John chapter 17. And the title of the message
this morning is, Four Claims of Our High Priest. Four claims. You could use the word demand.
Or you could use the word request, but I think this word claim better
describes it as though it is a request and at the same time
it is a demand. So, four claims of our High Priest. Before we get into this chapter,
I want us to know that this prayer, this is termed by many rightly
as the Lord's Prayer. It is the Lord's Prayer. in that
he as our high priest is praying to God for us. He is interceding for us in this
prayer. But before we begin to look at
these claims of our Lord as a high priest, I want us to know two
things. First of all, I want us to see
the necessity, our necessity of having a high priest. Then I want us to see who is
our High Priest. It is only Jesus Christ. He is our only High Priest. And then the last thing I want
to deal with is these four claims in this High Priestly Prayer
that our Lord demands or requests of His Father on our behalf. On our behalf. So first of all,
the necessity of a high priest. Now the whole Word of God throughout
reveals this man's need. A man's need of a high priest. Throughout the whole Scripture,
man is shown to need, or be stand in need of a mediator. That's
another word for a high priest. He's a mediator, one that stands
between us and God. One that makes an offering on
our behalf to God. He reconciles us to God. Now when God made man, He made
man in His image, He made him upright, and man had fellowship
with God. Adam, in the beginning, had no
need of a mediator. He had no need of one standing
between him and God. He was upright. He was holy. But as soon as he fell, as soon
as he sinned, He lost communion with God. He was no longer able
to fellowship with God. His sin had separated him from
God. And so great was the judgment
of God upon him that he not only lost communion, but he spiritually
died. He no longer was able to understand
how to make that communion reoccur. He could no longer reconcile
himself to God. He had no understanding. He was
spiritually depraved so that he could not and would not ever
seek God, nor could he ever please God. This is how far he fell. But Adam's sin, we know this,
was not isolated. Adam's sin was not isolated to
himself. Well, the Scriptures tell us,
wherefore, as by one man's sin entered into the world. And what
was the result? Death by sin. But this death
was not isolated. It passed. It passed from Adam
to all of his race. It passed upon us all. Why? For all have sinned. Now again,
Adam He had no need of a high priest. He had no need of a mediator
so long as he was holy. But when he fell, he could no
longer reconcile himself to God. He could no longer seek God,
nor would he. Matter of fact, he became so
ignorant as to suppose fig leaves would cover himself. This is
how ignorant. You think that's not funny, but
really he thought He thought that he should cover his nakedness
and so then make himself appear holy before God. But what happened? When God called
him, his fig leaves began to wither. His fig leaves were not
enough and he ran into the forest so as to cover himself with many
leaves. And I'll tell you this, all of
us being His sons do the same thing. By nature, by nature,
it is instinctive that man try to cover his sin. Why do your
children lie to you when they've done something wrong? They do
it because they want to cover their sin. It's the same with
us. We have sin and we desire to
cover it. We desire to shift the blame
to someone else. We desire to hide ourselves from
our sins. We, by nature, having the law
of God written in our hearts, what are we doing when we do
this? We are seeking to reconcile ourselves to God by our works.
That's what he's trying to do. That's what Adam tried to do.
That's what we tried to do. But when we hear the voice of
God, we understand the holiness of God as it is preached in His
Word, we then begin to hide, not in our works, but in multiple
works of religion. We begin to hide ourselves under
the leaves of others. We try to hide ourselves under
the holiness of other men. This is why men have need of
man of other priests. You hear this in many religions.
Most religion has some kind of priest. And so they hide under
them. They seek other men to be their
priests when they cannot offer a sacrifice sufficient in themselves.
They seek somebody else to offer it. So because of sin, no man can
approach unto God. Not by his works. Not by his
merits. Romans 8, chapter 8, and verse
7 says, "...the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." So what's
the result? In our flesh, we cannot please
God. That's the result. This is the
result. But God in the garden testified
of how man could be accepted. Do you realize that? That this
idea of a high priest occurred as early as the first sin. You remember it was God that
came to Adam. It was God who came to Adam and
told him of how he could be reconciled. God preached to him this matter
of an offering and a priest. Who was the priest? The seed
of the woman. The seed of the woman shall crush
the head of the serpent. The seed of the woman shall do
away with sin. The seed of the woman shall redeem
you. The seed of the woman shall save
you. He would satisfy the justice
of God, listen, as a mediator. As a substitute, he would offer
a sacrifice, and this is seen by the bruising of his heel,
which God gave as a picture, and then, God, you remember,
he offered that animal. Isn't that the work of a priest?
