What a great hymn to be singing
as we come to this passage of scripture in John 17. So if you
turn with me back in your Bibles to John 17, I wanted to look
at these verses 20 and 21. where the Lord is praying for
all who must believe until this world ceases to exist, until
all of his sheep, until the sheepfold is full, until the vine is fully
luxuriant, until his body is completed, perfect in every way,
until all of his promises from eternity are fulfilled. He says,
neither, verse 20 of John 17, 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. One of the delightful attributes
of our great God and Savior is that he prays. And I challenge you to go anywhere
in the Scriptures and find where one of his prayers wasn't answered.
He says at the tomb of Lazarus, he says, you always hear me. He must be heard, mustn't he?
He must be heard because of who he is. What a blessing it is
for us to read this private communication between God the Son and God the
Father about us. Isn't that remarkable? It ought
to be something that grips our heart and warms our faith and
causes us to go back to these words and say, did he really
say that? Did he really? Yes, he did. Did
he really pray that? Yes, he did. Is it coming true? Yes, it is. Can we rejoice in
it? Here is the Great High Priest
praying for his own. Their names are written on his
heart. Do you remember the Great High
Priest in the Old Testament? You can read about it in Exodus
and Leviticus. It's a remarkable picture of
what our Lord Jesus Christ was doing. Those names were written,
written on his heart, on stone on his heart. Those names were
woven into the very fabric of his garment. Think about that. The names of all of his bride,
all of his elect, all who will believe, were written there and
attached there and they became part of his fabric. Their names
woven into the fabric of His being. Their names are there
one with Him. He makes His soul an offering
to God. He didn't make an offering to
the world. Forget this notion that the Lord
Jesus Christ somehow makes an offering to all the world. The
Hebrews 9 makes it abundantly clear. His offering is an offering
to God. That's what the high priest was
doing. It was a transaction between God and God. But in the midst
of that, he prays for each and every one of them. The knowledge of God is infinite. Infinite knowledge. He infinitely
knows your thoughts and my thoughts right now. And if you are a redeemed sinner,
you just love the fact that he does. You love the fact that
not only does he know, but he rules and reigns over them. All
of his bride is everlastingly dear and precious to him. He can't forget them. He can
never, never, never leave them nor forsake them. He says, I
change not. Our great God and Saviour cannot
fail, Isaiah 42. He cannot fail, nor can He be
discouraged. So He's praying for us. He's praying for the people who
will believe on Him. As the head of the body, he gives
life to all the body. He nurtures it and he cares for
it. But here he leaves this remarkably
sweet testimony before he goes to the cross. That we might know
what was on his heart and what brought him here to this world. Doesn't his prayer make unbelief
seem particularly grievous? To doubt his love for his bride,
to doubt his goodness in all things for his bride, is such,
such sadness for us, isn't it? It has no impact on him. My prayer is that we would find
ourselves rejoicing and believing. Listen to how he describes these
people he prays for. He says in verse 20, he's praying
for them also which shall believe on me. No, it shall believe if
they do this and if they do that. They shall believe on me, why? Because of his work of grace
in their lives, his work of revealing his father's to them, his work
of sending his word to them. There's no doubt about his success
and there's no doubt about his glory in them and all who will
believe. See, he prays with great confidence,
doesn't he? He prays knowing that this prayer
is answered. This prayer has been answered
for the last 2,000 years. again and again and again and every
child that believes can go back to this prayer and trace the
source of their believing back to the courts of eternity and
then back to the very work of the Lord Jesus Christ and our
faith rests in Him and Him alone. He's always heard. He always
prays specifically for his own. This very night, he says, Peter,
I prayed for you. I prayed for you. He always prays according to his
father's will. On the cross this next day, he's
going to pray amazingly short prayer, amazingly powerful prayer.
He says, Father, forgive them. for they know not what they do.
There was a them who were forgiven. They would spend the next nearly
seven weeks with the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ on their
hands and probably not much sense of the depths of their guilt.
