In the 17th chapter of the Gospel
of John is recorded the great, high, priestly prayer of the
Lord Jesus Christ to God the Father just before going into
the Holy of Holies on Calvary's tree. This is truly the Lord's
prayer here in John 17. the one which is commonly known
by that name in Matthew 6. That is given to the disciples.
This is the Lord's Prayer. Someone said this is the greatest
prayer ever prayed, which followed the greatest sermon ever preached
in John 14 through 16 to his disciples. Now our 15 minute
time allotment is not nearly sufficient to deal properly with
one verse in this glorious prayer, let alone all 26 verses. And so we will only get through
or try to deal partially with four verses, the first four verses. Now, here the Lord Jesus Christ
is talking with God the Father, and he leaves no doubt as to
who he is, and what he came to do, and whether or not he did
it, and who he did it for. Now, notice in the very first
verse why Christ prayed this prayer and why he came to this
earth. In verse 1, I read, These words
spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father,
the hour is come. Glorify thy Son, that thy Son
also may glorify thee." The salvation of human beings is why Jesus
Christ came, but he came principally for the glory of God the Father,
to glorify God. Now this is why he came and this
is why he prayed this prayer. And this is what salvation is
all about, the glory of God. Salvation, Jonah said in chapter
2 verse 9 of Jonah, salvation is of the Lord. And so he must
and will get all the glory in the saving of every person Jesus
Christ came to save. This is His glory. In verse 2,
here is His glory. He goes on to say in verse 2,
"...Glorify thy Son, as thy Son also may glorify thee, as thou
hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given him." as thou hast given
him power over all flesh." Here is Christ's glory. The Sovereign Lord is reigning
and ruling over all flesh, all circumstances, all events. He reigns and rules, as Daniel
said, among the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, What
doest thou? Now, that's the God of the Bible.
That's the Jesus Christ of Scripture. That's He who is Lord over all
principalities and powers in heaven and earth. He's the one
who reigns and rules and controls and decrees and disposes of all
things. That's what He said, as thou
hast given Him power over all flesh. I don't know why men continue
to believe in and pretend to worship a God who is a mere bystander
in this world's events. I don't know why men bother to
worship such a one as that, a mere bystander who doesn't want things
to happen, yet they happen anyway, who has no control over the events
of this world. I don't know why. men call him
God at all, or let alone call upon him. Except, I guess, men
are just self-righteous and proud and want to be in control of
their own destiny. Well, that may be. They may want
to be in control of their own destiny and may feel that God
is not in control, but Christ here said he has power over all
flesh, and especially concerning salvation. This is what he says
in verse 2. He has power over all flesh that
he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. It does not read, people, it
does not read. that He should give eternal life
to as many as let Him, to as many as accept Him, to as many
as receive Him, to as many as make Him their Lord. It does
not say that. Jesus Christ said, the Christ
of the Scripture, this is the eternal life of Scripture. This
is what God's Word says. That He should give eternal life
to as many as thou hast given him." Now, here are those that
God has given him. God Almighty chose and elected
a people before the foundation of the world, Ephesians 1 verse
4. Now, I'm not here to strive with pot sherds about God Almighty's
absolute right to choose whom He will and do with His own as
He will. I'm not going to strive with
pot sherds over that. It's just a fact that God chose
and elected a people before the foundation of the world, Ephesians
1, 4, that the purpose of God according to election must stand. That's Romans 9, verse 11. God
Almighty chose and elected a people before the foundation of the
world. He knows every one of them. He chose them. He has them
numbered. And He gave them to the Son, gave them to His Son
who was with Him before the world began in a covenant of redemption,
covenant of grace. God the Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit met together and each one agreed on their part in this
thing of the salvation of human beings. God Almighty chose a
people and gave them to the Son. in a covenant of redemption,
and the Son agreed to come to this earth and live as a man,
to establish holiness as a man, and impute it to every one whom
God chose, and then go to Calvary's tree with the sins of God's people
upon him as their substitute, and die the death that their
sins deserve, and then ascend back to the Father, and ever
live to intercede on behalf of every one of those whom God gave
Him to do this work for. And then in time, the Holy Spirit,
whom Christ promised to send in John 14 through 16, the Holy
Spirit comes to round up, or that I set apart, choose out,
call out, all of those whom God chose, gave to Christ, whom Christ
died on the cross for, And the Holy Spirit does this rounding
up of the people through the preaching of the gospel. This
is the gospel call. This is the power of God, the
preaching of the gospel. It's not in their will. It's
not in their decision. It's in the power of the gospel,
power of the Word of God. bestowed upon each one of those
given to Christ by the Father, and the Holy Spirit sees all
of those with the blood of Christ upon them, gives them life, opens
their eyes, opens their ears, opens their hearts, gives them
a new heart, grants them repentance, faith, and perseverance unto
the final salvation of those people and to the glorification
of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is the salvation
of the Lord. This is that covenant of redemption.
