Lord correct us immediately and not let us
take another step. So this one, this union, is the
fruit of God's union, isn't it? It's the fruit of a union between
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Listen
to how he declares it to be. As thou, Father, art in me, and
I in thee. That as thou, Father, art in
me, and I in thee, there is in this union a mutual indwelling. That's what he's saying at the
end of this prayer, isn't it? He's saying, I am one with them. and they are one with him. Listen
to what he says in verse 23. I in them and thou in me. That's what he says to Philip,
isn't it? Philip says, Charles, the Father and I'll be happy.
That'll be sufficient for me. And he says, Philip, I've been
with you such a long time. If you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. That's how close the union is.
Such is the union between all of the bride When God looks at
His Son, He sees all the members of His body. That's why I love
what it says in Psalm 22, He can count all His bones. We're
bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. There is a glorious
union, it's a mysterious union. But the union between Christ
and his people is likened by the Lord Jesus Christ to the
union he has with him as his father. That's what the word
that as means. According as, just as, in the
degree that. There is a union and a unity
of believers both in the Father and the Son. They're one in us. There's a union and a unity of
believers both in the Father and the Son. They're one in us.
And it's expressed as something that's continually and constantly
the reality, this oneness. There is a oneness of all believers
in the oneness of the Triune God. He's the Good Shepherd. He and his flock go together.
He's the vine. The very same sap that feeds
the branches comes from the vine. There is a glory. He is the head
and we are the body. Now I'm sure like me, you have
looked at this part of this verse and wondered, What on earth does
it mean? That the world may believe that
thou hast sent me. That the world may believe. There
is a purpose, isn't it? There's a believing that thou
hast sent me, that the Lord Jesus Christ was sent by the Father. 40-something times in John's
Gospel he speaks of himself as being the one that is sent. He
was before he came. He came because of the covenant
promises before the world began. He's the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. He came as sent by the Father.
He came with a purpose. He came to bear the sins of all
of his children, all those united to him in his own body on the
tree. What is this business? You, like
me, might have thought Is this one part of this prayer that
seems very, very difficult to believe is being answered? And
we know that cannot be the case. We know that this must be an
answered part of this prayer. The first thing we need to do
every time we encounter the word world, we need to contemplate
what it means. It's so easy for the religious
people to say that, for God so loved the world, and that means
that he loves all of humanity, loves you. Will you please, pretty
please, will you really be nice to him and save him the embarrassment
of failing by returning his love? That's what they're pleading
with people to do. The world has many different
meanings in the scriptures and particularly in John's Gospel. And in the rest of the scriptures
it needs to be known and it needs to be dealt with in its context.
He says in John 1 verse 9, it is the true light which lighteth
every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world and
the world was made by him and the world knew him not. There
are three different definitions of the word world there. It's
a big place, it's a lot of people and it's an ignorant world that
didn't know him. The word world in the Scriptures
can refer to all of Adam's children. Therefore, as by one man sin,
Romans 5.12, entered into the world, and death by sin, so death
passed unto all men, for all have sinned. You were there in
the garden, in Adam, as your representative head, and you
sinned. Sometimes, as it is in John 3.16,
it's a reference to the Gentile world as differentiated from
the Jews when God so loved the world. The Lord was talking to
Nicodemus who thought that God had no love for the rest of the
world. He only had a love for the Jews, the particular people.
Sometimes it's a reference to all believers. In John 6.33 he
says, For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven,
which giveth life unto the world. The only people who have life
from him are those who are his children. Sometimes it refers
to the elect. the world. In 1 John 2.2 It speaks
of the Lord Jesus. He is the propitiation for our
sins, and not only for ours, but also for the sins of the
whole world. He's talking about all of the
believing children, all of the ones that he's praying for here.
Sometimes the word world can mean those who are not the elect
children of God. In John 14, 17, he says, Even
the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, Because
it seeth him not, neither knoweth him, but you know him, for he
dwelleth in you and shall be in you. Sometimes the word world
just means a great multitude. The Pharisees said, He says the
whole world's gone after him. Did they mean that the Aboriginals
in Australia and the natives of Tierra del Fuego and Africa
and everywhere else went after him? No, just a great multitude
went after him. Sometimes it refers to the Roman
Empire. In Luke chapter 2 verse 1, Caesar
Augustus sent a decree that all the world should be taxed. If
the world means all humanity, did you pay your taxes to it?
You see how it's so, so deceitful for people to say that this word
world just means all humanity all the time. Sometimes it refers
to the Gentiles only. In Romans 11, 12, Now if the
fall of them be riches of the world, and the diminishing of
them riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness. God has so written his word that
those who seek to distort it will find justification in doing
so. You can establish anything you
like to believe and use the word of God to do so. That's been
the case always, always. If you want to believe in universal
love, you'll find scriptures to support it. If you want to
believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for everyone, you'll find
scriptures to support it. Whatever you want to believe,
you'll find some justification, you'll find some place in the
scriptures. If you want to believe in free
will, you'll find evidence of free will in the scriptures.
