Well, let us turn to this chapter
that we've just read, John 17, this remarkable portion, the
prayer of the Lord Jesus, we refer to it as his high priestly
prayer, having instructed his disciples in the previous chapters,
those discourses, his valedictory discourses, as he's about to
leave them and he makes promise concerning another Comforter,
even God, the Holy Ghost. And it's after He had spoken
all these words, as we are told here at verse 1, He turns from
His disciples and lifts up His eyes to heaven and then begins
to address the Father. Father, the hour has come. Glorify
Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. Remarkable portion. of Holy Scripture and I want
us to turn tonight for our text to verses 17, 18 and 19 sanctify them through thy truth
thy word is truth as thou hast sent me into the world even so
have I also sent them into the world and for their sakes I sanctify
myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth
So I want us to consider, for our theme then, this prayer for
sanctification. This particular part of the prayer
is one in which the Lord is petitioning the Father with regards to sanctification. Now, on the Lord's Day we were
looking at those closing two verses of Romans 7, and the cry
of the God, and I said that in many ways what we have in that
seventh chapter of Romans concerns the great conflict the believer
is involved in that conflict between the old nature and the
new nature and how the apostle is lamenting the good that he
would, he was not doing the evil that he would not, that was what
he was doing and he felt so burdened who would deliver him from the
body of that death. And we spoke then of the need
of mortification and in chapter 8 the apostle goes on to speak
of that mortification, putting to death the deeds of the flesh
and we said that in many ways at that part of the Roman Epistle
we have certain truths concerning sanctification so I thought it
would be profitable to look somewhat more into this subject of sanctification
and then my thoughts were drawn in conversation with a friend
to these verses that I've read tonight for our text is part
of the Lord's high priestly prayer sanctify them through thy truth
thy word is truth as thou hast sent me into the world even so
have I also sent them into the world and for their sakes I sanctify
myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth
it's useful of course to set the the verses in their proper context,
and we can basically divide this prayer into three parts. In the
opening five verses, the Lord Jesus is very much praying for
himself. He begins, doesn't he, with that
word. We read it just now in verse 1, "...glorify thy son,
that thy son also may glorify thee." And then again at verse 5, And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the
glory which I had with thee before the world was. In the opening
five verses the Lord is very much praying then in view of
what is before him. This is the prayer and as the
high priest going to go on in the following chapters to make
the great sin atoning sacrifice. 18 And 19, of course, will deal
with the detail concerning all that was entailed as he comes
to make that great atoning sacrifice for sins. So he prays for himself. And then from verse 6 through
to verse 19, he is very much praying for the apostles, for
the apostles in particular, but also for all those who would
come to faith in him, for his disciples. He says at verse 6,
I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me
out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, and they have kept thy word. And then verse 9, I pray
for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. And so in the second part, as
I said, from verse 6 through to verse 19, he's praying for
the men that had been given to him by the Father who were his
apostles. And then at the end from verse
20 through to 26, he's really praying for the whole church,
the whole election of grace. Verse 29, I pray I for these
alone, but for them also which I believe on me through their
words. And he speaks of that church
that is one, one true church, even as there is one true God
in Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Well, that's the threefold division. And so, what we really have here
in verses 17, 18, and 19 is the end of that section where Christ
is praying in particular for the apostles. He's praying for
their sanctification. Previously, verse 14, 15, and
16, we see how he has been praying that they might be preserved
in the midst of this wicked worlds. He says at verse 14, I have given
them thy word and the world hath hated them because they are not
of the world even as I am not of the world. I pray not that
they shouldest take them out of the world but that they shouldest
keep them from the evil. They are not of the world even
as I am not of the world. He wants that they might be preserved,
safe then in the world that lies in wickedness." And then, verses
17, 18, and 19, he prays for their separation, really, their
sanctification, separated to a pure and a holy life. Now, he's praying, very much
praying for the men that were given to him, for the apostles.
