All right, if you'll take your
Bibles now and turn with me to John chapter 17. John chapter 17. We're looking at a large portion
of this chapter this evening. And the title of my message is
Four Demands, Four Demands of Our Great High Priest. Four Demands
of Our Great High Priest. Prayer, this prayer that is before
us tonight is what we call the high priestly prayer. It is the high priestly prayer
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now I've got three points of
this message tonight. First of all, I want us of necessity,
before we get into this prayer of our high priest, I want us
to first see our need of a high priest. our need of a high priest
and an offering. Secondly, I want us to see that
that high priest is only Jesus Christ and that offering is only
Jesus Christ. He is both the high priest and
the offering of Jesus Christ. for sin. And thirdly, I want
us to see as Jesus Christ being the successful high priest in
this prayer makes four distinct demands of God. What an astounding
thing that is, isn't it? That someone could make demands
of God. and not only make demands, but
those demands be received with love and acceptance and God actually
giving him what he demands. So let's see these things tonight.
First of all, before you can understand his demands, you have
to know this. Every one of us need a high priest. We need a high priest to make
an acceptable offering to God for us. The whole Word of God
throughout reveals this fact that we need a mediator, and
that's what a high priest is. He is a mediator that stands
between God and men, and his purpose is to make offerings
unto God for the people as a representative, a mediator. And throughout the
whole Word of God, you see this over and over and over, man's
need of a high priest. Now when God made Adam, God made
Adam in His image, God made Adam upright, sinless, and perfect.
And what was the result of that? There was communion with God.
Adam had open communion with God. He did not need someone
to stand between him and God. He was able to stand on his own. And as long as he obeyed God,
he had that ability. But as soon as he sinned, he
lost all ability to commune with God. And his sin separated him
from God. There was a great separation
from God. God's judgment failed and he
spiritually died. God said, In the day thou eatest
thereof, thou shalt surely die. And he did. He spiritually died. And the proof of this was his
ignorance. His ignorance. He became totally depraved and
this was shown by him trying to cover his nakedness before
God with fig leaves. Can you imagine that he thought
fig leaves should cover his nakedness before the eyes of him who sees
all things. And you remember the only thing
that stopped that was the voice of God. He was fine with the
fig leaves until what? God's voice called him in the
cool of the day and he wasn't fine. He ran and hid themselves
among the other trees. I'll tell you this, Adam's sin,
though great, was not isolated. Adam was set up by God to be
a representative of all his race. And so then, that as long as
he was holy, as long as he remained holy, so did all his race. But
the moment he sinned, all of his race sinned in him. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men, for all have sinned. Therefore, all men by nature,
having the law of God written in our hearts, all men are seeking
to be justified by some means. By some means, men are seeking
to justify themselves, to hide their sin and nakedness, to cover
themselves before God. They seek to be justified by
their own works. So what are they doing? They're
making themselves to be their own mediator. They're offering
sacrifices to God. They themselves are trying to
take the role of a high priest and offer sacrifices of their
works unto God. And so like our father, we begin
to use the fig leaves of our works to cover our nakedness. In other words, man seeks to
be his own mediator. He desires to be his own high
priest and make his own offerings to God. But what happened to
Adam happens to us as soon as God speaks. The fig leaves of
our works begin to die. And then what? When man's works
is not enough, he begins to hide himself among the trees of religion.
The trees of religion, religion's confusion. Men love confusion
in religion, that way there's no real truth. Truth becomes
relative to opinion and there's no truth in it, so they feel
comfortable among the trees of religion. They seek other men then, if
that does not enough, they seek other men to be their priests. Men who are just as dead and
in need of a high priest as they are, they seek them to be their
priests. And so because of sin, no man
then could approach unto God by his works. This is the problem. No man can offer anything unto
God because all of his works are covered in sin. All of his
works are unacceptable to God. Because of sin, no man could
approach unto God by his own merits. Our own works are full
of sin and our offerings cannot ever please God. But when God
came to Adam in the garden, he testified of a way. He testified
of a way that man can be reconciled unto God. And I'll tell you this,
it is only by a high priest and only through an offering. That
is the only way man can be reconciled. And I'm here to tell you tonight
there is a high priest. It's not you. It's not me. It's
not the Pope. It's not all those funny little
guys running around in dresses with the collar turned backwards.
