I want us to go, first of all,
to Matthew chapter 6. Look at Matthew 6. I can only think of two occasions
in the four gospel narratives where our Lord Jesus spoke to
his disciples about how to pray. I know religious bookstores,
if you ever go in one of those places, you'll find a bunch of
religious how-to books and lots of books that'll tell you how
to pray. I would suggest that you run
away from those books as quick as you can. Most of those fellows, most likely
all of those fellows, know nothing about the grace of God or the
way that God saves a lost sinner. Let's keep to the Savior's instructions. And there are only two portions
of Scripture where he instructed his people as to how we should
pray. And one of them is here in Matthew
chapter 6. And this, of course, is part
of the Sermon on the Mount. And he says this in verse 9. Matthew 6, 9. After this manner,
therefore, pray ye. That's important. I recognize that most all the
religious world says, this is the Lord's prayer. No, it isn't the Lord's prayer. This is the Lord teaching His
disciples the right way to pray. He says, after this manner, therefore,
pray ye. This is not the way he prayed.
That portion that our brother read to us a little bit ago,
that's the way the Savior prayed. This is the way we pray. And
I don't think this should be word for word prayer that we
pray. A lot of people recite this,
recite it as a congregation. I don't think it's meant for
that purpose. I think this is kind of what
we'd call a pattern prayer. This gives you a good idea of
what your prayers should consist of. And so it says, after this
manner therefore pray ye, our Father which art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be
done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts as we
forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever. Amen. Our Lord, this is not His
prayer. This is Him instructing us in
the right way to pray. For He would never pray, forgive
me my debts as I forgive those who are debtors against me. He
had no debts for which to be forgiven. He had no sins. He had no iniquities. He had
no transgressions. Our Lord's the righteous one.
And even when He suffered the death of the cross of Calvary,
He was still the just one. the just one who died for the
unjust to bring us to God. And the just one means He's the
righteous one. Even when He bore our sins in
His own body on the tree, we must never, never imagine that
our sinfulness in any way contaminated our Savior. He was not polluted
with our guilt. Please understand that. There
has crept into the church of our Lord Jesus this teaching
that our Lord Jesus, in being made to sin, that He actually
became evil, that He became unrighteous on the cross of Calvary. That,
my friend, is absolutely contrary to the Word of God. The just
one, the righteous one, died for the unjust. It would do no
good for him to be unjust, for he could not then justify the
ungodly. He had to be just. He had to
be righteous. He had to be perfect. He had
to be without any indebtedness toward God in order to bear our
indebtedness, in order to bear our sins in His own body, and
then purge them away by His sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. Now
that's one occasion when He taught His disciples to pray. There's
another occasion, and this is in Luke chapter 11. This is not
on the same occasion. This is not a parallel passage
to the one in Matthew. Matthew and Luke are recording
different events. Matthew's event, when our Lord
taught them to pray, was during his Sermon on the Mount. This
was not during the Sermon on the Mount. And we know that because
in verse 1 of Luke 11 it says, and it came to pass as he was
praying in a certain place. You see in Matthew 6 he was preaching
in a certain place. But here Luke records a different
instance. And our Lord Jesus is in prayer
in a certain place. And when he ceased, when he finished,
One of his disciples, we don't know which one, he's not named,
but one of his disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray, as John
also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, once again,
notice the words, he says, when ye pray. You want to know how to pray? I'm by no means an expert on
prayer. And no man is. It's a very mysterious
thing. It is the breathing of the heart
of a child of God unto the Father through the merits of the Lord
Jesus Christ. It is when we open up our hearts
to God. It is when we make known our
petitions to Him. And we may do it audibly, but
that isn't necessary. We can certainly speak to our
Lord in a silent way, in our mind, in our thoughts. When you get to a dinner table,
If you're out at a restaurant, it isn't necessary to bow your
head and get the attention of everyone and then vocally, vocally
speak to the Lord about how thankful you are for the food. You see, who is prayer, who's
it for? It's not to impress others. In
fact, if you go back to that passage in Matthew 6, our Lord,
He actually chastised those people who stood on the street corners
and prayed publicly. He said, listen, you want to
pray to my Father? Go get in your closet. Go pray
in secret. I remember Brother Mahan told
me this story years ago, and I'm sure he told it to y'all,
but he was eating somewhere in another state, another city,
and there was a young preacher there, and the waiter or waitress,
whoever it was, served the food, and he just began to eat. And
this person said, Brother Mahan, aren't you going to say the blessing? Aren't you going to thank God
for the food? He said, I've already thanked God for the food. I thanked
Him in my heart. Well, he said, yeah, but if you
don't pray out loud, how's the waitress going to know you're
a Christian? He said, she'll know by the size
of the tip I leave. We're not to make a show and
listen. If you're one of those ones who
you just feel like that's the right thing for you to do, that's
between you and God. I'm not going to be your conscience.
