Alright brethren, let's go to
John 17. I just want to take the next verse
from where we left off last time. In John 17 verse 24, our Lord Jesus prays and He says,
Father I will, that's what I titled this, Father I will. 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. Now, there's much power in this
petition. When the Lord says, Father, I
will, that's a petition that only He can make. Father, I will. This is the power of the perfect
mediator that God chose and sent. The power of our Lord as the
only begotten Son of the Father. God the Father said of the Lord,
this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. I'm well pleased. Christ has power with God as
the only begotten of the Father, as the one who has pleased God
well at all times, in every way, so that He's able to say, Father,
I will. Father, I will. This is the power
of His covenant having been fulfilled and Him having fulfilled it.
Before the world was made, when God the Father chose His Son
to be the mediator, it was for the purpose of manifesting God's
glory. God is Spirit, and He is going
to manifest His glory in the earth through a man. He is going
to bring God and His people together in one, in Christ the mediator.
And He is going to show forth His glory in the process. His
glory in saving chosen sinners. You know, whenever Moses was
ask God to see his glory. And the Lord put Moses in the
cleft of the rock. Christ is at rock. Christ is
at rock. And the Lord said this to Moses. He said, I will make all my goodness
pass before thee. That's the glory we see in Christ.
All the goodness of God was in Christ. He said, I'll proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee. That's what we see in Christ,
the name of the Lord. All the names we find throughout
scripture of our Lord is all manifest in the Lord Jesus. And
he said, I'll be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I
will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. We see that, we hear
that in this high priestly prayer. as our Lord Jesus prays for those
the Father gave Him. We'll see that again. Now here's
the glory. He said in Exodus 34.6, Moses
is in a cleft of that rock. You're going to see the glory
in Christ the rock. God's going to have to put us
in Christ the rock so we see His glory. But here it is. The
Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord
God, covenant God, merciful and gracious, Withholding and giving
what we do not deserve. Withholding what we do deserve
and giving what we don't deserve. Merciful and gracious. Long-suffering. Abundant in goodness and truth. Keeping mercy for thousands.
Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. And that will by no
means clear the guilty. This is all glory of God manifest
in Christ. He fulfilled every covenant promise
that He promised the Father He would fulfill. It manifests in
this glory. Look back at John 17 and verse
4. He begins here. This footing
right here is how He can say, Father, I will. This is how He
can say it on this foundation right here. He said, I have glorified
Thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
Thou gavest Me to do. That's how you can say, Father,
I will. He's finished every covenant obligation, now he's speaking
to the Father about what he wanted in that covenant. What he wants
in that covenant. He was faithful in all his house
as Moses was, for a testimony of those things which were to
be spoken after. In other words, so that from
then on, everybody will preach Christ. His people will preach
Christ. Testifying of Christ, what he
did. But it says Christ was more faithful than Moses. He was faithful
as a son over his own house, whose house we are. God trusted
his people to Christ and Christ is the firstborn of many brethren,
among many brethren, saving us. He's got the care of the whole
house. So this is why before saying this in verse 4, before
saying, I've glorified thee, I've finished the work you gave
me to do, before that, you don't hear Christ praying, Father,
I will. Because he took the form of a servant. He humbled himself
and took the form of a servant. And he said this, he said, I
came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will
of Him that sent me. But that's why he didn't say,
Father, I will. Never before, but only after
he's come to this place where he's finished the work. Now he's
speaking of his covenant side of it and what he will. God the
Father gives to him. That's why the Father receives
this. Our Lord's successful. He's successful. He's praying as that faithful
servant who finished the work God gave him to do. The God-man
mediator who purchased his people with his own blood. He's praying
as the one who fulfilled God's holy, just, and good law. completely
for God and for His people and declared God just and at the
same time saved His people, put away our sin, made us righteous
in Him. And this is also not only the
power of this finished covenant and the power of this sonship
as the mediator and only begotten Son of God, it's also this. This
is the Father's will. It's the power of unity with
God's will. This is the Father's will. He
prays in the power of one whose will is one with the Father.
God's Father's will is unchanging, unchangeable. It's one with Christ's
will. To gather all His elect children
together in Christ and bring us all to glory. That's the Father's
will. And that's what Christ is going to pray for here. It's
for Christ's glory as well because remember he said who he foreknew
he did predestinate to be conformed to his image that Christ might
be the firstborn among many brethren. That he might get the glory.