But, of course, the Church is built upon the foundation of
the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief
cornerstone. And therefore, there is a more
general application that we can make from the words of the text
tonight. But what I really want to do
tonight is to begin by considering how that here The prayer is for
the setting apart of those men who are to be the ministers of
the Gospel. And I want just to try to expound
what's said in these three verses. And then, the Lord willing, next
week I want to consider more particularly the doctrine of
sanctification. So, as it were, tonight we're
going to just expound these words as they stand before us, here
in the context as we sought to outline that context. And in
doing that, speaking of the prayer for sanctification, but seeing
it in terms of the setting apart of those who are to be the ministers
of the gospel. What does the Lord say? Sanctify
them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast
sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into
the world, and for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they
also might be sanctified through the truth." And we see that their
sanctification then, as they are set apart, we see it in relation
to the Lord Jesus Christ, and we see it also in relation to
the Scriptures. And that's the division, just
two points. First of all, they're setting apart their sanctification
in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior, the Incarnate
Word of God. And we have that in verses 18
and 19. As thou hast sent me into the
world, Even so have I also sent them into the world, and for
their sakes I sanctify myself that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. But we must first of all define
this word sanctify. It's very much of course the
key word in this whole passage. We have the word sanctify used
twice, and then we also have the word sanctified. So, three
times this word occurs in these verses. And it's a word that's
derived from the Greek word that simply means holy. It's the Greek noun holy that
lies behind this particular verb, to sanctify. Now, remembering that, we need also
to remember that there is a difference between justification and sanctification. Many a time we've sought to say
something with regards to justification, and justification you may recall,
is really a judicial term. It has to do with the law courts
and the declaring, really, of a person to be innocent or, more
than that, to declare a person to be a righteous person. Now, the amazing thing is that
Here, in Scripture, we're told that God justifies the ungodly. In other words, God declares
the ungodly to be righteous. Well, how can that be? Surely,
an ungodly person is an unrighteous person. Well, they are declared
to be righteous by means of what we might term an alien righteousness. It's not a righteousness of their
own, it's the righteousness of someone else. And it is of course
the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ that is imputed
to them or reckoned to their accounts. So, it's Christ who
has come, made of a woman, made under the law, to stand in that
law place of his people and to answer the law in terms of all
its terrible penalties, to bear the punishment by dying in their
room and in their stead, but not only that, but also living
a righteous life, a life in which he has been obedient to every
commandment of God and all that Christ has done is imputed to
them, reckoned to their account. And so, in Scripture, He is referred
to as the Lord, our righteousness. And this justification is experienced
by faith. The just shall live by faith. Justified sinner lives by faith
in the Lord Jesus. So, justification has to do with
the law courts and the declaring of a person to be innocent before
the law, and to be righteous also before the law. What is sanctification? Well,
whereas with justification we speak in terms of imputation,
With sanctification, we speak in terms of impartation. And in sanctification, there
is the imparting of holiness. There is the purging away, the
cleansing away of all sin, and the imparting of holiness. And it begins, really, in The
great work of regeneration. If any man be in Christ, he is
a new creature. He's born again. He's a partaker
now of the divine nature. Something has been imparted to
him. This holy seed. What does John
say? Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, because his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot
sin. because he is born of God. And this is the conflict that
Paul is speaking of, isn't it, there in Romans 7. He has this
new nature, and that's the real Paul, the new man, but he still
has the old nature. That that he's born of the flesh
is flesh, that that he's born of the Spirit is Spirit, says
Christ. and now the flesh lost against the spirit, and the spirit
lost against the flesh, and they're contrary one to the other, and
you cannot do the thing that you would. There's this conflict.
The good fight of faith. But that's all part of sanctification. But whilst we speak of sanctification
in terms of that imparting of the holiness in the new nature,
we have to remember what the basic meaning of the word to
sanctify is. It literally means to set apart,
or to separate two holy uses. That's the basic meaning of the
word to sanctify. There's that sense in which God
the Father sanctifies. We read it at the beginning of
Jude. What are believers? They are
those who are sanctified by God the Father, they are preserved
in Jesus Christ, and they're called. They're called by the
Holy Spirit, but they're sanctified by God the Father. And there,
what is Jude speaking of? Well, the Father has set them
apart from eternity. He's made choice of them. He
set them apart for salvation. is set them apart for holiness. And that is really the basic
meaning of the words to sanctify, to set apart, to holy usage. Now look at what it says here
in verse 19. Christ says, "...and for their sakes I sanctify
myself." For their sakes I sanctify myself."
