John chapter 17. This is, as
we said last week, the Lord's Prayer. That portion of Scripture found
in the book of Matthew chapter 6 is really that prayer was given
to His disciples. But this is our Lord's Prayer. It is His high priestly prayer
where He speaks to the Father concerning the Father's glory.
He asks that He might be glorified. He tells us that He has finished
the work that God has given Him to do. And He lifts up His voice
to the Father in prayer for these who are His people, His immediately
11 disciples. He asks the Father to keep them.
He asks the Father to preserve them. And then He lengthens or
widens that request to include all of us. All who will ever
believe the Gospel through their words. So this is the Lord's
Prayer. Now as you've opened to John
17, I want to begin, however, back a couple of pages in John
chapter 13. And then we'll get into John
17 just a little bit here in a few moments, but I want to
begin here in John chapter 13 and verse 1. Now, before the
feast of the Passover, 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 unto
the end. You'll notice the words, he loved
his own, his own. Now there is certainly a sense
in which all of the world is his possession because he made
all things and indeed he preserves all things. Everything is His
own and every person is His own by creation. Every person is
His own by preservation. In fact, hold your place there.
And I want to show you this verse real quick. In 1 Timothy chapter
4. In 1 Timothy chapter 4. And our Savior He not only preserves his people,
but there is a sense in which he preserves everybody, because
everybody is his own, his own property, his own possession. After all, he made us all, he
gave us life, he gave us whatever measure of good things he's been
pleased to give us, and he's the one who keeps us alive. 1 Timothy 4, verse 10. For therefore
we both labor and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living
God, who is the, watch this, who is the Savior of all men. Ever read that before? He's the
Savior of all men, especially of those that believe. Well, you say, how is it that
the Lord Jesus is the Savior of all men? Well, He preserves
all men because the word Savior is literally preserver or deliverer. He delivers people every day
from dangerous situations. He delivers them from illness.
He delivers them from death. to suit his own purpose. He is
the preserver of all men. The fact that multitudes of people,
though wicked, still exist, they still live, they still are partakers
of the mercies of God, That's due to the fact that the Lord
Jesus is the Savior of all men. All men belong to Him. But watch it, He notes this distinction,
especially of those that believe. Now while all men belong to Him,
and all men owe their existence, And whatever quality of life
that they have, while they all owe it to Him, because all men
are His own in that sense, there are those who believe who are
His in a special way. We're His own. Indeed, that's
what the Spirit of God meant there. in John chapter 13, if
you'll go back there again, when it says, having loved his own,
which were in the world. It's not talking about having
loved his own world. He's not talking about having
loved all the people who live in the world. He's talking about
those who are his own by gift, You remember our Lord Jesus said,
John 6 and 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. Having love
his own. So there is this distinction
that must be made in general, all men are his own. By creation,
by preservation, And by the mercies that He gives to all men. Have
you not heard this before that anything this side of hell is
mercy? And the mercies of God extend
to all men without exception. Because mercy is God not giving
us that which we deserve. And there are multitudes of people
today who breathe God's air, who eat God's food, who drink
God's water, who enjoy all the good things that God gives them,
and yet they hate God. They have no faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, but the Lord Jesus, He's the Savior of those people,
and He would say they are His own by creation and by preservation. But there's another group of
people who are His own, as it says here in John chapter 13. These He loves, and He loves
them all the way to the end without any interruption in that love. This is a special people. a special
people given to him. Go back to John 17 over and over
again. In fact, seven times in John
chapter 17, seven times, our Lord Jesus refers in this prayer
to those the father gave him. And we'll get into this in another
message or two, but let me just show you this. Look at the second
verse. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, dominion,
authority over all flesh, John 17 verse two, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. These
who are his own in a covenant way. in a saving way, in a gracious
way, they're His by gift. They're His own by gift. If you
belong to Him tonight, if you're a believer, if you have been
brought to rest in the Lord Jesus for all of your hope, for all
of your righteousness, and you look to the cross of Calvary
and there is no divorcing Jesus Christ from the cross of Calvary,
that's how He saves. He saved us by His death upon
the cross of Calvary. If you really believe Him, if
all of your confidence is in Him, and you have no confidence
in yourself, God has showed you you're lost, the Savior found
you. You were blind, He gave you sight. The Lord has showed you you were
dead, He gave you life. Well, you are His own in a very
special way because God the Father gave you to His Son before He
made the world. And the reason you believe, let's
just trace it back to its origin. The reason you believe, the reason
you have grace is because 2 Timothy 1 and verse 9 says, God gave
you grace in Christ Jesus before He ever made the world. That's
the reason you believe. That's the reason you lay hold
of Him. Now indeed, when we do lay hold of Him, and when we
do believe Him, when we do come to the Lord Jesus Christ, we
might not have the foggiest idea about what happened in eternity.