If you want to believe in your legal obedience causing you to
earn rewards in heaven, then you'll find scriptures that will
support it. The list goes on and on. You
think of any issue. When God sends a strong delusion,
when people are deceived because of the just judgment of God on
their wicked, obstinate rebellion against Him, and the revelation
that in their pride they just do not know Him, then they'll
find scriptures. They will find that the scriptures
are what God sends to bring a strong delusion. and he's been doing
it for years and years and years. The Lord Jesus Christ is declared
to be a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, even to them
which stumble at the word, being disobedient, whereunto that also
they were appointed. This is still how God exercises
his judgment. So what does the world mean?
Well, it could well mean all the elect among the Gentiles. On hearing the Gospel preached,
believe. You might recall in the book
of Acts and following in the history of the Roman Empire,
the Gospel went forth all over that part of the known world.
Paul, when he's writing to the Romans, said, I've got no other
place to preach. I've preached as far as I can go. Now I'm trying
to go to Spain. I'm coming to see you on the
way to Spain. And the Lord had other plans for him. There is another sense in which,
and just to go back to that point, there was a time when the Roman
Empire was overwhelmingly Christian. It was a political move by Constantine
in the third generation to make Christianity the national religion
of the state of Rome. and thereby introducing all sorts
of terrible nonsense that have permeated the religious world
ever since. But the Roman Empire was characterized
by amazing Christian love between brothers and sisters. And Christianity
spread on the basis of Christians being prepared to sacrifice their
lives for people that they loved. They were the only ones. They
were the ones who cared for all the poor of the Roman Empire. They cared for their own poor
and everyone else's poor. They went into the places where
people were dying of famine and sacrificed their lives to care
for others. So it may well mean that there
is a world there is a world that will believe. That's what we
know from the text, don't we? Also, there is a day coming,
the great day of judgment, when all humanity, you can read about
it in Matthew 25 and in Revelation, when all humanity will be gathered
together, and there it will be made evident that there is an
eternal union between the Lord Jesus Christ and all of his people,
and he stands before all of this world, demons and everyone. and
there's a great victory declared, and great justice declared, and
they will all know. He and his bride stand on that
day as one. They stand as one with him, and
he stands as one with him. So there is a time when the world,
the unbelieving world, will see and believe, but not to the saving
of their souls. There is a believing that happens
Too, too late. You can read about that man in
Luke chapter 16. He believed after he died. When he was in agony in hell,
he looked up and he saw the union in Abraham's bosom. He believed. There's not a single
unbeliever in hell. There's not a single unbeliever
in hell. May the Lord have mercy on us. So the oneness is a oneness
that the world will be caused to see. This oneness. And what they will believe is
that the Lord Jesus Christ is the sent one. He's the sent one. So oneness here, this union here,
cannot mean the ecumenical movement. They use these verses out of
John 17 to justify all of the gatherings of all of God's people
together and say, isn't it a wonderful testimony when the Catholics
and the Protestants and the Baptists and the Presbyterians and everyone
that names something called the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
all gathers together. Towards the end of the drought
here they had a big big gathering down here at the park near the
council. I remember seeing someone who
I thought might have known a little bit better, and she said, isn't
it just wonderful when all the Christians gather together and
they are praying together? Catholics, Seventh-day Adventists,
you name it, they're all there, just like they were all in Jesus
All About Life all those years ago. So oneness is not the oneness
that people think it is. This is speaking of a union. God has always separated his
people. There was a separation made in
eternity. God has always separated people. Cain and Abel were separated
from one another. Noah was separated from this
world. Abraham was separated from the idolatry of Iraq. Isaac was separated. Jacob was
separated. Israel was separated from Egypt.
at the end of the plagues before the Exodus, it says that you
may know the purpose of all this is you may know that the Lord
doth put a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. God
puts a difference between his people and the rest of this world.
That Passover in the days of Egypt and this Passover that
we are looking to in the Lord Jesus Christ is a picture and
a type, isn't it? One is a physical reality, the
other one is a spiritual reality that's embedded in particular
physical events, historic events. That's what the Old Testament's
all about. When Moses and Elijah are on the Mount of Transfiguration,
they have one topic of conversation that's recorded by God Almighty.
That's the decease that the Lord Jesus should accomplish at Jerusalem. The exodus he should accomplish
at Jerusalem. He'll take his people out. They're
separated to him. So what is this union, just briefly,
It's a union in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a union in the Father. It's a union... It's a union
in which God firstly gets all the glory. That's what he begins
his prayer with. Glorify your son, that your son
may glorify you. He comes to these people that
the father has given him. There is a oneness, there's a
unity in possession. They are the fathers and they
are given to the son. There's a union in possession,
there's a union in receiving the gift. receiving, the son
receiving the gift of all these people and taking them to himself.