To make an offering? Who was the first high priest?
It was God. God made the offering. God came
to man. God told of a high priest. God
made an offering to cover their nakedness. This was a picture
of how he could reconcile us to himself. And so from that
time forth, what did men begin to do? They began to make offerings.
Isn't that right? Who was next? Cain and Abel.
Cain and Abel. They both brought offerings to
God. They brought offerings. Cain
brought what? The fruit of his labor. He brought the fruit of
his labor, and he was rejected. Listen to me very carefully.
You bring to God, you bring to God your offering of your labor
and I'm going to tell you the result. It is already rejected. Why? The world is cursed and
you are under the curse of God. By nature we are under the curse
of God and can by no means offer anything to God. It's rejected. But Abel. Abel made a more excellent
offering than Cain. Why? He sacrificed the blood
of another. This is always the way. Blood. Blood. Abel offered this as a picture
of Christ. Now that little lamb he offered
didn't take away one sin of Abel. Didn't do it. Abel, by faith,
offered that lamb looking for the seed of the woman. He trusted
the seed of the woman to make that offering. And he did it
as a picture to God. And God accepted his offering. So look now, friends, that Jesus
Christ Who is this High Priest of God? It's Jesus Christ and
Him alone. All the priests of the Law were
nothing more than shadows and types, and all their offerings
never removed one sin, it never atoned for any sin. They all
pointed to Him. They all pointed to Christ, who
was to make one offering for sin forever. Do you not see the wonder
in that? Do you realize in that day in
Israel they offered lambs every morning and every night and all
day in between? They offered blood and blood
and blood and blood. What was God doing? He was pointing
them to what His Son would do. Not what His Son would do throughout
time and eternity, but what His Son would do on the cross. He would offer Himself as a sacrifice
as a high priest. He would offer the only acceptable
sacrifice which was Himself. And so in the covenant of grace,
this is what God says, and He says this justly, I will remember
their sins and iniquities no more. Believer, what you can't forget,
God will not remember. He will not remember. Ever. Why? Because that sin that you
remember has already been put away by the blood and offering
of your high priest. It's already been done away with.
God says, I won't remember. He promises to give His people
forgiveness, absolute forgiveness. Absolute forgiveness. Complete
forgiveness. Perfect forgiveness and pardon
of sin. How? How could a just God do
this? The only answer is through a
substitute. Through a mediator. Through the
work of another. Now in the great day of atonement,
who did all the offering? Who did all the work? It was
the high priest. He alone did the work. He alone
sacrificed the animal. He alone put his hands on that
other scapegoat. He alone brought the blood into
the Holy of Holies. He alone sprinkled it on the
mercy seat. And he alone came out. Yet it
was not just for himself. That high priest had to make
an atonement for himself because he was a sinner. But we're talking
about Christ. Who does all the work? The high
priest. He does it all for the people. For his people. He was appointed
of God to make one offering for sin. He is called the high priest
of God of which Aaron and all the priests were just a type.
Just a shadow. And now listen to this, it's
very important about the high priest. You know, the high priest
was not the high priest of everyone. Aaron was not the high priest
of everyone. Who was he the high priest of? Israel. He was not the high priest of
the Gentiles. Though there might be Gentiles who have converted
and came in under that, but He was not the high priest of everyone.
And you listen, Christ is not the high priest for everyone.
Now He is the ruler and judge of every man. He is the creator
of every man, but He is not the high priest of every man. He
is the high priest of only those the Father had given Him. And
listen, by His one offering, He has forever satisfied the
justice of God in the stead of His people. And so what is the
result of this? You listen to everyone, everyone
this high priest represented, I want you to understand, they
are reconciled to God. They are reconciled to God by
His blood. By His blood, they are reconciled
to God. They are redeemed. And God, by
mercy and grace and love, has done this. This love and mercy
of God that is toward us was not by our works, not by our
merits, but by the work of the Mediator and High Priest. Therefore,
you listen to what Paul said to Timothy, there is therefore
only one Mediator. Only one. Between God and men. Who is it? The man, Christ Jesus. That's the only mediator. That
is the only high priest between us and God. He was appointed
to such office. He came as a man and assumed
that office as our high priest. And as a high priest, he offered
the only acceptable sacrifice to God Himself. And so then in light of our need
of a high priest and seeing that Jesus is the only high priest,
now then let's look at the prayer of this high priest. John chapter
17. And by looking at this prayer,
this is the only, this is the high priestly prayer. He sets
forth the merits and grounds of being heard of God. He pleads,
he demands, he declares things in this prayer that only the
high priest had the right to ask. Now in the previous chapters, Look at the previous chapter,
John 16 and verse 28. Here, the Lord Jesus Christ lays
out, He sums up His work in this verse. He said, I came down from
the Father. You see, our High Priest, He
came from the Father. He came from the Father because
He was one with the Father and the Spirit, equal with them.
