Turn to John chapter 17. John chapter 17. The prayer of
our high priest we have before us. Our Lord prayed many times. No
one No one ever prayed as much as
He prayed. As earnestly as He prayed, as
often as He prayed, sincerely as He prayed, He prayed. And as our High Priest, He intercedes,
intercedes and interceded for us. Prays for us. This is a chapter that we ought
to read often. If you want comfort as a child
of God, read this chapter and listen to your Lord, your high
priest pray for you. This prayer is still in effect.
It's still in effect. Now, there are three things.
that a sinner must have in order to come before God. You've got
to have them. The blood, sacrifice for sin,
and a high priest. You've got to have those three
things. And we have all three of those in one person. Jesus
Christ. God has provided all that we
need in His Son, Jesus Christ, to come into His presence I want us this morning to look
at at least eight verses. It says, These words spake Jesus,
and he's talking about what he had previously been teaching
his disciples. He told them he was going to
go away. Where he was going, they could not come. They were
heartbroken over it. And then He gives them there
in chapter 14, He said, let not your heart be troubled. Then
He spoke to them about the Holy Spirit and the ministry of the
Holy Spirit. How He would come, the Comforter would come. He
would take the things of mine, show them to you. After He spoke
these words, He now lifts up His eyes and He speaks to the
Father. And He speaks to the Father not only on His behalf
because of what He is about to go through, the wrath of God. We can't comprehend
what He's about to go through here at this point in time. But
He also prays for His disciples and He prays for the church.
He prays for us. those who shall believe on me
through their word." He prays for us. You and I, right now,
we're included in that prayer. These words speak Jesus and He
lifted up His eyes to heaven. And He said, Father, Father, the hour has come. Been
a lot of hours on this earth, hasn't there? A lot of them. You know, there was a time when
there was no time. There was a time when there was no time.
And then in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
And time began. And there's only one reason to
mark time. And that's for events to happen and to end. When you're going to time something,
you're going to time the beginning of it, And you're not going to
see just how long it goes and goes and goes. No, you're going
to time the end of it. You set your timer, you know,
on my biscuits it's 24 minutes. In the morning I set them to
start and I got 24 minutes and my two biscuits are done. I set
time on it. And God has set time. The time
marks something and it marks this hour. This hour is like the hub of
a wheel, where all the spokes go out, you know, and you've
got the rim around it. Jesus Christ, crucified, is the
hub of the wheel of time. Everything is before Him. What does it say? Before Christ?
Not before the common error. It's before Christ. And then
after Him. A.D. Time is marked by Him. Jesus Christ is the hub of everything. If you miss Christ, if I miss
Christ, we have missed life. We've literally missed the purpose
of absolutely everything if we miss Him. All things are made
by Him and for Him. Now, if I am made for Him, I
want to know Him for whom I was made. Don't you? He said, the hour has come. This
is it. If you take this hour and do
away with it, there's no reason for any other hours. There's
no reason for it. There is literally no rhyme or
reason for anything else apart from Jesus Christ. He says here that the hour has
come. Glorify thy Son. Put your hand
upon me. And he's speaking here as the
mediator, as the man. Help me through this. Help me through this. Glorify
me. Put your hand on me. Help me
through this. For this purpose, that thy Son
also may glorify thee. You know, in all of our prayers,
in all of our prayers, and I know this, I know our prayers are
very selfish, I know that. But in all our prayers, our goal
would be for God to answer our prayers in a way that glorifies
Him. Isn't that right? It should be. It should be that God answers
my prayer, whatever I'm praying about, in a way that's glorifying
to Him. And that's what Jesus Christ
is saying, glorify me, help me through this that I might glorify
you in this matter of redemption, in this matter of salvation,
in this matter of bringing the people home. A multitude of sinners
don't make a number. glorify thy son that thy son
also may glorify thee, as thou hast given him power over all
flesh for this reason." That's a powerful statement.
