Complete in Thee, no work of
mine may take, dear Lord, the place of Thine. Thy blood hath borne, unthought
for me, and I am now complete in Thee. Complete in me, no more
shall sin. Thy grace hath conquered rain
within. Thy voice shall build the tempter
free. And I shall stand complete in
thee. ? Complete in thee each loss
of life ? ? And no good thing to me denied ? ? Since thou my
portion, Lord, wilt be ? ? I ask no more, complete in thee ? Dear
Savior, make me for Thy bar All tribes and tongues assembled
are Among Thy chosen will I be Let Thy right hand complete in
me ? Yes, justified, O blessed God ? ? And sanctified, salvation
wrought ? ? Thy blood hath borne and bought for me ? ? And purified
I too shall be ? John 17. John chapter 17. I'm going to pick up in verse 17. I titled this message I have actually a couple titles
for it. First one is, I want them to
see my glory that you have given me. I want them to be with me,
to see my glory that you've given me. Now the comforting part of
this prayer is this, to me. It's going to be answered. It's
going to be answered. Everything our Lord prays for
is according to the will of His Father. So when I read this,
I read this chapter, everything He prays for, I'm going to get. It's going to happen. Another title for this The message
is from purity to unity to glory. That's what He prays for. He
prays for our purity, our sanctification. He prays for our unity, our oneness. Our oneness with the Father and
Him and our oneness with each other. He prays for our future,
that we will be with Him. Do you want to be with Him? I want to be with the Lord Jesus
Christ. I want to be, I hope that the
Lord, and I don't know how my end will be, I don't know how
your end will be, but I hope when that time comes that I in
my heart with full confidence can say I'm ready to depart.
I'm ready to leave. I have filled my course and I'm
ready to leave. I don't want to come up to that
hour trying to hang on. I don't. I pray that God will
give me the grace and you the grace when the hour comes for
Him to take us, that it'll be a joyful time.
It'll literally be a joyful time. I pray for them. I pray that
they be with me. Now for me to try to hang on
to this, is to be totally in contradiction to what he's praying
for me. Because he's praying for me to be with him in glory. And I pray that prayer will be
fulfilled in me, that I want to do it, that I desire to do
it when that time comes. I know that we don't need dying
grace until we are dying. But we sure need to think about
it before we get there. You know, I think it's something
we ought to often think about. It's not depressing to me. There
was a time that it was, but it's not depressing to me. I look
at it as going to a perfect world, a perfect life, a life with no
sin and no sorrow and no ever parting again and perfect worship. That's where we're headed. It's
comforting to know that Jesus Christ prays for all who believe. Let's take this prayer to ourselves. It's still in effect. You know
that? What I just read? This prayer is still in effect.
He prays for our spiritual well-being. See, this prayer is for the church.
It's for you who believe. It's the church. He said, I pray
not for the world. Now it doesn't matter who that
makes mad because the Lord said that. I pray not for the world,
I pray for them which thou hast given me. He prays for our spiritual well-being
and he prays for our oneness with each other here and now. We know that when we leave this
life and we enter into glory, we will have that oneness in
perfection. But here we have so much sin
in us and he knows that. So he prays for our oneness. If you realize what the church
is made up of, the church is made up of sinners. It's not
made up of good people. God did not save good people.
God has never saved a good man or a good woman yet. Has He?
He said there's none good, no not one. So how could He? And
if you're really truly good, you don't need it. You don't
need it because He said there's none good but God. And the only
way you and I could be made good is in the Lord Jesus Christ by
new creation. That's the only way. It's the only way. So he prays
for our well-being, he prays for our oneness. You know, the church is made
up, I said, of sinners, but it's made up of people, listen, out
of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation under heaven. All
these complexities. all these different nationalities
that are against each other. I mean, you know, this one's
against this one, this one's against this one. But in Christ, we're
not, are we? I'm telling you what, in Jesus
Christ, he's the only place where we will ever, ever be one. And we won't see the difference.
