John chapter 17. Someone said,
this is like that scripture where the Lord told Moses to take off
his shoes. He was on holy ground. And here
we have the intercessory prayer of our Lord, the great high priest.
We are given the privilege of listening in to our Lord praying
for us. When you and I look at this this
morning, let's look at it as our Lord praying for us. I desire
your prayers for me, I do. I ask you to pray for me. leading
me to the Scriptures and the message He would have me to bring,
but I tell you, the one prayer and the one who prays that I
desire the most is the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, Father, I know
that You always hear me. And whatever He prays for, intercedes
for, He gets. He gets. You'll notice in one
of the scriptures, he says, look in verse 24. This has to really encourage
you. Father, I will, that they also whom thou hast given me
be with me where I am. But you and I cannot say, you
and I cannot pray, Father, I will that you do this. I cannot say,
Father, I will that you give me a good job or you give me
this or give me that. But there's one who can say,
Father, I will that this happens and it will happen. And he doesn't
say, Father, I pray you do this. I'm asking you to. He says, I
will. This is my will is that you do
this. And He does it. The Father does
what the Son asked for. But the Son never asked for anything
opposite of the will of the Father. Never. They're always one. Now,
what we have here is our Lord's intercessory prayer. And I'm
very interested in it. Very interested in it. Now, it
says here in verse 1, these words speak Jesus. And he lifted his
eyes to heaven. He is the one who can look straight
in to heaven. He can look into the face of
God and speak to Him. And he says, Father, the hour
has come. Glorify Thy Son. that thy Son
also may glorify thee." He's about to go to be crucified. And He asked the Father that
He would glorify Him in this act of redemption, of being crucified,
of dying for this purpose. that I, Thy Son, may glorify
Thee." You know, if we could pray this way, if all of our
prayers could be like this, Father, I pray that if it be for Your
glory that You would do this or that, that You would heal
or that You would save, or if it could be for Your glory, if
we could really pray our prayers in such a way that we really
seek God's glory in the answer of them, That's true praying. That's how to pray. And our Lord
gives us this in this chapter here. He acknowledges that God is His
Father. The Jews did not believe that.
They said, You are the carpenter's son. They would not. They would not. except the fact
that this man, this Galilean, this one they called the carpenter's
son, is truly the Son of God. This is truly God's Son, His
only begotten Son. This is Him, in the flesh. This is God in the flesh, the
second person of the Trinity. And he says, the hour has come,
the hour of redemption is what he's talking about. The hour
has come. The hour spoken of here is not
60 minutes. He's not speaking of 60 minutes.
He's saying that the purpose of my Father in redemption has
come. The purpose for me coming into
this world is now here. This is why I've come. As I told
you this morning, He's the only man that came into this world
to die. We all try to live. We all try
to live longer. He didn't try to live longer.
He came to die at His appointed time. The hour has come. You know,
the Scripture says there is a time and a purpose for everything
under the sun. Ecclesiastes 3.1. A purpose. There's a purpose for everything
in your life, in my life, At every second, there's a purpose
for it. There's a time and a purpose
for it. And our Lord is saying the time and purpose for Him
coming into this world to be crucified, to die, to redeem
sinners, it's here. It's here. For 4,000 years, 4,000
years, the Old Testament kept saying, someone is coming. The
Messiah is coming. And here He is. He has come.
And He's come for this hour. You know, apart from this hour,
there's no reason, there is no reason, there's no rhyme or reason
for any other hour to exist. All the hours that have come
and gone and all that shall come, all of them center around this
hour. This is like the hub of the wheel. Right here. This hour. for God to come into this world,
become a man, and die in the place of a multitude of sinners.
This is the hour. If you take away this hour, there's
no reason for creation. There's no reason to have the
universe, or to have man, or to have anything created. It
was all created for this hour, because this is God's chief glory. This hour. This hour to redeem,
this hour for God Almighty to come into this world, take upon
Him flesh and die. God, now listen, God is absolute. God cannot die. But God as a
man, God in the flesh can die. Paul said in Acts 20.28, I'm
going to paraphrase, that we were redeemed by the blood of
God. The blood of God. This hour is a purpose for everything
that exists. Everything revolves around it.
As I read to you from Revelation 5 a while ago, They sang a new
song, and you know what that song is? Worthy is the Lamb who
redeemed us by Thy blood. This is the hour He does it.