Those are no priests. I'm here to tell you there's
no pastor who is a priest. There's no man who is a priest
here. There's only one high priest,
only one high priest that made only one acceptable offering,
and that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He is the only acceptable
high priest. the only acceptable high priest
before God. And that was declared by God
in the beginning to Adam. What was his declaration to Adam?
He said, the seed of the woman. Here's the high priest. Here's
the high priest anointed of God. God chose this high priest and
he was to become the seed of the woman. Who else qualifies
but Jesus Christ? Anyone? Anyone virgin born? No, only Jesus Christ. He alone fits this. And listen,
this is how he would do it. He would crush the head of the
serpent. He would forever satisfy the justice of God as a high
priest and as a mediator by His one act of sacrifice, which was
stated, He shall bruise His heel. He shall crush the head of the
serpent. How? By bruising His heel. This is speaking of the
crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you remember, God
showed this In the very next verses, the scripture says God
made coats of skin for Adam and Eve to cover their nakedness.
What'd he do? He made a sacrifice. God showed by picture what this
seed of the woman was to come and do. He was to come and offer
a sacrifice to cover the nakedness, the sin of his people. And from that time forth in the
scripture, what do we begin to see? Sacrifices being offered. Remember the very next story
in scripture. What is it? Cain and Abel. Remember,
they brought what? Sacrifices unto God. Cain brought a sacrifice of his
own labor unto God. He brought the fruit of the ground.
He brought the best fruit possible. the best labor he could put into
it, he gave the best that he could give, he offered that sacrifice
to God, and it was rejected. Why? The ground was cursed. Cain
is a picture of everybody offering a sacrifice of their works. God had no respect to Cain's
offering, but Abel made an offering, didn't he? He made an offering
of blood. which was pictured by God. He knew that God had already
set a precedent that there should be a high priest and that high
priest should offer a sacrifice. And God said, the scripture says
that Abel's sacrifice was an excellent sacrifice, more excellent
than that of Cain. He offered the blood which pictured
the death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look now, friends, we see that
Jesus is the only high priest of God. Matter of fact, go to
Hebrews, go to Hebrews chapter, go to Hebrews chapter four. The
apostle tells us this, I'm sorry, Hebrews chapter five. And he
said, look, for every high priest is taken from among men is ordained
for men in things pertaining to God, that he might offer both
gifts and sacrifices for sin. In verse five, it says, Christ
also glorified not himself, but was made an high priest. When
he said unto him, Thou art my son this day by begotten, and
he said in another place, Thou art a priest forever after the
order of Melchizedek. You see, Christ was a high priest.
He was an ordained high priest of God in things pertaining to
God, for who? For men. Jesus Christ. came to be a high priest, ordained
to be a high priest. And so when all of that priesthood
in the Old Testament, what did it picture? It pictured Him.
It pictured Him. All those priests and those offerings,
listen, how many thousands of offerings were made by those
priests? How many thousands of lambs and rams and bulls and
goats had to be offered under the law? How many sins did that
blood remove? The scripture says none. The
blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin. Listen to
this, but this man, Hebrews 10 verse 12, but this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sin, he sat down forever. expecting his enemies to be made
his footstool. These priests could never atone
for sin, but this priest, Jesus Christ, came into the world and
offered one sacrifice for sins according to a covenant of grace,
a covenant of mercy. God said, I've made a covenant
with them. And this is the covenant, a covenant better than the covenant
of the law. It's a covenant of forgiveness,
a covenant of pardon. He said, I will remember their
sins and iniquities no more. And I'm telling you, Jesus Christ
is the only mediator of that covenant. He is the only high
priest of that covenant. He's the only one. And God promises by Him to give
His people absolute forgiveness. Can you imagine that? Absolute,
perfect forgiveness. Absolute pardon of sins. Now,
how could this be? You know God is holy. You know
God is just. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? Only through a high priest, only
through a perfect offering for sin could God ever justify the
guilty. And one word for this, it's substitution. Substitution. Another word is
representation, representation. Only through the offering of
another. And the one who was anointed
to make this, to be our high priest, is Jesus Christ. In time, Aaron offered sacrifices,
but you remember, Aaron was a high priest for who? for Israel. What a picture of our Lord Jesus
Christ, because Jesus Christ did not represent everyone. As
a high priest, a high priest only represents a people. He
was ordained to represent a people, just as Aaron was ordained to
represent that nation of Israel. God, Jesus Christ, was also a
high priest to represent a spiritual Israel, a spiritual And so our high priest, Jesus
Christ, came into the world to offer a sacrifice for His people. And by His one offering, God
was forever pleased, and He justly shows His mercy and grace in
the offering of Christ. Is there any place else that
you could see the mercy and love of God but the cross of Christ?
