the the the You. Turn with me to John Chapter
17. John Chapter 17. Once again,
I covet your prayers for this message. I am praying for you that you hear
the message, and the least you can do is pray for me and pray
for yourself. I know it sounds good and it
sounds pious, but it's true. Saying, I preach is never to
preach again. Richard Baxter said this. I preach
is never to preach again. As a dying man, dying men. And it could be true that this
is the last message I'll ever preach to you, perhaps the last
message you'll ever hear from me anyway. It may be the last
message you'll hear, period. And my heart aches. God knows
how my heart aches, the burden I have for you people. If I had a dying
wish right now, It would be this, that everybody in here on the
sound of my voice would know Jesus Christ and have eternal
life. That would be my heartfelt wish. But salvation is not in my will
or my wish. Salvation is in the will of God. Now, these are the last words
of Christ before he went to the cross. And this is the last message
in this series that we've been doing on his final words. in this prayer, you could possibly
call this his last will and testament, because of the first few words
he utters here in these last few verses. His last will and
testament. I don't know if you're included
or not. I hope so. I hope I'm included. Look at
verse twenty-four. This is where we've left off.
This is where we'll begin. Father, I will that." Christ is praying to the Father,
and He says, Father, praying to our God, He says, Father,
I will. I will something. Christ keeps
calling God His Father here in His prayer six times. Six times
He utters the word Father, the name Father. You know what the
sweetest words on this earth are to my ears? It's probably the same to some
of you all. Well, spiritually speaking, I'm
talking about on this earth, humanly speaking, the sweetest
words to my ear when they come from that little girl right there.
Daddy. Daddy. I can't get enough of
hearing that. Daddy. Except maybe riding in the car
for eight or nine hours. She continually says, Daddy this,
Daddy that. But it's truly sweet to my ears.
You know what I'm talking about. I detect a softening in my father
still when I call him on the telephone. I ring his number
and he answers. Hello? That's how he answers. Hello? I say, Dad? It's still, it's still sweet.
And these are the dying words of our Lord Jesus Christ to our
God and our Father, His Heavenly Father, and He says, Father,
there's something I want. I will. The last request of God
the Son to God the Father. And you can rest assured that
the Father's going to answer what He asks. He's going to give
it. This is what he says, Father, I will that they also whom thou
hast given me be with me where I am. Father, I will that they
whom thou hast given me that they also be with me where I
am. Mindy was out driving a few years
ago, a couple of years ago. And while she was driving, she
spotted a little scraggly cat walking along the road. A little
scraggly cat is about to be hit by a car. If she hadn't stopped
and rescued that animal, it would have been. It would have been
killed. But she set her affection on it. She stopped the car. She
got out, picked the cat up, and put it in the car with her. took
off for home with it. Was Hannah with you, Dan? Oh,
you were walking. Okay, she was walking. Was Hannah
with you? No. But she brought that cat
home, and you should have seen, it was ugly, it was scraggly,
it needed to be fed, and we didn't need it. We already had one cat.
We didn't need it, and certainly not this one, poor and scraggly
looking animal that it was. But you know what the deciding
factor was? The deciding factor in us keeping
that cat? Mommy, can we keep it? Can we
keep it? Yes, honey. He's yours. He's yours. That's us. That's exactly what happened
to us. lost, far from home, far from God, wandering, doomed,
damned, sin, sick, scraggly, but God. But God saw me like
that infant in the field, saw me lying in the field, polluted
my own blood, and He stopped the world and got off, or got
on. Stopped the world and got on
and saw me lying there and said, live, and you're going home with
me. And He gave me to Christ. gave
me to Christ. And that's what, in a sense,
that's what Christ is asking here. Father, I want to keep
them. I want to take them home with
me, all the way home with me. He set his affection on us and
gave us to Christ, and that's what Christ asked for. God justified
us. Christ came and lived and died
for us and paid the penalty that we owed because of our And therefore,
God the Father receives us. And that's what he says here,
Father, I will that they also whom you've given me be with
me where I am. I want to take them home with
me, home to stay, home to live. That they be with me, that they
be with me, right beside me, right beside me, my friend, like
that little cat. Hannah loved that cat from that
day forward. and slept with it, fed it, nursed
it, and that's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ must do for
us. Right beside him, his friends, his companions, his brothers,
his lifelong buddies. Not because we loved him, because
he first loved us and did that work for us. Look what he said,
that they may be with me where I am, that they may behold my Beloved, the Apostle writes,
now are we the sons of God, right now, by virtue of what Christ
did a long time ago, by what Christ does right now for his
people. Now are we the sons of God, by
faith, if we trust Christ, if we've truly been born again by
his Spirit, by the Word of Now are we the sons of God, but it
doth not yet appear unto us. It doth not yet appear unto us
what we shall be. It doesn't even look similar,
does it? It doesn't even look close to what we shall be. We
can't fathom it. We can't enter into it. But this
we know, he goes on to say, this we know, that when he shall appear,
finally, when he comes back to earth or in death, when we die,
he appears to us in death. When he shall appear, we'll be
like him, and we're going to see him as he is, as he is. Paul said this, we see through
a glass darkly, dimly, like looking at a beautiful flower through
a welder's shield, a pair of sunglasses. You can't see it
very clearly. We see through a glass darkly,
but someday, he said, face to face. Face to face. Face to face. People... I was overcome with this when
I thought about it, sitting in the study. There's some people
in here. There's some people in here that
are going to see Jesus. I mean like this, Henry. Look Him in the eye. Jesus Christ we're talking about.