This is the hour that He does so. And then here's His request,
glorify Thy Son. Now what does He mean by this
word glorify Thy Son? Well, to glorify means, it means
to glory, it means to honor, it means to magnify, it means
to make glorious. He said, "...make glorious thy
Son." What a glorious person Jesus Christ is! There's no name like His name.
Whatever you ask in my name, I'll do it for you. Whatever
you ask the Father in my name, I've never asked the Father in
anybody else's name. My pastor, who I thought and
still think the world of. I never asked God for anything
in His name. The things that I asked for,
I asked for in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. He's the Son of God and the Son
of Man. He's the embodiment. He's the
embodiment of grace and truth. You know, over in John chapter
1, it says, the law was given by Moses. It was given to Moses,
and Moses gave the law to Israel. But it does not say that grace
and truth is given by Jesus Christ, though it is. It says they came
by Him. He's the embodiment of grace.
He's the embodiment of truth. He says, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. He doesn't just tell us the truth.
Now listen, He is the truth. He is truth. Truth has a body. Truth has a name, and it's Jesus
Christ. He's the embodiment of grace
and truth. And such a person deserves to
be glorified. I don't deserve to be glorified.
You don't deserve to be glorified. It would be wrong. It would be
wrong to glorify me. It's only right to glorify God.
It's only right to worship and glorify such perfection as God. It's only right to glorify Him.
That's not an ego trip. That's just right. It's just
right. And here's the reason He prays
to be glorified. "...that Thy Son also may glorify
Thee." This was it. This is it. This is why I'm asking
you to glorify Me with yourself, is that I may glorify you. When the Son is glorified, the
Father is glorified. Everything, listen, everything
that our Lord did was for the glory of His Father. All that He is, is for the glory
of the Father. All that He spoke, He said, the
words that I hear, the words that I speak, are the ones that
I'm given, the words I hear. The words I hear, I speak. That's
what He said. His whole being was for the glory
of the Father. And now He says here, Glorify
me that I might glorify you. And where is the Son most glorified?
Or where is the Father most glorified? Where is He most glorified? In
saving sinners. Yes, God's power is glorified
in creation. God's knowledge, wisdom in all
of creation. But God's chief glory is saving
a wretch like me and a wretch like you. God, stop and think
who He is. Stop and think of the immenseness
of God. Stop and think of such a glorious
person. He has no beginning of days or
end of life. He's holy. He's perfect in every
way. And yet, He looks upon me? As David said, a dead dog like me?
He thinketh upon me. David said, I am poor and needy,
yet the Lord thinketh upon me. That's amazing. That's amazing. That He would think upon such
a wretch like me. That He would bring someone like
me into His presence. That He would Himself come into
this world, take my place, die under His own law, satisfy His
own laws just so He can bring me to glory and make me like
His Son. That's over my head. That's over
my head. Now notice what's given to him
here in verse 2. I'm not going to cover all of this, I know.
But he says here, "...as thou hast given Him power over all
flesh." As a son, He has all power. As a man, as a mediator, as a
surety, He's given all power over all flesh. Without this,
no one would be saved." You hear this statement a lot.
Let Christ into your heart. Let Him save you. Well, I read
here where He has all power over me. I'm not going to let Him
do anything. We do not let God do anything. He does as He will, with whom
He will, when He will. That's the God of heaven and
earth. Heaven is my throne, earth is my footstool. He put old Nebuchadnezzar out
to pasture until he learned that the God of heaven and earth rules
among the kingdom of men. He rules heaven and earth and
he rules among the kingdom of men. And none can say unto him,
scripture says, none can say unto him, what doest thou? What
are you doing? He ain't gonna answer you. You
can say it, but he ain't gonna answer you. The word power here means the
ability to act or produce an effect. All power is given to
me that I may produce an effect. What's that? Your salvation.
That He may make you willing in the day of His power. If He
didn't have power over all flesh, not one person would ever come
to Him. He's the one who makes us willing. Psalm 110, Thy people
shall be willing in the day of thy power, in the beauty of holiness. It means one that controls. Power means one that controls.