He is the eternal Son of God. Our High Priest, is the eternal
Son of God. He came down from the Father
because the Father had sent Him to this office. God had anointed
Him to this office. He came down from heaven. He was sent into this world to
be our High Priest. And He was sent to be a man. He was made flesh. He was made
flesh. Why should our high priest be
made flesh? Because, remember, a high priest
is a representative man. He represented a people. When
he made that sacrifice, he would represent a people. Well, a high
priest couldn't be taken from angels. God didn't take those
Old Testament high priests from angels, but He took them from
what? From among us. Why? Because He needed a man
to represent them. Angels have no idea what we experience.
They have no idea what troubles. They have no idea of sin. They
have no idea of a need to be reconciled. Only we do. God sent a man to be the high
priest. You see, Adam was a representative
man. And by him came what? Death.
So how then should life come? By a representative man to bring
life. Paul said in Romans 5, For as
by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous. So then he came
down from heaven. He became a man And he is such
a high priest to make an offering of himself. And listen to his
promise here. He said, verse 28, I came down
from the Father. Listen, I am coming to the world.
Again, I leave the world and go to the Father. He is promising
success. You see, if he would not succeed,
he could not go to the Father. But he's saying this, look, I
am leaving this world a victorious Savior. I'm going to leave, and
I am going to leave successfully. My offering will be accepted
of God. This is His promise to us. I
leave, and I go to the Father. To do what? To be our high priest. To be our intercessor. And so
now then, looking back in your text, you see, you need a high
priest, you see who it is, and then you see his work and his
promise as our high priest. He came from the Father, he came
to do the work, and he's going to do the work successfully.
So, you come to this prayer, and Jesus, as our high priest,
there are four claims here. Four claims that he demands of
the Father as our high priest. The first one is found in verse
5. He says, Now, Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self,
with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. So
what is He demanding first? Glory. Glory. He demands glory. The second demand is the keeping
of all those He got this glory for. Look at verse 11. He says
in verse 11, He makes this demand of God. He said, Now I am no
more in the world, but these are in the world, those I represent,
and I come to Thee. And so what does He ask? Father,
Holy Father, keep them through Thine own name, those
whom Thou hast given Me, that they may be one as We are one.
What is He telling God? He says, Father, keep them. That's
the second demand. Keep them. The third one is this. Save those that I've redeemed.
Verse 20. Verse 20. Neither pray I for
these alone, but for them which thou, which shalt believe on
me through their word. That they all may be one as thou
fathered in me and I in thee that they may be one in us That
the world may believe that thou has sent me and The fourth request
is found in verse 24 through 26. He's he's demanding this
give me my reward Give me my reward father. I will I They
also, which thou hast given me, be with me where I am." Where
is he? He's in heaven. And what is Solidus
saying? He's saying, look, I want my reward, which is you. You are his reward. And he said, I want them to be
with me. That's those are his requests
now, you know, I'm not gonna get through every one of these
We're gonna try to move quickly, but I want you to see them Anyway,
first of all his claim for glory glorify thou me. This is the first one The sovereign
Redeemer and mediator his people demands of his father to be glorified
now as the Son of God He had glory with the father before
the world was he shared in the infinite eternal omnipotent glory
of God When He sat there from eternity and created the worlds
by His Word, He demanded glory. All glory was His, equal with
the Father and the Spirit. And Jesus, our High Priest, He demands glory, this glory
he had with the Father. But see, Jesus, our High Priest,
is not just a man then. He is God. Our High Priest is
God. Can anyone demand of God glory
but God? Only one deserves glory is God.
And yet our High Priest says, give it to me. Give it to me.