And there's coming an end when he's going to deliver up the
kingdom to God and he's going to put down all rule and all
authority and present us spotless to God. If our Lord hadn't come and done
this, and He hadn't prayed this for us, we wouldn't have had
any hope. Because we, like sheep, have gone astray. And that's
where we'd have stayed if the Bishop and Shepherd of our souls
hadn't come to us and called us and made us see what He did
for us. That He's all our salvation, all our righteousness. We'd have
never come to Him and we'd have perished. We'd have perished. We're thankful He prayed, Father,
I will. Father, I will. Let's read it
again. 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. Now let's look here, who
does he pray for? We see the power in his prayer,
the finished work, how he glorified God, oneness of will with the
Father. Now here's, who did he pray for? Well, he says it again. He says
it again. We've seen these same words.
He says, Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given
me be where I am. Now look here. Verse 2, he said,
You've given me power over all flesh that I should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given me. Verse 6, I've manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine
they were, and thou gavest them me, and they've kept thy word. Verse 9, I pray for them, I pray
not for the world, for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine. Verse 11 and 12, 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. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name. Those that thou hast given me,
I have kept. He just keeps repeating it. Those
that gave, now again here in verse 24, he's not only speaking
of those he'd already called at that time, he's speaking of
those he would call. Remember he said, I pray for
them who shall believe on me through their word. So he's praying
here for all his elect people who Godfather gave to Christ. This is what his elect are called
in the scripture. They're those that God ordained
to eternal life. They're those God ordained to
eternal life. They're the elect. Over and over
and over we find them called the elect. They're called the
beloved of God. Beloved of God. Called the Israel
of God. Called the redeemed of the Lord.
Those He calls and makes to be His holy nation. His royal priesthood. His chosen generation. His peculiar
people. I like this. We're called a number
no man can number. And not just a few elect children,
there's a bunch of them. A number no man can number. And
here's the most assuring. We're called the travail of His
soul. That's His people. That's His
children. The travail of His soul. This
is a good one. We're called His purchased possession. Bought us with His blood. We
belong to Him. He possesses us. We're His possession. He's going to have His possession.
And we're His inheritance. We're His portion. We're the
portion God the Father promised Him when He finished His work.
So it's these. It's His elect. It's you who
He's called. That's the object of His prayer.
You. and his elect alone. Now let's
hear each part of this petition, because each part of this petition
is so important. Look here now at verse 24. Father,
I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where
I am. If you were asked, somebody asked
you to give them a definition of what heaven is, there it is,
there's a good one right there. It's to be with Christ where
Christ is. is to be with Christ where Christ is. John, you know,
he was given a vision and he saw, and it describes all those
glorious things he saw in heaven, and he describes the glory of
it. But there would be no glory in any of that if Christ wasn't
there. That's what makes it glorious. And what he's praying here, this
is what he's asking the Father, is that His people be with Him
where He is. Be with Him where He is. He's
at the right hand of God. He's praying His people be with
Him where He is. Why do people die? Why do our
brethren die? This is why. Because Christ prayed,
Father, I will that they be with Me where I am. That's why. He's going to have His people.
We shouldn't be sad, should we? He's going to have His people.
He paid for them. He bought them. Verse 24, look
at the next word. He says, that they may behold
my glory, which thou hast given me. This is that glory the father
gave to his son. And you know, we really don't
know what this will be. We really can't speak much of
this. You know, Paul said, He quoted the scripture, I have
not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of
man the things which God has prepared for them that love him.
Now he's shined this light in our hearts, he's made us behold
his glory in the face of Christ Jesus. In this life he does that
when he regenerates his people. But right now, we see his glory,
we do see it. But we see it in the glass of
the gospel. We're looking at it today. in
the glass of this Gospel. This Gospel is showing us a reflection
of Him. And we're seeing Him. But we
see darkly. We see in part. We know in part. And what we do know, sometimes
you know He gives you a glimpse and your hearts are full and
you behold His glory. And then it's interrupted. The
world comes crashing in and things you have to do and the cares
of this world. It takes him turning to us again
and speaking into our heart and making a word of faith and making
us behold his glory. But brethren, it won't be like
that then. When he calls us there, it won't
be like that then. For now we see through a glass
darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then
shall I know even as also I am known. We don't even know ourselves
like He knows us. But we're going to know Him like
He knows us. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth
not yet appear what we shall be. But we know that when He
shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as
He is. We're going to see him not as
he was when he was here. We're going to see him as he
is now, glorified. The glorified God-man. You remember he came to the apostles,
he said, handle me. He still had the nail prints.