That's a powerful statement. I wish some Armenians would read
that verse and listen to what he's saying. You have given me
power over all humanity. I have power over all humanity,
over every nation, every leader, every human being. I have power
over them. I have a power over them. And
here's the reason why God gave Him as the Mediator, as our King,
here's why God gave Him power over all flesh. That He should
give eternal life to as many as the Father gave to Him. This
is why if He did not have power over all flesh, if He did not
have power over my flesh, over me, I'd never be saved. I wouldn't be saved, you wouldn't
either. If He did not have power over
all flesh, no one would be saved. But what a powerful statement.
I have power over all flesh, and for this purpose, that I
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. Can it be any plainer than that?
It can't be any plainer than that. That God has chosen a people,
a multitude of sinners. I love that doctrine, because
I'd be lost as lost can be. if it were not for that. That
I should give to them eternal life, and this is life eternal. Here it is. I want it. Do you want it? Do you really
want it? I'm not talking about living
forever. Everybody's gonna do that. Everybody that comes into
this world is gonna live forever, either with the Lord or in hell,
in torment, one place or the other. But this is life eternal. Here it is, that they might know
Thee, the only true God. Now this is more than facts. This is far more than knowing
that God exists. This is far more than knowing
some things about God. It's knowing God. It's an intimate
acquaintance with God. They might know Him in a very
personal, intimate, real way. To know God and Jesus Christ
whom He has sent, because it's impossible to know God apart
from Jesus Christ. If a person does not know Jesus
Christ, you do not know Him, love Him, you don't know God. It's an impossibility. It is
an absolute impossibility to know God in a saving way, to
know God, to truly know Him apart from Jesus Christ. You can't
do it. And this is life eternal. What's he talking about? This
is the life of God. This is the life of God. You
know, when we talk about God giving life, spiritual life,
we're talking about the life of God. That's what we're talking
about. That's what the Bible's talking
about, the life of God. Adam lost that in the garden.
We have it in Christ and we can't lose it again. We can't lose
the life of God. They might know Thee, the only
true God. There's only one God. The only
true God. Only one. And He's revealed in
the pages of this book. You're not going to find Him
out there in the woods. You're not going to find Him out there. You're not going to find Him
anywhere in His full character except right here. You can see
that there's a Creator out there, but you're not going to know
Him until you meet Him in His Word. He says, I have glorified thee
on the earth. You know, I realize it's taken
me a while, but I realize that's the only reason for me to exist
is to glorify God in my life, in my day-to-day living. In my
day-to-day interaction with people, my only reason for existing is
to glorify my Creator, to glorify my Savior, to glorify my God. And the Lord Jesus Christ says,
I have glorified Thee on the earth. Now listen, He is the
only man who can say, I have. I have glorified You. I have
perfectly glorified You. I have perfectly honored you.
He kept the law. He magnified the law and made
it honorable as a man. He glorified the Father in His
speech. When He spoke of God, He spoke
the truth. The message He preached, the life He lived, He glorified
God. I have glorified the... He's
the only one that could actually say that. and I have finished
the work which thou gavest Me to do." This is part of Him glorifying
the Father. I have finished the work that You gave Me to do. I have
finished it perfectly. Have you finished your work perfectly? Guess what? You've got to get
up and go to work in the morning, and the next day, and the next day.
Then you get too old to and you've got to retire and die. There
you go for finishing something. But our Lord can say, I'm ready
to die because I have lived and honored you perfectly. I'm ready. I'm ready. I have finished the
work that you gave me to do. He came here on a mission. Jesus
Christ came here on a mission. He came here with a work to accomplish.
Did He accomplish that work? Absolutely. And He accomplished
it to perfection. And now, O Father, glorify Thou
me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with Thee
before the world was." Here he shows his eternality. He said,
now, Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with Thine
own presence. Glorify me with Your presence.
Be with me. And let me share in that glory
again that I had with you before the world was ever created. He's
showing here His eternality. This is not just a man. This
is Almighty God in the flesh. This is who He is. Glorify thou
me as a mediator. You see, he's God, he's showing
his deity here, but he's also speaking here as a mediator.