Why? It's mine. It was mine before the world
was. I had that glory with you before
the world was. The Apostle declares that Jesus
is the express image of the Father in power and glory who created
all things and sustains all things and all things move by Him. But now, listen, He's become
a man. Now He's taken upon our nature,
a servant of God to do the will and work of God. The Scripture
says, He being in the form of God thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. Why? He was God. But made of
himself no reputation, took upon him the nature, the form of a
servant, and being made in the likeness of man, and being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient even
to the death of the cross. Why would he do such a thing? Wherefore, after his victory,
God hath highly exalted him. Did God not answer his request?
Did God not answer this demand? Glorify me! And what did God
do? God glorified him. God glorified
him. And that every knee should bow
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is what? Lord. To the glory of God the Father. Look upon the great High Priest
then as he claims the glory of God. See now, God has highly
exalted him and set him on the throne. Look upon the throne. Who do you see on the throne?
Who do you see sitting on the throne of God? Take note, it
is a man sitting on the throne of God. It is a man. It is my
High Priest. It is my Mediator that sits on
the throne of God. Why? Because God fulfilled the
demand of my High Priest. Glorify me! And God said, yes,
I'll glorify you. I'll sit you on the throne above
every other man, beast, and everything in my creation. You are sitting
on the throne of glory. And all power and dominion is
given to Him. Given to Him. And look at the
reason now. Verses 1-4 give us the reason.
Look at this. He was in the presence of His
disciples. He lifted up His eyes to the Father and He said, Father,
the hour has come. The hour of His death. The hour upon which
the whole world and time and eternity hinged upon His death. It was this hour He came into
the world so He might save us from our sins. It was this hour
He came for. And upon that cross, We see the greatest display of
God's love and holiness as our Savior, in the office and work
of our Mediator, offered Himself a sacrifice to God for our sins. It was in His agony and His misery
we see the sin of our nature imputed to Him. Of our vile and wicked deeds,
the Scripture says He bore our sin in His own body, where? Only one place, on the tree.
On the tree. And the fury of God's wrath fell
on Him completely and fully, And we see in His holy person,
He bore the wrath of God and was not consumed. Isn't that
what the burning bush is a picture of? He comes by, sees that bush
and it's on fire and it's burning. And Moses looks at that bush
and he says, man, that bush is not burnt up. I tell you, that's
a picture of what happened at the cross. God consumed our sins,
but yet Christ was not consumed. Our sins were consumed, but not
Christ. Not Christ. He bore our sins.
And what did our priest say? What did your high priest say
when it was done? He said, it is finished. The work is done. God is satisfied. I've offered myself and God has
accepted my offering for sin. It's finished. Believer in Christ, do you not
see that all the work of Christ, all the salvation of sinners,
do you not see what this was all for? Do you know why all
of this had taken place? Do you know the sole reason that
everything moves in this world? It is for the glory of God. Do you know that? I know that
we were saved by that offering, but do you know what that offering
was really for? It was for the glory of God. Our salvation is a by-product
of that. Everything God does is for His
own glory. Your election is for the glory of God, isn't it? He
said that He chose us in Christ before the world began, that
we should be saved by Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure
of His will, listen, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Why were you redeemed? You were
redeemed according to the praise of the glory of His grace. You
were called and quickened to life and faith for what reason?
According to the glory of His grace. The praise of the glory
of His grace. That's what it is. It's all about the glory
of God. And Jesus says in verse 2, As
Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give
eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him. The Father
gave to Jesus Christ as a mediator and high priest to people, an
elect people. And as He was successful in that
hour, as He bore our sins and God accepted Him, you know, He
was given all power. He was given all power, all dominion. See, this One who is our Savior
is no powerless Savior. I'm thankful for that, aren't
you? That He is not powerless, but He is all-powerful. All-powerful. All dominion and power is given
to Christ, so that this Savior has all power over all flesh.
You listen, both lost and saved. He has power over them. Man and
beast, angels and demons, time and eternity, everything moves
according to this high priest. Why? God answered his request. Give me the glory! And God says,
here it is. It's yours. All dominion and
power belong to Christ and everything is moving according to the will
of this high priest. In creation, in time, in providence, For what purpose? What purpose
is a Savior moving all things? Now listen, if you had the throne,
what would you do with it? You'd do nothing but what's good
for yourself. Your and my Puny, sinful brain
only thinks in terms of me and what I like and that changes
on a whim, doesn't it? I love you. I don't love you
anymore. How many people say that? How many of us? We change on
a whim. But you see, the one who is our
high priest has all power and He doesn't change. And what was
His will from eternity? His will was to glorify God and
to save you. And so what is He doing with
this power? He is moving all things. He is turning the wheels
of time and eternity so as to save you from your sins. That's what He's doing. He's
doing all things for your good. He says that in our text. He
said, give me the glory for this. Thou shalt give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given me. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He came
to give eternal life to dead sinners. Eternal life to dead
sinners. Now let me ask you this, is Christ
powerless to save anyone he wants to save? That's what man says. Man says
he's powerless. Man says he's done all he can
do and you've got to let him do something. No. He wants to save you, he will
save you. Why? Because he's already saved you.