But as we grow in grace, we learn. We learned you don't expect a
newborn baby to know everything all at once. I know they have
capabilities and they have all the necessary equipment. They've got a brain, they've
got hands, they've got feet, they've got lungs and all of
those things, but they've got to develop. And that's the way
it is with the newborn in Christ Jesus. Give them room for development. You don't expect them to know
everything, do you? You've been under the sound of
the gospel 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 years, 60 years, some of you. And then
along comes somebody who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Their
hope and trust is only in Christ Jesus. You cannot expect them
to know and to have grown in grace like you have. You didn't
get to where you are overnight. We'd be patient with one another.
That's the best thing. But here's the fact of it. The
reason we believe and the reason we are His own in a special way
is because He received us as a gift. As a gift. Look down at the sixth verse.
Verse. The Savior said, I have manifested
thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world. Thine they were. And thou gavest
them me. And they have kept thy word. Look at verse nine. Verse nine. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine. Verse 11, and now I am no more
in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee,
Holy Father. And listen, there's only one
who's deserving of that title. There is only one Holy Father.
That guy over there in Rome, he's the unholy father. This
is the Holy Father. And our Lord Jesus addresses
him as his obedient son. Holy Father, keep through thine
own name those, watch it, whom thou hast given me, that they
may be one as we are. The next verse, verse 12. While
I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name, those
whom thou gavest me. I have kept and none of them
is lost, but the son of perdition. What does perdition mean? ruin,
destruction. And he was lost that the scripture
might be fulfilled. And now look at verse 24, because
somebody might object and say, well, all of those passages of
scripture, he's just talking about those immediately 11 men
who are there with him. Well, wait a minute, he expands
it. He expands it. And he says in
verse 24, Father, I will, that they also whom thou hast given
me be with me where I am, that they may not join with their
earthly family and see all the loved ones once again, but that
they may behold my glory. That's what we're going to do
in heaven. Heaven is a place of the glory of Christ Jesus.
It's where we see His glory. It's where we rejoice in His
glory. He's the glorious Savior who
redeemed us by His blood. And in heaven, as Susanna sang
this past Sunday morning, worthy is the Lamb. That's the song
that's going to be sung. And we're going to be singing.
We gonna have nice voices then. And we'll be singing, worthy
is the Lamb that was slain, who redeemed us to God by His blood. So he says, Father, I will that
they also whom Thou has given me be with me where I am that
they may behold my glory which Thou has given me for Thou lovest
me before the foundation of the world. We're His own. We're His
own by gift. Now watch this. Secondly, we
are His own by purchase price. He bought us. He bought us. Where did He find us? He found
us under the arrest of divine judgment. The law of God held us for ransom
because we had violated God's commandments. We're in debt to
God head over heels. We're way over our heads in debt.
Our indebtedness to God is so great, it's an infinite debt
that we owe to an infinite God and we could never pay if those
who are sent to hell, they're not sent to hell to pay for their
debt, can't ever be paid. You can't pay for one sin. Never. But our Lord Jesus, He came into
this world to redeem and pay the ransom price for His own. And He rendered to the justice
of God exactly that payment price which justice demanded. Justice
always demands death for sin. Isn't that right? That's exactly
what justice demands. Death for sin and divine justice
will never cut anybody in slack. God will never bend His rules. The soul that sinneth shall die. Well, how come we're not going
to die? Because He found a suitable substitute. He said, a ransom's
been found. Deliver them from going down
to the pit. I found the ransom. Who found
the ransom? God did. Where did He find Him? He found Him in His only begotten
everlasting Son. And our Lord Jesus came and He
paid the ransom price for us. We're His own, having loved His
own, His own people who were given to Him, His own people
that He bought. Having loved His own, He loved
them to the end. Now, what has He done for His
own in these last few chapters to manifest His love? Well, number
one, He washed their feet. He washed the feet of these disciples. He said to them, you're clean. Not all of you. One of them wasn't
clean, but the rest of the other 11, he said, you're clean. Am
I looking into the faces of people tonight who are, you're clean
before God? Have you been made clean? Have
you had a bath? What kind of bath is it? It's
that bath in the fountain of blood. That fountain in which
we immerse ourselves as to where we plunge in and we lose all
our guilty stain. In fact, the hymn writer said,
William Cowper said, that this blood will never lose its power
till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more. That's how powerful that blood
is. We've been washed. And our Lord looked in the faces
of those 11 disciples. Judas, of course, is excluded.
But He says to them, you're clean. You're clean. How can that be
said of people who are filthy by nature, who drink iniquity,
the Bible says, like water? through the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I read it to begin with. The
blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanseth us from all sin. And the meaning is it goes on
cleansing. It's perpetually, perpetually
cleansing us from all sin. So he manifested his love to
them and that he washed their feet. And then secondly, after
washing their feet and Judas leaves, The master consoled them
by teaching them, by giving them a great comfort to their hearts. After all, he had said to them,
one of you is going to betray me. He said, one of you is going
to deny me. And then he said, and I'm going
away. And so these 11 men, he shows that he loves him. He gives
him words of consolation. He does that in chapters 14,
15, and 16. And then thirdly, He manifested
His love to these men. These men, He loved them to the
end. He manifests His love by telling them that they were united
to Him. In chapter 15, He says, I'm the
vine, you're the branches. We're united. We're one. You can never be severed from
the vine. We're joined to Him forever.
Do you know how long we've been joined to Christ Jesus? Forever. Forever. He's the head, we're
the body. And our Lord shows it. He loves
us all the way to the end. In that He washed us. He washed us. He consoles us. He comforts us. And then He tells
us, you're united to Me. And then He gives some indication
of the extent of His love. He says in John chapter 15 verse
9, you want to look back there, John 15 verse 9, concerning His
love, He says, this is the way I love you. If we could, by the
Spirit's grace, embrace this, It put wind in our sails, I'm
telling you. We'd never have another sad moment
in our lives. He says in chapter 15, verse
9, to these people that he loved now, he loved them to the end.
He says, as the Father hath loved me. What kind of love do you
reckon that is? I'd say that's a love that's
incomprehensible. I'd say that's a love that can't
be measured. You can't measure the depth of it, the width of
it, or the height of it, or the breadth of it. As the Father
hath loved me, that's how I love you. Next time you're down in the
dumps, and you think everything's going against you, read here
John 15 verse 9, and hear the Savior whisper to your heart,
your heart that's troubled, and agonizing in midst of trials,
hear Him say, as the Father loved me, so I've loved you. Continue you in my love. Just
keep believing in my love. No matter how bad things get,
no matter how rough the storms are, no matter how strong the
wind blows, just keep believing in my love. So he gives them
some indication of the depth of his love. He says, I love
you forever like the fathers loved me forever. And then look
at chapter 15, verse 13. He gives them another evidence
of his love. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man laid down his life for his friends. A man laid
down his life. He tells them his love's gonna
be manifested to them, he's gonna die for them. And the greatest
act of his love was his substitutionary death for his people. For, watch
him, his own. His own that he loved. What will
the shepherd do for the sheep? He'll lay down his life for the
sheep. For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ
died for the ungodly. So he's given abundant evidence
of His love for these men and His love for us. He washed their
feet. He gave them words of consolation. He told them they were united
to Him like branches united to the vine. He tells them that
the Father loved them the same way that He loved Him. And then
He tells them further the greatness of His love that He's going to
lay down His life for them. But before He lays down His life
for them, before he reconciles his own back to God. There's one more thing he's going
to do and give abundant evidence of his love for these men and
his love for us. He's going to offer to the Father
an intercessory prayer. And he's going to show them he's
the mediator with God for his people. You see, this is the
Lord's Prayer, John chapter 17, and in it we see our Mediator
revealed. He's our Mediator. We read in
1 Timothy 2.5, for there is one God and one Mediator. You know that verse by heart,
I'm sure you do. Between God and man, the man
Christ Jesus, the word Mediator, it comes from a word which means
in the midst of. That's literally what the word
mediator means. One in the midst of, one who
stands between two parties who are at odds with each other. One who intervenes between two, either in order to restore or
make peace, or one who stands between two in order to ratify
a covenant. Is this not a glorious portrayal
of our Master, of our Savior? He's the mediator. He stands
between us and God as the agent, the agent of reconciliation. Job said in Job 9.33, this was
his desire. He said, I need a daisman. He said, neither is there a daisman,
neither is there a mediator between us, between me and God, that
He can lay His hand on both of us. We need a mediator. We need a
daisman. And our Lord Jesus, throughout
the ages, He's been the only mediator between God and man. Without Him, and listen, without
Christ Jesus, God is inaccessible. You cannot come to God except
through Christ Jesus. You can't come to God through
Mary. You can't come to God through some dead saints. You can't come
to God as you are. You can't come to God because
you think you've got a little piousness and you're religious. You can't come to God. God's
a consuming fire. That's evident throughout the
Old Testament. Our Lord Jesus has always been
the only channel The only river, the only path
of communication between men and God and God and men. You
see, God can't do business with us in mercy and in grace, saving
grace, except through Christ. And we can't do business with
God except through Christ. He's a consuming fire. You try
to approach God, it'd be like you trying, you can't ever get
that close to the S-U-N, to the sun, but be like you draw near
to the sun, it's just gonna consume you, won't be anything left of
you. And that's the way it is with God. Our God is consuming
fire. You can't come to Him. He can't
come to you. But wait! There's a Mediator. There's a Mediator. And through
Him, God is accessible. And there is communication between
God and us and us and God. You see, He goes, our Mediator,
He goes before God with that which God demands. Blood. His own blood. And that's how
we go before God. Now, I'll give you this quickly.