But I will tell you, when I sit down to eat, I'm thankful. But I'm not going to draw any
attention to myself. And just because you see a person
bow their head utter a few words over a meal so that other people
can hear, that doesn't necessarily mean they know God. There are
all kinds of denominations of people who are members of different
denominations who pray out loud, who say the blessing. That proves
nothing. You see, this matter of praying
to our God is a very personal thing. And it is a very private
thing. And I'll tell you, one of the
most difficult things that any man can do is endeavor to pray
in public. It's a very difficult thing to
do because we're always very much aware that others are listening. So we're kind of watching our
grammar. We sure don't want to say anything wrong. Whenever I pray before you, I
take it very seriously, and every man who does stand up here, they
take it seriously as well. If I didn't believe that they
did, they wouldn't be standing up here. But we don't grade people on
how they pray here. What I'm interested in when you
call upon the name of God in leading us before the throne
of grace is that from your innermost being, you praise God and you
adore Him and you seek to worship Him and seek that we'd all bow
before Him, our majestic King. And I'll say this, public prayer
is not praying about everything. If there's time and a place to
pray about everything, you do that in private. When we pray
publicly, there's really one issue at hand. That's this service. That's right, Ellen. That's the
issue at hand. We're not praying about the future.
I'm not praying about the government. I'm not praying about our world
leaders. We're told to pray for those
that have the authority over us, but that's for private devotions. This is a time when we seek the
face of God. Oh God, give us the spirit of
worship. Oh God, let us call upon you
in truth and in spirit. Oh God, help us to lift up Your
only begotten Son and exalt Him who's the only Savior of sinners."
This is true prayer. But he says to this disciple,
and I could go on, but I don't want to labor this because I
need to move on here, but he says in verse 2, he said of them,
when you pray, you say. Our Father, which art in heaven,
hallowed be Thy name. Thy name is holy. That's what that means. Thy name
is holy. He says, Thy kingdom come, the
kingdom of grace. May it spread. May the gospel
be effectual. Thy will be done. As in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily
bread. And he says in verse 4, and forgive
us our sins, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to
us. And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil. is led by the Spirit of Grace.
Many years later, the Spirit inspired him to write this, because
Luke wasn't here. He wasn't one of the men who
heard these instructions. He came along later on the scene
in the book of Acts, but the Spirit of God led him what to
write and what to record here. So, our Lord here is responding
to a request by one of His disciples. Now, neither of these prayers,
the one in Matthew 6 and the one in Luke 11, neither one could
be rightfully entitled the Lord's Prayer because, as I said, He
doesn't have any sense but which to ask forgiveness. Well, with that being said and
the introduction laid, go back to John 17, that passage that
Brother Terry read to us. Here in John 17, this is the
Lord's Prayer. And this is not the prayer that
He prayed in Gethsemane's garden. when He separated Peter, James,
and John from the other eight disciples and then told those
three, you tear here and pray, I'll go yonder and pray. And
that's when the Scripture says that He sweat, as it were, great
drops of blood. This particular prayer here in
John 17 This is a very encouraging prayer. You see, when He prayed in Gethsemane's
garden, "'My Father, if it be Thy will, let this cup pass from
Me.'" Those are heavy words, I'll put it that way. Even troubling
words to Peter, James, and John had they not fallen asleep. But these words here in John
chapter 17, these are invigorating words. These are very joyful
words. These are encouraging words.