We won't see any nationality difference. We won't see any
kind of difference. Because in him, we're one. In
him we're one. And then he prays for our being
with him in glory in the future. He prays for our future. All
right, now let's pick up in John 17. He says in John 17 here,
sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. Now we know
that our sanctification in Christ is perfect. You see, when the
Word of God speaks of sanctification, it speaks of being set apart
for God's use. It speaks of being made holy,
not just considered holy, but being made holy. In Jesus Christ,
everyone whom God saves is holy. That new nature that's born of
God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Do I feel
it? No. No, I feel more sinful than
ever. It's like, why do I have these
thoughts? You know, the more you, the older you grow, the
more you realize, the more you grow in Christ, not, not just
in this age, physical age, but in Christ, you realize the more
sinful you are. You realize that. But I do know
this, I know this by the word of God. And this is how I live. The judge shall live by faith.
Well, that faith is the foundation of that faith is the word of
God, right? It's the word of God. The foundation of faith
is the word of God. We have no reason to believe anything except
thus saith the Lord. So I know that in Christ, I'm
holy. I'm holy, I know that. But now,
there is a growth in grace. Some of the old writers called
it a progressive sanctification, but I like to think of it, as
the scripture speaks of it, as a growth in grace and a knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This growth in grace can only
happen, listen, it can only happen through the truth. You see, sanctify them through
thy truth, thy word is truth. And so only through the truth
can we have this growth. Truth to the believer is like
water to the earth. Nothing grows without it. Nothing
can grow without it. Let it stop raining and everything
dies. Leave off the truth. Let me just
stand up here each Sunday and Thursday and just, let's just
talk about this and talk about that and just generalize things.
This place will die. It'll die out. It'll die. There'll be no life in here at
all. We have to have truth. When believers hear the truth,
it makes them grow up in faith, hope, and love in the Lord Jesus
Christ. When believers hear the truth,
it has a cleansing effect. You know that? I can't tell you how important
it is to be here and hear the truth preached every week. Listen to Psalm 119, 9. Where
with all shall a young man cleanse his way? How shall a young man
cleanse his way? By taking heed thereunto according
to thy word. And thy word is truth, as the
Lord tells us here. The truth has a sanctifying effect
on believers. First of all, now listen, when
you come here each week and you hear the truth, you hear the
truth, You don't hear just things that are true, true sayings. You hear the truth. It will cause
you to come apart from the world. It'll cause you to separate more
and more from, and when I say separate from the world, I mean
separate from the principles of the world, the cares of this
world, the love of this world. You are less and less attached
to the world. When you hear the truth, it has
that effect on you. When you hear the truth
of the Word of God, it'll cause you to, listen, it'll cause you
to walk humbly before God when you hear the truth. There's nothing
that will keep down pride like hearing the truth on a regular
basis. It will put a check on your tongue. It will season your speech with
grace when you hear the truth. It will cause believers to call
upon God more often when you hear and sit under the truth.
Truth works effectually on that inner man. Listen to 1 Thessalonians
2.13. For this cause also, thank we
God, without ceasing, Because when you receive the Word of
God, which you heard of us, you received it not as the Word of
men, but as it is in truth. As it is in truth, the Word of
God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. You
see, as you hear the truth, and the truth is in you, it works
in you effectually. It's at work in you. When you
don't even realize it, it's guiding your thoughts. It's guiding your
desires. It works, it's at work. The truth, now you who believe,
as you hear it this morning, the truth will work in you throughout
the week. It'll work in you effectually. He says here, thy word is truth.
My mother went to a place once some years ago and she told me
after she had gotten back home and I'd visited with her, she
told me, she said, that preacher didn't even take a Bible into
the pulpit. She said all he talked about
was what was in the newspaper. Well, that's all he knew because
that's probably all he read through the week is the newspaper. Thy
word is truth. This tells us how important it
is to hear the word of God preached week after week and how important
it is to read the word of God yourself. That's why we make
much of reading the word of God here. We read it back there in
the study. We read it out here in the pulpit
and we preach from it. I could not tell you what the
newspaper says. Now, there's nothing wrong with
reading the newspaper. Go ahead and read the newspaper
if you want to, but it just really doesn't interest me. It's so important to hear the
truth. God's word is more than true
sayings. Listen now, this is important.