concerning all the people God chose and gave to the Son to
save. That's what He said, that He
should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him.
Salvation is by grace. That means a gift. It's not earned
by our works nor by our faith. Faith is not of ourselves. It
is the gift of God Ephesians 2.8, the gift of God based upon
the blood that is applied to that person. Faith does not make
the blood of Christ effectual, but the blood of Jesus Christ
makes faith certain. Alright, God the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, the reason for all of this we already established
from the outset. Christ did, that is. The reason
for all of this is God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit must get
all the glory for every part of salvation, because salvation
is of the Lord. Verse 3, our Lord continues to
pray. He says, This is life eternal,
that they might know thee. the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. This is life. This is salvation.
This is what it means to have a new mind, a new heart, and
life, eternal life, spiritual life, spiritual understanding,
spiritual eyes, spiritual ears. This is what it means to know
the only true God, that is, God who is God. People, God is not
trying to be God if men let Him. Men think that they are blind,
they are dead. Those who have spiritual life,
those who have understanding given by this God Himself, understand
and know that God is God, reigning, ruling, doing as He will. That God is holy, just, sovereign. He is reigning, King, salvation. This is eternal life. To bow
before Him, acknowledge Him, not accept or reject Him. to acknowledge that he is God.
Salvation is not us accepting Jesus or making him Lord. That's not biblical language,
people. You won't find one single apostle
asking men to accept Jesus. That's not in God's Bible. You
won't find one single apostle or prophet telling men to make
him Lord. That's not in God's Word. Salvation
is in Christ accepting us, not vice versa. Salvation is in God
Almighty making us understand that Jesus Christ is Lord already. That God already made Him Lord. Salvation is for God Almighty
to open our eyes to understand that He already is our Lord and
causing our knee to bow to Him. and our tongue confess, it's
not us making some little decision to let him have control of our
life. That's blasphemy. You don't let
the King do anything. You don't let the Lord be Lord.
He already is. He already is our Lord, whether
we acknowledge it or not. This is eternal life, he said,
that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent, the sent one. Well, Christ goes on, and
this is our last verse, verse 4. He says, I have glorified
thee on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. I have glorified thee on the
earth. As a man, Christ came and lived a holy and righteous
and perfect life. There is no man who has ever
lived who has done so. And those who think they have
or do right now are self-righteous Pharisees who will not be with
Christ in glory. They will not share his glory. Those who right now say they
have no sin are self-righteous, ignorant Pharisees and are not
going to be in glory. Christ is the only perfect law
keeper, God lover. He said, I have glorified thee
on the earth as a man, and he did it not to just show us how,
but to do it for his people. He said, I finished the work
God gave us me to do. That is, establish this righteous
holiness for God's people. And later on the cross, Christ
said, it is finished. The salvation, the sin payment
for all of God's people was paid, not a down payment, not a partial
payment, not an attemptment, but an atonement. All the sins
of all God's people were paid in full, not a payment for the
whole world, or the whole world would be saved. Just as he said
he did not pray for the whole world, in verse 9 he said, I
pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me.
Jesus Christ died for the elect of God, the chosen, the sheep
of God, and everyone for whom he died will be eternally saved. Because he died, because God
said so when I see the blood, and because Christ said so, I
give them eternal life and they'll never perish. Now, this is the
only God worth worshiping. This is the only Christ worth
worshiping. This is the salvation of the Lord. This is the only
gospel worth believing. I hope you do it. Until next
Sunday. Amen. uh... uh... uh...