Until the Holy Spirit came on the day of Pentecost and those
very ones that he prayed for were pricked in the heart and
they cried out, What must we do to be saved? Though a prick
in the heart, what shall we do? And Peter makes this remarkable
promise. He says in Acts 2.39, the promise
is unto you and to your children and all that are afar off even,
listen to them, as many as the Lord our God shall call. He'll call them to faith, he'll
call them to repentance. There is a them, there is a them
in this world. I want to be known, I want to
know that I'm amongst those them. Like all of us, my days are shortening
by the very day that I live. I want to know that I am one
of them he prays for. We know he's able, Hebrews 7.25,
he's able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God
by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for him,
for them. I pray for them, he says, there
is a them. they're born. even before they
were saved. We know that they were saved
from the foundation of the world. We know from this prayer, and
when we come to this particular part of the prayer which is a
prayer for us, we can go back to the other part of the prayer
and so much of it relates to us. It relates specifically to
the apostles, but it's a declaration. He's giving the words to the
apostles which the apostles are going to give to us. So all the
declarations in the first part of this prayer are still relevant
for us. Our God delights in his bride. It's one of the things we lost
sight of in the fall, isn't it? The goodness of God towards his
people. We think that somehow we have
to coerce affection from him. Somehow we have to coerce love
for him. Somehow we have to do things. We naturally believe we have
to do something to get right with God. Listen to what Proverbs
8 says about him and his bride. He was rejoicing, Proverbs 8.31,
in the habitable part of the earth and he says, my delights,
plural, my delights were with the sons of men. This them that
he's praying for. What a great, great God he is. So I just wanted to look at a
few questions. Who are the them? Am I one of the them? Has the
Lord prayed to me? And how can I know that I'm one
of them? How can I find comfort in assurance in this? And that's
why he's doing this, isn't it? He says that he's prayed these
prayers and he's given them these words in John 14, that don't
let your hearts be troubled. You believe in me, believe also
in God. In my Father's house are many mansions. I'm going
there to prepare a place for you. And the purpose of all that
is what? you'll be with me, you'll be
with me. He's only going for a little
while and then he's coming back to be with them. So who are the
them? Well, we have absolutely no doubt
in John chapter 17 who the them are. Seven times in this short,
short prayer, he says, all that the Father has given me, all
that the Father These people were the possession
of God the Father. In verse 11 he says, I'm sorry. Thine they were, and thou gavest
me their me. All mine, verse 10, sorry. All
mine are thine, and thine are mine. They were the possession of the
Father, and they were given as a gift as a bride out of Adam's
fallen race to the sun before the foundation of the world. Who are they? Well, they are
the elect. They are the bride of Christ.
They are the children of God. We cannot deny and John 17 won't
let us deny that God has an elect people and God's people love
the notion of election and they love the electing one. They love
the whole process of election. Election is not salvation but
it's unto salvation. He has come. He has come from
heaven for them that the Father gave him. He's come from heaven
because he was eternally united to them. They became one with
him before the foundation of the world. And he comes. Do you delight in God's electing
grace, electing love? Do you delight in his predestination? What's the purpose of predestination? That you be made like Christ.
Don't you want to be made like Christ? Predestination is just
God's purpose of causing his people to be made to be like
his son. Who are the them? They are the
thine, and they are, as the Lord Jesus Christ describes them,
they're mine. He says they're mine. I will
be your God and you shall be my people. He claims possession
of these, ownership of these, and rightfully so. God's people delight in every
word of God. Listen to what he goes on to
say. Verse 20. Am I one of them? The question's
far too significant for me to listen to any man's opinion,
even my own opinion. We just must rest in what God
says in his word. They shall believe. The evidence is believing, but
their believing are specific. set, they're believing in him. Listen to what he goes on to
say. He says, they shall believe on me. They shall believe on
me. Our relationship with God and
our relationship with his word are so linked together. Your relationship and my relationship
with the Lord Jesus Christ and His Father and the Holy Spirit
can be measured so accurately by our relationship to the Word
of God. Do you love Him? Well, you love
His Word. Do you honour Him? You honour
His Word and esteem it. Do you obey Him? Do you obey
His Word? Do you long to be with Him? Do
you belong to be in His Word? Do you seek to worship Him in
spirit and truth? We seek Him in His Word. Is His
company your delight? Is His Word your delight? Has
His Word become spirit and life to you? All of it. I love what Paul says in Acts
24 verse 14. He says, So worship I the God
of my fathers, believing all things that are written. All things that are written.