This is not a book of true sayings, though we can say that. It's
the truth. Apart from the Word of God, we
don't know the truth, right? We don't know the truth apart
from the Word of God. There's a real connection between the
Word of God and the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. Listen
to 2 Thessalonians 2.13. But we are bound to give thanks
always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because
God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through, here's
the means. You see, election is not salvation. You can believe in election all
you want and you go straight to hell. That's not salvation. You can
believe in particular redemption, you can believe in total depravity,
you can believe every bit of that and go straight to hell.
But I tell you this, God has chosen you, but now he's
also chosen the means of your salvation. Through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth, no one who believes, they
will perish. They will perish. The Holy Spirit
never works apart from the truth in the saving of a sinner, never,
never. Now after praying for their sanctification
through the truth, He now sends them into the world. I want you to notice something
here. Without this sanctifying work, and I thought about this
as I was going through this and writing these notes down, without
the sanctifying work of the truth, just like you're hearing this
morning, the effect that truth is having on you this morning,
If when you go back out into the world, you would fall right
back into it. You would fall right back into it. One of the
very things that keeps you from falling back into it is the effectual
work of the truth that you hear every week and read in the Word
of God. That keeps you from falling.
Now, he says here in verse 18, As thou hast sent me into the
world, even so have I also sent them into the world. You know,
the Scripture tells us to come apart from the world, to come
apart from it. Well, he's talking about apart
from it in principle, in heart, loving it. But then he sends
us back out into it. You're the light of the world.
You know, a light put under a bushel is no good, is it? It's no good. That's not why you put a light.
You don't turn the light on and put a cover on. You turn the
light on so you can see, so there's light. And that's what he's saying here.
As you have sent me into the world, I send them into the world. Christ was sent into the world
by the Father. He didn't come on his own. It was the Father's
will to send him. He was sent as a representative.
He was sent as a mediator, a high priest, substitute, sacrifice.
He was sent for these things, for us. And now he sends his
disciples and us into the world to be his witness, his ambassadors,
his preachers. Don't think of the place you
work as just someplace you have, you got a good job. You know,
you got a job and you're employed now. No, God put you there. God put you there as a light. That's why he put you there.
You know, one time I took a job someplace and I hated it. And
I did, I hated it. And I thought, why? And I did,
I thought, and I was a young man. And I thought, Lord, why'd
you put, why? I mean, this was totally opposite
of anything I wanted to do. Well, I can tell you why now.
I can tell you why. 30-some years later, a light. He put me there as a light. The
place I worked at was the biggest bunch of drunks I ever worked
with in my life. I mean, it was the biggest. I'm
telling you the truth. It was the biggest bunch of drunks
and womanizers and filthy talk. I might as well have been on
a Navy ship out in the ocean. I'm not slamming in, but you
know what I'm talking about. You heard the old saying, cuffs like
a sailor. But God put me there as a light. He did. Now I see
that. Now I see it. And that's why God put you where
He's put you. Don't complain about it. You're a light. You're
a representative. You and I are ambassadors of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And for their sakes I sanctify
myself that they also might be sanctified through the truth."
Now he's not saying he's making himself holy because he knew
no sin. He's holy. He's saying this,
that he's setting himself apart as a sacrifice for their sins
and our sins. That's why he's doing it. The
Father sanctified us in election, the Son sanctified us in redemption,
and the Holy Spirit sanctifies us in regeneration. And he says, for their sakes, you believe the gospel? Do you
believe the gospel? For your sakes, he set himself
apart to go to Calvary and make you holy, purge you from your
sins, and take you to glory and present you before the Father
spotless and holy and righteous." He said, I sanctify myself. I
set myself apart. In other words, the Father set
him apart, but he set himself apart showing his willingness
to do this. He didn't do this because it
was like, I have to. He did this because He willed
to. It was a desire of His that they also might be sanctified
through the truth, that they also might be cleansed and made
holy through the truth. The Lord said to His disciples,
I am the way, the truth. You see, the truth written here
can't be separated from the living truth, who is the Lord Jesus
Christ. We are sanctified through him. And his word has the same
effect on us. We need to really, really absorb
this prayer and try to lay hold of it. Of course, it's a great blessing
when we can really understand and hear our Lord praying for
us. Because He says in verse 20, Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also, which shall believe on me through their
word. The Gospel. The same Gospel that He preached
to them. This is not just for His disciples
at that time, it's for us also. This is for us. It's for His
disciples in all times. People have not even been born
yet. Who knows how long the world's gonna stand? He's praying for me 2,000 years
ago. He's praying for me right now.