See Him. Really see Him. Everybody's going
to see Him. Every eye's going to behold Him.
Some are far off, but some people, by His mercy and by His grace,
are going to see Him right up close. He might even kiss you
on the cheek. Job said this, though after my
skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh I'm going to
sleep. My God, I'm going to sleep. I'm going to sleep for myself,
Job said. My eyes shall behold, not another, me. I know Abraham's
there looking at me. I know Jacob, Isaac, Joseph,
Paul, Peter, James, John, I know those people. Me. And maybe you. Stand right beside Him. Think about that. Just think
about that a little bit. I'd like to just leave you with
that. I will that they may behold my
glory. And it's indescribable. Because you love me. Let's go
on. We'll describe that glory in a minute. That they may behold
my glory which you gave me because you love me. before the foundation
of the world. Now, a father loves his son and
has delivered all things to him, has made all things by him, made
him Lord over all things. Like his only son, the heir to
the throne, God placed all his love, all his glory, all of his
grace in his only begotten well-beloved son, much like somebody would
their only child. Placed all their eggs in one,
all their love, all their affection. in Christ, because of that great
love wherewith he loved Christ. And well he should, because he's
worthy of that love. He's the altogether loving one.
He's the only man ever lived that deserved God's love, that
earned it. And God said it out loud. God
couldn't contain himself. That's my son, I'm well pleased.
That's my boy. Look at him. Isn't he great? Isn't he wonderful? Said it twice. I will, Father, that those you
gave me be with me, that I keep them and take them all the way
home with me, and they may see me really like I am, like I am."
Don't you know what those disciples, they walked with the Lord for
three and a half years, but they still didn't know him. Their
eyes were still beholden that they should know him. They saw
him every now and then, a little glimpse here and there, a transfiguration
here and there, a little glimpse. What about that day when they
walked over, when they passed over from this life to the next,
and saw him? Oh, my. Oh, my. And that's what
he says for us. That's what he's praying for
us, that we may see him and behold his glory, his person, his glorious
person, because his Father loved him. Verse 25, O righteous Father,
Oh, righteous father, he says out of further love and honor
and adoration and respect. And his father called him righteous
father. Righteous father. You ever heard
your children bragging on you in front of other kids? Your
kids ever do that? You overheard them talking. Well,
my daddy can do this, you know. My daddy's ten feet tall and
he can lift a thousand pounds. So what? My daddy, you know. Childhood really looks up to
and respects his father's constantly bragging and adoring and heaping
praise and honor upon his father. And the father delights in our
praise of him. And we can't ever exaggerate
him because he is ten feet tall. He's better than that. He is
the greatest. He is the highest. He is the
strongest. He is all power. You can't exaggerate
God. Go on. Tell it. Talk about him. You can't brag enough. You can't
brag enough. He's bigger and better, smarter
and stronger. Christ isn't buttering up the
Father here like some of our children when they get a little
bit older. They start saying these things and butter you up.