The office of Mediator has three branches. The office of Mediator
has three branches. prophet, priest, king. Office of Mediator has three
branches. Prophet, priest, king. Now right
here in just first couple of verses of John chapter 17, give
this to you. Look at verse one of chapter
17. These words spake Jesus. What words? The words he's just
spoken in chapters 14, 15, and 16. These are the words of the prophet. These are the words of the prophet.
He was anointed to this position by the Holy Spirit. In fact,
he began his ministry in Galilee in Luke chapter four, as he quoted
from the book of Isaiah. He said, the Spirit of God has
anointed me to preach the gospel. That means he's anointed me to
be the prophet, to be the prophet of God, to speak the words of
the Lord. Look here, and he continually
through this prayer, he mentions this. He shows he is the prophet. I've already said in the first
few words of verse one, these words speak Jesus. Look at verse
eight. For I have given unto them the
words which thou gavest me. He's the faithful prophet. Look
at verse 14. I have given them thy word. Look at verses 25 and 26. O righteous
Father, the world hath not known thee, but I have known thee,
and these have known that thou hast sent me, and I have declared
unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith
thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them. I've declared
your love. I've declared the word of God
to them. What did, in the Old Testament, what did a prophet
do? He spoke to the people for God. He conveyed God's Word to
men. That's exactly what the Savior's
been doing in John 14, 15, and 16. He's been conveying God's
Word to these men. And this is in fulfillment of
Deuteronomy chapter 18, where Moses said, the Lord said He
had raised up a prophet from among the brethren, and our Lord
Jesus was raised up from among the brethren. He's the son of
Abraham, He's the son of David, He's of the tribe of Judah, and
God raised Him up. to speak for God. God has not
remained silent in these last days. He's spoken unto us, Hebrews
chapter one, verse two, through His Son. That's who He speaks
through. The Bible says, the law came
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He conveys
that to us. And then He's the priest. Actually, this entire prayer
reveals Him as the priest. What did the priest do? Now,
we know what the prophet did. He spoke to the people for God.
He ministered to the people for God. What did a priest do? He ministered to God for the
people, which involved speaking to God, and satisfying God by
offering to God the sacrifice He decreed. That's our Lord Jesus. Because
it says He offered Himself an offering to God without spot
and without blemish. And of course, I'll stress this
even more as we go through, Here's the last thing. He's the king.
He doesn't waste any time getting to this because he says, let
me read verse one again. These words speak Jesus. 14,
15, and 16. And he lifted up his eyes to
heaven then and he said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy
son that thy son also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him
power, authority, the rule, over all flesh. There isn't anybody
He doesn't rule over. That's why Scripture says He
raises up kings and He brings them down. He's got power over
all flesh. You know, we're going to have
a vote next week. Kind of get ready for the vote
in the fall. God's already determined who's going in and who's going
out and who's staying. Do your diligence and study and
prepare to vote as your conscience leads you. But hey, He's got
power over all flesh. Well, He raises up nations and
brings them down. And everything God does is to
fulfill His purpose and work all things together for the good
of His own. whatever that may be. Whatever
he does, it'll work for the good of his own. Whether our country
goes up or goes down, it's for the good of his own. But he says,
you've given me, the Father has given him power over all flesh,
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
him. Listen, he's been given all authority. You know what
that means? He's a king. That's what that means. He's
a ruler. He has all power. He don't need
your permission. He doesn't need your permission
to send a tornado, a hurricane, a flood. And He doesn't need
your permission to send His grace either. He'll send it where He
will. Because the Bible says, the Son
quickeneth whom He will. He's the King. What do you do
before a king? You bow down before him. Bow
down, oh Lord, please extend your scepter of grace to me.
You don't have to, but if you will, if you will, you can show
me everlasting sovereign mercy. This is our mediator. The three
branches of the mediator comes forth right here at the beginning
of this prayer. Priest and King. Let's sing a closing song. Let's
get your psalm books out. Let's sing, What a Friend We
Have in Jesus. That's a good old song. What a Friend We Have in Jesus.
354. 354. Stand together, please.