It means power to bring about a given result. And that given
result is your salvation, my salvation, the salvation of a
multitude of sinners that no man can number. He has power
over all flesh, all creatures, for the purpose of giving eternal
life to as many as the Father gave Him." Now, you know this, you know
this, but Calvary was not, is not a rescue attempt on the human
race. It was not and is not a rescue
attempt on the human race. It is God saving sinners. They're going to be saved. He said, our Lord said in one
place, He said, other sheep I have which are not of this fold. He
was talking about Israel that were not of that fold. They were
Gentiles. Them also I must bring in. And you're part of that. You're
part of it. And now notice the word here,
it says, in verse 2, "...as thou hast given him power over all
flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given him." That word, should, I looked it up in the dictionary,
and it was interesting, the definition that it had. The word should here has to do,
listen, with an obligation such as fulfilling a contract that
binds one to a course of action." Now get this. This has to do
with an obligation such as fulfilling a contract that binds one to
a course of action. Now here it is. Jesus Christ
obligated Himself to the Father in that covenant of grace to
a course of action. His incarnation, His obedience
to the law in His life and in His death, that He might give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him. That's the course
of action. He said, I am bound to a course
of action, and that course of action is to come into this world,
die in your place, and bring you back to glory. He's my surety. What is a surety? A surety is
one who pays another's debt. Christ paid my debt. He's my
surety. This gives me great comfort,
and I've mentioned this. I know I have before, many times
before. But here's what gives me great comfort. He's my surety.
He is responsible for me. He is responsible to bring me
home. He's responsible to bring all
the sheep home in glory. He said, not one of them will
be lost. Not one of them. And this is life eternal. I want
to know. You want to know what life eternal
is? He gives it to us here. This is life eternal. Here in
verse 3. "...that they might know Thee,
the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent." He's not
saying that they may know some facts about us. You know, we
can know some facts, but that's not what he's saying. He's talking
here of a union. He's speaking here of a relationship. You remember in the scriptures,
there were many who said, Lord, we preached in your name, we've
cast out devils in your name, we've done many mighty works
in your name. And he says, depart from me, I never knew you. He's
not saying he never knew they existed. He knows every thought
they've ever had, and it'll be brought up in judgment. But what
he's saying is, I never had a relationship with you, no union with you.
See, this is a relationship. That's what salvation is. And
we see this as you go down through this, and I want you to go home
and read this. Go home and read this chapter.
And you're going to see, if I don't get to it, that He speaks here
of our oneness. Our oneness. I in them, thou
in me, that we may be one. He's speaking here of union and
unity. Sin separated us from God. And now in Christ, I'm made
one again with God. I, a sinful man, am made one
with God Almighty through Jesus Christ. He says in verse 4, I have glorified
Thee on the earth. As I said, His whole being was
for the glory of God. He never did anything for Himself.
You know, I can say this. Jesus Christ never, ever did
one thing for Himself. Ever. Everything He did was for the
glory of His Father and for the good of His people. He never,
ever... Satan said to Him when He's in
the wilderness, Turn these stones into bread. After 40 days and
40 nights, He's hungry. Turn these stones into bread. If you're the Son of God, turn
Him into bread. Eat. You know, you're hungry. There's
nothing wrong with that. Oh yes, there is. Can you turn
stone into bread? Well, He didn't either, because
He took your place. He did not do one thing for Himself. Everything He did, He did for
me and you. Everything. His whole existence was for the
glory of God, His Father, and the good of His people. Every
miracle He performed was for the glory of God. The people
said, no man can do these miracles except God be with him. They
said, when the multitudes saw it, they marveled. When they
saw the miracle, they marveled and glorified God which had given
such power unto men, unto that man. Really, it was under that man.
He glorified Him in His perfect obedience in His life. He said,
my meat is to do the will of Him that sent me. My meat, my
very existence. I would to God that I could even
get an inkling of this. I wish you could get an inkling
of this. That our very existence is to
do the will of God. That's the only reason I exist.
That's the only reason you exist. We do not exist for ourselves.
God didn't make me for me. All things were made by Him and
for Him. I'm made for Jesus Christ. And to think that His perfect
obedience, His glorifying the Father in all that He did, in
the keeping of the law, is my obedience. It's imputed to me. It's mine. His perfection, His
perfect obedience is mine. It's mine. And by doing this, listen, by
doing this, by His obedience, He brought in an everlasting
righteousness. He says here, I have finished the work which
thou gavest Me to do. You notice how He speaks of it
as being done? He hasn't gone to the cross yet. He can say this, because as God,
He can say, I have finished the work. It's done. You know, He's
called the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world.