There's no other place that you're ever going to see the love of
God more clearly than at the cross of Christ. For God so loved
the world that what? He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever should believe
on Him should not perish but have everlasting life. And how
should that be? That He should be like that serpent that was
lifted up in the wilderness. Even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. This is how He was to accomplish this. To be our
high priest, he offered a sacrifice. Not a sacrifice of animals, a
sacrifice of himself to God on Calvary's tree. He was appointed
of God. He was chosen of God from among
men. And as such, he is the only mediator. between God and men. Do you realize
that? That there's only one mediator.
Paul said that in Timothy. He said there's one mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. What does he mean?
There's one high priest. There's one surety of the covenant.
There's only one sacrifice acceptable unto God. It is Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. It's the only acceptable offering. Let me ask you tonight, do you
need a high priest? God says you do. And let me tell
you, I'm gonna ruin the surprise for you, you're not it. Do you need a sacrifice? Do you need a sacrifice for your
sins? God says you do. Ruin the surprise,
it's not your works. It's not your religious zeal.
It's not your religious feelings. It's not your religious fervor.
None of that will make an acceptable offering to God for sin. Without
the shedding of blood, there is what? No remission. There's no atonement. There's
no redemption. And I'm here to tell you there's
only one acceptable sacrifice, only offered by the one acceptable
high priest, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, he is the only
acceptable high priest, and only his offering was accepted of
God, and only men are saved by this high priest. Do you believe
on him? I'll give you some good news.
Everyone that believes on him, guess what? You were represented
by him. Now, you're not represented by
him because you believe. You believe because you were
represented by him. Faith is the evidence of His
representation for you. And now then we've seen that
we need a high priest. We've seen that Christ is the
only high priest chosen of God, acceptable sacrifice of God. Now then come back to this John
chapter 17, and in light of him being this high priest, this
prayer is what is known as the high priestly prayer of our Lord
Jesus Christ. And seeing he has made such an
acceptable sacrifice unto God, I want us to see four demands
of the great high priest. Four demands he makes of God
and four demands that God gladly gives Jesus Christ, his son. The first one is this, look in
verse one and then verse five. Jesus said, and said these words
spake Jesus as he lifted up his eyes to heaven. And he said,
father, the hour has come, here's the first one, glorify thy son. Look in verse five, he says it
again. Oh, and now, oh father, glorify thou me with thine own
self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. The first claim of the high priest
is this, give me your glory. Listen to me, what other man
could ever demand of God glory? What did God say about his glory?