Daddy, can I please, huh? Daddy, you're the sweetest, you
know. They don't mean that. But Christ isn't buttering up
the Father here. But out of a heart expressing
his love and awe and esteem for his Father, he says, O Father,
O righteous Father, righteous Father. He says, the world hadn't
known ye. I don't know how he said this.
I don't know what tone of his voice was here when he said this.
Could have been one of, I don't know. He says, O righteous
Father, the world hasn't known. They haven't known you, but they
should. All the world should, Paul said,
because that which may be known of God is manifest to them. God
has showed it unto them. The invisible things of him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen by the things that
have been understood by the things he's made. Even his eternal power
and Godhead, men ought to know. All they have to do is look in
the mirror, look at their hand, look at a flower, look at a tree,
go outside, look around. It's all they have to look at
to know that there is a God, and He's all-powerful, and He
reigns and He rules. That's all they have to know.
And if they'll acknowledge Him that far, He'll give them more
life. He'll give them more life. But they don't, willingly, ignorant. And Paul says, so they're without
excuse, and the world doesn't know or acknowledge God as well
as should. But they keep crying out for
signs, don't they? Everybody still wants to see
a sign. Show us a sign. But the scripture said no sign
will be given but one. Sign of the cross. That man hanging
on the cross. Last sign. And now that sign's
gone away with it. Now it's spiritual. The cross.
No sign will be given but the cross. As Jonah was in the belly of
the whale three days and three nights, even so must the Son
of Man be in the heart of the earth. three days and three nights,
and rise again. And they're looking for a voice.
Everybody wants to hear a voice. Everybody wants some proof from
God Almighty. They want God Almighty to speak. No voice is going to
be given anymore. God spoke long enough. God's
given enough, hasn't it? Hasn't God been enough? Thousands
of years, hasn't God spoke? God, in sundry times and different
manners, spoke unto our fathers by the prophets, spoke audibly
in miracles and signs and wonders. Then He said, That's all of that. Then he really spoke, sent his
son down here to manifest it. For thirty-three and a third
years, God walked the earth to reveal himself to people. Did
they hear him? Have anything to do with it?
Killed him. So should God speak any more?
The next time he does is to wipe this mess out. God doesn't have
to speak any more. He's done enough, hasn't he?
And he done enough? Christ says, the world hadn't
known you. They should, but they don't. But Christ says, I know
you. I've known you, and I've loved you, and I've glorified
you, and I've honored you, and I've manifested you, because
I know who you are. And I can't help it. I know who
you are. You're wonderful and glorious
and an all-powerful person, and bless God. Look at this, verse
25. He says, There's some people, some other
people that know you. And you wouldn't have known him,
Nancy Parks, if he hadn't revealed himself to you. You'd have been
like everybody else. Like everybody else. I've known
you and these have known that thou hast sent me. Why? Because
Christ revealed, the Holy Spirit revealed Christ to you. He stops short of saying here
that we know God. Notice that? He said, righteous
Father, the world hasn't known you, but I know you, and these
have known that thou hast sent me. He stopped short of saying
that these people know God, because no man has seen God anytime.
No man knoweth the Son, but the Father. We don't even know Christ,
really. He said, father said this, he
said, all things delivered unto me is my father. He said, no
man knoweth the son, but the father, and no man knoweth the
father, but the son, and him to whom the son will reveal.
Do you? This is eternal life, that they
might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast seen. But wait a minute now. Do you know God Almighty? Tell me how much you know about
God. Do you know Christ, that indescribable
God-man, Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory? Do you know Him? Tell
me about your knowledge of Him. It's not worth admitting, isn't
it? So weak and so pitiful. This is like, look, us saying
we know God and know Christ is like a man who's never seen the
ocean before, never seen the Atlantic Ocean. And one day,
or the Pacific Ocean, he goes across to California and gets
up on one of those mountain peaks and looks out and there's the
Pacific Ocean. Hey, it's beautiful, it's glorious. And he goes home
and tells everybody, I've seen the ocean. The world is two-thirds water,
ocean. He saw about fifteen square miles. And he didn't see the depths
of it, did he? He didn't see the length of it, the breadth
of it, the riches of it, the life that's in it. He didn't
see it. He got a little glimpse, and that was it. And he goes
home to, I know, I've seen the ocean. And it's something. Oh, he says, I hadn't seen. An
ear hadn't heard, neither has entered into the heart of man."