God took care. You know, really this whole matter
was taken care of before God created the first thing. Now
listen, you've got to get this. God is a God of order. God does
not have this knee-jerk reaction to us. God is a God of order. David said that God had, speaking
of the sure mercies of David, He has ordered all things and
sure. He's a God of order. You and
I are the ones out of order. He's a God of order. Scripture
says, "...he calleth those things which be not as though they were."
Because as God, they're done. You know with God, as far as
everything is concerned, it's already present with Him, it's
done. You and I, every believer, every sheep is already right
now seated with Christ and in the glory. I'm right now, even
though I'm standing in His pulpit, I know this. I know this. I believe
this. Right now, I am seated in glory
in my substitute, in my representative, in Jesus Christ. I'm already
there. I'm there. That's real. That's real to me.
I'm there. And sooner or later, I'm going
to be there. I'm going to experience it. I'm going to experience it. And here's His request in verse
5, And now, O Father, Glorify Thou me with Thine own self,
with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was. It's just like the light just
bursting out in this high priestly prayer. It's just bursting out. He said, Glorify Thou me with
Thine own self, with the glory I had with Thee before the world
was. He's speaking here of His eternality. before the world was. He speaks
of the glory that He had before God created anything. Now this
glory was veiled by His flesh. A few could see it because He
revealed Himself to them. Most did not see it. Most did
not see, Thou art to Christ the Son of the Living God. Some see
it. Some of you here see it. You
know it just as sure as you're living, you know that Jesus Christ
is the Son of God. He's the Messiah. You know it.
But not many do. Listen to 1 Corinthians 2, 7
and 8. Paul said, "...But we speak the
wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God
ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the
princes of this world knew. For had they known it, had they
known who He was, they would not have crucified the Lord of
glory." They couldn't see Him. His glory was veiled behind that
flesh. It's like in the Old Testament,
there was a tabernacle. Inside that tabernacle was what? The Shekinah glory. The Shekinah
glory, the presence of God inside that tabernacle. But when you
looked at the tabernacle, when you looked at it, it looked like
all the other tents. That's what it was, a tent covered
with badger skin. It looked like all the other
tents out there. Inside is where the glory was. Inside was where
the Shekinah glory was. That's where the presence of
God was, in that tabernacle that He had chosen. Christ came into
this world, became a man. In that man, in that tabernacle,
is God. Most can't see it. But those
to whom He makes Himself known to, they see it. I see. I see. And you have an interest
in Christ. You have a love to Christ. And
it's not because you're smarter or better than anybody else.
It's because God gave it to you. In fact, if you want me to read
your pedigree, turn over to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I'll read you our pedigree. 1
Corinthians chapter 1. Look in verse 25. Let's go to
verse 24. Now notice it doesn't say not
any, it just says not many. I forget which queen it was that
said, I'm glad for that word, many, and doesn't say not any. But God has chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise, and God has chosen
the weak things of the world to confound things which are
mighty, and base things of the world, and things which are despised
hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not to bring to naught
things that are, that no flesh should glory in its presence. I'm a nobody, and I'm glad. God saves nobodies. He saves
nobodies. And he'll save a few somebodies. He'll save a few noble. He'll
save a few rich. But for the most part, right
there's our pedigree. The glory, He says here, that
He had before the world was. The glory He's praying for is
that He would resume His glory, not only, now listen, not only
as the Son of God, but now, as the Son of Man. You see, before,
the glory He had was as God the Son. But now, as a man, there's
a man seated on the throne of glory. I thought of something this week,
I don't know if I've ever thought of it before or not, but it just
struck me strong this week. You know, God said, let us make
man in our image and after our likeness, there in Genesis. And
it just struck me so strongly this week. He fulfilled that
in the man Christ Jesus. In the man Christ Jesus, that
man is made in the image of God and after His likeness. And all
the Godhead, it says, dwells in Him bodily. And you know what?