There's nothing negative about the people of God or the purpose
of God in these verses. You see, here His disciples are
still with Him. He has finished His message at
the end of John chapter 16, and then He prays out loud. He prays audibly. Now, He didn't
have to do that because I'm sure many times our Lord just breathed
the prayer to the Heavenly Father, but there's a reason why He prayed
this audibly. Look at verse 13. Terry read
this to us, of course. He says, and now, John 17, 13,
and now I come to thee, and these things I speak in the world,
that they might have my joy fulfilled in them. I speak these words
audibly, vocally, so that they will be brought to joy, and they'll
see that their joy is fully satisfied in me. It's to bring the people
of God to a state of joy. He spoke these words for the
encouragement of these men who were listening. Remember, in his message, and
I read at the beginning in John 14 this morning, they had troubled
hearts. That's why he began the message
by saying, let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God,
believe also in Me." The troubling things that he had spoken of.
One would betray me. One would deny me. And I'm leaving
you. I'm going to die. And this was
greatly troubling to them. It moved their hearts with great
concern. Great anxiety. And our Lord wants
to leave them with words of joy. Yes, He is going to the cross
of Calvary. Yes, one of them would betray
Him. Yes, one of them would deny Him. But listen, He is the successful
Savior. And there's every reason to rejoice
in Him who finished the work that God sent Him to do. And though He is indeed going
to leave them from this prayer, and then be arrested, and tried,
and convicted, and crucified. Yet these men need to know, and
we need to know, that which befell him was according to the will
of God, and we rejoice in the full accomplishment of redemption
by our Lord Jesus Christ. There's every reason to be happy
here. Not doleful, not sorrowful, but thankful. Thankful. So here is the Lord's Prayer. And I say to every, every child
of God, to every true believer, when your spirits are low, when
you're discouraged and dejected, You're feeling blue. Read John
17. Read as your great high priest,
as your intercessor who is facing the death of the cross, facing
the infinite wrath of a holy God, yet before he goes to die, He,
like the high priest of old, bearing us upon His shoulders
and upon His breastplate, He pours out His heart to the Father,
leading these men to rejoice in Him who is our joy. He prays in such a fashion to
lift their spirits. So this prayer was prayed by
one who came from the Father, one who came into this world,
and this one who upon laying down his life for his sheep and
then taking it again, he would leave this world and go back
to the Father. And I'll say one more thing before
I get into the prayer. And obviously we're not gonna
go verse by verse tonight because we wouldn't have time to do that.
But this is important that you know this. This, John chapter
17, is an everlasting monument to God's everlasting love for
His covenant people. It's here for all of time and
for all of eternity. This great prayer of our Savior,
it has always retained a permanent power and virtue that nothing
can ever destroy. His prayer maintains its glory. It was good for His disciples
when He prayed it, as they listened. And it's good for us disciples
this evening, as our brother read this to us, that we remember
our Lord Jesus, our great Intercessor. He mentions all the blessings
and privileges necessary for His church in this portion of
Scripture, in His prayer. He prays for Himself. That's
the foundation. And then he prays for his apostles
who will write the Word of God, which will then be a blessing
to those who read the Word of God. So he prays regarding himself. He prays regarding his disciples. And then his prayer goes out
to all of his children. Now, he says, I pray not for
the world. The reason he doesn't pray for
the world, he didn't die for the world. He didn't love the
world. He didn't choose to save the
world. He chose his own. He loves his own. And he prays
for his own. He prays in this prayer for people
who are not yet even born, even for us. He was praying for us. Notice how he speaks of his dear
people, how he identifies his people to the Father in his prayer. And oh, how wonderful it would
be if God the Spirit would break open this alabaster box of precious,
fragrant ointment that we would just be so filled with joy and
delight. as we read this. As He speaks to the Father, He
identifies us in several ways. First, in verse 2, He says, As
thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given Him. We are a divinely
given people to Jesus Christ. God gave us to him. He gifted
us to him. He says back in John 6, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to
me. I only know why it's cast out. So he identifies us as being
a divinely given people. And then he says we're divinely
kept people. Look at verses 11 and 12. And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one, even as we are." Keep them. You see, none can
perish. Why can't we perish? Well, first
of all, because the purpose of God can't be nullified. And the
death of our Lord Jesus can't be frustrated. And this prayer
of our precious Redeemer did not fall on the deaf ears of
the father. He said, father, keep them. We
will be kept. We will be preserved. Because
that's what he asked for. That's what he prayed for. We're
a divinely given people, we're a divinely kept people. Watch
this in verse 14, we're a divinely instructed people. Verse 14,
I have given them thy word. I've given them thy word, and
the world hath hated them. The word hated means the world
detests them. Why does the world detest the
people of God? Because we love the Word that
He gave us. We love the Word of the Gospel.
We love the Word that identifies God as He is, and us as we are,
and Christ as the only Savior of sinners. He saved us by His
substitutionary sacrifice upon the cross of Calvary. We're a
divinely instructed people. Did not our Lord say back in
John chapter six, they shall all be taught of God. Therefore,
every man that hath heard these things and been taught of God
cometh to me. That's what he said. And then fourthly, we are a divinely
sanctified people. Look at verses 17 through 19. He says, sanctify them through
thy truth. Thy word is truth. As thou hast
sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into
the world, and for their sakes I sanctify myself. I set myself
apart to be the sacrifice that they also might be sanctified
through the truth. We're a separated people, a sanctified
people. God set us apart before the world
began for us to be his children, to be the recipients of his grace. And we were redeemed by the Savior
who brought in for us holiness. We are holy. We're sanctified. in the Lord Jesus. And then he
says this, look at verses 20 and 21, we're a divinely united
people. Look at verse 20, neither pray
I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me
through their word that they all may be one, as
thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may
be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent
me." We are united to one another. We are a united people. But more
than that, more than that, we're united to our covenant head,
the Lord Jesus Christ. We're one with Him. He declared
the same, united to him forever. And then he says, we're divinely
perfected people. Look at verse 23. I am them and thou and me that
they may be made perfect in one. A divinely perfected people.
You remember seeing the bumper sticker that says Christians
aren't perfect, just forgiven? Ever see that? I take issue with that. We are
perfect. We are perfect. Not in ourselves. Why, in ourselves, there's nothing
perfect about us. We're perfectly imperfect. How's
that? In ourselves. But in the Savior,
God sees no sins or iniquities in his Israel. We're perfect. Forgiven, yes. and perfect in
Christ. And then he says, and here's
the next one, we're a divinely loved people, verse 23 again. That the world may know that
thou has sent me and has loved them as thou has loved me. How does God love you, child
of God? He loves you to the exact same
degree that He loves His only begotten Son. Now see if you
can wrap your mind around that. You can't. Our Lord Jesus, throughout this
prayer, He is encouraging the hearts of His people. He sets
before us the infinite merits that He has as the Son of God. And that He's given this word
to His apostles who will be inspired to write for our benefit, that
is, for the benefit of future generations, and heaven and earth
will pass away, but that which the Holy Spirit has inspired
these holy men of God to write, it's there forever. And you see, when he prayed this
prayer, guess who's sitting there listening? Or standing there,
I don't know what his posture was. John. John. who referred to himself as the
disciple whom Jesus loved. And the Spirit of God, sometime
in the future, laid it upon John's heart. Now, John, write. Write
this. This prayer that you heard your
Savior pray, you write these words. And the Savior goes to great
lengths to set before us the things that He accomplished in
this world. So let me just set before you
several things that our Lord Jesus had done. And He speaks
of them as having done these things. Several things the Lord
Jesus had done. Number one, I'll give them to
you briefly. Look at verse four. I have glorified
thee on the earth. He said, I do that. And I asked you a question. Have
you glorified God in all things? You know what the scripture says?
Whether therefore you eat or drink or whatever you do, do
all things for the glory of God. Do you do that? Everything that
you do, do you glorify God? And if we're honest, we must
admit we're miserable failures on that. Much of the time, the
glory of God is the furthest thing away from our minds. But
it was always on His mind. Didn't matter what He did. His
thoughts, His words, His miracles, everything our Lord Jesus did,
said, or thought was always to glorify God because that's what
God demands and that's what God deserves. And that's exactly
what He got from our Savior. He says, I've glorified Thee
on the earth. Our Lord Jesus always honored
the Father. And it started when he was just
a young fellow, 12 years old. And you know the story there
in Luke chapter two, when the Savior had remained in Jerusalem,
asking questions and entering into the conversation with the
so-called learned religious leaders of Judaism. And then Mary and
Joseph, missing him, they go back and they find him. And he
said to them, a 12-year-old young man, he said, Wist ye not that
I must be about my Father's business? I've been here glorifying my
Father. You want to know where I've been?
That's what I've been doing. What you've been doing. Glorifying
the Father. And it didn't matter what he
did, it was always for the glory of the Father. And he always
gave the Father the credit. He said, the words that I speak
unto you, the Father gave them to me, glorified the Father.
He said, the works that I do, the works the Father enabled
me to do. Everything he did glorified the
Father. I have glorified thee on the
earth. Now, you and I, we want to glorify
the Lord, certainly. But we fail miserably, and I
say, set your heart to this, to always honor God. Glorify,
when He says, I have glorified thee on earth, I've honored thee,
I've magnified thy name. Set that, that's a worthy goal. It's one which you cannot reach
to perfection. I know that, but that should
be always your goal. Whenever we come in here to worship,
Father, help us to glorify thee, to honor thee, to magnify thy
name. And if you wanna honor God, honor
his son whom he sent. That's what he said. If you hadn't honored Christ,
you hadn't honored God the Father. Secondly, he says this in verse
4, here's something else that he did. This is what he's done.
He said, I've glorified thy name. And secondly, he says, I finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. I finished it to perfection. He speaks in this portion of
Scripture in anticipation of laying down His life for His
sheep. I have finished the work that
Thou gavest me to do. I used to believe, and many sovereign grace preachers
still believe, that our Lord during His life worked out for us a righteousness. And many believe that what He's
saying here is, I have finished the work of establishing righteousness. And then, I used to teach, and
many teach still, that then by His death, our sins were all
forgiven. But I got to studying this, And
righteousness was not worked out by his life only, but by
his obedience up to and including death. That's how righteousness was
brought in. You cannot separate. You must
not separate. And I don't know who's listening
to me, who might be watching, but I would beg you to reexamine
your doctrine. You must not separate righteousness
established from the substitutionary death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a big mistake to do so. You see, in Genesis, the third
chapter, we know God made coats of skins for Adam and Eve. Were the coats of skins made
for them before death or after death? It's after the animals died. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5 and
verse 21. Turn with me and let's just read
this. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. He said, I finished the work
thou gavest me to do. The work was establishing righteousness,
putting our sins away, satisfying justice, and saving us. 2 Corinthians 5.21, For he hath
made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be
made right the righteousness of God in him. When was that? In his life? It was in his death. In his death. And I... I wouldn't... I'm not going to come down hard
on anybody who divides the two because I used to before I did
some real study. And I'll be honest with you,
I just pretty much listened to what other men said and didn't
think about it. And then several years ago, I
got to thinking about it. That doesn't even make sense.
to divide His obedience. It's His life lived and His death
that He died. That's how righteousness was
established. And that's how He finished the
work that God gave Him to do. And you may rest assured of this,
when our Lord Jesus went back to heaven, went back to the Father,
He had completed His mission. He had finished the work that
He came to do. Let nobody misunderstand me. For you see, when we come to
believe on Christ, to rest in Him for salvation, that's not
when our sins are put away. When we come to believe Him,
faith doesn't have the power to put sins away. Repentance doesn't have the power
to remove our guilt. He finished the work of redemption. The reason we believe on Him
is because He did die for us. The reason we do repent before
God of our dead works and of our idolatry is because we realize
the Lord Jesus Christ has finished the work of redemption to the
full satisfaction of God the Father. I finished the work that you
gave me to do. Well, what does faith do? Faith
believes the record that God has given of His Son. That's
what faith does. Faith is not a feeling, it is
a persuasion. Faith is not a one-time act. It's a lifetime of looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. What has Christ
done? He glorified the Father, finished
the work He was given to do. And then in verse 6, He says
this, I have manifested Thy name unto the men which Thou gavest
Me. I revealed, I made known, Father, to these men that You
gave Me, who You are. There's only so much we can learn
about God from creation. Wisdom, certainly. Power, oh
yes. And there's only so much we can
learn about God from His law. Holy. Just. But the full demonstration, the
full declaration, the full manifestation of God is in the person of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He is, according to John 1.18,
He is God fully told out. He's the Word. You want to know
what God's like? Oh, Jim, tell me about God. Study
our Lord Jesus. He is the eternal Word of the
Father. I've manifested my name, or thy
name, unto the ones that you gave me out of the world. And
quickly in verse eight, he says, I've given them the words which
thou gavest me. I've given them. He's the one who declares the
truth to us and reveals the truth to us. He gives us an understanding
that salvation is of the Lord. People who have difficulty with
the truth of salvation as of the Lord, in its purpose, in
its purchase, in its power, in its preservation, in its perfection. People have difficulty with salvation
being of the Lord. They hadn't yet been taught of
God. Here's what God teaches you. He's the Alpha and the Omega
of your salvation. He's the first and the last and
everything in between. You didn't save yourself, you
didn't put yourself in a savable condition. The Lord Jesus saved
you and He saved you when He died for you. When He laid down
His life for you. And then he says, as he continues
to speak about what he's done, he says in verse 12, I have kept
them, I preserved them. I kept them safe. He still does. He still keeps his sheep safe.
And I'll go quickly, he says in verse 18, I have sent them
into the world. He sent these men into the world
to preach the gospel. After all, how shall they hear
without a preacher? He sent them just before he went
home to glory. He said, all power is given unto
me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore into all the
world and preach the gospel. And then lastly, he says in verse
22, He says, "...and the glory which
thou gavest Me, I have given them." I'm speechless. And I'm lost in wonder and amazement
when I think that before my God, we're already glorified. He's
already given us glory. And isn't that what is said in
Romans 8? Whom He did predestinate, them
He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified, and whom
He justified, them He also glorified. The Savior prays for our glorification. He did all of these things. These
are finished. He finished the work the Father
gave Him to do. What was the work? To honor God,
to satisfy His law, and save His people. And I know there's
no question about the fact that we do experience the salvation
of God. But that's not when the real
issue was settled. We were saved when our Lord Jesus
died for us. because He is the One who satisfied
every demand of our God. So when you get the blues, read
John 17. It's full of good news for you.
There's no bad news in it. He spoke it audibly that we'd
have joy. We'd joy in Him. Rejoice! The Lord is King! That's how
we began the service. by singing that hymn. Well, let's
close our service with the singing of 310, Whiter Than Snow.