He said, I will not share my glory with another, and yet here
is one who demands of the Father, give me glory. Give me glory. Here the sovereign
Redeemer, the mediator of the new covenant, demands to be glorified
of the Father. Now the Son of God, in this verse,
tells us of the glory He deserves. You get that? He deserves. It
was the same glory He had with God from eternity. See, Jesus,
our great high priest, was not just any man, but He was God. He was God. He was one with the
Father. And back over in Hebrews, the
writer of Hebrews says this, that he is the express image,
who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image
of his person, upholding all things by the word of his power,
when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right
hand of the majesty on high. You see, he said he is, the express
image of God's person, and after he had accomplished this, what
did he do? He received glory. He sat down on the right hand
of the majesty on earth, having received glory. He received glory
because it was his. But now, you see, he always had
this glory with the Father. He created all things, sustained
all things, but now he's become a man. He's laid aside that glory. He's laid aside that glory and
became a man. Go to Philippians. Go to Philippians
chapter two. Philippians chapter two and look
at verse six. Who being in the form, that word
form means nature. Who being in the nature of God,
what'd he do? Thought it not robbery to be
equal with God. But for the salvation of his people, he being an high
priest who must offer himself to God and be subject to God,
made himself no reputation, took upon him the nature of a servant,
and being made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion
as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Now, why did he do that? Because
he was our high priest. You see, in order to represent
man, he himself must become man. And in order to become man, he
must humble himself. He must become obedient unto
God. And when he finished that work,
what did God say of this mediator? Verse 9, Wherefore, what did
God do? He demands of God glory, and
this is what happened. Wherefore, God hath highly exalted
him, and giving him a name that is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus, every knee should bow. You know who's gonna bow to him?
Everyone. I saw a man the other night on
television just mocking Christ, mocking God. You know what? He
will bow his knee to Jesus Christ. He will. He will bow his knee. Why? He said, Father, glorify
me. with the glory I had with thee
from the foundation of the world. And that glory will be manifest
in that day and he will bow his knee and every tongue will confess
what? Jesus Christ is Lord to what? The glory of God the Father.
He's glorified. Look now upon this great high
priest who claims the glory of God. See now that God has highly
exalted him, the son, and made him to be made this man to have
all the glory of God. You know, if we were able to
look into heaven, you know what we'll see? We'll see a man with
all the glory of God. We'll see a man sitting on the
throne of God, glorified, and everyone will bow to him. Oh,
I'm so glad to bow. I'm so thankful. that I'm able
to, by faith, see this and bow to Him now. Jesus being given
glory of God. What else? Look back at your
text. Look, see what else, what this glory gives. He said in
verse one, glorify thy son, that thy son may glorify thee, as
thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. With this glory
comes what? It comes power. Power. And so what is the basis then
of his claim? What is the basis of his claim?
He said, Father, glorify me, glorify
me. Jesus in this prayer looks up
and he says this, the hour has come. Look at verse one again.
He said, Father, the hour has come. What hour is this? It was
the hour of his glorification. It was the hour of His exaltation,
the hour upon all which the world and time had hinged. It was His
suffering, His death. The greatest display of God's
love, of Christ's glory was His offering upon Calvary's tree. It was there in His agony, in
His misery, and His suffering for sin that
was imputed to Him of the Father, which He bore in His own body.
It was there the fury of God, the holiness of God was manifest. Can you think of anywhere else
the holiness of God was more manifest than the cross? It was
manifest at Sinai, wasn't it? It was manifest there. Even more
so when God made His Son to be sin for us and God poured out
His wrath on His Son. How much does God hate sin? He
hated it so much when it was found in His Son, wrath was poured
out on Him. Wrath without measure. And you see Him in agony. But
listen, behold the glory of this. He was not consumed. You got that? He was not consumed
Himself. I think of the burning bush.
There's that bush over there. It's on fire. and is not consumed
one bit. Not one leaf is touched by the
flame. That was Christ's deity. There
was not one ounce of His deity touched, and yet all of the sins
of His people were consumed, and not He Himself. He Himself
was sustained by His deity. And when justice was fully satisfied,
and he declared with a loud voice his victory. Do you realize this?