We are created in that image in Him. That Scripture is fulfilled
in Christ, the man Christ Jesus. And He says here in verse 6,
I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest Me
out of the world. Thine they were. They were yours,
Father. You see, the Father is the first
cause of all things. Thine they were, and you gave
them to me, and they've kept thy word. Thine they were, and you gave
them to me. As their surety, as their mediator, as their high
priest, you gave them to me to take care of, to redeem, and
bring back home. bring home. And now they've known, they have
known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are thee.
They know that I'm the mediator. They know that all things in
salvation has been put into my hands. They know this. Do you
know that? They know I'm their righteousness.
You know there was a time So when I was a lot younger, before
I heard the gospel, I never heard of the righteousness of Christ.
I never heard of it. I never heard of Christ being
my mediator. I never heard of Christ being
my surety. I never heard of Christ as a high priest. I never heard
of those things. I just heard about, if you don't
get saved, God's going to send you to hell. That's the kind
of stuff I heard. But I know I know now that Jesus
Christ has made to me all that I need to stand in God's presence. In Him, you are complete. You don't lack anything. You
lack nothing. They have known these things. And how did they know them? How
is it that you and I have come to know these things? I have
given unto them the words which thou gavest me." You know what
that is? The gospel. You have the gospel. God sent
the gospel to you. That's how you know. You didn't
figure it out. I didn't figure it out. It's
like, oh, no, God sent the gospel to me and made himself known
to me through the gospel. That's how I know. And they have received them. Have they received them? What
is it to receive the gospel? It's to believe it. It's to believe
it. If I tell you it's raining outside,
you're going to take an umbrella. If you believe me, you're going
to take an umbrella with you. Aren't you? Like that little girl, I told
you this, like that little girl, going with her father to a prayer
meeting. It hadn't rained for a long time.
It hadn't rained for a long time. It was dry. So what they did,
they was going to get together and have a prayer meeting and
ask God to give them rain. As they was going out of the house,
she took an umbrella. Her father said, what are you
taking that umbrella for? She said, well, you're going
to ask God for it to rain. That's faith. That's faith. That's right,
if you go ask God for a terrain, He'll take you an umbrella. If
you don't, you don't believe it. You don't believe it. I tell
you what, we believe very little of what we pray for and ask for.
I know we do. I know it's very little that
we really believe God for. All things are possible to him
that believes. Vicki and I was watching a program
last night on the Queen of England back in the 1500s. And she thought
she was pregnant. I mean, her stomach swelled out.
She had all the signs and symptoms of pregnancy. And she wasn't. And then years went by. She thought
the same thing. And it is medically proven that
there are some cases where a woman can want to be pregnant so bad
and believe so bad that she's pregnant that they actually have
the symptoms of it. That's the power of believing.
Now, you put that on a spiritual level. You put that on a spiritual
level. All things are possible to him
that believes God. All things. He says in verse 9, And I'm going
to close. I might pick this up and finish
it next week, but I'm going to close after this one. It's going
to be too long. But here's something I want you
to get. I pray for them. I pray for them. I pray not for the world. Why does he say that? Because
if he prayed for the world, he'd have it. He gets everything He prays for.
I pray for them. This multitude of sinners, I
pray for them. I'm thinking there's another
verse in here where He says the same thing. But He says here, I pray for
them. I pray not for the world, but for them, which Thou hast
given Me, for they are Thine. I pray for them. He gets everything
He prays for. Everything He prays for. All
mine are thine, thine are mine, and I'm glorified in them. Let
me see if I can find that one verse I want to close with. Verse 20. Let me close with verse
20. Remember, this is the Lord praying.
This is Him speaking. This is not me. This is not my
opinion. I'm not giving you my opinion on any of this. I'm just
giving you the Word of God. I'm learning, the older I get
and preach, it's better off to read more of the Word and make
less comments. Because if God is pleased to save, it'll never
be by my comments. It'll always be by His Word.
It'll be by His Word. Verse 20, "...Neither pray I
for these alone, these disciples, but for them also which shall
believe on me through their word." This is praying for me. This is praying for all the children
of God throughout all of time. He said, I pray for them. Neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe
on me through their word, through the preaching of the gospel.
I pray for them also. Brethren, that's me, that's us
listening to Christ pray for us, our High Priest. This is
for us. And I hope the Lord's blessed
you with this. Maybe we'll pick it up the next time. We'll see.
Doug, dismiss us in prayer.