Put your hand upon me. Be with me. I have revealed,
I've manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me
out of the world. It does not say I have manifested
thy name unto the men which accepted me as their personal savior. Our Lord made it very clear,
you did not choose Me, I chose you. And every child of God realizes
that. Every child of God realizes that
they would never have anything to do with God if God did not
have something to do with them in grace and mercy. You gave them to Me. which thou
gavest me as their surety." Our Lord is speaking here of His
suretyship in the covenant of grace. I have a surety. I have One who is responsible
for me. God the Father made God the Son
responsible for me, this sinner. How do I know that? He called
me by His grace. He enabled me to believe. He
gave me an interest in Jesus Christ. He gave me a real interest
in being saved from my sins. That's how I know it. That's
how I know it. I want God to save this sinner.
I want to be saved. If there's anything I can tell
you from my heart, I want God to save me from my sins, from
myself, from His wrath. Save me from me and save me from
Him. I want God to save me. Now that is not natural. That
literally is not natural. That is a divine work of God
to want to be saved from sin and to know God. I want to know
God. Do you want to know God? Think
about it. The One who created heaven and
earth. The One who created you. The One who created all this.
I want to know Him. I want to know Him personally,
intimately. I want to be able to walk with
you." Enoch walked with God. Why can it not be said John walked
with God? Or Judy walked with God? Why can't it be said? That can
be said. If one man did it, cannot another?
If one sinner did it, cannot another sinner do it? I want to be able to know God
and walk with God before I die. Before I die. And he says here,
I have revealed thy name unto the men which thou gavest me
out of the world. Thine they were. You chose them. And you
gave them to me. And they've kept your word. They believe your word and they
keep your word. They've kept it. They haven't
twisted it. They haven't diluted it, watered
it down. When Peter preached there in Acts, as we looked at
earlier, he preached the Word. He didn't compromise or water
it down. No, he kept it. He preached it
as it is. Now they have known that all
things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. Do you know that?
Do I know that? He sent his disciples. Now listen,
the Lord knows the heart. He knows the heart. So when He
says, they have known that all things whatsoever thou has given
me are of thee. He's reading their heart. They
know, they believe this. They believe this. I looked at this and read this
this morning. I've read this several times. And I asked myself,
do I really believe this? I asked myself, do I really know? Is this the beat of my heart? Is this my life? Is this it? Or is it just part of it? If
it's just part of it, you're a goner, or I'm a goner. It's
either all in or all out. I'm telling you the truth, it's
all in or all out. They have known in their heart
that all things whatsoever thou has given me as a mediator, as
a surety, as the Redeemer, as the Messiah, they know that you
gave it. You gave it to me. For I have
given unto them the words which thou gavest me." I've given them
the gospel. I've given them your words. He
said, as I hear, I speak. And they have received them,
just like some of you here, you have received the Word of God
as what? The Word of God. I think it was
Paul speaking to the Thessalonians, he said, you didn't receive the
Word, the Gospel, as the Word of men, but as it is in truth,
the Word of God. When I stand here and I open
this book and I read the Word, there are those of you who receive
it as the Word of God. Not from me, not from a commentary,
as the Word of God. The more and more that I preach,
the more I want to just go down through here and just let the
Word speak. Henry said once concerning this
chapter, he said, this is one of those chapters where you probably
ought to just read it and make no comments. Just, it's the Lord's
prayer. We're listening to Him pray.
As I read this, listen to the Lord pray. Our high priest is
praying. I've given them thy word, they've
received it, and they have known surely that I came out from thee,
and they have believed that thou didst send me." That eunuch said,
I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Peter
said, I believe thou art to Christ, the Son of God. I believe that. You believe that? Whatever God does with me, whatever
He does with me, I believe that that man is the Son of God, the
Savior of the world. I've given them your words which
you gave me. They have received them and have
known without a doubt truly that I came from you. I came from
heaven. Those Pharisees said, we know
you, you're the carpenter's son. Well, it's evident they didn't
know him. But you know him. You don't know him as the carpenter's
son. You know him as God's son. You know him as God's son. You
know him as the Savior. You know him as the Messiah.
You know him as the King. You know him as the High Priest.
You know him as the Sacrifice, the Prophet, Priest, and King.
You know him. And you believed that God sent
him. I pray for them. Oh, he said,
I pray for them. Speaking here of the disciples.