He has the wound in his side and his feet. Well, he arose. Now he's glorified. We are going to see Him face
to face. And we are going to know Him. We are going to know Him. Listen
to these descriptions. Go over there. Let's look at
Revelation 4. Here are a few of the descriptions John gave.
And this is just kind of to help us have a little bit of idea. We are going to have to be there
to behold Him. In verse 2, John said, Immediately
I was in the Spirit, and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and
one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon
like a jasper and a sardine stone. And there was a rainbow round
about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. That's beyond us, the things
he just said. But it's going to be glorious.
That's what he's saying. It's glorious. You know, you've seen
the kings and queens in England and all the pomp and all. That won't be nothing compared
to this. Compared to this. Look at Revelation
5 verse 11 and think about this glory. Everybody there is going
to be singing praise and glory to Him. You know when you go
to a conference and everybody is there and you hear all these
people singing how loud it is. Now listen to this. Revelation
5.11. And I beheld and I heard the
voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and
the elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten
thousand and thousands of thousands. I could not number them John
said. Just a multitude no man can number. They were saying
with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive
power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory
and blessing. And every creature which is in
heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in
the sea and all that are in them heard I saying, blessing and
honor and glory and power be unto him that sit upon the throne
and unto the lamb forever and ever. You talk about something
to hear. Look at Revelation 7 verse 17. This is something that's going
to be glorious. The Lamb which is in the midst of the throne
shall feed them and shall lead them unto the living fountains
of waters and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. all tears from their eyes. We
sing a lot of times here, we'll sing more about Jesus what I
know, more about Jesus what I know. Brethren, when He raises us and
we see Him and we know Him, you're going to know the perfection
of His love. We're going to know the perfection
of His righteousness. We're going to know the perfection
of His mercy and grace toward us. We know in part now that
we're going to see and know as we're known. I don't know what
all that's going to include. I kind of think it's probably
going to be, we're probably going to be able to see everything
he was doing for us all the time in this world. Not just at the
cross, but also throughout our life, everything he did for us.
You know, when we got stopped, from doing whatever we want to
do and we murmured and we were all disappointed about it. He'll
show you, I saved you by doing that. I was saving you. Everything,
all the mercy and grace, we're going to know it all. And it'll
be endless. It'll be endless. It won't end.
It won't ever end. We'll be with Christ forever,
uninterrupted. When we've been there 10,000
years, Bright shining as the sun. We've
no less days to sing His praise than when we first begun. Now, if you're sitting here today
and you don't believe on Christ, why not? Why not? All fullness is in Him. He is
the one God has provided for the salvation of His people.
And everybody that believes on Him, He saves. Call on Him while
He's near. Cast all your care on Him. With all your heart, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I know it's like preaching
to the dry bones and saying, live. But if He sends the Spirit
and He gives you life, you'll see Him and you'll believe Him.
Do it. Believe Him. Believe Him. Believe
Him. Now lastly, I want you to behold the certainty of this
petition. We know it's certain. Christ prayed our will, that's
certain. Christ finished the work, that makes it certain.
Christ's will is one with the Father, that makes it certain.