That even the wrath of God could not demand his soul unless he
gave it. Jesus Christ had to actually
give his life. He said, Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit. And he was gone. Not until then. Who was in control? Who was in
control of that? He was. He was. What glory, what majesty. I like
that scripture in Psalm 45, he shall ride prosperously. He was
prosperous in his work, wasn't he? He cried with a loud voice. What
did he cry? It is finished. It is finished. Believer in Christ,
do you not see that all the work of Christ, all the salvation
of sinners, is for one purpose? The glory of God. Isn't it? Ephesians chapter 1. What does
it say our election is for? Scripture says that it's according
to the praise of the glory of His grace. What was our redemption
for? According to the praise of the
glory of His grace. What is our calling for? According to the
praise of the glory of His grace. Every bit of our salvation that
Christ accomplished was for the glory of God. Was for the glory
of God. And in verse 2, Jesus said this,
after He had glorified God, He said this, Thou hast given Him
power over all flesh. and should give eternal life
to as many as Thou hast given Him. The Father has given to
Jesus, the Mediator and High Priest, an elect people. And all power over all flesh
is given to this great High Priest, the Kingly Priest. And see, This
One who is our Savior is no powerless, helpless, weak, effeminate Savior
as the false Christ of free will works religion is. You see, He
said this, All power is given to Me. All power is given to
Me. This Savior is given all power
over all flesh, both lost and saved, righteous and wicked,
men and beasts, angels and demons. are all under his power to do
whatsoever he pleases. The scripture says, the earth
is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and they that
dwell therein. You see, that's what it means
by Christ. He says, all power is given to
me. All the world and all therein and all that happens in time
and eternity is according to the will of Jesus Christ. And what is the will of God in
giving him this power, in giving him this glory? What is the will
of God? It is this, Jesus said it, thou
has given him power over all flesh for what purpose? That
he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him."
This power, this rule that God has given him is for the purpose
of giving eternal life. This power of God was given to
him. But listen, it was given to him
because he earned it. This glory was given to him because
he merited it. This power was given to him because
it was rightfully his. I want you to see this. This
astounded me this week. Look at Revelation chapter five.
Look in Revelation chapter five. Remember, John's crying, he's
crying. He sees the book of salvation in the hand of God, and there's
nobody able to take the book and open it. And he's weeping,
and the angel comes and says, hey, why are you crying? He said,
the lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed to open the book.
And in verse six, he says, and I beheld, and lo, in the midst
of the throne and the four beasts, in the midst of the elders, stood
a lamb, as it had been slain, having seven horns, seven eyes,
and the seven spirits sent forth into all the earth. And he came
and, what? Took the book from the hand of
God. He took it. He took it because he had a right
to it. So when he's saying glorify me,
you know why? He had a right to be glorified. He had a right to be glorified.
He took the book. And this is the, when he took
the book, everybody bows down in verse nine, he's singing a
new song. Thou art worthy to what? Take the book and open
and loose the seals thereof. Thou are worthy to take the book,
to give salvation to whomsoever you. He is worthy to have all
power, to give salvation to as many as in the book, as many
as the father had given him. And so what will Jesus do with
this power? You listen, he'll give eternal life to as many
as the father gave him. That's what he's going to do.
And so look now at all the providence of time, all the events and actions
and deeds of men and beasts and angels and demons, all that move
in perfect harmony according to the will of Christ for that
purpose to save those people he was given. to save them. Everything is moving toward that. You see, we by nature were dead
and unable, unwilling to come to Christ, ignorant of his righteousness,
going about to establish our own righteousness, but God had
purposed something wonderful, something great to save some
of Adam's race. He purposed to give eternal life
to some, which life was merited by the high priest, Jesus Christ,
and which life he gives to hell-bent rebels according to his free
grace. And we know this, that's not
all men, is it? That's not all men. Now you pay
attention, if Christ wanted to save all men, he would have. His blood was sufficient. One
preacher said His blood was sufficient to save 10 million worlds if
He wanted to. But His purpose in grace was
to save as many as the Father gave Him. He chose to save some. And we
know that not all men. It's because Jesus purpose to save them. Because
He willed to save them and now we see He has the power to save
them. To save them. To give eternal
life to as many as the Father had given Him. This phrase, as many as, you know
this is used six times in this Chapter six times. Verse two,
as many as the father had given him. Look at verse six. I have manifest thy name unto
the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Verse nine.