Many people don't even know that yet. Many of His elect don't
even know they're already saved. But He's coming, and He's going
to save every one of them. This is what our High Priest
is going to do. Our High Priest is not powerless. He has all
power for this purpose, to give eternal life. To who? As many
as Thou hast given Him. This phrase is used six times
in this chapter. As many as Thou hast given Him.
You know that? Why? Because the high priest
died for as many as the Father gave him. He didn't die for one
more and he didn't die for one less. He's not interceding for
one more and he's not interceding for one less. Our high priest,
our great high priest is seating on the throne and he is giving
eternal life to as many as the Father has given him. These people are ones to whom
the Father gave and the ones He represented, and these are
the ones He shall call. And when He calls, is there any doubt they're going
to come? Now, you pay attention. I'm calling you this morning
to Christ. I do. Every time I preach this,
I call you to Christ. I say, come in. Come now. Believe now. Every one of you
believe now. Come, make your garments white
in the blood of the Lamb. Wash yourselves in His blood
and you'll find rest and hope. Can you come this morning? Can
you come to Christ? Then come. Come. And if you ever come, you'll
know this, you didn't come on your own. You came because He saw you polluted
in your own blood. And He said to you, live! And you lived. And you believed. And why is it that you still
believe? Because that life that He gave you is of Himself. He
gave you that life. He said, I give unto them not
just life, what kind of life? Eternal life. That's the kind
of life I want. Is that not the kind of life
you want? What good is this little life we got? It's just short. We're about done, aren't we?
We're about done. Most of us are about done. We're
over halfway, many of us. Some of you are starting out,
but don't worry, it'll be over soon. I don't want this life, do you?
It's just short. Full of trouble. But you know
what I have? I have eternal life. Why? He
gave it to me. He said, I give unto them eternal
life. And they shall never perish. Do you have eternal life? Why
is it that we have eternal life? Why is it that... Because God
answered his request. Give me this glory that I may
give them eternal life. And you know what God said? Yep.
It's yours. Remember in Revelation, this
is a good picture of this. In Revelation chapter 5, you
remember that John was weeping. He saw the throne of God, saw
the glory of God, saw the holiness of God in His own sinful nature.
And he said, how in the world could I get into heaven? And
they said, there's a book there. There's a book of life. And nobody
was worthy to take the book and open it. And John began to weep. And one of the men said, don't
weep. Don't weep, it's okay. The Lion of the tribe of Judah
hath prevailed to open the book. He's worthy to take the book
and to loose the seals thereof. Do you get that? He's worthy
to take the book. He didn't have to ask God for
the book. He went up there and he took it from the hand of God.
Why? He earned it. God was not begrudgingly You
know, kids fight over something, they just pull in. God wouldn't
begrudge him to take that book. It was his. He earned it. Your high priest earned the right
to take the book of salvation and open it to you and show you
and reveal your name written there. That's what your high
priest did. He took that book. And you know
what God did? God gave him the book. even because
he was successful. He says, "...and this is eternal
life, that they might know Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ,
whom Thou sent." Do you know God? The only way you know God
is through Christ. If you don't know God through
Christ, you don't know God. The only way to understand God
is to understand Him through Christ. Philip said, show us
the Father, and it suffices us. He said, Philip, I've been so
long with you, you don't know me. He has seen me. I've seen the Father. That's the only way you know
God is through this mediator. Has God revealed Himself through
Christ to you? Do you know Him? You see, this is what he did.
He did this for the glory, He earned the glory, He had the
glory, so He might reveal this unto you, that you might know
Him. Now the second request is this.