Now, the Lord Jesus did not need to be purified. The Lord Jesus
did not need to be made holy. What was conceived by the Holy
Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary? Well, we're told, aren't
we, it was that holy thing. That holy thing that shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of God," said the angel
to Mary. That holy thing is the human
nature that is joined to the eternal Son of God. It's a holy
human nature. And then we're told in life,
Christ is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. Yeah. did not need then to be
purified in any way, to be made holy like sinners would need
to be. Because he is holy, but he was set apart. He was set
apart. And when we go back into the
Old Testament we see quite clearly how all of the priests, all of
the Aaronic priests were clearly set apart in Exodus 29. we read
of the consecration of the priests. And what is it for them to be
consecrated? Well, they're being set apart
to the service of God. They're being sanctified in that
sense. In fact, in Exodus 29.1, the word that's used is that
they're hallowed. They're hallowed. They're set
apart to holiness, to holy work. But it's not only the priests
who were set apart by God for that service of the priesthood,
but the prophets also. We see it, for example, in the
case of the prophet Jeremiah. The Lord says to him there, Jeremiah
1.5, Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before
thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified thee, and
ordained thee a prophet unto the nations." He was sanctified,
he was set apart, ordained, appointed to be a prophet to, not just
to Judah, but to the nations. We've been reading through Jeremiah
at home, and when we come to the later chapters here, his
prophecies are against the other nations, the Moabites and the
Ammonites. But he set apart as the Lord's
prophets. And Christ himself is one who
is also sanctified in the sense of being set apart. Back in chapter 10, the Lord speaking to the Jews there at verse 36 we read these
words say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent
into the world thou blasphemous because I said I am the Son of
God mark what he is saying he is the one whom the Father hath
sanctified set apart and sent into the world. And the reference
there, of course, is to the eternal covenant. In that eternal covenant
is he not the Father's first elect? He is set apart to be
the Savior. sanctified to be the Savior,
and in the fullness of the time, God sends forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law. So Christ, like those Old Testament
priests or those Old Testament prophets, is one who is sanctified. But here we see that Christ also
sanctifies Himself, as He prays to the Father. Verse 18 and the
beginning of 19, As thou hast sent me into the world, Even
so have I also sent them into the world, and for their sakes
I sanctify myself." Now, how did the Lord Jesus Christ sanctify
himself? He did this by the total devotion
that we see him giving to that work that the Father had committed
to Him when He sent Him into the world. He was obedient. And He was obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. He's obedient in living, He's
obedient in dying, He's obedient at every part and every point
of His life here upon the earth. Obedient unto death. even the
death of the cross. And when we think of that death
of the cross, we have to remember that Christ is the priest, who
is making the sacrifice, and Christ is the sacrifice, he's
the Lamb of God, the taker away the sin of the world, and he's
also the altar. Don't imagine that the cross
is the altar. The cross is not the altar. Christ, who is the
priest and the sacrifice, is also the altar. And it's the altar that sanctifies
the sacrifice. Remember, in Matthew 23, we have
the Lord again speaking to the Jews, particularly the Pharisees,
that chapter which contains all those dreadful woes that he pronounces
upon the Pharisees. And he says there in verse 19,
where there is greater the gift or the altar that sanctifies
the gift? And the answer, it's a rhetorical
question really, but the answer is so obvious. It's not the gift
that is the greater. It's the altar that sanctifies
the gift. And Christ, Christ offered himself
as a sacrifice, and when we think of that sacrifice we're to think