Every part of God's word is precious to us. We come to it as little
children. And we find it like a mother's
breast. It just is nourishing its life. This book, this Word of God,
is a hymn book. It's all about Him. Everything
in this book is about Him. Do you hate every false way? To love the truth, to love He
who is the truth, necessitates that you hate everything that's
opposed to the truth and denigrates Him who is the truth. To go back
to John 17, do you love the Lord who gets all the glory for all
of salvation, for all of keeping, for all of revealing, for manifesting
His Father's name, for giving you the word? He's promised to
give you the word. He's promised all of His people
to be given the word. Do you and can you love a Lord
who does not pray for all mankind? Because in John 79 he says, I'm
not praying for the whole world, I'm not praying for all the people
in this world, I'm praying for my sheep, I'm praying for my
own. Do you love a Lord who in absolute justice sent Judas to hell? Do you love a Lord who is absolutely
sovereign? Absolutely sovereign. He has
power, verse 2 of John 17, has power over all flesh. And the
purpose of that power over all flesh is that he should give
eternal life. Do you love the fact that eternal
life is the gift of God? And it's a gift of God that's
given to as many as thou hast given him. And this is eternal
life, that they might know thee, the only true God. Do we love
the fact that this is a declaration, these words are a declaration
of the only true God. And knowledge has a lot to do
with love. To know him is to love him. To
love Him is to love His Word, and the evidence of Him electing
a people is that His Word comes to them. The Word of the Gospel
comes to them. I heard a man the other day say,
at a baptismal service, he said, we need to focus on the major
things and not trouble ourselves with secondary, less important
matters as to whether baptism is by immersion or sprinkling.
Hold on a second. Who has the right to declare
something in God's Word as a secondary? Baptism is a picture of the Gospel. You go to the Jordan and go to
John the Baptist and tell him that he can get a little pail
of water or some little sprinkling cup and he can sprinkle the Lord
Jesus Christ on the side of the Jordan. There's no need for him
to go in the Jordan. Everything in this book points to the Lord
Jesus Christ and Him crucified and so does his baptism. Everything
matters. Does, am I one of them, does
the preaching that you hear declare and you rejoice in the eternal
covenant of grace and love in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
a covenant that declares as he declares in verse 4, Part of the finished work is
that they shall believe. They will have their sins taken
away on Calvary's cross tomorrow, and there is absolutely nothing
to stop an infinitely holy God coming and dwelling in them and
dwelling with them, because they have no sin. His finished work
is a glorious work, but it's a work in covenant, it's a work
in union, because of his union with his people. Do you, do I, find this a cause
for joy, what we read in John 17? He says, I'm coming to you,
these things speak I, verse 13, that they might have my joy fulfilled. Is this good news about a glorious,
glorious Saviour that's done everything? He's done everything,
all the work. Are you rejoicing in the fact
that everything about your salvation is a finished work? Everything
about your sanctification is a finished work. He's done it
all. Everything about your glorification is a finished work. All your
eternal soul's well-being is just in His hands. It's exactly
where it needs to be. His work of obeying God perfectly,
his work of loving the Lord God with all of his heart, all of
his soul, all of his mind, all of his strength, all of his life,
and he did it as an us. That's what he's talking and
that's what he's praying for here. He loved his neighbour
as himself. And everything he did, everyone
who's united to him did as well. It's a work finished and that
work includes all that comes to pass in your life and the
lives of all humanity. Can you look and rejoice in the
fact that our lives are in his hands and he knows exactly what
he's doing, he knows exactly why he's doing it. And he causes
his people not just to bow, but to bow in thankfulness. And I know my flesh is just like
your flesh. I have as much unbelief as you
could, would embarrass you how much is there. And I'm as much
caught up in the things of this world as to break my heart on
a regular, regular basis. I'm not here telling you, I'm
just here to tell you how special he is. I'm here to tell you that
he's done it all. including this prayer for us.
It's all finished. He says, they shall believe. Am I one of them? They shall
believe. One of the things that is really,
really, two refuges which are very, very poor and appalling,
and I pray the Lord takes them away, are the refuge of what
happened yesterday, or some events in our lives, and the refuge
of what might happen tomorrow. Believing is always a now thing,
isn't it? Believing is always a present
thing. We believe now. We trust now. And Lord willing,
tomorrow we trust then. He said we shall believe and
we shall be ongoingly believing and believing and believing.