He's praying for you right now, 2,000 years ago. And even now
he intercedes for you, even now. He's our mediator, he's our high
priest, he intercedes for us. And notice what he prays for
here, verse 21. That they all may be one. How pleasant it is, it says in
the Psalms, when brethren dwell together in unity. There's nothing
like unity of spirit and heart, is there? There's nothing more
beautiful in a home than a unity between a husband and a wife
and the children and the parents. There's nothing that matches
that on this earth. Unity, love, respect. They all may be one because you
see God's going to save Jews and Gentiles. At that time, they
couldn't stand each other. They could not stand to be in
the presence of each other. Remember when Peter was set out
and ate with him, and Paul came and the group came down from
Jerusalem, Peter got up and separated. He didn't want to be seen with
them. And Paul called him out on it. They may be one as thou,
Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in
us. Unity, he's praying for our unity. That the world may believe
that thou hast sent me. Oh, he prays that we all may
be one united family now and forevermore. Now, seeing that
he prays for our unity, the church is going to have it. We're going
to have unity. We are going to have unity on
how God saved Sanders, aren't we? We are going to have unity
over who Jesus Christ is. We are going to have unity on
how we are cleansed from our sins. You know, there's going to be
little differences in things that we may hold to or something,
that don't mean anything. But I tell you this, we still
won't make them a difference. We won't let them make us differ,
separate from one another. Some may believe in post-millennialism,
or some may believe in pre-millennialism. I don't care what you believe
in that. As Henry said, it's all going to pan out. I'm a pan-millennialist.
I can't even say it. But I tell you, what we are going
to agree on is how God can be a just God and a Savior through
Jesus Christ. That's what we're going to agree
on. And that's going to keep us together. That's going to
keep us together. In verse 22, And the glory which
thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one, even
as we are one. The glory. What is this? You know, God the Father vested
everything in Jesus Christ. And He vested in Christ eternal
life. and it is given to Christ to
give to us eternal life. Look back over in verse 1, 2,
and 3. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify
thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. As thou has given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life.
This is what he's talking about. that he should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him, and this is life eternal,
that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent, that he might give us the glory
of eternal life. You know what that is? That's
the life of God. That's the life of God. It's the quality of life,
the life of God. Sons of God. Now, as John said
in 1 John, now are you the sons of God. I'm preaching this morning
to sons and daughters of God Almighty. That's a heavy responsibility. Oh, and the glory which thou
gavest me, I have given them eternal life, that they may be
one even as we are one. I in them, thou in me, that they
may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that thou
hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me." You know,
he speaks here of the world, and I don't know all that he
was talking about here. And this is a hard verse, not
particularly easy to comprehend. But there's coming a day. This
verse comes to my mind. There's coming a day when every
knee is going to bow. Every tongue is going to confess
that Jesus Christ is the Lord. He is the Messiah. You were right. You are right. The world is going
to have to confess that the church, the church of God, the living
God was right. Right now, you know, we looked
at it in Acts. Even the Pharisees at that time
said, you're wrong. You're dead wrong. He's not the
Christ. He's not the Messiah. He's an
imposter. He's a devil. Well, guess what? One day that's going to turn
around and they're going to say, you're right. You're right. But he may be speaking here of
the world of believers that he's going to save. And every one
of them is going to believe and know that Jesus is the Christ. For God so loved the world, Gentile
as well as Jew. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son. God so loved the world as opposed
to the fallen angels. He does not love the fallen angels. If he did, he'd have gave them
a savior. He didn't. But there is a multitude of sinners
that He chose out of this world that He loves, and they are going
to know that Jesus is the Christ. He is the Messiah. He's the Savior
of sinners. They're gonna know it, every
one of them. And He says here in verse 24,
Father, I will. I will. He's the only one who
can do this. The only man, the only man, the
only man ever walked on this earth that can say, Father, I
will. Because he knows his will is
in perfect agreement with the Father. I will that they also,
whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory. That doesn't mean that they just
may see me glorified. In other words, that they may
not just look at me up on stage and see me, but they may partake
of it. We will be partakers of His glory. They may behold my glory which
Thou hast given me for Thou lovest me before the foundation of the
world. I will that they be with me.