It's a supernatural union and it's a supernatural communication
of himself and his father. He says there's a oneness in
knowing the father. He says, I've manifested thy
name to these people. There are a group of people in
this world who come face to face through the preaching of the
gospel and the work of the Holy Spirit, face to face with the
reality of who God is. Not the God of religion, not
the God of the figment of their imagination. They meet the awesome,
holy, sovereign God. And they meet him like Saul did
on the road to Damascus. They meet him like Isaiah did
in the temple. They meet him as Job did. They
meet him. They really do meet him. Peter
met him. He knew about the Lord Jesus
Christ and spent time with him. And then all of a sudden, there
was a revelation of who the Lord was when Peter was in that boat.
And he says, go away from me. He saw the holiness of God and
at the same time he saw the sinfulness of himself. And he says, I am
a sinful man. I am so sinful that I'm not fit
to be in your presence. But he is in this glorious union. This is the end of election,
isn't it? It's the beginning of election
and it's the end of election. This is a union in love in John
17. That's the purpose of it, isn't
it? He finishes this prayer for his people, speaking of love. He speaks of the fact that he's
gonna keep declaring, in verse 26, he's gonna keep declaring
the name. He's gonna be the preacher of
the gospel. Wherever the gospel is preached with power, the preacher
is the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit comes, and the
Lord Jesus Christ He says, I have declared unto them thy name,
and don't you love His promise? I will declare it. He's going
to keep declaring it. That the love wherewith thou
hast loved me, where is it? In them, and I in them. When Saul of Tarsus was converted,
it pleased God. When it pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb, he separated me from before I was
even born, I was separated to him, I had union with him. When
it pleased God, this is the time of love, who separated me from
my mother's womb and called me by his grace, verse 16 of Galatians
1, to reveal his son where? He certainly was revealed to
him, but listen to what the Holy Spirit declares as Paul's testimony. This is a testimony of all of
God's children. He's a pattern and a type. To
reveal his son in me. In me. We are always speaking of things
in terms of this union which is just far, far too deep, isn't
it, for our little tiny brain. It's a union of love. It's a
union of reciprocated love. We love him because he first
loves us. His love, his heart is taken
up with this union. His heart is taken up with his
love for his bride as he goes to the cross. He wants her to
be comforted. And he has comforted all of his
people throughout time with these amazing words. He says, there
is this union. They're one together. There's a union of heart and
soul. They are, there's a union because
we have the same heavenly birth. You're born from above. You've
come from heaven. Your origin, child of God, is
in heaven, not on this earth. You're not of this world. We're
partakers together with all the saints of the same precious faith. Listen to how Paul described
it. He says in verse three of chapter four in Ephesians, endeavoring,
working hard to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of
peace. There is one body and one spirit. even as you're called
into one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all
and in you all. In you all. We believe so much,
which is of man, we rejoice in what people can't understand.
We rejoice in it, don't we? I rejoice in these words. If you ask me to explain it,
I'll just say that's what he says, that's what he prays, that's
what he promises, that's what he does. All of it. He cannot
fail. We have one everlasting gospel.
We are one together in faith. We are one together in the truth.
We are one together in doctrine. The Lord raised up this church
and we had no idea that there was another church in this world
that believed the same things we do. And then we find, I got
a phone call from Chris Cunningham the other day, And all of a sudden
you just find your hearts knitted together. You've seen them come
from the other side of this world and we find ourselves one. And
you go back to those churches over there and the practice is
the same. Tom, you tell them it's the same,
isn't it? Those congregations, all of them
could come over here and we would fit just like a hand in the glove.
Why? Because we're clever. God has
done something. God has brought the Gospel and
the Gospel brings all of its attendant spiritual blessings.
It's absolutely essential to our communion with Him. Our union
in the Lord Jesus Christ brings communion with Him and communion
with others. He supplies all. Our Lord is praying for our knowledge
and our rejoicing of this union with him. Three times he prays
for this oneness, this union to be known. Therefore, it's
incredibly precious to him and he sees it as a great, great
blessing to us. One of the glorious things about
the ordinance that he's left us with, which we now participate
in, is that when we are baptized, it's us being immersed in Christ. When we participate in the Lord's
Supper, it's Christ in us. We take to ourselves, in remembrance,
his broken body. did it in love and in union and
in communion with his own. May the Lord bless his word to
our hearts and may we find ourselves going to John 17 and just rejoicing
and rejoicing and rejoicing again. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we thank you for your word. We thank you for the extraordinary
truths that are in it, Heavenly Father, the extraordinary security
of your people that you have given into the hands of your
son. The extraordinary promises that are made, those promises
sealed and signed in his blood, those promises that will be and
must be and are being fulfilled in the hearts of all of your
people. We pray, Heavenly Father, that you'd cause us just to remember
your Son as we take this ordinance. Just remember Him and rejoice
in knowing who He is and why you sent Him and the glory, the
glory that comes to you through the life and the death and the
resurrection of your dear and precious Son in this world. Make
Him precious to us, Heavenly Father. May we rejoice in our
oneness, our union with Him and with you in Him, our Father. We pray for His glory and for
the good and the comfort of all of your children, our Father.