We'll believe through their word. Has your faith been grounded in the
proclamation of the gospel? He's praying that they will believe
through a word prayed, a word preached. It's the proclamation of the
gospel. precious to me. In the proclamation
of the gospel, in the words of John 17 verse 6, he says there's
a manifestation of the name. That's what happens in John,
in Psalm 22 that Graham read for us earlier, isn't it? He's
manifested thy name to the great congregation. The only way we
know God, the world by wisdom knew not God and cannot know
God, the way we know who God truly is, is by God manifesting
that. And it's a work that he declares
he's done. He says, I have manifested thy
name. And in the preaching of the Gospel
are we declaring the name of God, the very character of God? I shouldn't listen to so many
things that this world preaches, but anyway. When you hear a message
these days about God, what is the first thing that they want
to focus on? God loves everyone. I heard it
the other day at a funeral service. Everyone there was told that
God loves them and Jesus died for them and that salvation is
in their hands. Your hands better be pretty strong
if you think salvation's in your hands. That's not what he's praying
here, is it? They shall believe through the
preached gospel. Everyone is preached in so many
places now they are preached peace, peace. We love the truth of the character
of God and John 17 is a remarkable revelation of the character of
God. The one true God. Holy Father, righteous God. We'll look at those a little
bit later on. We love to declare all the attributes
of God. We love to declare His righteousness,
His faithfulness, His sovereignty, His immutability, the fact that
He rules and reigns over all things. We love to declare that
this God, His name is a covenant name. That's what it is for Him
to be the Christ. God and man, the anointed God-man
in covenant union with his Father and with his people. He can touch
God as a man and not be consumed. And he can touch man as God and
not be defiled. Light has come into this world. Light has come into the world. Do you love the fact that this
truth rejoices our hearts because he's declaring that if he sets
someone free, they are free indeed? He did it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. There are no sins in God's people. That's what justification is.
That's what it is to Him to be a righteous God. What happened
on the cross was an act of a righteous God. The most God-like thing
God ever did was put his son to death on the cross. It was
an act of righteousness. It was an act that declared all
the character of God. He did it all, and as he says
in the next chapter in the Garden, you can have me. And you let
these go free, you let these go free. He did it all and I'm
free. Everything that God demands and
expects from me, He sees in His Son and accepts in His Son. And all of His people are accepted
in the blood. I pray for these, for them which
shall believe on me through their word. If he's prayed for you,
you must be saved. If he's prayed for you, the Gospel
that he declares, and he is the Gospel, the Gospel is a person,
we're just declaring the very character of God according to
the Word of God. And all of our spiritual blessings
are tied up in him and there's nothing missing in his work.
It's finished work, isn't it? He says it's finished. There's
nothing missing, there's nothing lacking and there's nothing that
needs to be added to it. It's perfect. Do you rejoice
in his grace, in his blood, in his word, in his mercy? Do you
rejoice in the robe of righteousness? Do you rejoice in his love and
his providence? Am I one that he's prayed for? Do I see myself as a lost, wretched, worthy of eternal judgment, unless
the Lord shows mercy on me. He came into the world to save
sinners. He didn't come to call the righteous.
He came to call sinners to repentance. The gospel is what God has done
for Christ's sake. Done for Christ's sake on the
basis of his merits alone. Is this blood that will be shed
within maybe half an hour of these words being prayed, is
that blood precious, precious blood? God has to give a new Christ. be born again to see and to enter. May the Lord cause us to rejoice
in these words that are before us. I've been struck, as you know,
on many occasions, as I've looked back over this Upper Room Discourse,
One of the marks of his children is his promise that they'll be
asking. Ask, ask, ask. If you knew the gift of God,
he said to that woman by the well, if you knew the gift of
God and who it is, if you knew him, you'd be asking. If you
knew all the spiritual blessings, that can be given are given in
the Lord Jesus Christ, you'd be asking. And we'd be going
to Him again and again, expecting, expecting that these promises
will be fulfilled. They are. We're living proof
of it. My friends, we are living proof
of it. Amen. May the Lord cause us to
have the full assurance of faith, the full assurance of hope, the
full assurance that he gets all the glory and his people get
all the rejoicing, his joy fulfilled in them. May that be your portion. Amen.