in terms of the whole person of the Lord Jesus. This is the great mystery because
He is a man, He's a real man, and as a man He can die, and
He does die, but He's never anything less than God. In everything
that he does here upon the earth, he is always God-man. There are
always those two natures, two distinct natures in that one
person of Jesus Christ. And the whole person dies upon
the cross. And it was the divine nature
that really sanctified the sacrifice that sanctified the gift we read
of him who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God who through the eternal spirit Hebrews 9 verse 14 it's
a most significant statement and it's one in which the expositors
in their commentaries have somewhat of difficulty in explaining and
expounding what is meant by the Eternal Spirit. Well, all of
them would acknowledge in some measure, all the best commentators
such as Dr. Owen would recognize that the
Eternal Spirit is a reference to the deity of the Lord Jesus. Not the Holy Spirit, but that
divine nature. And it's interesting. We sometimes sing that hymn of
Joseph Swain, 159. I know we don't base our theology
on the hymns, but you know sometimes in the hymnbook there's tremendous
theological statements in those hymns. And there's that little
couplets there in 159, and the second verse. The two lines, divinity's indwelling
grace sustained him till nature was dead. It was the divine nature
that sustained him in making that sacrifice, that sanctified
that sacrifice. And what is the Lord saying here
in our text? As thou hast sent me into the world, even so I
have also sent them into the world, and for their sakes. I
sanctify myself." The Old Testament priests, when
they were separated to the priesthood, they were sanctified, as I said,
and we have it there, you can read it in Exodus chapter 29. And in the first verse we see
how they were actually sanctified by blood. There was a bullock,
and there were two rams that were to be offered, and he tore
part and parcel of the consecrating of the priests. But gospel ministers,
and that's what these men are here in our text, they're gospel
ministers. How are they sanctified? Well,
they're sanctified by better sacrifices. They're sanctified
by the blood of Christ. That's what the Lord is saying,
as thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent
them into the world, and for their sakes I sanctify myself,
that they also might be sanctified through the truth. And so not
surprisingly, what is the subject matter of the ministry of these
men? What is the truth that they're
preaching? Well, they preach the truth as
it is in the Lord Jesus. He is the way, the truth, and
the life. Paul says, we preach Christ crucified. What does that mean? Well, just
two words, Christ. It's the person of Christ. That's
what these men preach. They preach that Jesus of Nazareth
is the Christ, the Son of the living God, the promised Messiah. They preach that great mystery
of godliness, that God was manifest in the flesh. They preach Christ.
And they also preach Christ crucified, and that's the work of Christ.
is obedience unto death. When God sends him in the fullness
of time, what is the purpose of his coming? To redeem them
that were under the law, that they might receive the adoption
of sons. He comes to pay the great ransom
price that the Holy Lord of God demands, that these people might
be released from all the guilt of their sins. This is what these
men Preached, they preached Christ crucified. They preached His
blood and His righteousness. Not just the shedding of that
precious blood in making the sin-atoning sacrifice, but the
life that He lived, the righteousness that He wrought by His continual
obedience to every commandment of God. They preached Christ,
His life, His death, His resurrection. And this is what they are separated
to. Well, there is a relationship then between their sanctification
and what they're being set aside for. There's a relationship between
their ministry and the Lord Jesus who is making the prayer. And Christ here is seen to be
the meritorious cause of their sanctification. Their sanctification
is rooted in Christ. And as Christ is the meritorious
cause, so in the second place we see that the Scripture, the
Holy Scriptures, that is the means of their sanctification.