I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which
thou hast given me, for they are thine. Verse 12, while I
was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name, those that
thou gavest me, I kept, and none of them is lost but the son of
perdition. Verse 24, he says, Father, I will that they also
be with me whom thou hast given me. You see, this is what he
came to say. This is the high priest, his
people. These people are the ones Jesus was given of the Father. These are the ones he represented
as high priest. These are called in the word
of God, the elect, those predestinated to be sons of God, those sheep
that Jesus calls and gives eternal life. Therefore, see that Jesus
Christ, as he works all things according to his purpose, He
will come to meet every one of His sheep in the pit of their
sin and He will save them. For what? His own glory. The glory that God gave Him.
Is He not glorious to you? You who have been saved by Him. Is He not glorious? And we've only seen a small portion
of this glory that God has given Him. We were like that infant
cast out and polluted in our own blood. And God said unto
us, while we were in our own blood, live. At the appointed
time, it was a time of love, he spread his skirt over us and
he washed us and made us his own. Is this your experience? You
know, you found that you need a high priest, and God showed
you Christ was a high priest, and you believed on Christ. Whose
power was that? Yours or His? It was His power. It was His power. God in grace
commanded you to live, and you lived, and He gave you eternal
life. Verse 3, in this life, this eternal life is what? That
they might know the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast sinned. To have eternal life is to know
God. Do you know God? Do you know what God demands? He demands righteousness. He
demands perfection. But do you know Jesus Christ
whom He sent? The only one who is perfect,
the only one who has made an acceptable offering to know God
and to know Christ is eternal life. Do you have eternal life? You
do if you believe on him. Jesus said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. No man comes to God, but by me. And in verse four, he said, I
have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work thou
gavest me to do. You see, Jesus Christ demanded
the glory of God and obtained the glory of God simply because
he was successful. This high priest was successful. He finished the work. Only the
Lord Jesus Christ then could say this, give me your glory. And he was worthy of God's glory
because he had finished the work. He had brought in an eternal,
everlasting righteousness and forever removed the iniquity
of all his people. And we'll go through these things
real quickly here. I've got a few minutes left. The second thing
Jesus required of God is this, that every one of his people
should be kept. should be kept. Look at this
in verse 11. He says, and now I'm no more
in the world, but these are in the world. And I come to thee. Holy Father, listen, keep through
thine own name those thou hast given me, that they may be one
as we are. He demands here of the Father
to keep them. to keep all those that were given
to Him. This is no mere request, but
a rightful demand that all of those He had purchased, all of
those He had represented, all of those that He had redeemed,
that they should be kept of the Father. Wasn't this true of you
and me? When we were born into this world,
we were born dead in sin. Was there any possibility we
should be taken out before this be revealed to us? Why is it
that you live so long so as to believe on the Son of God? Because
you were kept. Jesus demanded that you be kept
until it be revealed to you. And when it was revealed to you,
listen to this, when God came and saved you, what is still
now keeping you from falling away? Why is it that you now
believe? Why is it that you continue to
believe? Because your high priest demanded
of God that you be kept. That you be kept. He demanded
that we be kept by the Father. Peter said it, didn't he? In
1 Peter 1, in verse 5, he says, we are kept by the power of God
unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. I like this in Psalm 37, in verse
23, it says, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord,
and he delighteth in his ways, though he fall, not in vain. will not be utterly cast down,
for the Lord upholdeth him with His hand." You see? Why is that? You fall. Do you
not fall? Do we still not fall into such
sin as to be so ashamed and so downcast in our own souls as
to despair if we have any hope at all? And yet what does God
say? I'm still keeping you. Now why would He still keep you?
Because you wouldn't keep you I wouldn't keep me. He keeps
us because the high priest making an acceptable offering now by
divine right says, Father, keep them. Keep them. And you know what? You'll be kept. If you truly
are belong to the high priest, you listen, you will be kept.
It is His right to demand it. And it is the Father's good pleasure
to do it. It is the Father's good pleasure
to keep you. Now, who should be kept? Well,
those who know God. Those who know God. In verse
6, He says, I have manifest Thy name unto men Thou gavest Me.