Those things, those things. How we know in part, very little
part. We see through a glass dimly.
You know, a man can't understand Christ, can't understand God.
The Scriptures say his ways are past time and now. They're unsearchable. One of those fellas asked this,
can you by searching find out God? God? It's kind of like, it'd be like
my daughter saying that she understands metaphysics. That she'd pull down a book on
nuclear research and start looking through it and understand. Impossible. Now she might, if I sit down
with her for the next fifty years, well somebody would sit down
with me first. But if I sit down with her for the next fifty years,
she still wouldn't know all of this by now. But she might learn
a little bit. And that's us. God's got to work
with us and teach us and instruct us and lead us and guide us until
the day we die. And we still don't know anything.
Now hey, when we get to heaven, we're going to be like the Queen
of Sheba. We'll see him as he is and what we're going to say.
I haven't ever been told. I didn't know nothing. I didn't know anything. I certainly didn't
know him as I ought to know him. She does this. She did this just
the other day. She's learning to spell a few words. Cat, dog.
And she says, now I know how to spell. How many words are
in the dictionary? And we can say justification,
sanctification, redemption, propitiation. Got theology wrapped up. The
study of God wrapped up. My, so what foolish little babies
that we are. But Christ knows him fully, fully. And He has revealed Him unto
us by His Spirit, not fully, but in measure. He said, I've
got many things to say unto you, but you can't take it. You can't
take it. Couldn't take it. Your little
mind, your puny little brains aren't able to handle everything
that I could tell you. And that's what they did. On
that road to Emmaus, you know, when they started telling them
all these things, preaching that long sermon to them, about all
those Old Testament types, all they could say was, hearts. You feel it? Hearts burn. And our hearts burn as He opened
the Scriptures unto us. Now listen. Gather your attention. Verse 26. Christ said, Father,
I've declared unto them by name. I've declared unto them by name. Now, God's name, you know this.
said it many times. Other men have said it. God's
name is his person, his power, his character, his glory, his
attributes. God's name describes who God
is and how he works. That's the name. He's got the
name of God. That's what he's talking about
there. I've got these names of the Lord in the back of my Bible.
Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide. Christ taught the disciples
and us, how that the Lord provides all for us. They surely did find
it out, didn't they? He was their provider for three
and a half years. And when he was about to leave,
they were desperate. Oh, no, no, what are we going to do?
And the Lord must provide all things necessary for us, for
life and for government, to make us fit for heaven itself. Jehovah-Rapha,
the Lord did heal a thing. Oh, they saw that, didn't they?
They saw how that he was the Lord that healed of all manner
of diseases. They said after he healed one
fellow, we've never seen it like this. Truly God is with this
man. Nobody can do the works that
he did unless God be with him. Jehovah Nisti, the Lord our banner,
the Lord our banner, the Lord our flag, our ensign, our ensign,
the one under whom we walk through this warfare of life. Our head,
our federal head, Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace. They were
constant in constant turmoil, upsetness, every time. It's all
right. Let not your heart be troubled.
Peace. Peace. He had to constantly, continually
keep saying that to them. Peace, boys and a couple. It's all right. I'm with you. Peace. And we understand through
the gospel how that Christ has made peace by the blood of his
cross, that God is no longer angry with some people because
Christ took away that enmity in his flesh, because Christ
bore the punishment that we were due, and now God's no longer
angry with us, but at peace with us. We've been reconciled to
God by Christ. Jehovah Rea, the Lord my shepherd,
like a faithful shepherd, he called He kept them, he fed them,
he watched them, he kept them, he warned of wolves, he fought
the wolves, put them on his shoulder, carried them all away. Jehovah
said, Kenu, the Lord our righteousness. They found that out, didn't they?
That without him they could do nothing. They sure couldn't get
to God. Peter found that out real fast
after the Lord was gone. He denied the Lord. And the Lord
Jesus Christ is our only hope of acceptance with the Father.
Jehovah Shema, the Lord is present. And they found that out after
Christ rose back and went back to the Father. All the signs
and wonders and His very presence with them through the Holy Spirit.