Verse 17. Sanctify them through thy truth. Thy word is truth. Well, Christ is the grounds and
the cause, but what is the means? that they come to experience
His sanctification. It's through the truth. And the Lord says, Thy word is
truth. In their sanctification then,
the Scripture must be learned, but not just learned in the mind,
not just learned intellectually, it must be experienced. It must
enter into their soul, it must be that engrafted Word, that
implanted Word, able to save the soul. How were they born
again? Well, born again, says Peter, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. That incorruptible seed, the
Word of God. and how they are to be constantly
fed upon this word as newborn babes, Peter says, desire the
sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby, grow in
grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ
all this is the truth that must be imbibed and do we not see
in the experiences of these apostles. So, they were sanctified by the
truth of Scripture. Certainly that was the case with
Paul. He speaks of it quite clearly
in the opening chapter of his epistle to the Galatians. What
does he say here? Verse 10, And the following verse
is, he says, Do I now persuade men or God? Or do I seek to please
men? For if I yet please men, I should
not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I
neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation
of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my conversation
in time past in the Jewish religion, that beyond measure I persecuted
the Church of God and wasted it and profited in the Jewish
religion, above many my equals in my own nation, being more
exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers. But, when it pleased
God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace, here's His sanctification, you see, He separated. He separated To grace, he separated
to his apostleship. He pleased God, who separated
me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace to reveal
his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen. Immediately
he says, I confer not with flesh and blood. Oh, it was the Lord
who worked so mightily and effectually in him. And so when he writes
to the Philippians and instructs them, what can he say? Philippians
4, 9, those things which ye have both learned, and received, and
heard, and seen in me do, and the God of peace shall be with
you. It's those things that they have observed in him. This man, you see, is one of
whom the Spirit of God has taken hold really, and made him what
he is. But it wasn't just the experience
of John. John can speak the same sort
of experimental language. He does so in the opening verse
of his first general epistle. That which was from the beginning,
he says, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,
which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the
word of life. How this man had such an intimacy of knowledge
of the Lord Jesus? And here is the basis of his
ministry. You see, there's no authority
vested really in the person of any man. You need to be clear about that.
The Roman Catholic Church speaks doesn't it of the clergy and
the laity and really the clergy that's the Pope and the whole
host of cardinals and priests all those whom they consider
to be the clergy to them that is the all important thing that
is really the church Well, we reject that. We say that the
scripture teaches us the priesthood of all believers. Every believer
is a priest. Not making sacrifices like the
priest of Aaron, but offering sacrifices of praise and worship
to God, the priesthood of all believers. Rome might say that
authority rests in the curia, in the Pope and his cardinals,
and all that rigmarole. But there is no authority, I
say, vested in any man's person. The authority rests in the Lord
Jesus Christ alone. As he says when he gives commission
to his apostles, All power, all authority is given unto me in
heaven and in earth, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have
commanded you, he says. And lo, I am with you all the
way, even unto the end of the world. Amen." The authority is
Christ. And how does Christ exercise
that authority? Through His work. sanctify them
through thy truth, thy word is truth." And so the faithful gospel
minister is one who seeks only to open up the truth of God's
words. As Paul says to Timothy's study,
"...to show thyself approved unto God, a man that needeth
not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." There's the
authority in the book. the Word of God. And Paul doesn't
he also speak of those able ministers of the New Testament? Not of
the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life. And we need that gracious ministry
of the Spirit in the ministry of the Word, making the application
in the soul of sinners working that great work of salvation,
as the sinner is brought from death to life in the Lord Jesus. We see then here, in these verses,
in their context, that the Lord is praying for these gospel ministers. Where is the seat of authority?
It's in this sanctification that is to be understood in relation
to the Lord Himself and then also in relation to that Word
of the truth of the Gospel. Sanctify Him through thy truth
thy Word is truth as thou hast sent me into the world even so
have I also sent them into the world and for their sakes I sanctify
myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Well, as I said, I want, having
tried to expound the words as we see them in their context,
next time to consider more particularly the doctrine, the doctrine of
sanctification as the Lord teaches it in this particular portion.
Well, the Lord bless his word to us. Now before we pray, let
us sing the hymn 374, one of John Berridge's hymns. Prayer
for Increase of Faithful Ministers is the title, but it's interesting,
it says at the end that the hymn was occasioned by the death of
Whitfield. with the passing of Whitfield as a young man really,
he was only in his fifties when he died having travelled many
times from Old England to New England and back and ministered
both here and over there and then burnt out really I suppose
we might say and so Berridge wrote this hymn 374 the tune
is Aslingdon 544 Send help, O Lord, we pray, and
thy own gospel bless, for Godly men decay, and faithful pastors
cease, the righteous are removed home, and scorners rise up in
their room." 374, June 544.