That those the Father gave to Him, that makes it certain. All
this makes it certain. Christ is going to have His people,
God the Father is going to have His people behold Christ's preeminence,
His glory. So that makes it certain. But
look at this next thing. 4. Because thou lovest me before
the foundation of the world. Now I want you to connect verse
23. Look at the end of verse 23.
We saw this last time. He spoke of, I in them and thou
in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the
world may know. He's talking about his people
he calls out. That thou hast sent me, and hast loved them
as thou hast loved me. And now look again at the end
of verse 24. For thou lovest me before the foundation of the
world. That's how God the Father loved you, child of God. as he
loved Christ before the foundation of the world. Never been a change,
never been a shadow of turning in his love for his people, ever,
ever. He loves Christ because Christ
laid down his life for his people. He said in John 10 verse 15,
he said, As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father,
and I lay down my life for the sheep. And then he said in verse
17, therefore doth my father love me, because I laid down
my life that I might take it again. Before this world was
made, when the father gave him this people, and Christ became
the surety of his people, right then the father saw his people
in Christ, righteous, he saw the end from the beginning. All
the blessings and all the end result of everything Christ accomplished. Justified, righteous, holy, perfect. All in Christ. Because Christ
said, I'll lay down my life for the sheep. I will do that. I
will do it. And he came forth and he did
it. And the Father loves him. The Father loved him from the
foundation of the world. And then the Father said in Psalm
2, after He finished the work, He said, I've set my King on
my holy hill of Zion. He raised Him, He set Him there
in His right hand, just like the Father promised. And He said
to Christ, and Christ tells us this, Christ said, I will declare
the decree, that's the covenant, that's the eternal purpose of
God. He said, I'll declare what God decreed, I'll tell you what
He told me, Christ said. The Lord God Jehovah has said
to me, Christ said, thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. Ask of me and I shall give thee
the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the
earth for thy possession. In other words, Christ said,
the Father's going to give me all my people that I will have
because he loves me. He's well pleased with me. When
he looks at Christ, he sees propitiation. He sees atonement accomplished.
He sees satisfaction in full. He sees his elect redeemed, his
covenant ratified in Christ's blood. He sees his righteousness
manifest in perfection. And he's pleased. He loves his
son. If a stranger asks something
of you, you who have children, if a stranger asks something
of you and your child asks something of you, which one are you going
to give it to? He's going to give it to His Son. He's going
to give His Son everything His Son desires because the Son gave
Him everything God will, the Father will. Now, knowing this
is the will of our Lord, knowing that we have this assurance,
knowing that this is our good hope that we're going to be with
Him one day. Do you remember what Peter said? Peter asked
this question. He said, what manner of persons
ought you to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for looking
for and hastening unto the coming of the day of God. He said, because
according to His promise, we are looking for a new heavens
and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. And He said, Wherefore,
beloved, seeing that you look for such things, be diligent
that you may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless,
and account that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation. When
you come across a scripture like this that speaks to your heart,
the Lord's speaking to your heart through His Word. And we all
have some scriptures like that that we just like to go back
to and read often. Because it's always a blessing
to us. Find you some scripture like
that. And if you read the Word every day, you'll have a lot
of scriptures like that. It'll give you something day
by day. And whenever you're weak, Whenever your unbelief is coming
on, whenever your doubting is coming, whenever some murmuring
is creeping up about God's providence, whenever you're tempted, go to
His Word and read that Word that's speaking to you. And set your
affection on Christ. He's the strength. Ask Him to
bless it. Ask Him to help you. Ask Him
to give you strength. We can't do anything without
Him. Nothing without Him. Nothing. He's the strength. He'll help you. And if you do
fall into unbelief and doubting and sin, go to Him. Don't hesitate to go to Him.
We're going to see a little bit about that in the second hour.
Go to Him. What I'm saying to you is, at
all times, in all seasons, Go to Him. Go to Him. So that we
have the strength to live with this heart of godliness set on
Him and focused on Him from the heart. This is what He is going
to work in us. All right. It's just a few more
days. That's all. Just a few more days.
And His promise will be brought to pass. Just a few more days. Either he'll come back or we're
going to go to him. But it's a few more days we're
going to be with him. All right, let's go to him in prayer. Our
Father, we do thank you that you left nothing in the hands
of your people. Thankful, Lord, that you chose us in Christ and
blessed us and sent him forth made us holy and righteous. Thankful,
Lord, that You gave us an understanding to know and to believe You. Lord,
help us to remember this Word and constantly apply ourselves
to it, diligently look into Your Word to see what it is we're
looking for. Keep us looking. Keep us hastening
to that day. Don't let the world take up our
time and our attention and our focus. Keep our hearts set on you, set
on Christ. Lord, we thank you that you promised
you will, and we thank the Lord that When we do turn away and we do
fall, that You continually, continually draw us to You in love. Make
us see that we're still complete in Christ. You keep on growing
us and growing us and growing us, knowing He really is everything. He's all and in all. And Lord,
we ask You, hear our Redeemer, hear our Intercessor, hear our
Great High Priest. All these things he's prayed
here, Lord, hear him at your right hand on our behalf. View him on our behalf and be
merciful to us on his behalf. Thank you, Father. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen.