erected us to meet together for
worship. It is always a joyful time when
we can meet together with the people of God and exalt our great
God and our Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior, and we are thankful
to be here. one of those things when we come
to the place of worship that we do tend to take for granted. Our youngest grandson, as you
know, is at basic training. And we get letters from him,
and he's always telling us how much he misses the services. I sent him a couple of bulletins
today and sent him a quick note. And just since I mentioned him,
let me say, we're thankful for those of you who sent him letters
and cards, that sort of thing, but don't send any more. He'll be moving from there within
a couple of weeks or so. I think if he gets any mail,
they may actually punish him by doing a few exercises. They've been known to do that,
I understand. But I appreciate you writing
him if you'd continue to pray for him. They're out right now
on an 81-hour kind of marathon thing that testing these guys
mentally and physically and emotionally. We ask God to give them all strength. I'm thankful for those who are
willing to serve in the armed forces. Let's go to Ephesians chapter
4 for a few verses here before I get into the message. This
evening, we continue to remember those of our congregation who
are sick. We certainly continue to remember
our sister, Pat. She is still in Cabell Hospital,
as she has been for quite a bit. And we're thankful she's a bit
better today. Her kidneys started functioning
again. Grateful for that. And hopefully,
maybe next week, she'll be strong enough to go to rehab. And continue to remember Diane
in prayer. And also Betty Rivenpart. Joe mentioned her. Brother Rupert. Rivenbar was a faithful servant
of God and he has been so weak for actually a few years and
especially the last few months have been very difficult for
him and we rejoice in his home going though there's sadness
on the one hand, there's joy on the other hand One of the
Lord's people goes home to be with the blessed Savior. It's
a wonderful time for them. And so we pray for Betty and
the family, church family also. Well, let me read a few verses
to you here from Ephesians chapter 4. And it is about the unity
of the people of God due to the grace of God. And here the apostle
writes, he said, therefore the prisoner of the Lord beseech
you that you walk worthy of the vocation wherewith you're called. And then to do so in this way. He's talking about the way we
live, our manner of life. He says to do so with all lowliness. No need to be arrogant, proud. Those things God hates. Six things
does God hate, yet seven are an abomination to him. The first
one, the proud look. Let's be lowly people. and meek,
meekness. He says, with all lowliness and
meekness with long suffering. And then he says, forbearing
one another in love. Endeavoring to keep the unity
of the spirit and the bond of peace. Endeavoring, work at it. work at it. He says in verse
4, he says, there is one body. He's talking about all believers,
all of the redeemed of God, all of the church of the Lord Jesus,
all of those that God gave to Christ in covenant mercy. There
is one body. And many members but one body,
and one spirit, even as you're called, in one hope of your calling."
And then he says, he keeps this idea of ones, one Lord, one faith. We can say there's certainly
one true faith that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. To believe
Him, to rest in Him, to hug up to Him. But really, this is one
body of truth. That's what He's saying. There's
one Gospel. Aren't many, many faiths? You know, we hear that a lot
today. You read religious articles in the newspaper or whatever,
and people say, well, I'm of the Baptist faith, or I'm of
the Presbyterian faith, or I'm of the Catholic faith. There's
just one faith. There's just one body of truth. And that's the gospel of God's
grace. That's the message of good news, of the redemption
of Christ Jesus. It's the message of the work
of our salvation has been finished by the Redeemer. And by his death,
he put away all the sins of his people and he brought in everlasting
righteousness. There's just one faith. It's
just one gospel. That's why it's called the gospel.
The gospel of Christ. There's not another one like
it. And we must be certain that we believe this gospel. this
gospel, because as this same apostle wrote in Galatians the
first chapter, he said there is another gospel, and he said
it isn't even a gospel, but that's what he calls it. Then he says,
and if anybody come preaching any other gospel, then I preach
to you. Let him be accursed. It's a serious
thing. He said even if it's an angel
from heaven, doesn't matter who the messenger is, if he doesn't
bring the exact same message, this one faith, this one gospel,
let him be accursed. And then he says there's one
baptism. There's one baptism into the
Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of God. He immerses us into the
Savior, that's baptism. You can also interpret this as
one water baptism, which is by immersion, it isn't sprinkling. It is going under the water as
Philip in the Ethiopian eunuch. And the eunuch who believed,
who testified, he said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son
of God, And then he said, here's water, what doth hinder me to
be baptized? And he made his confession to
Philip, and so they both went down into the water. And Philip baptized him. And
then the eunuch went on his way, and Philip went on his way. It
is our responsibility, it is our duty as a child of God to
publicly confess Christ Jesus in Believer's Baptism. And that's a good name for it
because it isn't just baptism, it's Believer's Baptism. This
is if you would live in obedience to our Lord Jesus Christ, and
we want to do that. Really, this is the very first
step. is to acknowledge that we love him and we believe him
in the waters of baptism. And then he says this in verse
six, there's one God, only one. Many pretend deities, but just
one God. And he's the father of all. In what sense? Well, he's the
father of all of those who are his people. He's the father of
all of his children. We don't believe in the universal
fatherhood of God or the universal brotherhood of men as far as
that goes either. God, those who are his children,
we live by his seed. What is his seed? It is the word
of God, isn't it? That liveth and abideth forever.
So there's one God and father of all of God's people who is
above all. And he says he's through all. And this is wonderful and glorious. And I'm going to get into this
a little bit more as we get into John 17 and nine. and in you
all. Now that's a marvelous thing.
That the Lord would abide in us. We're in Him and He's in
us. What a glorious, glorious truth. Well, I will stop reading there
in verse six and let's ask God to bless as we gather tonight. It is our Father with a serious desire to worship that
we bow before you. You are the one God. You are
above all. You're the creator and the sustainer
of everyone who has ever lived. In you we live and move and have
our being. And since you are God, we bow
before you as your creatures, as people who are the work of
your hands. And Lord, as you made us in Adam,
we didn't come forth from your hands as we are now. We're a fallen people. But there
are many of us, maybe even all of us who are here this evening,
that have been made anew in Christ Jesus. And we can truthfully
say that you are the father of all of us who are your children. It's such a joyful thing to contemplate. Oh, how refreshing it is to our
minds and to our hearts that there is a wonderful, wonderful relationship
that exists by grace. That we are your offspring. We live by your word. We live
by the very power of your Spirit. We have been redeemed in the
blood of the Lord Jesus, your only begotten Son. And all of
our sins, which are far, far too numerous for us to even calculate
the number of them, yet they've all been purged They've all been
washed away in the blood of our dear Redeemer. And we stand before
you this evening in His beauties, the beauties of Christ. And we
have on the robe of salvation, the glorious garments of the
righteousness of Christ. And though in ourselves we know
there still dwells no good thing, even as it says in Romans chapter
7, yet as far as your justice is concerned, as far as the legality
of your requirements, we stand before you in the perfections
and in the comeliness of our blessed Savior. So that when
you look at us, you see Christ. And we bow to
thank you. For these who are sick, we lift
them up to you and we ask that you administer to these according
to your will. We have folks who are traveling,
vacationing. Lord, we ask that you'd give
them traveling mercies and a relaxing relaxing time. We do pray for
Sister Rivenbark. We're thankful that our dear
brother has been relieved of all earthly bondage and all the
effects of sin. And how glorious it was for him
to leave this old world last Thursday and immediately be in
the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And then
He joined in with all the redeemed of God who've gone home to glory.
And they're all singing, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, who
has redeemed us to God by His blood. Brother Rupert knew those
words well. Salvation to our God. That was
the message that he preached for 37 years. And now he's gone home to be
with the Savior who loved him and the Savior who gave himself
for him. So bless his family and provide
for their needs. And we lift them up to you. All of your people, Father, especially
of our congregation, Actually, all of those of your congregation,
all of the church, all of your people scattered throughout this
world. Lord, it gives us great consolation
to remember that you know each of us and you are very well acquainted
with all the needs that your people have because you have
ordained the steps that we take. And those things that befall
us, they're according to your good
will and pleasure. We rejoice to know that our God
rules the world, and we bow before He as the great sovereign, and
we acknowledge your greatness, and we do so with thanksgiving,
and with adoration, and with grateful praise to be able to
say that this God who reigns is our Savior. And we're so thankful. So meet with us tonight as we
gather and direct our thoughts to the Word of God again. In
the name of our beloved Savior, I ask these things. Amen. Let's go back to John 17. This
evening, John chapter 17. And here's my subject. One in
Christ. One in Christ. And that is, I
want us to talk about the oneness, not only of all believers, because
we are one. It doesn't matter who a person
is, it doesn't matter where they live, even what denomination
they are as far as that goes, as long as they believe the gospel,
there's a unity among all of the people of God. And more than
that, we're in union with the Son of God. We're one with Christ
Jesus. So it is a fact we're one with
one another, with each other, and whether we know each other
or not, if we're believers, if we all have been saved by the
grace of God, If we have been redeemed, if we have been reconciled
unto God by the death of the Lord Jesus, then we're one body. We're united together. And then
more than that, we're united to our Savior. We're one in Him. It's a glorious thing. Now this
is the Lord's Prayer, as you know. And I brought several messages
from this, and it breaks down really into three sections. The
first section is, our Lord, He prays about His own glory. That's in the first five verses.
And this first section, it is kind of clustered around this
request that He makes to the Father. It's in verse one. These
words spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour has come and here's his first request. And
this entire first section really is, it kind of, it signified
in this one statement. Glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. Lord, find thy son. Now, our
Lord Jesus, he's praying as the intercessor of his people, as
a mediator, because we all know, and we're confident of this,
we cannot come to God except through a mediator. There's one
God, we read that in Ephesians chapter four, right there, there's
one God, and here's what the Apostle Paul says in 1 Timothy,
there's one God and one mediator between God and men, that's the
man, Christ Jesus. And this is the one who is speaking
to God, and right in this part of the prayer, he's praying regarding
his own glory. And this is his request, Father,
glorify Thy Son. Turn back to chapter 12 of John. He's already mentioned that He
wanted the Father to glorify His name. Look back in John chapter
12 and look at verse 28. John 12 and 28. In fact, I'll
back up to verse 27. He says, Now is my soul troubled,
and what shall I say? Father, deliver me. Father, save
me from this hour. No, that's not what he's going
to pray, because he says, but for this cause, I came unto this
hour. This is the reason I came into
the world, to lay down my life, a ransom for many. So he says
in verse 28, Father, glorify thy name. Then there came a voice
from heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify
it again. Now, our Lord Jesus over here
in John 17, he says, I want you to glorify me in order that I
might glorify thee. In other words, these are connected
together, the glory of Christ Jesus and the glory of the Father. As the Lord Jesus is glorified
by the Father, then He will glorify the Father Himself. Well, how
did He glorify the Father? He glorified the Father by His
obedience unto death. Now, He has lived a life of perfection,
and that's glorifying the God. Every step of the way, He walked
by faith. If you would honor God, if you
would glorify God, you say, give me something to do, preacher.
Well, here's something to do. Walk by faith. You will honor
God as you just believe Him. Because without faith, it is
impossible to please God. So if you would glorify God,
you just got to embrace Him in faith and believe His Word. There's
nothing more honoring to God than just naked faith. You see, faith doesn't need evidences. But on the other hand, faith
is not blind. People say, well, just have blind
faith. No, faith is not blind. Faith
reads the word of God and believes what God says. That's what faith
is. And we want to walk by faith,
but of this we can say with absolute confidence, our Lord Jesus, He
walked by faith and not by sight. He's the perfect man. He's the
ideal man. The first man failed. That first
representative man represented all the human race. He was a
failure before God. He was rebellious. He was disobedient. God sent another representative
man, the Lord from heaven. And he was absolutely obedient
to everything God commanded him to do. And in this, he glorified
God. But moreover, he will glorify
God by finishing the work of redemption that God gave him
to do. In fact, that work of redemption
is so certain to be finished that the Lord Jesus speaks of
it this way in verse four, I have finished the work which thou
gavest me to do. He has spoken often of this work. this work of redemption, this
work of reconciliation, this work of putting away our sins.
And now He says, I finished it. Indeed, in John chapter 19, one
of those seven sayings of the Savior on the cross, He will
say, it is finished. It is finished. And then He'll
bow His head and He'll say, into Thy hands I commend my spirit. And He gives up the ghost having
done the work that the Father gave Him to do. You see, our
religion, our gospel, is not one of, this is what you do. Our gospel is one of, it's done
by Christ Jesus. Everything God demanded, from
a legal aspect now, everything God required of you and me, everything
necessary for our salvation, the Lord Jesus did it all. He bowed his head and gave up
the ghost. He did indeed glorify the Father
by doing that. And by glorifying the Father
in all the works that he did, The father glorified the son. How did he glorify the son? Well,
in verse two, gave him power over all things, gave him authority
over all things for this specific purpose, that he would give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given him. He's glorified him, he says in
verse four, I've glorified thee on the earth. And then he says
in verse five, and now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own
self with, watch this, the glory which I had with Thee before
the world was. Before this world was ever made,
God the Father, Son, and Spirit, the Trinity, existed in absolute
perfect harmony, holiness, righteousness, absolutely wonderful union, an
everlasting union, an eternal union of the Trinity. But our Lord Jesus, in order
to redeem us, He had to join His deity with human nature.
And that involved a laying aside, or at least veiling, His glory. He humbled Himself to become
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, is what the
Scripture says. Now, prior to His coming, He
had this immaculate glory. You know, we read of the glory
of God, He dwells in light that's unapproachable. Know what it
says? Unapproachable. God told Moses,
you can't see My face and live. That is the Father, the Son,
and the Spirit. That's the way the Son of God
was before His incarnation. But there were lots of people
who looked on His face who didn't realize they were looking into
the face of God, but they lived. Well, why did they live? Because
they didn't see Him in the fullness of His glory. Now on the Mount
of Transfiguration, He revealed a little bit of that glory to
his disciples, his three favorite disciples, Peter, James, and
John. And it says that all of his garments,
his face, as bright, brighter than the noonday sun. In other
words, this glory just emanates out of him. And then he veiled
it again. He veiled that glory in order
to come into this world and save the objects of His love and of
His grace. Now He's going to finish this
work that the Father gave Him to do, and He says, now glorify
thou me with that identical glory that I had before I came down
here, but this is a glory given to Him as the God-man. It wasn't given to him as God,
but as the God-man. He earned this glory. That's
what he did. He merited this glory by his
perfect obedience to the Father. And then the next section, and
I wanna get through this here. The next section, verses six
through 19, Our Lord, He immediately prays
for these men who were with Him. And the central theme in this
passage, in this second section, if you will, of this prayer,
is He asked the Father to keep them safe, to preserve them. He had kept them, verse 12. He says, while I was with them
in the world, I kept them. I preserved them. I watched over them. In thy name,
all those that you gave me, when they're given to them before
the world began, in covenant love, electing grace, I have
kept them, and none of them is lost, with the exception of that
one who's the son of perdition, the son of ruin, the son of destruction,
of course, Judas, and that was in order that the scripture would
be fulfilled. But he kept these. He watched
over these. And now he goes to the father
on their behalf, and he says to him, look at verse 15, he
says, I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, because
they've got to preach the gospel in the world. They've got to be ministering
the truth of God in the world. It's not right for the people
of God to live in a communal atmosphere, so we'll just stay
totally away from the world. There are people of every nation,
kindred, tribe and tongue who need to hear the gospel. And
if we just stay to ourselves, let's just all huddle amongst
ourselves, let's just live in a compound somewhere and we'll
support each other and we won't even go out there in an ungodly
world. Well, that wouldn't be right
because there are people out there in an ungodly world who
are God's elect. They've got to hear the Gospel.
Now, we're in the world, but we're not of the world. And we've
got to be careful while living in the world that we don't take
up the habits and the communication of and the ideas of and all the
beliefs of the world, but we've got to live in the world to minister
in this world. So he says, I don't pray that
you'll take them out of the world, but that you should keep them. Preserve them. In verse 9, by the way, we see
our Savior assuming the great office of mediator and intercessor. He says in verse 9, I pray for
them. I pray for them. And we know
that He is our intercessor even now. He prays for us to the Father. And we know all of his prayers
are heard by the Father, and answered by the Father. You remember
when Simon Peter drew his sword, and I used this illustration
not too many messages ago, and he cut off the right ear of Malchus,
the high priest's servant. The Lord Jesus picked up the
ear and reattached it to the man's head. And then he told
Simon Peter, put up your sword. Put up your sword. He said, this
has got to happen. This has got to happen. This
is something that must come to pass. And our Savior was so intent
on doing the Father's will that He says to Simon Peter, how else
shall the Scripture be fulfilled? He had to die. He had to die. He said in that, He said, don't
you know, I could have called 10,000 angels, and my Father
would send them. You know why He said that? Because
the Father always heard His prayers. The Father always heard His intercession.
If I pray that, they'll be here. But he didn't pray it, because
he said, how else shall the scriptures be fulfilled? Our Lord here assumes
the great office of intercessor and mediator for his people. He says to Simon Peter, Satan, he's desired to have you, to
sift you like wheat. And I'll tell you, Satan desires
to have you too, child of God. To sift you like wheat. What
is our hope? I'm no match for Satan. Why,
the Scripture says he holds all men captive at his will. That's
before our conversion. Well, what is our hope? That
we'll be kept safe. It's what the Savior said to
Simon Peter. I prayed for you. What did he
pray for him about? That your faith fail not. And there is one who prays for
you, who makes intercession for you. And it's this, that your
faith doesn't fail, that you don't turn away. Listen, many
people have made confessions of faith in the Lord Jesus and
then they've forsaken the Gospel. But the Lord Jesus, He prays
for His own that will never forsake the Gospel. And if He prays for
us, then we will be well kept. And that's what we want. Because
you can't keep yourself. If your salvation, if your preservation,
if your perseverance in the faith is up to you, your strength,
your determination, your willingness, well, you're going to fail. Because the enemies are so great. And you have a great enemy that
still abides with you. It's your own sinfulness. Oh,
but if we can hear those sweet words of the Savior, but I prayed
for you. Oh, thank you, Lord. He's praying
for me. And then we get to the last section
of the prayer. And here is where our Lord prays
for the perfect union of all believers. And this is the last
section, verses 20 through 26. And first of all, and let's give
you a few things here. First of all, he prays for all
those who will believe the word through these preachers. Note
verse number 20. Neither pray I for these alone."
Now, who's he talking about? Those 11, right? You with me?
Those 11 men who are right there with him. They're listening to
him pray. And he says, neither pray I for these 11 men alone,
but for them also, which these people who shall
believe on me through their word. And that means, first of all,
through their immediate preaching. Because these men, they're going
to go out as evangelists. Our Lord Jesus has been teaching
them. taking the Word of God and putting
it in their hearts and in their minds because in just a very
short time, He's leaving. Now, I know He's sending back
the promise of the Father, and you know the promise of the Father
is the giving of the Holy Spirit. He's going to send back the Holy
Spirit, but our Lord Jesus said, I go away. And this is one of
the things that bothered them. He started saying that back in
chapter 13. I go away. I go away. Where are you going? That's what
they said. Where are you going? He said,
I'm going to the Father. I'm going to prepare a place
for you. But if I go away, I'll send you another comforter. And that comforter, of course,
is the Holy Spirit of God. But he says, I'm praying for
all of my people. Now, on verse number 20, let
me give you a negative. Let me look at it negatively,
and then we'll look at it in a very positive way. If our Lord Jesus, if He prays
for all those who will believe on Him, because that, read it
again, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which
shall believe on me. Who's He praying for? Everybody
who's gonna believe Him, right? Shake your head, yeah, because
that's what it says. He's praying for everybody who's gonna believe
him all the way down to the very end of time. Now, if that is
what he's saying and it is obvious to anybody who's honest about
the word of God here, then that means he does not pray for those
who will not believe on him, right? That's true too. And essentially he has already
said that in verse number nine. I pray for them. Watch it. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou has given me. And here's the reason I pray
for them. They're thine. They're your property. They're your people. They're
your gift to me. I pray for them. But our Lord
did not pray for those who were not given him in the covenant
of grace. You see, his intercessory work
is only as broad as God's purpose of grace. And it's only as broad
as the son's work of redemption. And we know this, whoever he
prays for, and whatever it is that he does pray for those people
that he prays for, those prayers are gonna be answered because
he said there at the tomb of Lazarus in John chapter 11, thou
hearest me always. Always. But look at it positively. Our Lord prays for all those
who would believe on Him through the word of these men, through
the gospel that they would preach, and through the word then, the
written word that some of these men would write by divine inspiration. He prays for them. All who believe on Him. And so, see if this will bless
you. Here's our Savior the night before
His death. And you know who He's praying
for? You. You. He's praying for you. He's
praying for all of His people. Isn't that amazing? Here the
weight of redemption is on Him. And yet who's on His heart? Who's
on His mind? For whom does He make intercession? Everybody who will ever believe
on Him all the way to the very last one of His people believes
on Him in the faith that the Spirit of God will give them. That helps me to remember that.
He prayed for me. And here's the second thing.
He prays for those who are in Him. Look at verse... Verse 23, I in them and thou
in me, that they may be made perfect in one. And you notice how many times
the word one is mentioned here in the context, verse 11. 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 has given me, that they may be one, that they
may be in unity, that they may be in oneness. Even Father, as
you and I are in unity, even as we're in union. He says again,
verse 21, that they all may be one. As thou, Father, art in
me, and I in thee. This is the illustration that
he uses. Let me ask you this. How close do
you think the Father and the Lord Jesus, the Son of God are?
Well, you can't be any closer. That's the way we are. We're
one. That's the reason that as I began
the service, my part of the service anyway, in Ephesians chapter
one, Paul talked about walking in loneliness of mind and in
meekness. Because we're one, we're dealing
with one another and we're still, we're sinful people and we have
our faults and our failures and all of these things. But listen,
we're one. Well, how close are we? How much
in union are we? As close as the Father and the
Son. That's pretty close. That's so close you can't even
comprehend it. That's why he says there in Ephesians
chapter four, there's one body. Oh, there are many members. There's
no question about that. And the many members have different
functions in the body of Christ Jesus, but boil it all down. Here's the way it is. There's
just one body and one head. Christ Jesus, our Lord. And we're in him. And he's in
us. God put us in Christ Jesus before
he ever made the world. He's in us by his spirit. He's in us as that one who is
the king in his kingdom. Do you understand what happens
in regeneration and conversion? It's like the old serpent is
driven out and the king comes in and he establishes his throne,
his rule, his scepter in our hearts. We're made new in Christ
Jesus. And we're not the servants of
sin anymore. We're the servants of God. We're
the servants of righteousness is what the scripture puts it
that way. Our Lord is in us as the king in his kingdom, as the
head in his members, as the master in his house. You're like the house of Christ
Jesus and he comes in and he takes over. And that's why the apostle Paul
says, you're not your own. You're bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your
body and spirit, in your body and soul, which are God's. You're
not your own anymore. You belong to somebody else.
He bought you. He bought you. He's the light who dwells within
us. That's why we don't walk in darkness.
He's the life who dwells within us. That's the reason we're not
dead in trespasses and sins anymore. And then here's the third thing.
He prays for the unity of his people. That we may be one. And there
are several illustrations that he gives us where one, like the
vine and the branches. Like the husband and the wife. These two are one. That's what
he says in Ephesians chapter five. These two are one. Here's a man and a woman get
married like Nancy and I getting ready to celebrate our 50th wedding
anniversary. Happy anniversary, dear. Friday,
in case I forget to tell you. When we were united in marriage,
we ceased to be individuals. We're one. And that's the way
it is with all of you who are married. You're one. And that's the way it is with
all of us who are married to Christ Jesus. We're one. We're one with each other, and
more importantly, we're one with Him. And that is an indivisible union. You know what I mean by that?
There's no such thing as losing your salvation. Because it's
God's salvation that he has done a work within you. He's the one
who redeemed you. It's his work. We're one. We're one. And then he prays this in verse
23, that we may be perfect in one. Now there is a sense of
course that we do have a perfection in Christ Jesus because we're
made the righteousness of God in Him. And we are complete. And so often we know the word
perfect in the New Testament and the Old Testament as far
as that goes means complete. We're complete in Christ. And
if you want a definition of that, it would be right at the end
of 1 Corinthians 1, where it says, Christ is our wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. That according as it is written,
he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. There's a oneness
there. And then, I want you to notice
this. Because I've got to move on here.
I want you to notice the outcome or the reason for this unity. This unity, this union that our
Lord has brought about. And he mentions this two times. Look at verse 21 again. That they all may be one as thou
father art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in
us. Now watch this. that the world
may believe that thou hast sent me. And then notice verse 23. I am them and thou and me that
they may be made perfect in one and that the world may know.
Something is being said here that the world needs to know. The world needs to know about
this unity. that the world may know that
thou hast sent me and hast loved them, these people of God, as
thou hast loved me. See, there's coming a day when
the end will arrive and all of the saints of God in the beauties
of Christ Jesus, as trophies of his grace, will be presented
to him. And we will be, well, could I
put it this way, on display to all the world. Look, this is
the result. All of these sinners saved by
grace perfected in me, Christ says. This is the result of what
the Father purposed before the world began. And all the world,
all the unbelieving world, all the angels, all the demons, Satan
himself will see and acknowledge God sent Christ. He is the Lord. And everybody's gonna bow to
him. And then he prays that his own will be with him someday.
And let me see if I can wrap this up real quick. Verse 24.
Father, I will. You don't pray like that, do
you? Nobody can pray like that except one who's equal with the
Father. I will. What we say is I request. Lord,
this is what I pray. This is my petition. We bring
our petitions to the Lord. But we don't talk like this.
I will. That's the word of a king. Where
the word of the king is, there's power. I will that they also
And he keeps on reminding us of this, whom thou hast given
me. Be with me where I am that they may behold my glory, which
thou hast given me for thou lovest me before the foundation of the
world. How does he pray? He prays, I
will. And where are we going to be?
Well, the answer to his prayer is that we will be with him. And you know, there is a sense
in which we've always been with Him. We were with Him before the world
began because we're accepted in the Beloved. We were with
Him when it was crucified. I am crucified with Christ. I
am crucified, do you hear that? With Christ. So that when He
died, I died. When He satisfied God's law and
justice, I satisfied God's law and justice. In Him, my covenant
head and surety. We're with Him. And when He was raised, the Scripture
says, we were raised with Him. We were quickened from the dead
with Him. And when, like Rupert Reibenbach,
passed from this life, He went to be with Christ, which
is far better. And where will we be forever?
1 Thessalonians 4 says, forever we will be with the Lord. We're gonna be with Him. With
Him. This is what He says. I pray
that they will be with me. And we will be. And when He prays
that prayer for you individually, You're gonna be with him just
like that. And you're not gonna sorrow. Now we'll sorrow for
you, but not as others who have no hope. That's what he says
there in 1 Thessalonians chapter four. And what will we do when
we're with him? We will behold his glory. And
never weary of it. Never get tired of it. And then
he closes out the prayer with this, verses 25 and 26. O righteous
father, the world hath not known thee. What is it to know God? Well, that's eternal life, because
that's what he says earlier in this prayer in verse three. This
is life eternal. To know thee, the only true God
in Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. The world hath not known
thee, but I've known you. And these have known you, that thou didst send me. and
I have declared unto them thy name, and I will declare it. And he's still declaring the
Father through the preaching of the word, that the love wherewith
thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them. How does
the Father love us? Lord willing, I'm going to have
one more message from this. I'm going to talk about the Father's
love for us next Wednesday evening. But how does the Father love
us? He loves us as He loves the Son. And that is a love that
is incomprehensible. But that's how He loves us. Now
you bask in the warmth of that love tonight. When you go home,
you just think about this love of God and enjoy it. You know, we're not silly and
like some people in religion, waving their hands and all of
this kind of stuff, you know, tomfoolery. But there is to be
a joy, a genuine joy in thanksgiving in our hearts. Enjoy the love
of God. Enjoy this great salvation. It's
yours. It didn't cost you anything.
It's free.