Jesus requests the keeping of His people. He said, O Father,
in verse 11, I am no more in the world, but they are in the
world. Those that I've saved, those that I've redeemed, they're
with Thee, they're in this world. Holy Father, keep them. Through
Thine own name, those whom Thou hast given Me. I know, believer, you're full
of trouble, full of sin. I know you're worried. Will He keep me? How can He keep
me? Knowing what I do, knowing what
I think, knowing how I feel, how can He keep me? I wouldn't
keep me For 10 seconds, I despise and loathe my own self. But you pay attention to this.
Just as sure as God gave him the glory, God gave him this
request. You keep them. How kept are you? You're just as sure to be kept
as God is to honor His Word. Now, did God honor His Word?
Can God deny Him His request? His request is, all those I died
for, I want you to keep them. Isn't that what's true about
you before you came to Christ? Why is it you didn't die before
you come? You were kept. How is it that after you come,
that you still come? You're kept. And even as you
lay there and the life flows out of your body, and you take
that last breath and expire your soul, how is it that you are
sure to be kept at the Jordan's cold and stormy banks? How do
you know? Because Christ said, keep them!
And you're kept. You're kept because He keeps
you. Why? Your Savior demanded it. And the father says, okay. You
earned it. I'll keep them. You know what
Peter says? That we are kept by the power
of God. You know why we're troubled?
Because we think we keep ourselves. That's why you're troubled. Because
you think you're holding on to God. You should hold on to God.
You should hold on to Christ. But listen, ain't you holding
Him that keeps you? It's Him holding you. This morning, He's
holding you. Why? Jesus said to. He said, keep them. And God said,
okay, I'll keep them. For you. I'll keep them. I'll keep them. And the third
request is this. That you should save all of those
that have not yet come. Verse 20. Neither pray I for
these alone, but for them which shall believe on me through their
word. Do you realize that this prayer
is not prayed for everyone? This really bites a lot of people.
Verse 9 says, Jesus said, I pray for them. I pray not for the
world. but for them which thou hast
given me." Now listen, you who believe, you know that you are
in this group. You do. You know that Christ
is praying for you, praying for your keeping, praying for your
saving. He is praying for you. He is interceding right now in
the behalf of you, for you, before the Father right now. But there
are others that are not yet come. There are others who have not
yet believed. But how shall they believe? God sends His Word to
be preached into the world for this purpose, that God should
answer His prayer. I pray for them that have not
yet believed. And what is He praying? Their
faith. He's praying that they should believe. God, I demand
of You that You should give them faith. All those that I died
for that have not yet..." At this time, He was praying for
us, wasn't He? We had not yet believed. We had
not yet been born. He was praying for us at this
time. He said, "...those that shall
believe their word." Now listen, this morning I'm preaching the
Word. Do you believe the Word? Do you believe the Word? Well,
of course you do if you're His. You believe His Word. Why? Pray
for it. He prayed for it. He demanded
it of God. And God said, here it is. I'll
give it to you. I'll give it to you. I'll tell
you this, this should be so comforting. I don't care what you see and
I don't care what you feel. I don't care how the world looks
and what's happening in the world. Forget it all. Listen, God's
people will hear the Gospel and they'll believe. Every one of
them. Not one will be missing. There will not be one mansion
in heaven that will be empty. Why? He prayed for it. He said,
Father, I pray. that you're going to give me
those that have not yet come. And the fourth thing that he
prayed for is this, his reward. In verse 24, Father, listen,
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
listen, where is Christ? I know this spiritually. He is
among us right now. He is always among His people
every time the gospel is preached. Listen, He is with you when you
leave this building. He is with you. But listen, He
is not with us bodily. We have not seen Him yet face
to face, but this is His will, that every one of us be with
Him where He is in heaven. Why? You are His purchased possession. and you are His reward. He did
all of this so that you might magnify His glory in heaven. Therefore, let us rejoice Because our high priest ever
liveth to make intercession for us. You got that? That he is
ever living to make intercession for you now. And now. And now all the way
until you are fully righteous before his eyes he will intercede
for you. He will. Why? He is our high
priest. He's our high priest. Do you
see your need of one? I've shown you the only one that
God has accepted. I've shown you what He required,
what He demanded of God because He was successful. He demanded
these things. Shall God deny Him? No. Then why should you not believe
Him? Listen, if you don't believe Him, it's because you hate Him
and you despise Him. That's the only reason you don't
believe Him. The only reason I do believe
him is because he gave me faith. The only reason I still believe
him is because he keeps me in the faith. Why? So that all the
glory would be down to God. I pray God give us grace to see
our faithful high priest.