They found that out. His character, His name is merciful,
gracious, loving, good. His name Christ said, I revealed
your ultimate name. He said, I've declared unto them
thy name, and I will declare it. His name, Christ declared it. His name
is that name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus
Christ, every knee shall bow and call him Lord. You've seen
me, you've seen God. That final name, that final name,
Yahshua, God our Savior, Jesus, Emmanuel, God with us. And he said, I will declare it.
And that's the name we're going to hear throughout the ages.
It's going to still be being declared throughout the ages,
that name, worthy is the name. Worthy is the Lamb. And there's
none other name, none other name under God's heaven given among
men, whereby we must be saved. None other name. This is that,
the reason that I've declared your name, and will continue
to declare it to these my disciples. Now look closely with me, bear
with me a few minutes. that, in order that, or for the purpose. I do all this that the love. Now, stay with me. This is important. This is the last word Christ
utters for those of the cross. That the love, wherewith thou
hast loved me. May be in them, and I in them. Love. Here we go again. Here we go again. Do you remember
how he started this whole message out? John 13. Look over there. John 13 verse
1. Do you remember how we started
this whole thing out? How Christ started out? message here, how the Holy Spirit
recorded it. Look at John 13, talking about
the love of God shed abroad in our hearts. John 13, 1. Now, before the feast of the
Passover, this is where we began. When Jesus knew that his hour
was come, that he should depart out of this world unto the Father,
having loved his own, which were in the world. He loved them to
the end. That's the last thing he just
mentioned, wasn't it? The last thing he just mentioned. Oh, the intricacies and the complexity
and the depth of God's Word is so perfect. It's so perfect. It complements itself over and
over again. John 13, look at verse 34. Now
Christ says, now, a new commandment I give unto you. that you love
one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another,
because by this shall all men know you are my disciples, if
you have loved one another." How important is it? Look at
chapter fourteen. Across the page, chapter fourteen,
verse nineteen. John 14, 19, of Christ says,
a little while, and the world sees me no more, but you see
me, because I live, you shall live also. At that day, you're
going to know that I'm in my Father, and you in me, and I
in you. Now, he that has my commandment, my word, and keeps them, my commandment,
he's the one that loves me, and he that loveth me shall be loved
of my Father. And I will love him and will
manifest myself to him." Now, Judas, not Iscariot, said, Lord,
how are you going to manifest yourself unto us and not unto
the world? Christ said, if a man loves me, he'll keep my words. And my Father will love him,
will come unto him and make our abode with him. Now, look down
at chapter 15, verse 12. Just rehashing these things.
Now, he says, now this is my commandment, that you love one another. as I have loved you, that you
love one another as I have loved you. Because greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend. Greater love hath no man than
God, because he gave his Son. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his Son. Greater love hath
no man than God. God sent his Son. Greater love
hath no man than Christ, because he laid down his life for the
ungodly wretched vows him. And greater love hath no man
or woman in here to God and to Christ than the love of brotherhood."
That's the key. That's the evidence. That's the
mark. And the sisterhood. We've been looking at this over
and over and over again, and I'm just beginning, just beginning
to see the importance of it and how it's
just full. This is the last thing Christ
says. First thing that was said, the last thing. Beloved, listen to this, and
I quit. Let us love one another, for
love is of God. Let us love actively one another,
for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God. I'm not going to explain that,
I'm just going to read it. and knoweth God. Now, he that loveth
not knoweth not God, because God is love. And he that hath this love for
God, for Christ, for his gospel and his people, Christ said there,
that last word he said there, that last word, is, This is my commandment." That's
the last thing he said before he went to reveal, to do that greatest show of love
ever known to the human race. He laid down his life for ungodly
wretched sin. He said, if I have done this,
ought not you to do it for the brethren? Weighty words, aren't they? Weighty
words. Powerful portion of Scripture.
Didn't do it justice like I'd like to, but who can? Who's sufficient for these things?
But the Father will answer the prayer of the Son because He
delights in it and He loves it. And you believe Christ and trust
in him, and you'll see his glory, because you'll be with him. And
God sheds abroad his love for God, for Christ, for his gospel. He sheds that in your heart,
and it manifests itself outwardly in the love for the brotherhood,
for the sisters. And you have some good evidence,
good evidence. your child of God. He that loveth
not loveth not God. There's the promise and there's
the warning. So, he that hath my commandments, my words, and
keepeth them, he that is of love of Christ. Let's sing this song,
number 340. you Thank you.