Do you want to be with Him? There's a whole multitude of
people that if they could, they'd stay here forever on this earth.
Would I? I thought about that reading this.
If I had a comfortable life, a good job, good health, and
I'm happy, got a happy family, would I stay here forever? Would
I just want to live on and on and on and on and on? Probably so. That's why the Lord
sends us trials. That's why the Lord weans us
from this world. He has to wean us from this world.
He has to. He has to bring us to the place
where, as Paul said, I'm ready to depart. I'm ready to depart. As my pastor said to me, before
the Lord ever took him home. A few years before he took him
home, he told me, he said, I pray every night I don't wake up here
in the morning. I thought, wow. I haven't prayed that yet. I'm
just going to be honest. But he told me, he said, I pray
I don't wake up here in the morning. I pray that every night when
I go to bed that I wake up in glory. Well, he's there now. He is there now. But to have that desire, to get to the point where we
just cut all this off, that we finally have opened our hand
and let it go, just like you take a bird and you just let
it fly away. And you finally, I think that's when you're the
most free, is when you can let this thing go. And he says, Father, I pray that
they be with me. I want them to see my glory,
which thou hast given me. I want them to behold it. I want
them to partake of it. I tell you what, have you ever
enjoyed something? Have you really ever enjoyed
something so much? that you just wanted the one
you loved to experience it with you. Say, oh, I want you to see
this. I want you to go with me and
see this and enjoy this. You just want someone that you
love to be there with you and get the experience of it that
you got out of it. And our Lord, he has such love
for us. and such knowledge of that place
and such knowledge of God, because He says, Father, I have known
you, I know you, and I want them to know you, and I want them
to experience you fully. And to do that, we got to leave.
We can't do that here. Oh, He says, I want them to see
my glory and experience my glory that you've given me. O righteous
Father, in verse 25, O righteous Father, the world have not known
thee, the world doesn't know God. I don't care if they believe
in creation, it doesn't matter what the world believes, they
don't know God. The religious world out there,
the religious world that's without Christ, they don't know God.
He said the world doesn't know you. But I have known thee, I
know you. I know you. And these have known
that thou hast sent, they know you sent me here. They're totally,
are you confident that Jesus is the Christ? Are you completely
confident that he's a real person? He's seated in glory, that God
sent him, he accomplished what he came to do? Do you believe that? Do you believe
him? Do you believe he's coming again?
Do you believe that this man, Jesus Christ, is coming again? But I have known thee, and these
have known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared unto
them thy name, thy attributes. He didn't just come here and
say, believe in God. Some stand in the pulpit, believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, which one? Paul said he'll
come preaching another Jesus. Tell me which one. The one this
Bible presents or the one you're presenting? Well, trust God, which one? There's
a lot of gods being spoken of. But there's only one God. I've declared unto them thy name.
Jehovah Jireh, Jehovah Sidkenu. He's all that God is. His attributes,
holy, just, love. I've declared to them who you
are. I've revealed to them who you
are. And we'll declare it. Isn't that
what he's doing this morning? I hope I'm not the only one standing
here talking. and will declare it. Every time his preacher,
his God sent preacher stands to preach, he is declaring once
again who God is. That the love, here's how it
ends. That the love, wherewith thou
hast loved me, can you get any kind of grasp onto that? The
love that the father has to his son? That perfect love? that
he has to his son, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me
may be in them, and I in them, that you and I,
listen, that you and I experience that love. He wants us to, there's
nothing greater on this earth that you can experience than
real, genuine love. I mean nothing else. to experience
the real, genuine love of God, and to experience the real, genuine
love of a brother or sister in Christ. There's nothing to be
compared to. Nothing compares to love. And
this is how we're going to spend eternity, basking in the love
of God.