Now over in verse 20, He prays not for them only, but for us
also. "...neither pray I for these alone, but for them also
which shall believe on Me through their word." The same word that
I gave them, they give the people. And those who believe, He said,
I pray for them. But I pray for them. I pray for
them. I'm going to close here after
this. I don't want to take on too much
of this at one time, and then next thing you know, we're overloaded. If you can just take home just
these verses, just what's been said, if you can take it home
and think about it, meditate on it, read it again, read it
again. I pray for them. Oh my soul,
I couldn't think of any greater good news than the Lord praying
for me. God praying for me, the Mediator
praying for me. I pray for them. I pray that
they believe. I pray that their faith fail
not. Peter, Satan has desired thee to sift thee as wheat, but
I have prayed for thee. that thy faith fail not." You
wonder how many times that's happened, even for you? Trials you're about to go through,
a hard, difficult trial coming up, you can't see. Peter didn't
see Satan. He didn't know that was going
on. Peter didn't see denying the Lord three times coming down
the road. He didn't see it. He said, I'll never deny you.
Oh, yes, you will. Oh yes, but Peter, I pray for
you that your faith fail not. The reason why you, who've gone
through trials, and as we go through trials, the reason our
faith doesn't fail and we don't leave God is because our high
priest has prayed for us that our faith fail not. When we go
through the water and through the fire, he prays that our faith
fail not, or it would. It would. We'd say, why is he
doing this? And we would pack our bags and
leave. Oh, I pray for them. I can't put
that on your refrigerator when you go home. You get up and you're
having a bad day, I pray for them. You're going through a
difficult time, I pray for them. How many times have different
ones of you called me and talked to me and say, pray for me or
pray for this one, pray for Doug, you know, pray for this one and
that one. And I do, but I don't always
remember to. And that's sad. It's sad, but
it's so. But he always prays for us. I
pray for them. I pray not for the world. Whoa,
you don't hear that from an Armenian pulpit. I pray not for the world.
You know why? Because if he did, he'd have
it. If he did, he'd have it. He gets everything he prays for
because he prays 100% according to the will of the Father. I
pray for them. I don't pray for the world. But
for them which Thou hast given Me, for they are Thine. They
are Yours. And You've given them to Me to
protect. And we'll see this. I'm going
to go through this probably for the next couple of weeks anyway.
You've given them to Me as a surety to protect, to keep, and to bring
home. Holy, spotless, blameless in
Your sight. You've given them to Me. You
know, think about somebody who has a baby, a precious child,
and they've got to go somewhere and they ask you to keep that
child, to protect and keep it. Do you know how much trust they
have to have in you to do that? I mean, I can tell you right
now. It would take absolute confidence in you to take care of that before
I'd leave it with you, before I'd drop them off at your house.
But God the Father took all that multitude of sinners and put
them into the hands and care of Jesus Christ and said, protect
them, keep them, bring them home. Oh, I pray for them. I pray not
for the world, but for them which thou has given me, for they are
thine. He said, I'll not lose one sheep. Not one. If you had 99, if you
had 100 sheep and you were out there in the wilderness and one
of them went astray, you didn't know where it was at, you probably
wouldn't leave the 99 and go after it. He's like, well, that's
still pretty good average. I got 99 left. If you're thinking
like me, like I ain't not gonna go out there and tackle a bear
or a lion over one sheep. I got 99 left. I don't really
wanna go out there and die for that one sheep. Our Lord did. Our Lord did, because I'll tell
you why. Listen, if one sheep is lost, he failed. He is an
absolute failure if one sheep is lost. If one perishes, he
is a failure. He cannot say, he absolutely
cannot say, I have finished the work you gave me to do. If one is lost, you failed, you
failed. You see, God works on a much
higher scale, a much higher standard than you and I. 99 losing 1, we count that as
not too bad. With God, it has to be perfect
to be accepted. And perfection with Him is not
only obeying the law, but it's bringing home every one of these
lost sheep, every one of them. Thine they were. and thou gavest
them to me to keep, and he will keep them." All right. We'll
look at some more of this next week, Lord willing.