Out of the world. Thine they were, Thou gavest
Me them, and they have kept Thy word. Do you know His name? You know
His name? His name is Jehovah Jireh. The
Lord provides Himself a lamb. You know that name? I do. His
name is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that healeth thee. Has He healed
all thy diseases? Jehovah Nissi, the Lord, our
banner. Is He not our victorious Savior?
His name is Jehovah Shalom, the Lord, our peace, by which Christ's
blood is made peace. He is Jehovah Rapha, the Lord
our shepherd. We know him as shepherd because
he called us his sheep. He is Jehovah Tiskanu, the Lord
our righteousness. He is Jehovah Shama, the Lord
is present with thee. Do you know his name? If you
know his name, you listen to this, you will be kept. And we
believe his word, don't we? We trust his word. And the next thing we see is
this. Our Lord Jesus is our great high priest. He demands of God
that every one of his people should be saved. Look at verse
20. He says, neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their
word. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He demands
of the Father He prays of the Father for all those that shall
believe. There are many right now that
have not believed. You know what I am confident
of? They shall believe. If they were represented by Jesus
Christ, you mark this down, they shall believe. Why? He demands
it. He demands it. Isn't this what
he said in John chapter six? He says, this is the will of
him that sent me, that of all he has given me, I should lose
nothing, but should raise it up again. What an encouragement
for preaching, isn't it? This should be an encouragement
to us. Do we know that none of those that Christ represented
shall go out of this life without believing. They shall believe
on his name. How shall they believe on him?
We're preaching. This is the means that God has
chosen and this is why we preach. We preach the gospel because
we know that those that Christ represented, they all shall come
to him. And that they all may be one
as thou fathered in me and I in thee, that they shall be one
in us. Isn't this amazing that we are
one with Christ? and one with God. Well, I don't
feel one. Does it matter? Does it matter? The high priest has ordained
it. The high priest has prayed for it. The high priest demands
it of the Father. It is so that all those who are
saved by Him are one with Him. And the glory which Thou gavest
me, listen, Isn't this something you, my
friend, are glorified in Christ? I have given them. I in them
and thou in me, they may be made perfect in one. Aren't we made
perfect in one? Made perfect. There's Brother
Scott, the perfect. Made perfect. How? In one high
priest, you've been made perfect. In one offering of his, you've
been made perfect. And by his decree, you have been
made perfect by giving you a new nature and believing on Christ.
And the last thing he demands is this, that everyone he has
died for be with him where he is. Look at verse 24. Father,
I will. Who else could say that but Christ?
Could you go to God and say, God, I will, you do this. Is that how you approach God?
We say, Father, if thou will. Isn't that what we say? Father,
if you will do this and this and this. But Christ says this,
Father, I will. I will. What a successful Savior. None could say this but Christ.
I will what? That they also whom thou has
given me, what? Be with me where I am. that they may behold my glory,
which thou has given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation
of the world. The will of our great high priest
is that we should forever be with him. Friends, tonight do you need
a high priest? I pray by God's grace that you've
seen there's only one, Jesus Christ. Only His offering is
acceptable. And this successful, victorious
Savior has made demands of God. First of all, that He be glorified.
And you know what? He's glorified. He has power
over all flesh and He is moving all things to give eternal life
to as many as the Father has given to Him. And this eternal
life is to know God, it is to know Christ, it is to believe
on Him. And all those that believe on
Him, you listen, He has demanded that you should be kept forever.
that God should keep you in the faith until He comes again. And this is also His will that
all who are not yet saved should be saved. All His people that
are not yet believed should come to faith in Him. Listen, if He's
called you tonight, believe. People say, well, you know, I
know this, you said faith is a gift of God, it's not of works.
Listen, can you believe Can you believe? Then believe. And know this, God gave you that
faith, even as the high priest demanded. And you know what? Everyone who does believe, he
demands this, that they be with him. You know, there's not been
one empty seat in heaven. I like that. There were 24 elders.
How many seats? How many seats? 24. Perfect. Perfect. And we will be with him where
he is. What a comforting message. That should be a comforting message
to us. We will be. Why? The high priest demands
it. And God graciously surely gives him exactly what he's earned. I pray that God will bless this,
our great high priest.